Word: barcelona
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...soldiers of France entered Spain up to this week, but some 6,000 Leftist soldiers fled over the mountainous Pyrenees frontier into France, and of these some 4,000 were promptly shipped by the French back by rail to Loyalist territory. From Barcelona the U. S. diplomatic mission moved 20 miles nearer France on the coast. Leftist Premier Dr. Juan Negrin called for 100,000 fresh volunteers for the People's Army, and Defense Minister Indalecio Prieto no longer spoke of victory but tried to persuade the French that unless they sent help the methodical advance of Generalissimo Francisco...
Meanwhile the great Rightist offensive was doing well, but the caution of the Generalissimo continued strongly in evidence. The No. 2 city of Catalonia is Lerida, No. 1 being Barcelona, and last week Rightist General Juan Yague waited for three whole days with an overwhelming force before Lérida, while other supporting Rightist units on his left and right wings completed their scheduled gains. Then the Generalissimo ordered: "Proceed to take Lérida!" In a full day of savage street fighting, with Rightist tanks crashing down barricades, artillery pounding ahead, Lérida was taken...
...Generalissimo had thus won "The Key to Barcelona," as even the Leftists have called Lérida, but it was 80 miles to the keyhole. With General Yague just starting keyholeward this week, twelve assorted Rightist forces were all making unchallenged claims to sweeping victories all the way from the French frontier which was smothered with refugees, down to Teruel. A major Rightist drive hurled itself down the widening valley of the Ebro River, and with Leftists surrendering so fast that what to do with so many prisoners became an acute Rightist problem, the Generalissimo besieged Tortosa from the land...
This week Generalissimo Franco replied directly to a protest by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with a note saying that the Rightists bomb cities and towns "only when military necessity leaves no alternative." At Salamanca the official Rightist spokesman declared: "Our objective in Barcelona was primarily the terminals of the railroad system, but the casualties in the city were heavier than they might have been because the North subway station had been turned into an underground ammunition depot. The storage of ammunition in the heart of a city is against the most elementary rules of war. The result was that...
...Barcelona spokesman cracked back that General Franco is sticking his neck out to the Mediterranean between Catalan and Valencian armies which will close in on his flanks and crush the Rightists. "Never in history has a general offered his enemy such an opportunity...