Invasion of Val d'Aran

The Invasion of Val d'Aran, known under the code name Operación Reconquista de España ("Operation Reconquest of Spain"), was a military operation launched in October 1944 by the Unión Nacional Española (antifrancoist) (UNE). According to historian Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, the UNE was a "structure of a large alliance, (which) united not only Communists, but also Spaniards of different political alignments – Socialists, Republicans or Anarchists – who the dispersion of their organizations and the silence of their leaders pushed into joining the only fighting structure organised against Nazism".[2] This operation aimed to establish a provisional Republican government in the Val d'Aran, a Pyrenean valley of Catalonia, situated on the border between France and Spain, to act as a launching point for an attack of antiFranquist guerrillas that participated in World War II within the French resistance and veterans of the Spanish Civil War in the territory. It was a total failure.

Invasion of Val d'Aran
Part of Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War

Grave of the soldiers of the Francoist army killed during the invasion, cemetery of Vielha.
Date19–24 October 1944
Location
Val d'Aran, Catalonia, Spain
Result Francoist victory
Belligerents
Spanish State

Unión Nacional Española (sp)

Commanders and leaders
José Moscardó
Rafael García Valiño
Juan Yagüe		 Vicente López Tovar
Strength
50,000 men 4,000 to 7,000 men
Casualties and losses
248 dead[1] 588 dead[1]
  • "The (Silent) War" (2019, original title: Sordo), Spanish movie by Alfonso Cortés-Cavanillas

References
  1. (Juliá 2005: 373)
  2. Dreyfus-Armand, Geneviève (1999). Exil des Républicains espagnols en France. Albin-Michel.

Bibliography
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