Evening star., 1938-04-07
j. S. DEAD IN SPAIN
PUT IN THOUSANDS
BY WAR SURVIVOR
Only Few Hundred Left of
Big Battalion, He Says
in France.
BELCHlTE AND GANDESA
FIGHTS SLASHED FORCE
Washington and Lincoln Nearly
Wiped 0ut-Quick End to
Conflict Seen.
BY HENRY c. CASSIDY.

Associated Press FOfelPn CORRESPONDENT.
PERPIGNAN, France. April IA
Californian who had acted as political
commissar for the Washington and
Lincoln Battalion of one of the Span
ish governments International Brig
AIDES, reached France today with
story of death among his American
comrades.
John G. Honeycombe, 81. of Los
Angeles, said only a few hundred out
of several thousand Americans who
had fought since the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War as volunteers for
the government were still alive.
Tattered and hungry. Honeycombe
crossed the frontier after what he
called the Gandesa collapse" in
which $50 Americans of the Washing
ton and Lincoln Battalion were caught
in the path of Generalissimo Fran
cisco Franco's offensive.
Gandesa Fell Saturday.
Gandesa fell last Saturday to the in
surgent push toward Mediterranean.
The Californian said the old WASH
ington Battalion was almost wiped out
before Belchite, southeast of Zaragoza
where the insurgents march to the sea
started nearly four weeks ago.
Those that remained. he said, were
incorporated in the Lincoln Battalion,
and Franco finished the job at Gam
desa."
Il remember The last thing my wife
said to me when l left her and my g.
year-old kid in Los Angeles" Honey
combe mused. you'll regret the day
you left for Spain She was right
AS political commis-ar, Honeycombe,
who said he once worked in the Amer
lean Communist Party in California.
was left in charge of the battalion
when its commander was killed in
Gandesa.
This cannot last" he said. Il have
seen more than 200 planes at one time
bombing and strafing our lines. That
man Franco has everything The
Spaniards don't want to fight. They
have nothing to fight with. They are
finished"
Used Old Passport.
Honeycombe used an American sea-
mans passport, dated several years
ago, to cross the border into France
from Northeastern Spain. Il guess
they couldn't read he commented.
He still wore khaki uniform. Rips
In the trousers showed shrapnel
wounds he received in the action at
Belchite last month.
They rushed us to the Gandesa
sector from Bclcite just in time to get
the full force of the offensive April
l." he related 1T was horrible. The
whole Republican line-those that
were left of us-just cracked and ran"
1t took HIM iour or five days of
hitch-hiking and walking to reach the
French frontier, Honeycombe said
I'VE Americans were surrounded by
Fascist infantry IA kilometers (about
miles west of Gandesa. but a few
Of us found our way out 1 saw only
% men, besides myself, escaping out
Of the $50"
$50 Arrived 40 Days Ago.
Honeycombe said the last American
volunteers to arrive in government
Spain were $50 who came 40 days
ago, They were given one week of
training at a camp near Albacete,
65 miles southwest of Valencia
That crowd moved up to the
Gandesa sector and we're almost wiped
out in the first BATTLE he went on.
They paid us pesetas (about 40
cents day but most of us came
to Spain to fight for ideals.
That's what I came for, but when
you see boys you have worked and
played with being slaughtered it
shakes your ideals"
Accompanied Six to Spain.
Honeycombe said he came to Spain
August IA with six other volunteers
but that only two of the group still
llved-he and Alonzo Prowell of Los
Angeles. The Californian listed the
others:
Fritz Orton of San Francisco, killed
at Gandesa last Monday.
Peter Antheros of New York City
killed at Belchite.
A man named Manning of Seattle,
killed at Belchite.
man named Lightner of Lexing-
ton KY; killed at Celadas.
A man named Mosher of Mime
apolis, missing in action at Belchite.
Honeycombe told his story, then left
Tor Marseille, where he said he would
try to get job on the first boat re-
turning to the United States.