Imperial Valley press., 1937-04-27
News Behind the News
Mostly Psychological Lessons Moth
ing Neu Learned From Spain {.
At Least in Field of Weapons

WASHINGTON-The chief lessons our own
military experts have learned from the warfare
in Spain have to do with psychology and morale
Although it has sometimes been said that
Spain has become proving ground for the ar
mics of the world and their weapons of death
army officers here say little if anything new has
been learned about those weapons or their
relative effectiveness. ,.f....
But it has demonstrated at Madrid that ter
rifle bombardmentS from the air do not neces-
sarily demoralize a civilian population, even If
carried on for months On the contrary, it is
pointed out informally at the War Department,
bombardment appears to have Stlffened the
morale of the Madrid population by intensity
ing the anger OF the people.
Madrid is the first large city ever to sustain
such severe attack from the air and 1t was
never possible to be sure as to these points be-
fore The effect might have been different
had the poison gas bombs been dropped, but
the experts here say poison gas Is not very effec-
tive in city, that it is hard for planes to
achieve concentration in gas bombardment and
that it is relatively easy for citizens of city to
protect themselves from gas. These considera-
tions, rather than any of humanity, are believed
to explain the failure to drop gas on Madrid
On the other hand the apparently low NOR
ale of Italian troops in Spain when under severe
attack has also impressed American military
strategists. It is believed that Mussolini failed
to .'whoop them up" with the proper amount OF
emotion and war hysteria, that they found
themselves on foreign soil without conviction
that they were flg0JlnS LOT nOly CduSe VI dIIS
sort and that this lack of a proper admixture
of bitterness, zeal and patriotism helps explain
their willingness to retreat when fighting be-
came fierce
The Spanish loyalist troops, on the other
hand have been imbued with hatred and the
conviction that they were fighting for their
lives, home and freedom against an invader.
Stressing the fact that the Spanish war
would be much more instructive if one strong
power were fighting another and each was using
its best men and materials general staff officers
nevertheless are inSistent that it has demon
strated their contention that airpaneS, tanks
artillery machine guns and all new or improved
wrinkles of warfare simply auxiliarieS TO
infantry. No territory or strategic point can be
captured or held without an adequate force
of infantry, they point out and the Spanish
war has shown no change in infantry tactics.
Mechanized units, meaning tanks or other armed
and armored vehicles, are said not to have prov
ed especially effective, although they're far
speedier and more deadly than they were in the
World War
Italian bombers have been conspicuous, but
Russian pursuit planes have done the most out
standing work. The latter appear to be COM
bination of pursuit and attack plane Hedge
hopping and spraying ground troops with ma
chine gun fire, they have proved that this
method of warfare can be extremely effective
either in delaying reinforcements or in actual
attack when supported by infantry.
Also noteworthy, according to our army men,
are the Spanish governments 20 millimeter
machine guns which can fire, 200 shots min
ute and are said TO be capable of penetrating
tanks.