Siege of Oviedo - The Final Assault Begins

The Final Assault Begins

October 4 was the day before the second anniversary of the beginning of the Asturias Revolution of 1934, and the Popular Front militias made an all-out attack on that day. The attackers were in a hurry since units from the tough Army of Africa had reinforced the Nationalist relief column from Galicia. Although the Popular Front had held up that relief column for two weeks, it was only 15 miles from Oviedo. Aranda had lost half of his defenders, and the attackers rolled over one of his defense points as he lost part of the high ground around the town. The fighting raged for a week and, one by one, the defenders' strong points fell to the attackers. Aranda abandoned what was left of the perimeter and pulled his survivors back into the town, and by that time he had used 90% of his ammunition. The defenders ran out of machine gun ammunition and the fighting reverted to hand to hand combat. The attackers fought from house to house by cutting holes in the walls joining the houses. The defenders were almost out of ammunition when several Nationalist airmen managed to drop 30,000 rounds to them.