attacks were intended also to evaluate the situation in the interior of Spain, and make contact with other groups of exiles. The most important points of penetration in the long chain of mountains were Roncesvalles, Roncal, Hecho, Canfranc, Val d'Aran, Andorra, and Cerdanya, though there were also operations at smaller points. The offensives were repelled by a great force that was moved into the area by Franco, made up of the Civil Guard, Armed Police Corps, battalions of the Spanish Army, and 40,000 Moroccan (Army of Africa) troops. The guerrilla army conquered various towns and villages, raising the Spanish Republican flag, carrying out anti-Franco meetings in the plazas, as well as controlling part of the French border for several days, through which they were able to bring in trucks, material and reinforcements from France. However, the invasion failed to take Vielha e Mijaran, its principal objective. Finally, overwhelmed by the Nationalists' numerical and material advantage, the guerrillas pulled back. The retreat ended October 28, when the last guerrillas re-crossed the border back into France, without the hoped-for uprising. The failure of the invasion was used by the Stalinist members of the PCE's Central Committee, recently arrived from the Soviet Union to France, to purge the heads of the party who had remained in France fighting the Germans. Most were either kidnapped and assassinated or summarily judged and shot. "Agrupaciones Guerrilleras" In spite of the setback of Arán in 1944, the expectations of the exiled Spanish Communist Party (PCE) remained high, given that all seemed still possible in an international context of general collapse of fascism. All throughout Spain, the level of guerrilla activity went up, precipitated by the incorporation of new contingents forced to cross the border from France and the reorganization of the groups with structures of a more military character. The exiled PCE promoted the creation of the Agrupaciones Guerrilleras (Guerrilla Groups) in several geographic zones, coordinating the actions between them. It was modeled after the Federación de Guerrillas de León-Galicia, the first guerrilla organization of the post-war era. The most active group from the AG was the Agrupación Guerrillera de Levante y Aragón (AGLA), which was active in the area between the southern part of Teruel, the interior of Castellón and the north of Cuenca. Also noteworthy was the Agrupación de Guerilleros "Stalingrado" (Stalingrad Group) headed up by Manolo el Rubio (Pablo Pérez Hidalgo), which operated in