ITALIAN TROOPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 20

ITALIAN TROOPS

CAPTURED COMPANY

Forty-one survivors of a company of "lost; Italians," trapped by loyalist troops after they had wandered through the hills north of Madrid, fighting their' own men, recently revealed that four divisions of crack Italian troops are spearheading the insurgent drive on the Spanish, capital, says a United Press message to the "Sari Francisco Chronicle."

The Italians, frightened and near exhaustion, sprawled on mattresses in a stone dungeon as they told how they had.been sent out of Italy, supposedly bound for Ethiopia, only to find themselves fighting with rebel armies in Spain's bloody civil war. They said they were part of 30,000 Italian troops, many of them blackshirted Fascists, fighting with Spanish rebels in'the Guadalajara sector. ■ Clad in Italian uniforms, the haggard , and bewildered prisoners mumbled replies'while eight loyalist soldiers, with fixed bayonets, stood grimly over them. , ' Most of them jumped to their feet,, plainly' frightened, .when the militia-, men clumped,into the cell, ( but a Government officer quickly reassured them.' "You may be at ease," he said. 'Htfe merely are going to take pictures." "Thank you very much," v one of them answered in Italian. "We are not afraid, for we are not Fascists." Then he told how1 he "thought we were being sent to Abyssinia." WATCH CAPTORS CLOSELY. They stood nervously against the walls, watching each move of their questioners with-eyes that stared out of sunken faces. Their commander, a squat, swarthy man wearing the stars of a Spanish. colonel, mumbled brief replies to questions. According to official informa-, tion, the men revealed that four' Italian divisions, including an attacking force of approximately 16,000. were leading the insurgent attack north of Madrid. ' They said the divisions were under command of Generals Mongini, Bergonzoli, Ruvoloni, and Coppi. General Mongini was described as the com-' mander of the entire Italian contingent. ■ " The Italian officer m command of the "lost company" admitted .he led his men into a trap. They became separated from the main body of rebel attackers, he said, '.'and I lost my map." They rar into another company of Italians, and, apparently unaware of each other's identity, the two companies fought desperately until loyalists arrived and captured the lost Italians, driving off the others. The commander explained he was "unable to ask the Spaniards for help/ because I cannot speak a word oij Spanish."