Evening star., 1937-08-09
INSURGENTS START
SANTANDER DRIVE
"FinaI Offensive" Is Opened
by Planes, Artillery in
BisCayan Sector.
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
Spanish insurgents renewed Of
tensiDe against Madrid. nine
months in grip OF siege. after cap
turing Bilbao, on northern coast
OF Spain. Counter ofensipe by
Spanish loyalists crippled effect OF
rebels attack
| Meanwhile, international situa-
| ton has eased after departure OF
Germany and Italy from nom
| Intervention patrol and Frances
termination of international con-
! troll OF her frontier.
| BY the Associated Press.
HENDAYE, Franco-Spanish From
tier, August 9.-Generalissimo Fran
cisco Frances northern forces today
| launched what insurgent officers called
their final offensive" against the
provinces of Asturias and Santander,
last government stronghold in North
Spain.
Insurgent planes and artillery
| bombed government defense lines in
| the Biscayan sector in an effort to
wipe out the last government resistance
on the Basque-Asturian front
Insurgent reports declared the bonn
| bard1nent was as intense as the deadly
| fire poured onto the iron ring of forti-
fications encircling Bilbao before that
Basque capital fell last June.
The northern sector had been vir-
| tually quiet since the insurgents ad-
vanced through Bilbao and a short
distance along the highway to San
| tander. 1t was believed renewed hos
| tillties meant Gen. Franco hoped to
| mop up the region befor~ Fall in order
| to release his northern concentration
Of troops and war equipment for use
on the Madrid front or elsewhere.
Point of Start Unrevealed.
Insurgent officers at Irun, though
terming it the final offensive, declined
| to reveal the point from which the
| drive started.
Bombing planes, accompanied by
strong escorts of pursuit planes, took
! off at dawn today from Bilbaos in
| ternatlonal airport and other fields
behind the insurgent lines, roaring
| toward the government lines to drop
| their deadly cargoes.
At almost the same time artillery
began systematic shelling of the
| positions that the general staff de-
| clded must be taken as an entering
wedge for the insurgent land troops.
From Salamanca the insurgents
| issued a communlque yesterday re-
| porting all quiet on the civil war
! fronts just as they did before the
| final Bilbao offensive started.
Loyalists Push North.
AS the new Northern offensive
started the embattled Spanish gov
ernment pushed it's Albarracin sector
| line north today and dug into posi-
| tons blocking the insurgent threat
| to the Cuenca- -Teruel highway, key
TO communications linking Madrid
and Valencia
Government scouts reconnoitered
the towns of Guadalaviar and Villa
| del Cobo advancing the government
vanguard within sight of Griegos.
WesternmoSt point of the insurgent
salient now the center of civil war
operations.
Both Sides Digging In.
Battlefront dispatches indicated
both sides we're digging in for trench
warfare such as has ragged around
| Madrid for more than nine months.
Strong reinforcements were report
edly concentrating behind the govern
ment lines while labor battalions
rushed work on elaborate fortifications
in the Valdemeca Mountain passes
northeast Of Cuenca, capital Of the
province.
The government also took advan-
tage OF the lull in major operat tions
to fortifv positions south Of Toril, tip
OF the flngertip salient thrust men,
acinglv at the Madrid-Valencia lines.
Persistent reports of renewed street
fighting in Barcelona came from in
surgent sources. which said that an
U. M, proletrian extremists, were bat
Ting in the Catalan capital.
The French Rightist press asserted
that more than 80 leaders of BARGE
Iona political groups had vanished
during recent days and declared that
Catalan Leftists were in state of
chaos while Gen. Sebastian Pozas at
tempted to end international dissen-
| sion.