The Washington times., 1936-10-03
FLAMING IRUN
IS DESCRIBED
BY WRITER
Reds Burn City, Block
BY Block, Hold
Insurqents Out


the Wnr logs sent from the
Spanish battlefront by H. r.
Knickerbocker, famous roUing
correspondent OF international
Ne1DS SerUice.
BY H. r. KNICKERBOCKER
Copyright. 1885, by international
News Service)
IRUN, Oct. 3 QN.SO-When
we crossed the French border into
Irun we could see the town burn
ing. I never saw a whole city burn
before. Vast black billows of
smoke obScured the horizon but
every now and then a great sheet
of flame broke through, and the
crackle of cartridges going off told
us the fire had reached an ammu-
milton dump.
We stopped at Vera, a tiny little
Spanish village, to have breakfast
at dawn. I studied the map as we
drank some vile coffee and pushed
away two very bad boiled eggs.
My maps are wearing out. I am
using the detailed Michelin maps
OF Spain, set of 10 for motor.
lists. They are so good that half
the staff officers are using them
to fight the war. Anybody who
wishes to follow the war from
abroad should get a set of them.
Guards Change Sides
About 10 o'clock we finally got
our party together and moved
along the road to Irun. First we
stopped at little group of women
and children, the families of 20
civil guards who at the last mo.
ment came over to the whites. The
whites welcomed them, but thought
it was pretty late in the day to
change sides, so put the civil
guards into the front line of as
Sault. They are said to have done
a good job.
A little further along a road
that was Uttered with junk we
passed burned out brewery.
Thousands of bottles, smashed.
cracked and whole, lay about. A
soldier offered us a bottle of beer.
We took it out of politeness and
dropped it tactfully around the
corner. Warm beer in the morn
ing is not what we ordered.
Then came a match factory, still
blazing, but not much left. That
must have been a fine sight when
it started.
Just beyond we stopped beside a
field gun firing at a big white
house on the outskirts of Irun.
They said there was a party of
anarchists still holding out there.
They could have held out forever
if they had nothing but this field
gun. We watched her fire at least
20 times.
Poor artillery
The target was literally big as
a barn and not more than $50
yards away but the shots went
over or under every time. This,
the worried young artillery lieuten-
ant explained, was because his
packets of gun cotton were so
badly weighed out that he never
could tell exactly how far each
shot would carry. We left him
vainly popping away and got right
on up with the first wave of troops
about to enter the town for the
first time.
They could not get in because
the reds had turned the streets
into blazing inferno which no
body could pass. They certainly
did a systematic job. They went
down street after street pouring
cans of gasoline into the basement
Of each house, then touching off
the whole thing, block at time.
It was still much too hot for
comfort when we fell in behind a
line of troops going up the street
in a single file. Every now and
then a blazing timber would fall
and crackle across our path and
verybody would Jump. We
reached the main public square,
now charred and Smouldering
braZier.
A company Of phalangiSts in
their blue uniforms came I'D and
another company of requetes in
their red berets. We offered to
photograph them and both cap
tains were as pleased as they could
be.