Castro Rebels Beat Troops in Battle, New Yorker, Back From Visit Says

By Homer Bigart

 Cuban government forces penatrated within a half day’s march of Fidel Castro’s rebel base in the Sierra Maestra last week but were halted with heavy casualties, according to Morton Silverstein, a New York television producer. Mr. Silverstein returned Tuesday from the Castro camp in Eastern Cuba.
 The battle described as the most crucial of the twenty-month-old campaign in the mountains of Oriente province, was still continuing when Mr. Silverstein left the rebel headquarters July 4, he said.
 The fight started June 28 when the rebels started a counter-offensive against two Cuban Army battalions that had reached the villages of Las Vegas and Santo Domingo and were about seven miles of the rebel base.
 Señor Castro sketched a crude map for Mr. Silverstein explaining the rebel deployment. The commander had sent rebel bands in an enveloping move against the left flank of the Government forces. As usual, the rebels marched along the forested crests of the steep mountain ridges.

 Rebels Identify Army Unit

 After two days of fighting Señor Castro claimed success. He told Mr. Silverstein that his men had killed thirty-six soldiers, wounded fifty and seized twenty-eight prisoners.
 Señor Castro further said that his troops had routed that he identified as the Twenty-second Battalion abandoned large quantities of arms, including mortars, light machine-guns and automatic rifles, Mr. Silverstein quoted the rebel commander as saying.
 The youthful rebel leader said that, despite daily bombing by Government planes, his forces lost only one man killed after three days of fighting.
 But the Eleventh Battalion of the Cuban Army was still in position when Mr. Silverstein took leave of the rebel leader. Señor Castro said that his battalion, led by Col. Sancho Masqueda [Lt. Col. Angel Sanchez Mosquera], was hard pressed and had suffered severe casualties, Mr. Silverstein reported. Drenching rains, the heaviest in a month slowed the action on July 3.
 The rebels carried loudspeakers to the battle area and regaled the Government forces with rebel anthems, according to Mr. Silverstein.
 He said Señor Castro was elated over the capture of army papers showing the table of organization of government columns opposing the rebels. These papers, said to have been found on the body of a Cuban Army captain killed in the fighting, gave the strength of each army unit in the area. They also provided the Army Commands code numbers for the zones into which it divided the Sierra for operations.

 Shift from Guerrilla Tactics

 Señor Castro told Mr. Silverstein that this battle was the first in which his men had attacked a superior force from fixed positions. Previously, the rebels had employed only classic guerilla tactics of ambuscade and hit and run sniping.
 Mr. Silverstein said that Señor Castro belittled the fight qualities of the Cuban Army. Señor Castro had told him that the Government troops were composed mainly of ill-trained teenagers.
 Mr. Silverstein said he talked with several prisoners who told him they had joined the army because they had no work. They said that they had been assured by the army officials that, although they would be stationed on the Oriente Province, the would not have to go into the mountains.
 It was early July 2 when Fidel Castro received first reports of the capture of American citizens by the rebel column led by his younger brother Raul, in Eastern Oriente, according to Mr. Silverstein. The first captives, a group of United States and Canadian mining men, were kidnapped from their Moa Bay plant June 26-27.
 Fidel Castro left the battlefield and returned to his headquarters, Mr. Silverstein said. On the previous night, rebel headquarters personnel had learned of the kidnapping incident from Havana radio broadcasts.
 Señor Castro summoned Mr. Silverstein and said he had no personal knowledge of the kidnappings. Mr. Silverstein said he was convinced of Señor Castro’s sincerity.
 “He called me into his room and said he had a very important story,” Mr Silverstein said. “He told me he wanted me to get in touch with New York and say that he was immediately ordering the release of the Americans, even though he did not know all the facts-he had no direct communication with his brother.
 “At the radio shack he wrote out his message in Spanish. A translator put it in English for me.”
 Mr. Silverstein said that Fidel Castro no only broadcast an order for the release of the Americans but also sent a courier to Raul with written orders.