CLOSING ON CITY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 143, 13 March 1937, Page 11

CLOSING ON CITY

Insurgents Forty-two Miles From Madrid TWELVE-MILE FRONT Battalion of “Red Lions” Wiped Out UNIVERSITY CITY FIGHT By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, March 11. General Franco’s advance guard is now nine miles from Guadalajara, which is 33 miles E.N.E. of Madrid. The offensive has advanced in three days over 25 miles on a front of from nine to 12 miles.

The insurgents claim that in one sector yesterday they counted 400 Government dead. A Madrid battalion known as the Red Lions was scattered and almost wiped out.

* It is reported from Madrid that four Italian officers and 37 men who were captured during the Guadalajara fighting are being interrogated at the War Office.

Among important points reached by the insurgents is Brihuega, the key town to the Tajuna Valley, through which they will be able to cut the

Cuenca road, which, with the Valencia highway, represents Madrid’s lifeline to the coast. Government troops blew up. the School of Agriculture in the University City in Madrid by means of mines. Hand-to-hand fighting followed in the ruins.

Foreign journalists in Madrid were allowed to photograph captured Italians. When told that there was no cause for alarm, one of the prisoners said in Italian, “We are not Fascists.’ Two others gave the Communist closed fist salute. British Journalist Killed. Christopher St. John Sprigg, aged 28, a well-known British airman and journalist,' who went to Spain last December, was killed in fighting with the International Brigade in Madrid. He was the author of a number of flying and detective books, , and poems. Formerly he was editor of an aviation magazine. Tlie correspondent of the “Daily Mail” accompanying the insurgents in their offensive from Siguenza, in, which they have advanced 32} miles in three days, says that the fighting was S. lesson in mechanised warfare and infantry infiltration tactics. The Government forces left ’ only strong machine-gun posts to delay the advance, thereby playing into the hands of General Moscardo’s swiftly-moving troops advancing on the Aragon Road. The posts were speedily encircled, causing a retirement, in which the Government troops were plastered with fire from tlie insurgents’ machine-guns, artillery, and tanks.

1 .oyalist Counter-Attack. The insurgents, after driving a wedge between the Guadarrama Range and completing the capture of Brihuega, have dispatched two columns for the purpose of linking the advance through Guadarrama on one flank and the Toledo sector on the other. The insurgents have captured two villages six miles south of Brihuega. The Government claims that in a counter-attfick at dusk it regained ground lost on the Guadalajara front. ATTACK SPENDS ITSELF Reinforcements Thrown In By Government (Received March 13, 12.10 p.m.) London, March 12. The Madrid correspondent of “The Times” says heavy rain and a gale has slowed down the fighting on the Guadalajara front. The impetus of the insurgent attack seems momentarily to have spent itself, enabling the Government forces to throw iu strong reinforcements. It Is claimed that the advance definitely lias been checked on the main Madrid-Saragossa Road.

MAR CANTABRICO’S CARGO

Saint Jean de Luz, March 11. The munitions found on the captured steamer Mar Cantabrico included 1500 machine-guns, 625,000 belts of ammunition, 70 three-inch guns, 120,000 shells, and 200 flame-throwers.