Aragon offensive

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Military operations during the
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

The Aragon offensive took place during the Spanish Civil War after the Battle of Teruel . The offensive began on March 7, 1938 and ended on April 19, 1938. The offensive destroyed the remains of the republican armed forces and brought the nationalists the profit of Aragon , parts of Catalonia and the Levant .

prehistory

The Battle of Teruel had exhausted the material resources of the Republican army. Franco recognized this and did not hesitate for a moment. He had most of his armed forces brought to eastern Spain. The nationalists concentrated 100,000 men between Saragossa and Teruel , including elite units. The Francoist troops were still outnumbered, but had better equipment. On the republican side, the experienced troops had already been drained at the Battle of Teruel. Franco's army had almost 950 aircraft, 200 tanks and several thousand trucks. In addition to foreign aid from Germany and Italy , Franco had the advantage of having access to the industrial facilities of the Basque Country . The Republicans suffered from a shortage of supplies from the Soviet Union and the inability of the anarchists tasked with running the Catalan arms industry to produce enough war material.

Starting position

The Franco army was under the command of Fidel Dávila Arrondo and Juan Vigón Suerodíaz as the second in command. José Solchaga , José Moscardó , Antonio Aranda , Juan Yagüe and the Italian General Berti commanded individual sections of the army. The reserve was commanded by García Escámez and García Valińo. The army of Castile, under the command of José Enrique Varela, was to be ready on the wing of the attacking troops. The Condor Legion was also kept ready. Hauptmann von Thoma convinced Franco to use massed tanks.

Due to the defeat at Teruel, many of the republican troops even lacked rifles and the best troops had been withdrawn from the front so that they could recover.

The Republican army was completely taken by surprise by the offensive, as it did not expect the other side to go on the offensive again anytime soon. This despite the fact that the secret service had informed the army command of an imminent offensive. The Republican side also started from the misunderstanding that the Franquists were just as exhausted and tired as the Republicans.

Beginning March 7th to March 21st, 1938

After heavy artillery and aircraft bombardment, the attack began on March 7, 1938 at 6.30 am. Three nationalist armies attacked the republican front line between the Ebro and Vivel del Rio. In the northern section of the front, the elite army from North Africa fought with the support of the Condor Legion and 47 artillery pieces. The nationalist troops managed to break through the front in several places on the first day. Yagüe advanced on the right bank of the Ebro and broke through all defensive positions in front of him. On March 10th, Solchanga conquered Belchite , which was owned by the XV. International Brigade was manned. The city was completely destroyed. The commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, part of the XV. International Brigade, Robert Merriman, was killed during the retreat. A Soviet secret service man had designed the fortifications at Belchite, but these were easily captured by the nationalists. The Italians led the attack at Rudilla. They encountered some resistance at first, but then broke through.

Republican troops began to withdraw along the whole front. Whole sections of the army disbanded and the soldiers and officers left their posts. In addition, there was a strong anti-communist stance in the ranks of the army, as the communist commanders often accuse each other of mistakes and neglect and this contributed to the general demoralization. Enrique Líster went on to have the commanders shot by retreating troops.

The Italians approached Alcañiz and the Republican front began to collapse along its length. Even where the Republicans successfully defended themselves, they felt compelled to give up their positions because the adjacent section of the front had collapsed in many cases. Whole troops disbanded and desertions increased massively. The Italian and German planes now completely dominated the skies and their bombers attacked the retreating troops. Karol Świerczewski , known as General Walter, Commander of the International Brigades, narrowly escaped capture when the city of Alcañiz fell. After two days of heavy fighting, on March 17th, the city of Caspe fell into the hands of General Varela's army. Eight days later, Franco's armies were more than 100 km from their starting positions. The offensive had torn a deep hole from Belchite, Caspe, Alcañiz and back to Montalbán after just a week.

Second phase March 22 to April 2, 1938

The nationalists now paused in front of the Ebro and Guadalupe rivers to reorganize. The second part of the offensive began on March 22nd, east of Saragossa and Huesca . There had been no movements in this section of the front since August 1936, but now the republican front collapsed within a day. The whole area east of Aragon was taken. The cities of Barbastro , Bujaraloz and Sariñena were also conquered by the nationalists. On March 25, Yagüe captured Fraga , then invaded Catalonia and attacked the city of Lleida . Here, however, he was held up for a week by the Republican army, under the command of Valentín González. This delay made it possible for the Republicans to withdraw in an orderly manner and with the valuable war material.

In the north the nationalists advanced along the Pyrenees and in the south they advanced into the plateau of southern Aragon. Almost everywhere the Republican army broke up and the various factions began to accuse one another of treason. Communist functionaries sometimes no longer supplied ammunition to anarchist associations. André Marty , the Inspector General of the International Brigades , traveled around looking for traitors. But even that did not prevent the collapse of the International Brigade. There were more and more arbitrary shootings of Republican officers in front of their own troops.

End of the offensive April 3 to April 19, 1938

The decisive factor for the success of the offensive was the absolute air sovereignty of the nationalists. On April 3, Lleida and Gandesa fell . 140 American and British soldiers of the XV. International Brigade were taken prisoner of war. Aranda's troops could already see the sea and in the north the advance of the nationalists continued. On April 8, the Pyrenees hydropower plant that supplied Barcelona with electricity fell into the hands of the nationalists. The blackout caused production to collapse and people were forced to put the old steam engines back into operation.

At that point it would have been easy to capture Catalonia and Barcelona as well, but Franco decided that his army should advance to the coast. This later turned out to be a strategic mistake, but there were intelligence reports that reported French intervention should war break out in Catalonia as well.

In the meantime, France had reopened the border. This brought war material back into the republican zone, which had been dammed up on the Franco-Spanish border. This weakened the nationalist attack and strengthened the Republican defenders. The republican side succeeded in stopping the collapse of the army and halting the advance of the nationalist army.

On April 19, Franco's troops had already over 60 km of the Mediterranean coast under their control and the offensive was ended.

consequences

The streak of victories, beginning with the Battle of Teruel, gave the nationalists confidence that victory was within reach.

literature

  • Cecil Eby: Between the Bullet and the Lie. American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York NY et al. 1969.
  • Antony Beevor : The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2006, ISBN 0-297-84832-1 .
  • Gabriel Jackson: The Spanish Republic and the Civil War. 1931-1939 Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1965.
  • Herbert L. Matthews: Half of Spain Died. A Reappraisal of the Spanish Civil War. Scribners, New York NY 1973.
  • Hugh Purcell: Colonel Vicente Rojo. In: Stanley G. Payne : The Spanish Revolution. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1970.
  • Hugh Thomas : The Spanish Civil War. Revised and updated edition. Modern Library, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-375-75515-2 .