While the main body of Nationalist troops arrived at a point two miles from the city, a powerful column, eleven miles' north, advanced 10% miles and crossed the mountains, seizing the port of Oropesa, the Nationalist claimed. This manoeuvre, they asserted, resulted in the trapping of between 3,000 and 6,000 Republicans in the "desert of palms" along the coast because the closed triangle would prevent them from escaping, They explained that the Nationalist lines from Castellon de la Plana to Albocacer and. to Torre Blanca form a triangle with the Republicans trapped in it, and thus even attempts to flee south would prove futile, Thousands of Republicans were reported to be surrendering because the heavy rains had forced them ta abandon their guns and ammunition, United Press,
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