The Washington times., 1936-08-05
ROYAL PALACE
IN VIEW FROM
THE FRONT
Knickerbocker Tells
Of Victories Over
Spanish Reds
BY Fl. r. KNICKERBOCKER
Copyright. 1885. by international
News Service)


News Service)
IN THE FRONT LINES WITH
THE INSURGENT ARMY IN COL
DE LEON OF THE GUADAR-
RAMA RANGE. 80 miles from
Madrid, Aug. 5.-Spain's white
army is hammering at the gates
of Madrid and today as we stood
on the battlefield of Guadarrama
we could see just 80 miles across
the plain the royal palace in a
capital now called Red.
We could see vagrant winds
blow away the smoke of shell and
aerial bombs, the smoke of forest
fires and the more sinister smoke
from the burning bodies Of
soldiers.
They are piled beside us on the
heights overlooking Madrid in
funeral ayres for incineration in
q conflict too savage to permit
time for ordinary burial.
War Ruthless
For this is a war of ruthless
ness as we learned today when
for hours we listened to the wall
of bullets clipping branches a few
feet above our machine-gun nest.
We learned it better when two
Madrid airplanes singled out our
automobile and swooping low,
raked us with machine-gun fire.
We learned it, too, as we wit
messed freshly captured prisoners
yammering with the fear OF
death.
But for sheer ferocity nothing
could equal the sight of the pulver-
lied remnants of a motor truck
down on the bend of road and
the tale the truck told us as we
leaned against parapet and
listened to General Ponte, the
Marquis of Boveda, commander in
chief of the Guadarrama front.
The Generals Story
The generals face was black
with gunpowder and three-day
beard. Bombing, a big gun and
the chatter of machine guns was
the accompaniment to his &C
count:
1Uu SCCs VIC hbu lISS w SaAS
the crest down there. There was
good omen, for at the very
peak is the Lion of Castillo.
80 we took the crest, but the
Reds knew they had to take 1t
back or lose Madrid. But they
couldn't come back up this road
after we had placed our artfl.
lery there by the Lion of Cas-
tile.
They tried another thing
that was remarkable. You see
there" He pointed with hand
that showed blOOdS:ains at
wide circle of black on the
asphalt road about a hundred
yards away with a twisted mass
of metal in the center of 1t.
AN ANXIOUS MOMENT
"That was a red motor truck.
They loaded it with dynamite,
took it around the curve, lash
ed the steering gear and sent
1t with nobody inside up this
road for the Lion Of Castillo,
with a time.fuse calculated to
detOnate the load and blow up
our entire battery when it
reached us.
That. / can tell you, was
an anxious moment.
1--WE fired point blank with
machine guns at that black
spot. 1t took twenty minutes
to finish exploding"
We reached the front at criti-
cal moment after six hours of hard
driving from Burgos, escorted by
Count De Alba De YelteS and Cap
tain Aguillero of the cavalry. at
tached to the staff of Gen. Emilio
Mola, commander-in-chief of the
White armies in the north.
Machine-gun fire ratified about
us as we drove to the village of
San Rafael. few miles back of
Col de Lion.
The village, for several days in
the hands of the whites. was be-
ing enfiladed by surprise attack
by the reds, who had slipped
around the mountains and come
up from Ell EScorial.
We crouched behind a stone
wall and watched the whites
cleanse the field with fountain
of machine-gun and rifle fire.
Reds Control Air
Half a dozen times the Madrid
plane. now reinforced by an
other. came over and drove the
whole army into the woods and
then went away to let us all
come out and then come again.
There is no question but that
the Whites control the land
strategically. There is no ques-
tion but that the Reds control
the air, at least on this northern
front.
No BurgoS planes appeared
to fight off the raiders, who ap-
peared to be laughing at their
helpless victims below.
Between the raids, Red and
White artillery never ceased blast
ing. A sharp summer storm
came up and natures thunder
Joined that of man while the
flash of exploding shells showed
weakly against that jagged light
ming and the smoke of forest
fires curled amidst the rain.