REBEL ADVANCE ON BILBAO

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20731, 19 May 1937, Page 9

REBEL ADVANCE ON BILBAO

STRATEGIC POINTS CAPTURED

ENGINES OF WARFARE SUPERIOR COUNTER SUCCESS RY BASQUES United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright BILBAO, May 17. Set on fire by incendiary rebel bombs, when machine-gunned, Amorevieta Lemont, suffered material damage, comparable with Durango, Eibar and Guernica, but with less loss °f life. The rebels captured Munguia Goricica. The Struggle Described Amorevieta is of extreme military Importance, and its capture is essential before a final rebel assault can be launched upon the whole line of Bilbao’s main defences. Therefore 30,000 Basques desperately defended it, but were outflanked. The defenders, according to General Mola’s statement lost 1000 killed and 3000 wounded, mostly by machine-gun fire, after the aerial bombing. The main bodies of the rebel infantry are now within two miles of Amorevieta, which their patrols havs already entered, after the loyalist evacuation. General Mola refrained from throwing in stronger forces, because the town in still dominated by the Basque artillery, which is now bombarding it. The crushing superiority of the rebel aviation and heavy guns is ominous for the loyalists. Basques’ Counter Successes A message from Bilbao says that the Basques re-occupied the whole of Mount Bizcargui, scoring a signal stragetical success.