The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-12-29
800 WARPLANES
BOMB LOYAL
ARMY'S BASE
Rebel Artillery Concentra-
ton Declared Heaviest
Of The War
SAY LOYALIST 5TH
ARMY is WIPED OUT

HENDAHE, Franco Spanish
Frontier, Dec. %. (UP)-Spanish
ratiOnalistS, using the heaviest
concentration of artillery since
the beginning of the civil war,
smashed into loyalists in the Bal
aguer sector of the Catalonian
front to open the second phase
Of the mass offensive.
According to nationalist, hun
dreds of loyalists surrendered,
while loyalists asserted that their
lines are holding.
Generalissimo Francisco Fran
cos bombing planes, and siege
guns last night poured tons of
explosives into two fortified
towns where -loyaliSt resistance
blocked the converging paths of
= double-pronged insurgent drive
on Barcelona.
A fleet of 80 warplanes bomb
ed and machine-gunned the loyal
iSt base of Artesa de Segre, 65
miles northwest of Barcelona,
while Navarrese- Galician columns
locked in hand-to-hand struggle
with loyalist defenders to the
north and west.
Twenty-nine miles to the south,
Frances guns and planes blasted
BorjaS Blancas along the main
highway and railroad from Leri-
da eastward to the Mediterranean
coast.
Loss Of the two gateway towns,
which Franco was attempting to
seize in preparation for a june
ture of his northern and southern
wings at Tarrega or Cervera with
their spearhead pointed directly
at Barcelona 4S miles away, might
be a knockout blow to the whole
Catalonian defense system of the
loyalists.
Both Artesa and Borjas Blanca
are control points of rear-line
communications for General vi
cente Rojo, loyalist commander
in-chief.
Francois headquarters reported
hard-won but steady progress up
on the two highway towns, but it
was evident that the loyalists
with 20 divisions in action were
putting up a grim defense on the
sixth day of Frances offensive.
Loyalist field headquarters re
ported that Italian Blackshirt Lee
gionnaires, part of four fascist
divisions said to be serving Fran
co, had been thrown back near
Castrelldans, six miles southwest
Of Borjas Blancas, by a violent
government counter-attack.
Borjas Blancas, the loyahsts
said, was under almost constant
bOmbardment by artillery and
planes.
The insurgents reported that
10 lOyalist fighting planes were
shot down in a spectacular air
battle above the village of Allies,
ID miles west of Borjas Blancas,
when "a insurgent planes met 40
loyahst Curtiss fighters, Is Boo
lngS and six Martin bombers.
The 10 loyalist planes brought
10 a total of So the number Of
!oyaliSt planes reported to have
been shot down since the often
ave began at dawn last Friday.
Francois Burgos headquarters,
listing his gains thus far, said
more than 5000 prisoners had
been taken and about 270 square
miles of Catalonian territory cap
tured.
The insurgents, cutting a 20
mlIe-wide hole in the govern
ment's lines south of Lerida and
west of Borjas Blanca, claimed to
have occupied 81 villages.
In the sector south of Lerida
alone 1000 prisoners were re-
Ported and Burgos reported that
the loyalist fifth army corps had
been wipep out by casualties and
Prisoners.
ROio threw another full army
corps into the breach in his lines
south of Lerida during the day
% protect Borjas Blancas and the
highway. The insurgents said that
among prisoners taken there were
members of the Campesino and
Lister brigades and Tramcar
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