Victor

For generations the students of Salamanca University, in the little city that has now become the capital of Rightist Spain, had an ancient tradition. When final examinations were over the graduating class filed into the ornate, golden-brown sandstone Cathedral. Those who had failed were passed out through a side door, those who had passed remained to sing a Te Deum. If the leading man of each class had made really excellent marks, he had the additional right of painting his name and an intricate monogram of the word VICTOR in hot bull's blood on the walls of the Cathedral or any of the university buildings. To do this for a distinguished stranger is the highest honor the university can pay. Thus to honor Generalissimo Francisco Franco, undergraduates last year scraped clear many generations of inscriptions by the Cathedral door, then used almost a whole bull-ful of blood to write his name in a panel twelve feet high (see cut).

Early last week it seemed that the Caudillo Franco had almost earned his title of Victor. Santander had fallen. Free for use on other fronts were 50,000 troops. Next objective in the northwest was Gijon, and as Rightists pushed westward along the Bay of Biscay they claimed Asturian troops were in full flight before them, 5,000 surrendering at the port town of Lanes. The Vatican had recognized the Rightist State. Off the tables of Marshal Pietro Badoglio in Rome was generally expected a new plan of attack by which Madrid would be captured before cold weather set in. The Leftist offensive against Saragossa seemed flopping like a flounder.

Then suddenly came an interruption that sent excited crowds shouting joyously in the shell-pocked streets of Madrid. Twenty miles southeast of Saragossa is the mountain-encircled town of Belchite, which boasts a nearby airdrome and is a most important strategic point on General Franco's long Saragossa-Teruel salient. For five days Leftist heavy artillery blasted at Belchite, then came the direct frontal attack led by suicidal dinamiteros. Fighting from house to house the Leftists wiped out two whole companies in Belchite's town hall, captured a detachment entrenched in a seminary and took the town. Leftists announced 1,500 Rightists had been killed, 1,000 captured including 600 who had been besieged in the Cathedral. No word of their own casualties was forthcoming, but they were sufficiently impressive to prevent an immediate attack on Saragossa, under Leftist artillery fire for over a week.

Many times Leftists have halted Rightist offensives, counterattacked with vigor, but last week's capture of Belchite, in spite of the fact that the rebels still held the Cathedral, was the first important Leftist victory since the Italian rout at Guadalajara in March (TIME, March 22 et seq.). Politically it was still more important. Jealousy behind the lines has removed from command of the Leftist International Brigade General Emilio Kleber, has seriously handicapped the defender of Madrid, General Jose Miaja. For the recent Saragossa-Teruel offensive 200,000 men were assembled, 200 planes, nearly 1,000 trucks. This, the most elaborate Leftist offensive yet attempted, was handed over to General Sebastian Pozas, a greying, hollow-eyed officer who looks more like an Anglican bishop than a soldier.

General Pozas has already done yeoman service in restoring order in Barcelona and trying to get a Catalan army to take the field. At a bound the capture of Belchite set Sebastian Pozas right among the hierarchy of the Valencia Government, seemed to make him a figure very much to be counted on in the next few months. This was hard news for extremists. Sebastian Pozas won his general's sash long before the civil war. Privately he hates anarchists as much as he hates foreign fascists.

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