"Black Thursday" in Barcelona

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

"Black Thursday" in Barcelona

On the night of.March 16 a procession of 10,000 people paraded before the building, where the Cabinet was meeting under Senor Azana, President of the Republic. The people bore banners indicating opposition to any pact with General Franco There are no laggard feet now in Barcelona when the sirens wail out. heralding death. Reporting this war I have seen scores of bombardments. But the way a few oOOIb. bombs ripped a whole district to pieces is something tile like of which 1 had never seen before. Terrible Blast Henceforth I hope nobody will take any notice of those optimists who tell the public that "aerial bombardment is limited in eflect." J shudder to think what would happen to any large town in Britain if a few score of such super mixtures of high explosive were dropped there. If the people of Britain could have seen the wreckage and shambles of tho Callc de las Cortes Catalanas (the Calle Cortes) in Barcelona on the afternoon of March 17; if this scene of blood and desolation leit behind by the Savoia "79's" could be portrayed adequately at home, the 1,000,000 volunteers wanted for air raid precautions would be on offer within a few hours. So terrible was tho blast which blew at least 300 people to death and wounded as many, that all kinds of stories have been invented. Jt has been said that a truck load of high ox plosives driving down tho Callc Cortes was bit

FOR most of us March 17 is associated with Saint Patrick s festival; but for one and a-half million inhabitants of Barcelona this date in 1938 will stand out as "Black Thursday." For it was on St. Patrick's Day that a new type of bomb demonstrated in Barcelona how modern, well-constructed blocks of fiats can be torn up like tissue paper; and how just two or three such bombs are sufficient to wreck a neighbourhood. No sight in Madrid during the worst bombardments there was so terrifying as the afternoon raids 1 witnessed in Barcelona. Imagine a broad, spacious avenue, at least 80ft. across, wide footpaths and trees down the middle. 'At one side stood the largest cinema in Barcelona, with one of the most popular cafes of the city near by. A around were huge blocks of flats. A little later this was all wreckage. It was as if a great battle had been fought. There were huge craters in tho roadway, with water gurgling in them. 'A twisted bundle of steel rods was a motor-bus only an hour before. Three battered piles of matchwood were tramcars. The huge cinema had been ripped in two. The block of flats next door was almost completely wrecked Search for Victims Every kind of vehicle was requisitioned as an ambulance. Shop vans and builders' lorries wore used to take away dead and wounded. Further along the broad street, plain-clothes policemen requested passers-by to lend a hand with tlie work of searching for scores of victims buried deep under the mountains of bricks and plaster. Casualties and damage were less severe in the earlier raids At about 8 fi-W. the guests at the principal hotel 'a the town wero blown out of their beds by a bomb which wrecked the Salon dc fiestas. A man named Manuel Manna, had a double escape, in a nocturnal raid a bomb struck his house, wrecking his wdroom, but ho and his Fife were un-

hurt. They rescued a tew Deiongings anu wfent to a hotel. They just got to sleep again when another bomb crashed down on the hotel. Again they were unhurt. ■ During the night, with the city brilliantly lit by a full inoon, the insurgenfe made several raids in succession between 10 and 2 o'clock. Bombs rained down mainly around the centre of the town. Twice the All Clear" signal was given and light went on. But it was only a matter of seconds before the anti-aircraft guns thundered again, and those who were leaving tho refuges rushed to shelter once more. It was the worst night Barcelona had known since the civil war began. One of the main objectives of the raiders appeared to be the university, on which bomb after bomb was dropped, wrecking the classrooms

British Eye- Witnesses Condemn Bombing "STARK MADNESS HAS BEEN LET LOOSE" By HENRY W. BUCKLEY, Special Correspondent in Barcelona of the Daily Telegraph and Morning Poat, London.— (Copyright) It has been estimated that nearly 1000 people perished as a result of the air raids on Barcelona between 10 p.m. on March 16 and 3 p.m. on March 18. Over 1000 wounded were treated in hospitals and 154 privately treated. There were two further raids reported in the cables on May 3. In these 35 were killed and 68 injured.

by a bomb. But capable foreign observers with no axe to grind do not agree. Tho theory still holds that Barcelona that day was the testing laboratory for a new-type 250-kilograinme (5001b.) bomb which creates a new menaco to world civilisation. This lovely Mediterranean city is singularly defenceless. It stands on the edge of the sea, and the raiding aeroplanes are on it almost. before warning can be given.

Neither sufficient chaser machines for constant patrol nor enough anti-aircraft batteries are available owing to the difficulties in the way of the Government in purchasing war material. Even if they were, I doubt whether it would be possiblo to prevent raids by'small groups of aircraft such as those which raid Barcelona—that is to say, five or six fast-fl.ving bombers, which are in and out almost before the sirens have ceased warning. Many Complex Aspects There remains an alternative . . • Reprisals. Jt is a method singularly unfitted to civil war, and especially this war in Spain which has so many complex aspects. Barcelona is bombed from two places. There is tho base at Pal ma, on Majorca Island, 200 miles as a bomber flies. Hero Italian bombers and chasers are stationed. Colonel Mari is bombing chief. Colonel Pip.oni is in chargo of chasers, whoso mission is to defend the island. The mainland is too far away for them to accompany the bombers.

Here are stationed Flats C.R.32, and Savoia 81 and 79.

From Pollensa, on the north of the island, come Heinkel 59 craft from the basi> run by Germans under Major Halinghausen.

