LONDON -- Loyalist Spain was subjected today to the greatest concentrated bombardment of its principal cities since the civil war began, with hundreds killed and hundreds more wounded, United Press dispatches disclosed.
Irving B. Pflaum, United Press staff correspondent, telephoned an official announcement from Barcelona that 300 were killed and more than 700 wounded in air raids on that city and along the adjacent eastern coast.
Madrid and Valencia also were bombarded, the former by artillery and the latter by air.
The tanker Esturia radioed a report to the United Press in London that Valencia had been raided by airplanes and 500 children killed. The message said benzol storage tanks had been exploded and that the flames were visible for 50 miles.
A later dispatch from Madrid said the office of the defense ministry there had announced that Valencia had been bombed twice during the morning and that the material damage was great and the number of dead "extremely high."
The Barcelona air raid was the most severe the great Catalonian capital has yet experienced. An official statement estimated 100 civilians were killed and hundreds wounded in Barcelona alone.
Six Nationalist planes flew over the center of the city at about 10,000 feet dropping heavy bombs among the populace which crowded the streets in the midday sunshine.
The planes flew in a straight line and accomplished their deadly work wthin four minutes. Ambulances sceramed through the streets as the populace took to cover.
The Madrid shelling, by heavy artillery, was concentrated in the center of the city, around the Puerta del Sol and the Gran Via was feared casualties were heavy.
Projectiles fell at the rate of three a minute among people who were shopping and promenading in the mild, sunshine weather.
The central streets were soon empty as people scurried for cover, although some in the ration queues stood fast rather than lose their places. At 1 p. m. people began to venture forth again.
