Not East or West but up in the air moved the focus of Spain's war last week. General Mola's land attack on Bilbao was temporarily halted after a bloody hand-to-hand with rifle butts and knives. Comparatively quiet too were all the other fronts. But overhead hell was popping. The week started with the shooting down, by Rightists near Bilbao, of a French transport plane carrying passengers from Biarritz to the besieged city. France had little cause for complaint. The transport, owned by the Air Pyrenees Line, had been running the blockade for weeks trusting to its top speed of 230 m.p.h. and the pilot's ability to dive into clouds to get it past the Rightists, who had given official warning time & again.
Bleeding from a head wound Pilot Leopold Galli, onetime first-string pilot in the French Air Corps, described how five Rebel pursuit ships dived at him as he approached Bilbao along the coastline at about 600 ft. Their bullets halted his port engine, wounded pilot and a woman passenger. Not pausing to let down his wheels, he dove for a pancake landing in a field.
U. S. Socialist Norman Thomas, visiting Valencia, heard only one shot fired during several hours at the Teruel front trenches. But off the sea just before one dawn came a droning V of Rightist planes. Ninety bombs whistled down in Valencia's worst air raid to date. At least 200 people were killed, about 50 buildings destroyed. Uninjured but considerably ruffled, Socialist Thomas cried: "It was diabolical. I shall take a first-hand report of this to President Roosevelt." Lucky was the little British freighter Pinzon, at anchor in Valencia harbor. A bomb dropped full on her bridge but failed to explode.
Next it was Barcelona's turn. Scorning Catalan anti-aircraft batteries, seven Rightist planes circled over the city for 30 minutes, killed approximately 70 people then roared back toward Mallorca. Following Geneva's lead (see p. 18) Leftists promptly asserted that both raids had been made entirely by Italian planes.
Suddenly vitally important became Spain's Balearic Islands, strung out in the Mediterranean about 90 miles off the coastline from Valencia to Barcelona. Of the three largest Balearics, the two westerly ones, Iviza and Mallorca, have been held by the Rightists. Mallorca, with its deep harbor of Palma, has been a main base, especially for sir, of the Italian expeditionary forces. Minorca, the most easterly island, held by Leftists, momentarily expected to be raided last week after the bombing of Valencia and Barcelona.
Instead, retaliatory raids by Leftists from the mainland came first. A squadron had already bombed Palma, damaged an Italian ship, killing six officers. A new raid on Palma came in from a different angle, flying high over Iviza.
By agreement with the Non-intervention Committee, the portion of the Spanish coast that includes the Balearic Islands was to be patrolled by the French navy. By the same agreement all warships on patrol were to remain at least ten miles offshore, though there was no stipulation to prevent patrol ships of any country from entering any Spanish harbor when off duty. At anchor last week in Iviza harbor lay the pride of the German Navy, the 10,000-ton "pocket battleship" Deutschland.