REBEL OFFENSIVE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19827, 3 January 1939, Page 5

REBEL OFFENSIVE

FURIOUS BATTLE THAW HAMPERS TANKS ITALIANS IN JEOPARDY BOMBING OF BARCELONA CELEBRATIONS CHECKED (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn, (Reed. Jan. 3, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 2.

Furious lighting in the main sectors attends the Catalonian offensive of the Spanish Nationalist forces. Every available plane is engaged. A thaw hampers the tanks. The Italian divisions, including the Littoria which, at Signor Mussolini's request, led the assault are jeopardised owing to the loyalist counter attack.

The rebels claim the capture of Albages and probably Granadella and Cubells. The total rebel gains cover 346 square miles on a front of 100 miles.

The Sarragossa correspondent of The Times says that the rebels are advancing on the southern sector, despite the necessity for storming a succession of well-defended ridges between the River Segre and the Tierra Dellana foothills. They crossed the river Sant ahead of timetable.

The position of the loyalists in the lower Ebro is increasingly precarious. A Barcelona message states that after five months of immunity Barcelona was bombed from the air three times yesterday, 33 people being killed and 92 wounded. The bombers cut a path 50yds. wide and three miles long across the centre of the city. Sirens Sound Alarm Prompt alarm by the sirens enabled the crowds to escape from the streets where they were going home after the new year celebrations. A loyalist pursuit plane overtook a bomber. The loyalist pilot switched on the wing lights of his machine to indicate the position of the rebel to the anti-aircraft batteries and chased the quarry until able, with machinegun fire, to send the rebel machine crashing in flames to the sea. A bomb explosion blew members from the balcony of the British Club. To-day Barcelona was again bombed after the departure of the international commission which is investigating the bombing of open towns. Four persons were killed to-day and 26 injured. The rebel progress was stated today., to be reduced to a mile daily and a few points were taken at heavy cost. The loyalist resistance is tremendous, according to a Barcelona statement. Loyalist anti-aircraft guns brought down three of seven bombers. Amnesty Granted The Hendays correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that General Franco granted an amnesty to 50 men and women who were sentenced to death, but the squalid prisons are overcrowded throughout Spain.

A Spanish Republican communique issued on Saturday at Barcelona stated that the Gibraltar authorities had refused the request of the captain of the destroyer Jose Luis Diez for an extension of her stay to ensure the seaworthiness of the vessel, so the captain went to sea to avoid internment. He. alleged that he was attacked while in British territorial waters. A communique issued by the rebels insists that only the minelayer Vulcano engaged the Jose Luis Diez. It does not mention the loss of a minelayer, or the ramming of another.