Slow Push

After twelve days of fierce fighting Rebel Generalissimo Francisco Franco's "win-the-war" offensive against Catalonia temporarily slowed down last week. At week's end the red-&-gold Insurgent flag flew over two sizable new bulges of terri tory totaling about 750 square miles. If Insurgent troops pierce another 16 miles into Catalonia to take Artesa, then Barce lona, the Loyalist capital, will be seriously threatened.

Biggest Rebel victory of the week was the capture, by the bayonet, of Granadella, 18 miles south of Lerida, centre of the Catalonian battlefront. Before they could take Artesa, however, a group of rugged, rocky peaks well-defended by machine-gun nests had to be crossed.

In some respects the Battle for Cata lonia was the greatest military engagement since the World War. Although the number of soldiers was far less than that on the Western front in 1914-18, the Rebel concentration of artillery was as great as that used by the Germans at Verdun-- about one cannon to every ten yards. In the northern sector of the offensive, near Balaguer. Generalissimo Franco's troops pounded the enemy with a fierce artillery barrage, then bombarded the Loyalists from the air, then attacked with from 100 to 150 tanks. Finally his infantry moved in.

Not only did the Loyalists face vastly superior armaments, but for the first time in the war they were outnumbered in soldiers in the field. Commanded by their best military brains--Generals Juan Sarrabia and Enrique Lister, Colonel Juan Modesto--the Loyalists employed the only possible methods of fighting under such conditions --i.e., slow retreat, then localized counterattacks. They hoped for a spell of bad weather to cripple the Rebel offensive.

At a New Year's lull the Loyalist soldiers, better fed than the civilian population, got a half bottle of beer apiece, a few pieces of candy, a dinner of chick-pea soup, meat stew with potatoes, and coffee. The Rebels enjoyed two hot meals like this every day, plus a special coffee ration to hearten them through the freezing cold weather.

The Rebel offensive near Tremp, 40 miles south of the French border, was carried out by Aragonese troops commanded by General Jose Moscardo. The most unusual feature of the offensive, however, was that for the first time since the rout of Italian troops at Guadalajara in March 1937. unmixed divisions of Italian "legionnaires" were again in the front lines, south of Lerida.

Not from Rebel Spain did any hint of Italian participation come, but from Italy itself. The Fascist press attacked France for still supporting the Loyalists, but saw no inconsistency in boasting (Loyalist communiques substantiated the boast) that four Italian divisions (about 40,000 men) were heroically conquering Catalonia. These divisions included famed Black Shirt detachments. Italian correspondents wrote from Spain that among the Italian soldiers were veterans of the offensives of Malaga, Bilbao, Santander, Aragon.

Also from Italy came details of material help to Generalissimo Franco. Dictator Benito Mussolini's controlled press told how, in the last two months, new equipment had been sent from Italy to Spain, including more machine guns, better artillery, bigger reserves of munitions. Previously described was the Italian "Legion of the Air" in Spain, working out of Majorca, and its system of "chain bombing of murderous intensity" over Loyalist territory.

Most embarrassed by these disclosures was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who has said many times that he took Il Duce's word for it that Italian help to Generalissimo Franco would be reduced, not increased. Three months ago a token withdrawal of 10,000 Italian troops from Spain took place. On that showing Mr. Chamberlain implemented an Anglo-Italian treaty. Although Dictator Mussolini was expected to demand of the Prime Minister at Rome next week (see p. 21) that Britain grant belligerent rights to Rebel Spain, from London last week came hints that Mr. Chamberlain, for his part, would plead with Il Duce at least to stop boasting about Italy's part in the Spanish Civil War.

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