Battle of Lopera
In December 1936, Queipo de Llano started an offensive in order to capture the olive-growing area of Andújar, province of Jaén.The Republic then sent the recently formed XIV International Brigade to the Andújar front, in order to retake the town of Lopera occupied by the Nationalists on 24 December.On this front the Nationalists had Commander Redondo's column with a shock brigade of Andalusian requetes (2,000 men) and 2,000 Moroccan regulares and Spanish cavalry.[4] The Brigade had lost 800 men (300 dead),[5] among them the English poets, John Cornford and Ralph Winston Fox.[8] After the battle, André Marty ordered the detention of the commander of the French battalion of the Brigade, Gaston Delasalle.