Evening star., 1937-12-24
BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY.

TIERS, Teruel front (by courier to
MadridD, Dec. % (by wireless to MA.
Naive lay on top of ridge with
line of Spanish infantry under heavy
machine gun and rifle fire. 1t was so
heavy that if you had lifted your head
out Of the gravel you would have dug
your chin into one of the little unseen
things that made the stream of kissing,
whisper sounds that flowed over you
after the pop-pop-pop of the machine
guns on the next ridge beyond would
have lifted the top of your head off.
You knew this because you had seen
1t happen.
On our left, an attack was starting
The men, bent double, their bayonets
fixed, were advancing in the awkward
first gallop that steadies into the heavy
climb of an uphill assault. Two men
were hit and left the line One had
the surprised look of a man first
wounded who does not realize the thing
can do this damage and not hurt. The
other knew he had it very bad. All I
wanted was a spade to make a little
mound to get my head under But
there weren't any spades within crawl
ing distance
On our right was the great yellow
mass Of the Mansueto, the natural
battleship-shaped fortress that defends
Ieruel. Behind us the Spanish gov
eminent artillery were firing, and, after
the crack, came the noise like tearing
silk and then the sudden spouting black
geysers of high explosive shells pound
ing at the earth-scarred Notifications
Of Mansueto.
Fine View From Ridge.
The amount of fire we were draw.
ing being mcommensurate with the
view, we broke for the ridge where
the advanced positions of the center
were. In little while, it was not a
nice place to be either, although the
view was splendid.
suddenly we heard cheering and
could see the Fascists running from
their first line. They ran in the leap
ing, plunging gait that is not panic
out retreat, and to cover that re-
treat their further machine gun posts
suffered our ridge with fire. Then I'D
tne rldge we saw government troops
advancing steadily. It went on like
that all day and by nighttime we were
kllometers beyond where the first
attack had started.
Durlng the day We watched govern
ment troops scale the heights of Man
sueto. We saw the armored cars 90
with troops to attack a fortified farm.
mouse a hundred yards from us, the
cars lying alongside the house and
whang, whang, whanging into the
windows while the infantry -ducked
INTO it with hand grenades.
No smoke blew that day. After the
Arctic cold, the blizzard and the gale
that blew for five days, this was In
dian summer weather and shell bursts
lowered straight up and slowly sank.
And all day long the troops attacked,
held, attacked again
In the late evening the sky had
been full of government planes, the
chasers seeming to turn and dart like
swallows, and, while we watched their
delicate precision through our glasses,
hoping to see an air fight, two trucks
came noising up and stopped, drop
ping their tailboards to discharge a
company of kids who acted as though
they were going to a football game
1t was only when you saw their belts
with Is bomb pouches and the two
sacks each wore that you realized
what they were, "dynamiters 30
Praise for Dynamiters.'
The captain said, these are very
good. You watch when they attack
the town" So, in the short afterglow
of the setting sun, with all around the
town the flashing Of the guns, yellower
than trolley sparks but as sudden, we
saw these kids deploy 100 yards from
chine gun and automatic rifle fire,
slip quietly up the last slope to the
towns edge. They hesitated a mo-
ment behind wall, then came the
red and black flash and roar of the
bombs, and over the wall and into the
town they went
How would it be to follow them
into the town." I asked the colonel.
Excellent" he said, "a marvellous
project" We started down the road,
but now it was getting dark. Two Off
GERS came up, checking on scattered
units, and we told them we would stay
with them because, in the dark, people
might shoot hastily and the counter
sign had not yet arrived 1t was
peaceful-feeling night and all the
noises seemed incongruous.
In town, the population all en-
braced us, gave us wine, asked us if
we didn't know their brother, uncle
or cousin in Barcelona, and it was all
very fine. We had never received the
surrender of a town before and we
were the only civilians in the place I
wonder who they thought we we're?
Tom Delmer, London newspaper cor
respondent, looks like bishop; Her.
bert L. Matthews of the New York
Times like Savonarola and I like, say,
Wallace Beery three years back, so
they must have thought the new
regime would be, say, complicated.
Said Town Not Bombed.
But they said we were what they
had been waiting for. They said they
had stayed in the cellars and caves
when the oSfer from the government
came to evacuate because the Fascists
would not let them leave. Also they
said the government did not bomb
the town, only military objectives.
They said this, not me.
After reading in papers just received
in Madrid from New York, still in the
car, about Gen. Franco giving the gov
ernment five days to surrender before
starting the final triumphal offensive,
1t seemed just little incongruous
that we should be walking into Teruel
that great rebel strongpoint from
which they were to drive to the sea.