Evening star., 1938-12-25
Insurgents Report
Great Gains in
Tremp Sector
Italian Leeionnoires
Said to Have Moved
Forward IS Miles
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
HENDAYE, France Cat the Span
ish frontier), Dec. 25-(Sunday)-
Spanish insurgent military dis
patches today reported extensive
victories in the Tremp sector of
the northern front, where Italian
legionnaires were said to have
pushed forward more than Is miles.
1nsurgent field reports reaching
the border said the attackers had
captured the towns of Figuerola,
Penalda and Fontllonga. Farther
south, between Lerida and Gandesa,
insurgents said they had taken the
villages of Sarroca. Mayalo, Lar
demos, Torrebes and Alcana.
Loyalists Deny Claims.
Government dispatches denied all
insurgent claims, but acknowledged
there was heavy fighting in the
mountainous area south of Tremp,
important power center about 80
miles southwest of Barcelona.
Government bulletins said the
insurgents used aviation, artillery
and tanks to support an infantry
offensive. The insurgents declared
they had taken many prisoners and
enormous quantities" of war ma
terlals, while government dispatches
reported that a number of Italian
volunteers, including several officers,
had been captured.
Earlier military dispatches had
indicated that the northern often
sive, launched in blizzardS and sub
zero cold, had been brought to a
sharp halt.
Regarded as Crucial Test.
The drive, Insurgent Generals
simo Francisco Frances long
awaited offensive in Catalonia, was
regarded by both sides as a crucial
test. A half million men were said
to be arrayed on opposite sides of
the 100-mile front in two of the
greatest armies assembled for a
single battle in the two and a half
years of war.
Veteran government mountain
fighters, well entrenched in forti-
fed hilltop positions, were said
to have cut down Gen. FRANCOIS
Italian and Moorish troops strug-
Cling across snowswept fields in the
north.
Attack Near Lerida.
At the southern end of the front,
however, insurgents said they took
advantage of letup in the storms
and launchd heavy assault
against government positions about
- miles from Lerida.
They said they had advanced be-
yond the towns of Sarroco and Ma
yals, south of Lerida. They reported
a gain also north of Lerida, between
Tremp and Sort and said they we're
concentrating on four holes smashed
in the governments front line in
the opening onslaught yesterday.
The objective was not given, but
the converging movement of the
forces on opposite sides of Lerida
indicated a possible pincer STRAIT
egy such as was used by Gen.
Franco in the capture of Teruel.
Insurgent officers said the i'm
pressions of the command frankly
are optimistic" They reported cap
ture of many prisoners and said
large government forces had been
cut off from their main communi-
cation lines.
Two Of Strategic Importance.
Both Sarroca and Mayals were
described as strategically important
to later insurgent operations east
of the Segre River. Mayals, which
insurgents said they had encircled,
is only 10 miles north of the bend
in the Ebro River where an earlier
Franco offensive was checked last
November.
Reports from border observers,
however, indicated that the north
ern end of the front had become
quiet except for occasional ar
tillery shelling, with the advan-
tage so far lying with the govern
ment's seasoned troops in that
sector.
They said heavy snowstorms had
almost wiped out visibility, and
freezing cold had made fighting vir-
tually impossible in the snow-whit-
ened Pyrenees.