Barcelona Horrors

Twelve years ago air force chiefs throughout the world were gripped, fascinated by Mastery of the Air, a book by Italian General of Aviation Giulio Douhet. He has since died, but Mastery of the Air has become the standard text of thousands of young air officers in every land who hold with what is called "the Douhet theory." In effect this teaches that the civilian population of an attacked country, their homes, shops and municipal services, have become main military objectives of today--since aviation now permits an invading army to wage much of the war behind the enemy's lines, crack morale, force surrender. In Spain, Douhet disciples point out, the use by aircraft of poison sprays and bombs (which was decisive in Ethiopia) has virtually not been tried, and this was still true last week as modified Douhet methods suddenly subjected Barcelona, the largest and wealthiest Spanish city and the country's greatest industrial metropolis, to day after day of the heaviest, most destructive, most deadly bombing ever achieved.

Italian Savoia-Marchetti bombers and German Junkers, with Italian, German and Spanish crews, appeared over Barcelona at altitudes of some 16,000 feet. They were thus nearly invisible, could be only faintly heard, and their bombs were preceded by no warning scream, such as an artillery shell gives. There was just a "swiss" and instantaneously thereafter the crash of 600 pounds of bomb tearing down through floor after floor of a building by its own weight, then the dull, shuddering, colossal detonation from the cellar. In accordance with Douhet, the objective was considered to be the whole city: the shattering of the morale of its people and the Leftist Government. Thus no particular targets were aimed at and every quarter of Barcelona, slums, palatial avenues, business quarters and parks, received the bombs.

Don't Want To Die. Famed correspondents with the Leftists, such as New York Timesman Herbert L. Matthews, who have kept cabling during the 20 months of the civil war that bombs only temper the morale of the people and spur them to greater resistance, last week reported new facts.

"We are all going to be killed--all,'' wailed Mr. Matthews' hotel chambermaid, after living through the first twelve air raids in barely 24 hours. A Barcelona drugstore clerk from whom Mr. Matthews was buying medicine for a headache, sighed: "Oh, for a plane to fly to France! I don't want to die."

Lampposts were blown down, trees uprooted and their greenery set afire, buildings collapsed and streetcars & their occupants were blown to bits. Correspondent Matthews set about getting something to eat during a lull between raids, continued to observe morale in the restaurant. "I did not find it amusing," he cabled afterward, ''to see a great hulking fellow who was eating with his girl jump up and beat her to the kitchen by three strides as the next raid began."

In general everyone tried to get as far back from the streets as possible, hoping a direct hit would not get them in the kitchen or other back rooms. For the first time since the war began, veteran correspondents in the lobbies of their favorite hotels joined repeatedly in mad, trampling scrambles into back rooms. A direct hit on the Hotel Ritz destroyed the ballroom at one blast. No guest was killed by this bomb, among those who escaped being young Bill Rogers, son of the late great Will.

"Of course it is effective," cabled Matthews of the bombing. "Human beings are not built to withstand such horror . . . makes one either hysterical or on the verge of hysteria . . . hard to remain sane."

United Press vouched for this: "A bus driver was blown out of his seat by the concussion of a bomb. His lifeless hands still gripped the steering wheel."

Refugees and Grandees. Terrified Leftist citizens who made their way to the French frontier, hoping to be permitted to leave Spain, were being turned back meanwhile by Leftist guards. Perhaps because Anarchists were thought to have the best stomach for such work, the Barcelona Government sent the recently jailed Anarchist leaders, Rosique and Cot, up to the French frontier to hold it against all refugees. Meanwhile, the bombers over Barcelona began dropping leaflets: "SURRENDER, OR PERISH!"

Barcelona had definitely become too hot at last for two grandees of Spain, the Marquis de Urquijo and the Duke of Saragossa, who found themselves in Madrid on the day the war began, have since been living expensively but safely in embassy and consular premises of the French Popular Front Government. Into Barcelona harbor suddenly steamed last week two French warships, the Epervier and La Palme. These took off the Marquis de Urquijo, the Duke of Saragossa and 510 other Spanish Rightists, many robust young men of aristocratic Spanish families who appear to have been living like fighting cocks, despite the acute food shortage in Leftist Spain. With typical Spanish braggadocio they announced, on landing in France, that they were at once proceeding by rail to Rightist Spain to enlist under General Franco.

Protests. The texts of British and French remonstrances with the Spanish Rightists this week over the Douhetting of Barcelona were kept secret at London and Paris, but Secretary of State Cordell Hull blazed at Washington: "No theory of war can justify such conduct. . . . I feel that I am speaking for the whole American people!"

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