WAR OF ANNIHILATION.

Wairarapa Age, 29 July 1936, Page 5

WAR OF ANNIHILATION.

FIERCE & SAVAGE STRUGGLE IN SPAIN. GOVERNMENT STILL HOLDING KEY ABEAS. MANY STORIES OF. ATROCITIES. LONDON, July 27. Though the Spanish Government - is maintaining the ascendancy in the key areas, it is being increasingly realised that the revolution will not end until one or other of the main classes of the population is annihilated. Botti sides display desperate courage, but neither has respect for the laws of warfare. Stories of atrocities are multiplying. They include the crucifixion and torture of enemies in order to secure information. Madrid estimates the casualties throughout Spain at nearly 20,000. Deserters say that General Mola’s ammunition is nearly exhausted, that his forces total less than a thousand troops, and that his artillery consists of two batteries of 103 millimetre and 75 millimetre guns.

The Government has based its tactics on those of tfae Great War, opening with an artillery barrage while aeroplanes bombed detachments who escaped, survivors being mopped up by advancing infantry. Colonel Sanchez Paredes, who is in charge of the operations, is fully satisfied that the attack will be resumed on July 28. The campaign reveals increasing disorder. More looting has occurred in Government towns than in those where the rebels hold command. The rebel loss of initiative seems to be partly due to a leakage of information which compelled premature launching of the revolt, which was originally planned for September. ATTACK ON SARAGOSSA. The Government claims a preliminary success in the rebel stronghold at Saragossa, which is under attack on three sides. A full-dress assault will be delivered when the converging loyalist columns arrive.

A workers 9 army, under General Perez Ferras, accompanied by troops and police, made a forced inarch through Aragon from Catalonia. Their numbers were augmented by peasants who quitted their ploughs, seized the first weapons available, and reached the outskirts of the beleaguered city. Four rebel columns from Caspe were sent to stem the loyalist advance towards Saragossa, where they were dispersed, abandoning war material and dead. The rebels are determined not to allow San Sebastian to remain in the possession of the Government, and fierce fighting is proceeding around Oyarzun, in the Valley of the Pyrenees, under a downpour of rain. This valley dominates the road from Navarre to San Sebastian and Inin. The conflict has resolved itself into desperate hand-to-hand fighting. The rebels reached the outskirts as columns of workers and militia rushed from Iron to the assistance of the slender garrison. The conflict surged into the main street. Loyalist guns on Mount San Marcial are shelling the rebels, whoso advance is held up, but the loyalists lack ammunition and therefore are unable to employ heavy guns brought up by horses and mules. Among the refugees from the north is the balloonist Professor Piecard, who was returning to Santander when a French steamer brought him to Saint Nazaire. FIGHTING IN THE SOUTH. Fierce battles are progressing within 20 miles of Gibraltar. r General Franco, leader of the revolt, in a desperate effort to overcome the Government forces round Malaga, is rushing tro6ps from Morocco in seaplanes. He has ordered the detention of male relatives of loyalist naval officers and men, and is threatening to shoot them if their vessels do not capitulate. Tho Government has opened the ranks of a women’s battalion, the Fifth Militia Regiment, to any Madrid woman desirous of *‘ fighting against the murderers of her father, husband, lover, or brother.”

The rebels are advancing from Algeciras on Malaga, where fire damage is estimated at £5,500,000, involving British insurance companies. The rebels claim to have killed 100 in defeating 250 Government militia who disputed the passage of the Guadiaro River at El Tesorillo, 13 miles from Gibraltar. The rebels, armed with machine-guns, lost only 12. Three hundred, mostly loyalists, were killed in a battle with rebels on the outskirts of Estepona, a coastal town in Malaga Province whither the loyalist fleet, supported by bombing ’planes which destroyed rebel hangars at Tetuan, is hastening after bombing Melilla in order to impede the landing of General Franco’s troops. Rebel legionaries advanced to Estepona and compelled Carabinieri who were believed to sympathise with the Government to march in the vanguard. It is unlikely that any of the Carabinieri will return alive. Orders have been given not to take prisoners and to behead all Communists. Rebels, defying the loyalists’ shell-fire, charged with the bayonet and both sides engaged with hand grenades and cold steel. The legionaries were swiftly victorious, but the Government troops rallied and hurled themselves on the machine-guns with desperate valour. The issue is still in doubt.