EBB AND FLOW

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 244, 27 July 1937, Page 5

EBB AND FLOW

FRANCO’S COUNTER-OFENSIVE. LOYALISTS’ DESPERATE STAND. SUCCESSIVE ATTACKS REPULSED (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) MADRID, July 26. General Franco’s counter-offensive, taxed to the full in rejecting the loyalists from Brunete, is now at a standstill, at least temporarily, by the desperate courage with which the loyalists are defending Villa Nueva Delacanada, hurling back one infantry attack after another. Meanwhile the main body of the loyalists are digging themselves is in the expectation of stiffening the defence by the arrival of reinforcements. FIGHTING IN INTENSE HEAT. DESPERATE DEFENDERS. (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) MADRID, July 26. The d.esperate resistance of the Government forces is being carried out under a scorching sun. The troops are stripped to the waist. Many heedless of the risk of discarded steel-helmets and wrapped handkerchiefs round their heads. Others wore smoked glasses and discarded the heavy boots for ropfsoled 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 tl.noi.gh the shell-riddled fields to quench the thirsts of the fighters. Despite enforced retreat the Government forces claim there is no panic. ON THE EVE OF BIG MOVE. REBELS MASS POWERFUL FORCE. \ T (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) London, July 26. The Government forces last night were falling back from the cemetery, where they had been desperately resisting, occupying a position btween Brunete and Villanueva and Delachnada. The insurgents are reforming as a prelude to a further advance before the Government forces have time to reform their lines. Latest reports indicate that the insurgents are massing men, material and ’planes for a final showdown at the gates of Madrid. GERMAN AEROPLANE SHOT DOWN REBEL BOMBING OF BRUNETE. MADRID, July 26. The insurgents are attacking Quijorna from the north and south. Heavy fighting is taking place in the streets and 3000 Loyalists are threatened with isolation and extinction. A communique says that three rebel aeroplanes were shot down, and three Germans who landed by parachutes were taken prisoner. They admitted that they had been ordered to Spain by their, superiors and flew over France. The aeroplane which the three Germans left was a Dornier bomber. They claimed that they belong to a group of officers testing 10 of these aeroplanes under war conditions. A message from Salamanca says the insurgents claim that they shot down 15 Republican aeroplanes which were attempting to bomb (Salamanca. The Barcelona correspondent of “The Times” says that Brunete is now the centre of a blood-drenclnSS, firescorched no-man’s-land. The village is a mass of smouldering ruins. The resumption of rebel air bombing supports the claim that the rebels have captured it. They employed 60 battalions, whose onslaught was prepared by 40 bombing aeroplanes and 20 batteries. The Madrid correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” confirms the report that the Loyalists recaptured portion of Brunete. With the co-operation of Italian troops, the rebels are desperately attempting to regain entire possession of the village.