Hendaye, June 13.
In a speedy encircling manœuvre, the Nationalists today captured Cas-fellen de la Plana and Port Elgrao, closing the bottle-neck and trapping thousands of Republicans by cutting off their escape toward Sagunto along. the highway leading to Valencia, the Nationalist Headquarters at Burgos officially announced today.
Neutral observers, however, believed that Gen. Jose Miaja, leader of the Madrid Defence Junta, had moved at least 10,000 men outside the Nationalist lines prior to the closure of the only route to safety, After meeting with resistance yesterday from "suicide squads" who kept the advancing units at bay with furious sniping, the Nationalists an= nounced that they had completely occupied Castellon de la Plana at 745 pan.
The Navarese and Galician divisions sloshed through the streets in a driving rain in taking the city.
Civilians "Greet" Conquerors Because of the speed with which the Nationalist troops captured the city, most of the civilians remained in Castellon de la Plana and "enthusiastically greeted" the Nationalists, the Burgos headquarters announced.
The Nationalists also claimed to have cut the Republican communication lines at Villa Real.
Meanwhile, fleets of bombers at-tecked the coastal cities all the way to Alicante in an effort to shatter the morale of the defending Republican forces.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.