Teruel Nipped

In blinding snow & wind that sometimes reached a velocity of 50 miles an hour the Spanish war suddenly burst into action last week at Teruel, tip of the long Rightist finger which points down from Aragon at Leftist Valencia. While the world awaited a Rightist drive, Leftist troops under General Sebastian Pozas took the offensive. Surging forward through a blizzard in a surprise attack, the Leftists avoided a frontal assault on Teruel itself, heavily fortified by the Rightists for over a year. Instead they sent from north & south two columns accompanied by tanks and planes to nip the line of communications behind the city. By the fourth day Teruel was surrounded, despite counter-attacks from the garrison of 60,000 Rightists, despite attempts of Generalissimo Franco to force relief troops through. Into the snowy streets of Teruel marched ten hostages released by the attackers to carry a promise of amnesty to all civilians and Rightists who would surrender by 9 a. m. on the following morning. Nobody surrendered. Through the day Leftist troops continued to fight from house to house, ever farther into the city, kept the attack going through the night with searchlights. For the first time the new trained army of Leftist Spain had been able to carry a properly planned campaign through four successive days of attack.

Franco, whose own offensive has been eight weeks delayed, apparently had other troubles to contend with. All week he kept the French and Portuguese frontiers tight shut, but rumors continued to leak through: A "vast conspiracy by foreign elements" had threatened the lives of Franco & several of his officers and a large amount of cash had been stolen from the Rightist treasury at Salamanca.

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