Madrid, July 26.
Spanish Nationalist forces, "under the leadership of 20,000 Italians, today smashed the loyalist ranks in the Guadarrama gulleys and advanced nearly four miles from Brunete. The attackers reached the gates of Villa Nueva de La Canada. The Republicans announced officially that their defence outside of Brunete collapsed under the onslaught scores of tanks under a curtain of artillery fre and heavy bombing. Tt was estimated that 250,000 men were engaged in the battle, with 70,000 of the Nationalists meeting death in 48 hours.
Moors, riding African horses and [swinging machetes, decapitated large numbers of their enemies, and fought the Republican cavalry outside Brunete in the foreest cavalry en-Eagement since the early days of the War.
'Horses and men were frequently packed in a solid mass. Gen. Francisco Franco, the Nationalist generalissimo, arrived: to take personal command of the largest army of the Civil' War, in preparation for a supreme effort to regain past losses.
Republican cavalry consisted mostly of the 14th Division, consisting of foreigners They fought stripped to the waist in the blazing sun, and many suffered prostration. A' number of the gun crews also suffered fferm the sun and heat.
Nationalist and Republican acroplanes, meanwhile, conducted bomb-/ing operations throughout. the morn-Ing. "In the afternoon the Republicans announced that they had stem= med Gen, Franco's thrust. The entire sector was blanketed with smoke from burning Brunete and surrounding villages—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.