general Mola

[amorproximi]

What name did General Mola give to his agents in Madrid in the Spanish Civil War?

[Quizmonster]

In late 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, the nationalist General Emilio Mola was advancing with four columns on Madrid. When asked which of these columns would actually take the city, he replied that it would most probably be taken by a "fifth column"...namely, the secret nationalist supporters inside the city itself. Ever since, the phrase has been used to mean �traitors' working from within. There is a suggestion that the phrase might have been used as long ago as the 1780s, in reference to an incident during the Russian-Turkish war, but it was definitely the 1936 version that led to its common use nowadays. Columns 1 to 4 were, of course, Mola's ordinary troops.

[amorproximi]

ty quizmonster for both answers