WAR IN SPAIN: Naval Revenge

Year ago, the 1,650-ton Spanish Leftist destroyer José Luis Diez limped into Falmouth, England, seriously damaged by Rightist air bombs. Most of her crew of 60 left the ship, claiming that they would be shot as “Reds” if they returned to Rightist Spain, as “deserters” if taken back to Leftist Spain. A loyal skeleton crew took her to France for repairs, and fortnight ago the José Luis Diez was again ready for action.

A 27-year-old commander, Juan Antonio Castro, took her out of Le Havre, France with a new loyal crew, determined to sail around the bulge of the Iberian Peninsula and through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Rightist warships vigilantly patrolled the Straits. One night last week, when land fighting on the stalemated fronts was comparatively quiet with only a minor Leftist counteroffensive in the South being waged, Commander Castro decided to run the blockade. About midnight, with lights out, the José Luis Diez passed Tangier, the internationally governed protectorate of Morocco. Off Tarifa, southern tip of Spain, the destroyer caught two armed Rightist trawlers. Commander Castro put their crews of 24 men in chains in the destroyer’s bow and sank the trawlers. Ten miles east of British-owned Gibraltar, at 2:15 a.m., just when Commander Castro thought he had successfully eluded his enemies, the 8-inch guns of the Rightist cruiser Canarias began to boom out of the dark. Soon three Rightist destroyers joined the attack.

A direct hit in the port bow killed the 24 chained prisoners and eight of the crew.

Disabled, the José Luis Diez crept back to Gibraltar, and was beached in shallow water behind the Mole. That afternoon the British destroyer Vanoc gave Rightist and Leftist dead a sea burial. For the superior Rightist Navy the battle was partial revenge for the sinking a year ago of its battleship España, the torpedoing last winter of its cruiser Baleares.