War Correspondent In Spain.

Northern Advocate, 5 January 1938, Page 2

War Correspondent In Spain.

“The March of a Nation,” by Harold G. Dardozo.

HERE is- a first-hand story of the war In Spain. It was first published by ‘.Syre and Spottiswoode List year, and republished by the “Right Boole Club” towards the end of the same year reaching Whangarei this week. The author was already an experienced war correspondent when, at the beginning of the trouble, in July, 1936, he was rung- up in Paris and sent to investigate what was happening in Spain, as the representative of the London ‘“Daily Mail.” -s:'.Se crossed the frontier without delay, though not without difficulty and danger, lie saw the conflict from, the earliest outbreaks, and tells us what he saw ‘with the pen of a ready writer. He did his work with the Nationalist Forces, and saw the development of /the War from their point of view, and it seems, lie frankly shares it. To balance this moving and dramatic story 6he would like to have another from the pen of a similarly equipped war correspondent with the Government

forces. ' Gardbzo is, I think, wholly .. sincere, utterly in earnest, and tre...mendously convincing, .And yet, one would like to hear the other side. The occasion for so great a conflict, is hot so easily summed up as in Cardozo’s opening chapter of twenty pages on “The Rising” and what caused it. Dramatic Realism, The engagements are described with realistic detail and dramatic intensity. No account of the fight for Madrid could make it more terribly and terrifyingly real. His words reproduce scenes and the thundering impact of bombs almost beats upon our ears as \ye read. The narrative grips powerfully and

r 'i€>very now and then an incident of /•' personal story lights up the human 7 -side of a savage struggle with welcome belief, ■ , ’> ■ . “All the way from Merida there

bad marched with, one of the Falanl gist regiments a happy and bright young girl, with raven-black hair * and flashing eyes, known as Juanita. She was a good girl and looked after the men of her regiments like an elder sister, mending as much of their clothing as her busy needle could attend to. She looked after their kitchen, and when there was any food, to be obtained in a village she saw that her Falangists got it. 1 She tended the wounded, and many a blue-shirted Falangist has laid his head on her lap, held her hand and whispered, ‘Mother,’ as he drew his .dying breath. I spoke to many.of her men after her death. (She died shot down by machine-guns, when at Garbaikhel, one night, she was crossing the' fields to forage vegetables for a hot stew). And there was not one who did not take off his cap and • stand with bent head as he spoke of the ‘heroine’ of the regiment.” I Refuse To Betray. The story of three gallant “Red” spies at Talavera, is exciting, and well told. One, a girl of 19, and two young men, maintained a secret short-wave wireless system of communicating information. One of the young men was about town a good deal and stood treat to soldiers. He was suspected but

watched in vain. He was pious and frequented church, ■-and nothing could be gleaned against £imi But one day a watching agent that when he rose from kneel- ; trig in Church a beautiful girl moved _ into the same place, and took a piece tdi' paper ; from under the cushion. Skilled secret service men followed up the trail. It took time, and was baffling, but it ended in a cemetery where in a vault, to which the trio had cut a small doorway, they had set up. a transmission set, tapping electric light wires to supply power. The slips of paper were in code, and the main mover in the scheme was the girl, though no threats would induce her to betray any one who had helped her. All three were court-martialled ' and shot. The rebels tried to continue using the set to convey false information to the .Reds, but failed, because, 'evidently, they lacked some sign or key-word in their use of the code, War Theatre of Experiment.

Our author’s note on the Spanish war as a theatre of experiment is unpleasantly interesting. “The value of the war to military experts has obviously been great. Though small numbers of men have been engaged—that is, small in com-' parison with the immense armies that a future world war would entail—they have been, especially in the later stages, amply supplied with all the death-dealing apparatus of modern war, save gas. The machinegun, for instance, has shown once again that she is queen of the battlefield. It takes a great deal of skill, of artillery, and of tanks, to overcome a position well defended with automatic weapons. Artillery has shown so far little improvement, except in range and mobility. The tank has vastly improved, and there have been medium, light-medium and whippet tanks in quantity. As far as I know, however, none of the tank mastodons, thirty to forty-ton monsters, have been seen on Spanish soil. They have all met with a terrible enemy. Fire from petrol canisters (thrown underneath to melt the rubber), hand grenades and the terrible anti-tank gun. This is

small, easily moved and can take shelter anywhere. It throws its shell three thousand yards. It is sufficient to have seen tanks brought to a standstill by a shell from one of these guns to realise its stopping power. When the military history of the Spanish Civil War comes to be written the historians will probably have a wealth of details on matters now secret.”

This book is desci'ibed in its subtitle as “The First Authoritative Account of the Spanish War.” As such It deserves reading, apart from its engaging and lively style. Without doubt it is an important document of the war, but, while it may be the first authoritative account, it is not likely, by a long way, to be the last.