The raiders swing in over the port, fly over the town, swing round to the left and leave Again over the sandy coastline behind Montjuich Castle. Warning to Civilisation Where shall Barcelona's men, women and children hide? Refuges shelter just 90,000. The Underground Railway takes tens of thousands, but the entrances jam with people. If a bomb falls near such an entrance it may mow down scores; it has done. Down to the cellar}' Suppose the house collapses. Stay on a ground floor? If a bomb falls in the street it may blow you to pieces.

There is no safety outside properly constructed shelters. Reasonable safety alone lies in keeping off the street and hugging as closelv as possible a strong wall well away from windows. War has virtually no limits now—unless someone can produce the muchheralded magic ray which will stop petrol engines and thus paralyse our enemy the aeroplane. But, until_ then, woe betide those who are weak in the air; their fate will be that of Barcelona multiplied many times over. March 17 is a warning to civilisation that there is stark madness loose in Europe. ( Travelling at night through the Underground Railway, its platforms jammed so tight with people taking shelter that I could hardly find my way out of the train, 1 thought of friends at home who smugly tell me: "It can't happen here I'' ib is not onlv Barcelona which is suffering thus. The small coast towns are in worse plight. Have you heard of Tortosa? A small town of 32,000 inhabitants nestling under great mountains. Those German and Italian raiding aeroplanes have literally wrecked the town. Now it is empty, but three or four, times a day the raiders come and bomb what remains. Women and Children Or there is the charming town of Tarragona which was a great Roman provincial capital when London was undreamed of. In the 12 days before March 17, 42 raids were carried out on Tarragona. Think of the nerves of the women and children there.

Scores of villages along this beautiful coast show terrible scars. All day and night the raiders from Majorca bomb and machine-gun roads and villages. Futile to think that because you are indoors you are safe from machine-gun-ning Those machine-guns shoot heavy slugs which do great damage. Some timo ngo. I was tho object of a little target practice from a big three-motor Junkers and one of his "bullets" ripped away half the metal dashboard of my car.

Thus stark terror is being sown from Majorca along the Mediterranean coast from Fort Bon to Valencia day by day. Hut the Spaniards are showing great toughness. Bombs are bad propaganda. It is conceivable that by sheer terrorism from the air a nation could be forced to

surrender to its enemies. But not generations would remove the undying hatred born in those defeated by such means. ♦ « * * •

In a despatch to his paper reporting the St. Patrick's Day air raids on Barcelona, a special correspondent of The Times said:— The first of the series of raids began at 10.10 on the night of March 16. The "All Clear" signal was given at 12.08, there having been three separate raids during this period. Less than two minutes after the "All Clear" another alarm was sounded, and at two o'clock next morning there was still another. One. heard the crackling of anti-aircraft guns, the reverberating explosions of bombs. Under a Bright Moon Where they fell great clouds of smoke ascended into the white moonlight night. So bright was the night under a moon straight overhead that scores or searchlight rays seemed weak against its background, making it difficult to locate the raiding aeroplanes. Flames lit the sky in several places. Then at 7.40 a.m. on March 17 the city was aroused by bombing which struck the central part and killed many workers who were on their way to town in the early trains. At 10.20 bombs ripped open the crowded part of the city, the 'planes dropping the deadly loads before the.sirens could announce their presence; And at 12.55 they returned, this time principally hitting the boulevards.

rich. The tower now had'a great gaping bomb-hole near its lower part. There, across the street, firemen were rescuing persons from the top floors of a smashed building. A great firemen's ladder roso to the top, and a wounded woman was being lowered to the street on a belt. At one of the Red Cross hospitals wounded and dead lay on the floor, occupying every available space._ Ambulances awaited their turns outside. The dead were placed in lorries, and when the lorries were full they hurried away. On one wide boulevard there were great piles of mortar, stone and timbers of what once had been buildings. A huge theatre was smashed up. Lines of rescue squads were passing buckets of debris from hand to hand, hoping to get at the dead and wounded still buried there. Two burned tramcars stood on the track.

In the old quarter [ walked through streets familiar to me—streets which I

love for their picturesqueness, for their varied and teeming life. Living beings were now fleeing from .them, in streams —women with bundles and babies and household possessions, fleeing they knew not whither.

There can be no doubt that the object of these bombings was to spread horror and panic among the people. On Mnrch 16 and the day hefore news inspired by insurgent sources told that there were disorder and panic in Barcelona because of the eastern offensive. It was not true then, but it would seem decreed that it. should be rnade true by the raids next day. Still it-was not true. There was neither disorder, nor panic. ». ... ,

I watched all these raids from my balcony. In one case I saw three raiding aeroplanes flying high and heading toward the sea. Great clouds of smoke rolled up into tho clear sky, and in a few minutes most of the city was obscured by a heavy pall. Smoke spread through the streets. That afternoon 1 walked through the crowded working quarter, which is very extensive. There was scarcely one of its narrow streets which did not speak of its own pitiful tale of tragedy and sorrow. I walked also through the wide boulevards and saw how scarcely one escaped. Here was a church whose tall Romanesque tower I had often admired. Tt was a temple of the aristocrats and the

There was that same mute stoicism and patience, that same deep sense of suffering—and, one might truthfully say, of heroism —that was the marvel of those who witnessed ra similar thing in Madrid. ■ • f *