"Battle of Hand Grenades"
North of Castellon Kills Large Numbers Hendaye, Apr. 28.
The 22nd Republican Brigade was annihilated today in a "battle of hand grenades" north of Castellon de la Plana, Nationalist headquarters claimed.
Resorting to hand grenades because poor visibility and low clouds prevented the use of artillery or aviation forces, the Nationalists met a furious Republican attack with the hand bombs and forced a rout.
Going over the top in an effort to break through the Nationalist lines, the Republicans met with such intense machine-gun fire and hand-grenade explosions that most of the men were Killed or wounded, the Nationalists səid. Nationalists claimed to have killed over 600 Republicans and captured 200.
Meanwhile, Nationalist warships, taking advantage of clear weather along the Mediterranean coast, furiously bombarded Republican coastal forts. The Nationalists said they shattered numerous Republican defence works along the coast and disrupted communications along the railroad and highway.
Concentrating withering fire on the spot where the coastal highway crosses the railway between Alcala de Chisbert and Alco Cebre, the Nationalists claimed to have forced the Republicans to abandon their positions there and leave a corps of tanks, accompanied by an armored car.
Republican prisoners, Nationalists said, reported that between 30,000 and 46,000 reinforcements were rushed to the Castellon front, They estimated that one-third of the entire Republican army in central Spain was concentrated between the Teruel sec-for and the sea coast, Nationalists said—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.