WAR IN SPAIN: Last Ditch

As this week began, the armies of Generalissimo Francisco Franco moved on Barcelona from three sides.

From the south one force drove up the narrow shore line to Sitjes and beyond. Barcelona was 15 miles away. From the northwest another column came down on Manresa. Barcelona was 30 miles away, but this force was headed toward the sea north of the Loyalist capital in an apparent effort to encircle the city, cut it off from France. The western attackers reached Martorell. Barcelona was 10 miles away.

If the western force were to take the mountains that lie immediately above and behind Barcelona, and if the southern column were to take the fortress of Montjuich. which lies on a promontory that commands Barcelona from the sea side, the city had small chance of holding out. Madrid has held out for two and a half years. But Madrid stands like a fort on a plain. Barcelona lies defenseless in a cup.

Sweeping past Montserrat, the high mountain on which the most famous of Spain’s monasteries stands, the Rebels’ western force pressed on toward the high range of hills, highest of which is Tibidabo, at Barcelona’s back door. Barcelona’s last-ditch stand would come before Tibidabo was reached, since the Rebel capture of it would mean certain conquest of the city.

Normal business in Barcelona was suspended as the Loyalist Government called out all men under 55 to dig trenches and build fortifications on the city’s outskirts. Women replaced men in restaurants, hotels, gasoline stations, shops, factories. The U. S. cruiser Omaha was called from Villefranche, France, to pick up 30 U. S. citizens still remaining in the city, while the British cruiser Devonshire and destroyer Greyhound stood by off Barcelona ready to aid the exit of Britons.

After an all-night meeting Premier Dr. Juan Negrin’s Cabinet decided to stay in Barcelona for the time being, but announced that they had taken all “necessary measures to guarantee against any eventuality the continuous administration of the State and the work of government.” In other words, the Negrin Cabinet, unlike the Largo Caballero Cabinet which hastily fled from Madrid to Valencia in late 1936, decided to remain at their posts until there could be no doubt that the city was lost. They would then flee.

The loss of no other city or area could be as ruinous to the Spanish Republic’s fate as Barcelona’s. Spain’s most important seaport, its industrial mainspring, its metropolis, Barcelona in Rebel hands would probably lead directly to the conquest of the rest of Loyalist Catalonia, a wiping out of the Madrid-Valencia area, the ultimate victory of Fascism in Spain.

Whether Barcelona fell or not, however, the Government had its last-ditch plans: The fight would continue in northern Catalonia. If that were taken, the Government would move back to southern Spain. If that, too, fell, if they lost Valencia and Madrid, the fight would still be continued underground.

The Cabinet declared martial law throughout Loyalist Spain. There was no panic as Rebel planes flew over Barcelona in almost continuous bombing raids (General Franco himself had a look at the city from the air and was shot at), as the city lived what might well be its last hours under the Spanish Republic. When a Loyalist squadron gave fight to Rebel attackers in a midday raid, the people ran out in the streets and cheered wildly. The rumble of Rebel artillery was distinctly heard. Until martial law was declared movies were still crowded, the opera was beginning another series. Evacuation of the civilian population northward began, the first to be transferred being children and prisoners. Some of the more valuable Government records were moved to Gerona, a city of 22,000 inhabitants 55 miles north of Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Generalissimo Franco set up a council to govern Barcelona Province when and if it were taken. He named the Count of Montseny Mila y Camps, a Catalan, as the council’s president. Reviewing the offensive before a meeting of his Ministers, the Generalissimo called upon all his Spaniards to contribute money for the reestablishment of normal conditions in the captured area.

Shy Loyalist General Vicente Rojo, Chief of Staff and Commander of the Catalonian Army, made his only public speech of the war: ”You can conquer more ground with material strength, but you cannot conquer the people. Even if you succeed in crushing us you could be sure that from the ruins of our cities and the bones of our dead there would rise the ideal of liberty and independence, which is fed by the blood of our soldiers.”