Word: aragones
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...Count Ciano, II Duce's son-in-law, and since at Moscow the Stalin regime chose last week not to make counter threats which might have given Italy and Germany pause, the dominant factor in Spain's civil war was not to be found this week in Aragon, in Catalonia or in Valencia, but in France. The army, navy and air force of the French Republic are among the most powerful in Europe, but was it certain that French Premier Leon Blum, although he heads a Popular Front Cabinet, wants France to fight on such an issue...
...from both flanks. When General Franco counterattacked Teruel he poured his army into a frontal assault and did not take it. Last week Leftist generals used their heads again. Franco's army before Teruel is supplied by a single road running north to Saragossa, parallel to the main Aragon front. Instead of trying to repulse Franco by pouring men into the town, Leftists launched four attacks at four separate points in an attempt to cut this road. If any of the four had succeeded, Franco's attacks on Teruel would have had to cease. None did succeed...
...blinding snow & wind that sometimes reached a velocity of 50 miles an hour the Spanish war suddenly burst into action last week at Teruel, tip of the long Rightist finger which points down from Aragon at Leftist Valencia. While the world awaited a Rightist drive, Leftist troops under General Sebastian Pozas took the offensive. Surging forward through a blizzard in a surprise attack, the Leftists avoided a frontal assault on Teruel itself, heavily fortified by the Rightists for over a year. Instead they sent from north & south two columns accompanied by tanks and planes to nip the line of communications...
...bloody Rightist attack west of Toledo beaten off, and another that captured several hundred yards of dugouts and trenches on the Aragon front near Olivan, were the only actions of importance on the ground last week. No qualified observers would admit that the winter's stalemate for which all Spanish noncombatants were devoutly praying...
Most observers felt last week that winter weather and Leftist knowledge of his plans had forced El Caudillo to drop a major offensive on the Aragon Front against Barcelona, that the Rightist offensive when it comes will much more likely be along the Mediterranean coast in the south: first on Almeria, then Valencia, then Barcelona...