Brunete

Military experts of the Great Powers, hitherto inclined to see Spain's Civil War professionally as a small testing ground for the latest lethal equipment, took some-what more interest last week as the "Battle of Madrid" (TIME, July 26) grew to an extremely desperate conflict between roughly 100,000 Leftists and 100,000 Rightists--not "big stuff" by World War standards, but biggish. Hitherto Rightist General Francisco Franco has mostly remained at Salamanca, his capital, filling the role of Rightist Spain's President, but last week he hurried to field headquarters. There, rubbing his hands with a satisfaction at least well simulated, General Franco remarked that the Spanish Leftists seemed to have committed the "almost unbelievable blunder" of persisting in efforts to hold Brunete with a large force, although the flanks of their advance to this spearhead had been so driven in by the Rightists that, in the orthodox military view, it had become untenable--a death trap.

Leftist General Miaja, increasingly a leader of the populace rather than an orthodox commander, evidently thought psychology would fight on the side of continuing to hold Brunete, however desperate the cost. With the sky full of battling pursuit ships and lumbering bombers, Leftists and Rightists spent the week locked in combat, each giving the other all they had. Rightists first swept overwhelmingly forward to retake Brunete, then as the afternoon wore on Leftists crept forward, recaptured most of Brunete in a sunset onslaught and by dawn were stubbornly giving ground, battling bayonet to bayonet, with warcraft diving from the skies to machine-gun the struggling troops. This week the Leftists were forced to evacuate the village of Brunete which had been bombed, shelled, hand-grenaded and machine-gunned into smoldering chaos.

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