In December 1936, Queipo de Llano started an offensive in the Córdoba province in order to capture the rich olive-growing area of Andújar,[1] and to relieve the besieged civil guards of the Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza's sanctuary.

On 27 December the XIV International Brigade launched an attack in order to recover the town of Lopera.

Among the Republican dead were English poets, John Cornford and Ralph Winston Fox,[3] while Dubliner Tommy Wood was killed at the age of 17.

[5] The Nationalists occupied 2,600 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi) of olive-growing land (hence "Aceituna"), some towns and the hydro-electric station at El Carpio.

[6] Nevertheless, the Nationalist, did not occupy Andújar and on 1 May 1937 the Republican Army stormed the Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza's sanctuary.