COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 7

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

BASQUES SUCCESSFUL Victorious All Along The Line REBEL VANGUARD TRAPPED DEFEATED ITALIANS RBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Received May 3, 7.5 p.m. LONDON, May 2. The Basques commemorated May Day by partly avenging Guernica. They celebrated the destruction of the Espana by an unexpectedly successful counteroffensive. The Times’ Bilbao correspondent says that the Basques were victorious all along the line, the rebel attacks failing at every point, with the loss of 2500 dead and wounded. Basque reports increase this number to 3500. They intercepted rebel messages for reinforcements and ambulances. The rebels fell into a carefully prepared trap. Pushing forward -71ong the coastal route from Guernica they met with no resistance, and entered Bermeo, the former headquarters for the evacuation of refugees. Here the Carlist volunteers received reinforcements, only to find themselves encircled by Basque battalions and artillery. Later the Basques treated as a picnic an attempted afternoon attack by the insurgents along the Bermeo Road. Jose Rezola, the young Secretary for Defence, took a rifle and joined a battalion of plain clothes soldiers. The insurgents fled, dropping their rifles and abandoning material. Many insurgents were killed and the wounded were admitted to hospital at Bilbao. Rezola returned to the Ministry with booty won from the Italians, consisting of a trench mortar, steel helmet, three rifles, two gas masks and much ammunition. An Italian prisoner described the composition of the fleeing brigade as one Italian and one-half Spanish and half Italian. On the centre front the Government troops defeated the so-called “flechas negros” (black arrows). These are Spaniards commanded by Italian officers and non-commissioned officers. Desertions from this corps have been numerous. All complain of inability to understand orders, sinre the officers have learned only Castilian, which is not understood locally.

ON THE MADRID FRONT BOMBARDMENT CONTINUES LOYALIST PROPAGANDA. Received May 3, 7.35 p.m. MADRID. May 2. The bombardment continues daily. The Loyalists dropped leaflets over the rebel lines warning “Spaniards serving foreign invaders that to-day is the anniversary of May 2, 1808. when Madrid repelled the invasion of Napoleon’s army.” The leaflets end: “Madrid’s defenders are in our camp. Up with our hands! We await you!”

ALMIRANTE CERVERA ATTACK BY ’PLANES WARSHIP HURRIES AWAY. LONDON, May 1. The Bilbao correspondent of the Times learns that the loyalist ’planes which attempted to bomb the rebel cruiser Almirante Cervera had no difficulty in locating the warship, because immediately the latter learned of the disaster to the Espana she steamed eastward at full speed. She was reported at 3.30 p.m. by an alert signaller at Cape Mayor to be 55 miles west of Santander. The bombing ’planes had time to drop only three bombs when the Almirante Cervera, remembering the 1 fate of her consort, fired off all her “archies” and departed northward. The Bilbao evening papers jubilantly starred the sinking of the Espana in their front pages and sent cars tearing through the town. The loss of the Espana has halved the blockading “fleet” and scared the remainder away. The merchantman Knitsley berthed at Castro Urdiales, 30 miles east of Santander. The captain, in obedience to Admiralty orders, is uncommunicative, but a sailor disclosed that hardly had the rebel destroyer Velasco stopped the Knitsley, with the Espana, half a mile away, when the aeroplanes came into action. The Basques are heartened by the news of the incident and have been further encouraged by an advance of nearly two miles m the Bizcazgui hills, near Arrazua, two miles east of Guernica. LOSS OF ESPANA SAID TO BE SUNK BY MINE Received May 3, 11.55 p.m. VITTORIA. May 3. The Insurgent naval staff declares that the cruiser Espana was sunk by a mine, one of the many laid by the rebel minelayers. The Times adds that information which has reached London indicates that the possibility of the Espana striking a mine has been ruled out.