Word: asturians
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...ultimate fall of Gijón was inevitable as soon as Santander was captured (TIME, Sept. 6). The only reason for keeping Italian forces on the Asturian front was Generalissimo Franco's insistence that "Gijón must fall before winter sets in," so that troops on the Asturian front could be transferred for another mass attack on Madrid...
...high mountains surrounding Gijón on the Bay of Biscay winter had already come last week. Rightist troops shivered along mountainous paths slippery with seven inches of snow, fought every inch of the way by indomitable but ill-equipped Asturian miners who heartily cheered the snow that bogged down their enemies' tanks and heavy artillery, grounded their planes. Rightist capture of Gijón seemed in expert military eyes inevitable, but if snow and bad weather continued that capture might be postponed for many weeks, possibly till spring. The slated siege of Gijón would likewise...
Only 18 miles southwest of beleaguered Gijón another siege was ending its 14th month, but in this case the roles were reversed. At Oviedo, once a city of 70,000 people, a Rightist garrison was still holding out against a circling force of Asturian miners who have sworn to capture and kill Oviedo's commander, General Miguel Aranda "if we have to get him over the dead bodies of our own children...
...best hated men in Spain. Miguel Aranda first came to Oviedo in 1934 with the rank of colonel and orders from Madrid to help put down a revolution of Asturian socialists and anarchists against what they saw to be a swiftly developing fascist dictatorship. With ruthless Foreign Legionaries and Moors, imported into Spain for the first time in its history, Aranda did his work well, causing the death of numberless men in a few weeks...
Generalissimo Francisco Franco's northern army pecked gingerly at the remnant of Asturian militiamen still holding out at Gijón on the Bay of Biscay last week, otherwise Spain was as quiet as the tomb it is rapidly becoming. From Madrid there was no word, on the Aragon front both sides seemed exhausted after the Leftist capture of Belchite. The war was going on, but the real scene of action had switched to a small sedate town on the shore of Lake Geneva-Nyon...