history · 06 October 1936 · 88 years ago
Francisco Franco decided that the time was ripe for an attack on Madrid, Spain and entrusted the task to José Enrique Varela, the most dynamic Nationalist commander, who was fresh from his Toledo triumph. His force of 10,000 men was to be divided into four columns; two of which under Juan Yagué (now recovered from his "collapse with exhaustion") would advance along the Toledo-Madrid road, while Varela would take the other two columns along the Mérida-Madrid road. A subsidiary force of 5,000 men under General Valdes Cabanillas was ordered to make a diversionary attack from the west across the Sierra Guadarrama.
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