The Washington times., 1936-09-30
CROSS PINNED
0NLEADERBY
FRANCO
Dungeons Yield l,1OO
Men, 500 Women,
and SO Children


BY H. r. KNICKERBOCKER
Copyright, 1886. by International
News service)
WITH GEN. FRANCIS
FRANCO AT TOLEDO, Sept. 80,
The Alcazar is won and the Span.
ish civil war has created q new
dictator in Europe.
No power Of Madrid can now
check the onward sweep Of Gen.
eral Frances forces and no com,
petitor can challenge his victorious
leadership.
Politics has nothing to do with
the fact that so children, 500
women, and LOO men who came
up from the dungeons of the Alca-
Ear today to greet General Franco
as he marched into Toledo are
among the heroes of all history.
Record Unparalleled
Nothing in modern times can
compare with their II days de-
Tense except Verdun, and there the
forces were equal.
Here 1,100 combatantS fought
off reds ranging from 10000 to
10000 in number and lived on
mule and horse meat, a tiny ra-
ton of bread, and a quart Of water
apiece daily.
Not all of them came up when
General Franco arrived. Some
were too dazed to move. All we're
dizzy, and few could understand
they were free.
They had done nothing but
fight for II days and couldn't t
quit. The men kept fumbling with
machine guns and rifles and gaz-
ing over the deSolate ruins for an
absent enemy.
We came to Toledo with General
Franco through streets only par
TALLY cleared of the piles of dead.
Fortress In Ruins
The Alcazar used to occupy
more than a city block, but today
all that is left is the nubbin of the
fortress, about quarter of a city
block in size. Around this nubbin
there is a band about 300 yards
wide, corpse se-Strewn ruin.
To enter the fortress we had to
climb 10 minutes up literal
mountain of shell-torn bricks, NOR
tar, and stones.
At each step soldiers warned us
to avoid uneXploded hand gren-
ades, which nobody yet dares to
touch.
Into the center of the court we
followed General Franco. Heaped
in piles 20 and 40 feet high in
the court were the ruins of what
had been one of the most beauti-
full patioS in Spain.
It was difficult for the general
to pick his way up and down these
mountains of debris to the place
where, beneath a vault, the de-
tenders waited for him.
General Franco paused to salute
the orange and gold flag of
nationalist Spain nailed to the
highest point of the ruins. The
flag had just been put up, for
every time previously the Reds
had shot it away.
We gaZed in aStonishment at
the crowd of rugged vagrants
who, ignoring the generals high
position, came rushing out of the
dark holes in the ground and
threw themselves at him, embrac.
ing him with dirty, ragged arms
and putting against his cheek
their own bearded, earthen-colored
faces.
Too Tense For Cheers
Their conplexionS were like
wet green clay, their clothing was
in tatters, their stomachs pro
truded, and their hands shook as
though with palsy.
There was little or no cheering
The moment was too profound fol
words.
General Franco and Gen. Jose
Varela said nothing for a long
time. They only embraced one
after another the ragged men anc
women.
Then a tall, bearded man
stopped and paler than the aver
age, stepped forward and Genera
Franco said:
"COl. Jose MOScard0, hereby
confer upon you the Cross of
San Fernando, and upon the
whole company, Spain's great
est heroes, the same cross col.
lectively."
The Cross of San Fernando is
Spain'S victoria Cross, and
Colonel Moscardo was the com
mander of the Alcazar's de
tenders.
THE dogs!" suddenly cried the
high voice of a little old man
his face as white as a sheet, SO