Evening star., 1936-09-29
BY RICHARD G. MASSOCK.
tCopyrtght. 1885. by the Associated Press.)
TAIAVERA DE LA REINA Snain.

tCopyright. 1885. by the Associated Press.)
TALAVERA DE LA REINA Spain,
September 29.-Gaunt prisoners OF
the Alcazar came out of Toledo today
to tell epic stories of wholesale death
and prophetic" birth.
They said virtually all the priests
In the city-numbering 600-were
slain in a reign of leftist terror that
preceded the fall of Toledo to the
insurgent armies.
They told how, within the Alcazar's
ruins, the birth of two babies was re-
garded as an omen of their deliver
ance.
Starved, strangely waxen, emaciat-
ed, they related how they lived on
black bread, on horse meat, on hope.
They declared that to the other
horrors of their 72-day siege was add
ed an assault by poison gas.
Only so Slain.
The Fascist survivors confirmed off,
cial insurgent figures which stated only
about 80 of their number were slain
and 500 wounded. These figures
placed the total in the Alcazar at l 200,
although previous reports have made
it 1,7OO. Even today some unofficial
estimates said 10 per cent OF the total
was killed or wounded, but this was
not confirmed,
The women and children all escaped
injury, these survivors said, but their
living quarters could have held out
but two more days.
In the looting and killing which
ragged while the guns of insurgent at
tacks doomed outside the city gate all
the priests in the Toledo Cathedral
were executed, save one, who was cele-
brating mass in an underground
chapel, the Fascists said.
Everything was destroyed around
the Alcazar," declared one of those
who resisted government attacks on
the historic fortress.
He said the leader of Toledo Fas-
cists was one of the victims of the
deadly barrage of dynamite, gasoline
ana shells which rained into the in
surgent haven.
Thousands of Shells Landed.
Indicative of the tremendous So
cialist assault on the AlcaZar was a
detailed record kept by occupants, who
counted shells and other missiles used
in the bombardment.
The record shown to me by sur
vivor listed these items:
Shells landed, 11,200; aviation at
tacks, 80; explosive missiles used, 1,500
hand grenades. 1000 dynamite bombs,
600 aerial bombs, 35 gasoline tanks
thrown from airplanes, 200 bottles of
inf1ammable liquid.
The record also said the highest
number of artillery shells loosed
against the besieged fortress in one
day was 472.
Three of the imprisoned Fas-
cists committed suicide and five died
natural deaths, the list claimed. Fiji
ty-seven insurgents inside the Alcazar
disappeared by explosions" and 80
others deserted or unaccountably dis
appeared.
Government forces lost 500 soldiers
In the whitening steel barrage which
swept through the streets of the war
battered former capital of Spain. One
Fascist bomb, survivors asserted, killed
40 Socialist militiamen and wounded
80 others.
Capture at Desperate Moment.
Capture of Toledo, often called the
"Rome of Spain" because of the large
number of priests living and studying
in the city, came at desperate mo-
ment for the self-imprisoned Fascists
In the Alcazar.
"Only courage inspired by radio re-
ports that our soldiers were advanc-
ing to save us, and food dropped from
planes, kept us going" asserted
survivor who had spent u days in
side the fortress walls.
In one wing of the Alcazar, he said,
700 survivors huddled together await
ing liberation by the forces of Gen.
Francisco Franco, leader of the rebel
lion against the Madrid government
Women and children first was the
rule when the food was rationed out"
this survivor told me. Cali the flour.
sardines and condensed milk dropped
by the planes from our army was given
to them.
Bread From Stale Grain.
1.-THE 600 fighting men defending
the grim old building against the So
cialists subsisted on bread baked from
-four ground out in primitive hand
mills from stale stocks Of grain.
"All the men came out of the Alca-
Ear with their bodies wasted by starva-
tion. Each person had only quart
of drinking water every day"
Many of the survivors were near
(See SPAIN, Page A-2)