Evening star., 1937-07-25
NEWSMAN FLEES
GUNS IN SPAIN
Surprised While Swimming,
He Escapes Clad Only in
Startled Expression.
BY CHARLES FOLTZ.

ON THE SPANISH NATIONALIST
FRONT (4D.-Surprise attacks on the
long Spanish front, where there's
plenty of room for surprises, have
caught many man In an embarrass-
ing position.
During the Bilbao offensive in
7urgent troops brought three Basque
nilitiamen into camp with their faces
covered with lather They'd been
,aught when the barber was at work
The barber was caught, too, and he
Glnished the Job before the quartet was
AIKEN to a prison camp. While he
vas at it he gave the three prison
laircuts.
In the Guadarramas a squadron
( Leftist sappers emerged from the
lnnel they were digging toward the
lsurgent lines to find that an in
Urgent surprise attack had changed
le geography of the front While they
ere underground.
Walked Into Circle of Foes.
They walked out into a circle of
rlnning Nationalist troops.
Then there was the surprise attack
n the Huesca front, when Catalonian
nllltiamen almost captured an in
urgent moving picture cameraman
nd an Associated Press correspondent
With nothing to clothe them but
tartled expressions.
For hours the cameraman and I
1ad been wandering along the insur-
ent front lines in the Huesca sector.
he sun was not and the trenches
vere dusty. Furthermore We were
red
Late in the afternoon we reached
ne ruins of an old mill, then a for
fled lnsurgent outpost. Next to the
nil the trenches were cut by a cool
mountain stream, and it was there
hat we forgot about the war.
Not shot had been fred all day
Iong, the officer in charge Of the posi-
ion told us. Matter of fact, there
lad been no action in that sector for
weeks. Swim? Porque no?
So the Spanish cameraman and I
stuck soldiers bayonet into the sand
oags OF the parapet, hung our clothes
on it and dove into the pool.
I'll match that swimmin' hole in
no-man's land against any OF the
swimming holes knew as kid
back home. True, it was between
The lines, but it could not be seen
from the Leftist advance posts and
was under the mu1zles of the machine
guns in the windows of the old mill.
Within five minutes the same SOL
diers who had laughed at us when
we decided to 60 swimming went
around to ask the lieutenant in COM
mand If they could 60 in too. The
lieutenant said mo-" and a few min
utes later we thanked him for it,
I was in midair in what I had
intended to be my amateur imitation
of swan dive from the edge OF the
old mills dam when the soldier in
the observation post shouted.
Bullets Hit Water.
When l came up to the surface
the Spanish cameraman was SWIM
ming for the bank. the machine guns
in the mill were splitting out bullets,
the riflemen were at their posts and
there were funny little "spats" against
the parapets that sent sand showering
down into the stream
I don't know what stroke used
on the way out, but I wish could
remember. 1t must have been a rec
ord breaker. The sprint was a good
one, too. 1t was only when we reached
the second Line of defense in a dead
heat that We realized we were both
stark naked and that our clothes had
been captured by the gentlemen from
That Leftist surprise attack was
successful. both in surprising us and
the insurgents and In taking the posi-
lion. We don't know who's wearing
DUR clothes now.
We conducted our own private sur
prise attack on the quartermaster's
supplies and went back to Huesca
dressed like Frances own soldiers.