Evening star., 1939-01-17
France Studies Plan
To Aid LoyoIists as
Crucial Battle Neors
Fight IS Miles West
Of Barcelona May
Settle Civil War

VI OoiSS'O1u IVOy
Settle Civil War
BACKGROUND
Almost universal success has
met insurgent arms since Franco
launched his steam roller driue to
take Barcelona on December %.
LoydHSt hare fought StubbornIy,
! out hare been oDermdtched at
euery point in the matter of guns,
planes and men.
By the Associated Press.
HENDAYE, France (at the Span
lsh frontier), Jan. 17.-Reinforced
government and insurgent armies
reformed their lines 35 miles west
Of Barcelona today for an apparently
imminent battle on which may rest
the fate of the government capital
and the outcome of the Spanish
civil war
With their backs to the sea fol-
lowing the insurgent occupation of
Tarrangona over the week end, the
government forces were believed to
have been increased to approxi-
mately 100000 men by recent con-
scriptions.
Military observers estimated that
insurgent Generalissimo Francisco
Franco could increase his attacking
forces to some 100000 for the ap-
/ preaching conflict for possession
of highways to Barcelona.
Franco himself took command of
the drive on the capital as the big
European powers watched the Of
fensive which may end the two
and-a-half-year-old civil war He
was at the head of the main column
Barcelona highway toward Igualada,
believed to be the northern end OF
the governments new lines.
Fight or Surrender.
From the start of the insurgents
drive the strategy of the government
command has been to withdraw
from one fortified position to an
other without risking decisive
battle. Now, military observers said,
the government troops must either
fight or surrender.
Pushing forward from Cervera,
which was captured yesterday,
Frances column was reported to
have advanced about 10 miles, plac-
ing it about 40 miles by air from
Barcelona and abreast of another
insurgent column which moved
southeastward from Cervera to the
village Of Bellprat.
Drive is Week Ahead.
Almost as close to the capital
were the insurgent armies advanc-
ing up the Mediterranean coast from
Tarragona. While Moroccan and
Navarrese troops cleaned up the
area around Tarragona and Reus,
which they had captured over the
week end, one contingent moved
northward to take the village Of
Catllar, 6 miles north of Tarragona
and about A miles from Barcelona.
Travellers reaching the border
from Barcelona declared the insur-
gent advance, which began Decem-
ber %, was a full week ahead of the
very best the government general
staff thought Frances men could
do. Some of them said the city
might fall within three weeks.
Roads of Central and Southern
Catalonia were jammed with ref
ugees from the zone in which the
governments new lines of secret
defenses" has been built in the
mountains along the border of Bar
celona Province.
Loyalist Leaders Gloomy.
Government military authorities
made no effort to hide their gloom
over the prospective battle to save
Barcelona, but dispatches from the
capital said the residents were going
about their business calmly despite
the discouraging reports from the
front.
Military reports cited lack of war
materials among the government
troops in comparison with what
they termed the enormous accumu-
lation of men and material on the
insurgent side"
They declared Franco had more
than 800 warplanes in the Cata-
lonian campaign while the govern
ment has almost none with which
to put up fight" The ratio be-
tween insurgent and government ar
tillery was said in government mill
tary circles to be about 6 to /.
Mass 10000 Men.
The insurgents were said to have
massed almost 100000 men along a
50-mile front from the coast, north
OF Tarragona. to Igualada, on the
Lerida- Barcelona highway, giving
the insurgents superiority in man
power in a major battle for the
first time since the war started.
Franco was said by a dispatch
from insurgent field headquarters
at Lerida to have appealed by radio
yesterday to government Spain to
lay down its arms, asserting that
an insurgent victory was inevitable.
Gnsurgent planes also were lay
ing down a propaganda barrage
from the air, having dropped mil
lions of leaflets in the past seven
| AoJo oNNA SONCl Cdlls
ing on the population to cease fight
ingD
In Barcelona the government an
nounced that new offensive had
been launched in Andalusia from
Alcala la Real, with the militiamen
advancing into the Sierra de Tozar
Is miles north of Granada. Gran
ada is 225 miles south of Madrid
in a long-quiet sector.
1t was said government troops also
were moving forward on the south
western front toward Puerto de
Calabar. This front is about 16O
miles southwest of Madrid. The
government launched a general Of
fensive there shortly after the in
surgent offensive was started in