Word: biscay
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Dividing Spain's war into five "fronts": Aragon, Teruel, Madrid, Estremadura and Andalusia (see map) is merely a journalistic device that has been adopted by both sides. There is a sixth and quite separate front, that in the province of Asturias on the Bay of Biscay where last week Rightists were crawling over tremendous mountains ever closer to Leftist Gijón, but the five consecutive fronts form a writhing battle line that snakes a full 1,000 mi. from the French frontier near Jaca round Madrid and ends in the Mediterranean Sea between Málaga and Alicante...
...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...
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...
Early last week it seemed that the Caudillo Franco had almost earned his title of Victor. Santander had fallen. Free for use on other fronts were 50,000 troops. Next objective in the northwest was Gijon, and as Rightists pushed westward along the Bay of Biscay they claimed Asturian troops were in full flight before them, 5,000 surrendering at the port town of Lanes. The Vatican had recognized the Rightist State. Off the tables of Marshal Pietro Badoglio in Rome was generally expected a new plan of attack by which Madrid would be captured before cold weather...
...were digging in for a last siege in the mountains near Gijón. Gijón, a little cod-fishing port became the capital of what was left of the Leftist side of the Basque Republic-a narrow strip running 125 miles along the Bay of Biscay. In this strip there was no food, no trade. Jose Antonio de Aguirre, the fiery little Basque President who had retreated with his government from Bilbao to Santander, gave up the struggle as a bad job and boarded a boat for Bayonne, France...