BATTLE FOR BRUNETE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 202, 27 July 1937, Page 7

BATTLE FOR BRUNETE.

VILLAGE A MASS OF RUINS. LONDON, July 26. The Times Barcelona correspondent say-i that Brunete, 18 miles west of Madrid, where the rebels and Loyalists fought desperately for possession is now the centre of a blood-drenched, fire-scorched no-man’s-laml. The village is a mass of smouldering ruins. A Madrid message states that the Government troops’ desperate resistance was carried out under a scorching sun. The troops were stripped to the waist and many, heedless of the risk discarded their steel helmets and wrapped handkerchiefs round their heads. . , Others wore smoked glasses and dhcarded their heavy boots for ropesoled shoes/improvising respirators with handkerchiefs because of the clouds of dust from the tanks and fumes from explosives. Lorries laden with beer and mineral waters and tank waggons with water ploughed

through the shell-riddled fields to quench the thirsts of the fighters. Despite tlieir enforced retreat the Government forces claim there is no panic. The resumption of air bombing bythe rebels supports the claim, that the rebels had captured Brunete. They employed sixty battalions, whose onslaught- was prepared by forty bombing ’planes and twenty batteries. The Daily Telegraph’s Madrid correspondent confirms the report that tlio Loyalists recaptured a portion of Brunete. With the co-operation of Italian troops the rebels are desperately attempting to regain entire possession. The insurgents are attacking Quijorna from north and south, and heavy fighting is taking place in the streets, states a Madrid message. Three thousand Loyalists threatened with isolation are in danger of being wiped out. An official report says that three rebel ’planes were shot down and three Germans who landed by parachutes were taken prisoners. They admitted they were ordered to Spain by their superiors and flew over France. A message *om Salamanca says the insurgents claim that they shot down fifteen republican ’planes attempting to bomb Salamanca.

REBELS HELD UP. LOYALISTS’ DESPERATE COURAGE. Received July 27, 12.5 p.m. • MADRID, July 26. General Franco’s' counter offensive, which was taxed to the full by the ejecting of the Loyalists from Brunete, is now at a standstill, at least temporarily, by the desperate courage with which the Loyalists are defending Villa Nueva de la Canada, hurling back one infantry attack after another. In the meanwhile, the main body of the Loyalists are digging-them-selves in in expectation of stiffening the defence by the arrival of reinforcements.