WAR IN SPAIN: Fall Before Winter

Area this week of:

Rightist Spain: 126,583 sq. mi.

Leftist Spain: 70,024 sq. mi.

Rightist Gain: 9,503 sq. mi.

At 10 a. m. one morning last week Rightist commanders of troops slogging over mountain trails toward Gijón, tuned in the Gijón radio station. Over came a strange excited voice:

"We are waiting with great impatience. We are responsible people of Gijón and the enthusiasm in our streets is overwhelming. Arriba España! Viva Franco!"

Rightist army transmitters quickly got in contact:

"Our forces are very near Gijón along the coast. If the weather is good we will be there this afternoon."

By 3:30 p. m. red-bereted Carlist militiamen were marching into Gijón's streets under hundreds of white flags of surrender, most of them rudely made from bed sheets. Regardless of their political opinions, crowds on the streets cheered with enthusiasm. For them Gijón's surrender meant an end of bombs and shellfire, most of all it meant food. Even before the fall of Bilbao, Generalissimo Franco discovered that food, of which his part of Spain has plenty, was the best Rightist propaganda he could use. So last week trucks loaded with bread, sausages, corn and rice started rolling toward Gijón from Vitoria and Burgos even before the Rightist requetés entered the town. An official note of surrender was sent to Salamanca signed by Colonel Franco (no relation), Gijón's Leftist commandant of artillery.

Gijón's fall was no surprise. Fortnight ago Leftist officials began deserting the town for France and early last week six aviators, the last of Gijón's air force, reached France. Five reached Biarritz's airport, the sixth crashed on the beach.

"There are no more planes in Gijón." said one. "Against Franco's aviation no defense is possible. Bombs rain on the airfield. There is no more ammunition for the anti-aircraft guns."

If Gijón's fall was no surprise to anybody one fact about it was startling to many. The last four weeks of the siege of Gijón and its final investiture were performed by Spanish troops alone. At least one foreign correspondent could not find a single cauldron of spaghetti among the rice pots of the Rightists, or a single Italian battalion among the advancing columns.* This was sound Franco tactics. Immediately after the Rightists' formal entries into Málaga, Bilbao, Santander (TIME, Feb. 15 et seq.), Italian officers went about making chests to the vast annoyance of their Spanish allies. Today Franco likes to keep Italians out of the headlines as much as possible and Mussolini is willing.

The 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.