Hendaye, Mar. 16, Spanish Nationalist troops. threatening occupation, of Catatonia, to day slowed their' crushing offensive {to consolidate the 2,000 square miles of territory occupied in the past five Gays in one of the most devastating offensives of the entire Spanish civil war. The new. Nationalist. territory covers a triangle extending from Saragossa to Caspe and Montalban.
Republican troops meanwhile! sought {0 establish new defence Tines across the Ebro and Guadalupe Rivers, awaiting a renewal of the Nationalist drive on Barcelona.
Republican, reports said planes, tanks and reinforcements had reached the Alcaniz-Caspe front where they had succeeded in temporarily halting the Nationalist advance.
About 6,000 Republican troops were! reported to have been trapped within the new Nationalist triangle and. was believed they would soon be wiped out by Gen. Francisco Franco's mopping-up squads, To strengthen their own flanks, the Nationalists consolidated their right] wing by storming the last heights of the Sierra, San Just, dominating the Allaga region—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.