Aragon Offensive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aragon Offensive
Part of the Spanish Civil War
Date March 7, 1938 – April 19, 1938 Location Northeastern Spain Result Decisive Nationalist victory
Combatants
Spanish Republic International Brigades	Nationalist Spain Italy Germany
Commanders
Vicente Rojo Enrique Lister Karol Świerczewski El Campesino	Fidel Dávila Arrondo Juan Vigón Suerodíaz José Solchaga José Moscardó José Enrique Varela Antonio Aranda Juan Yagüe Italian General, Berti
Strength
Over 100,000	100,000
Casualties
~?	~?

Spanish Civil War
Alcázar – Gijón – Oviedo – Mérida – Mallorca – Badajoz – Sierra Guadalupe – Monte Pelato – Talavera – Cape Espartel – Madrid – Corunna Road – Málaga – Jarama – Guadalajara – Guernica – Bilbao – Brunete – Santander – Belchite – El Mazuco – Cape Cherchell – Teruel – Cape Palos – Ebro Chronology: 1936 1937 1938-39

The Aragon Offensive in the Spanish Civil War was the Nationalist campaign that began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive began on March 7, 1938, and ended in April 19, 1938. The offensive smashed the Republican forces and overran Aragon and conquered parts of Catalonia and the Levante.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Nationalist Army 3 Republican Army 4 Attack Begins 5 Republican Disaster 6 End of the Campaign 7 Notes

[edit] Introduction

The Battle of Teruel exhausted the material resources of the Republican Army. At the same time, however, Franco, never hesitated, lost no time, and concentrated the bulk of the Nationalist forces into the east and prepared to drive through Aragon and into Catalonia and the Levante. The Nationalists were able to concentrate 100,000 men between Saragossa and Teruel with the best troops in the lead.^[1] Even though the Nationalist Army was numerically inferior to the Republican forces, the Nationalists were better equipped. The veteran Republican troops had all been involved at Teruel and were worn out.^[2] The Nationalists had almost 950 airplanes, 200 tanks and thousands of trucks.^[3] In addition to his foreign aid from Germany and Italy, Franco had the advantage of controlling the efficiently run industries in the Basque Country. To further exacerbate suffering a slowdown of supplies from the Soviet Union, the The Republican Government had to leave the armament industry in Catalonia in the hands of the incompetent Anarchists. One Anarchist observer reported that "Notwithstanding lavish expenditures of money on this need, our industrial organization was not able to finish a single kind of rifle or machine gun or cannon...."^[4]

[edit] Nationalist Army

The attacking army was commanded by Fidel Dávila Arrondo with Juan Vigón Suerodíaz as his second in command. José Solchaga, José Moscardó, Antonio Aranda, and Juan Yagüe would command army corps alongside the Italian General Berti. A reserve commanded by García Escámez and García Valińo constituted the main force. José Enrique Varela with the Army of Castile was to hold himself ready, on the wings of the attack, at Teruel. The Condor Legion held itself in readiness. Colonel Ritter Von Thoma, its commander, convinced Franco, to use his tanks in a concentrated form to attack rather than spread them out.^[5]

[edit] Republican Army

Because of the material losses from the Battle of Terual, half the Republican troops even lacked rifles and since the best troops had been withdrawn to refit, the frontline defenders had no combat experience.^[6] The Republic could not replace its lost equipment as Soviet aid was starting to dry up.^[7]

[edit] Attack Begins

The attack began on March 7, 1938, preceded by a heavy artillery and aerial bombardment.^[8] At 6:30 in the morning, three Nationalist armies attacked the Repulican line stretched between the Ebro River and Vivel del Rio. The northern part of the attack was the elite Army of Africa supported by the Condor Legion and forty-seven artillery batteries.^[9] The Nationalists broke the front in several places on the first day of the battle. Yagüe advanced down the right bank of the Ebro River slashing through all defenders. Solchanga won back Belchite on March 10, and the XV International Brigade, with its American, Canadian and British complement, was the last unit out of that destroyed town. The commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, part of the XV International Brigade, Robert Merriman, was killed during the retreat. A Soviet secret policeman had specially designed the fortifications at Belchite, but they fell easily to the advancing Nationalists. The Italians attacked at Rudilla, met some initial resistance and then, lead by the Black Arrows, broke through.^[10]

Everywhere the Republican forces were falling back. To protect his responsibility for the disaster, Enrique Lister started a policy of shooting commanders of retreating troops. This created discussion among the Communists since Lister was a Communist and the commanders being shot were Communists.

Aranda, hero of the Siege of Oviedo had a hard fight but finally broke through further south to capture Montalbán on March 13. Republican commander Vicente Rojo started to fight back and ordered all the International Brigades to assemble at Caspe that was declared the center of the defense.^[11]

[edit] Republican Disaster

Even as Rojo ordered the Republican concentration at Caspe, the Italians were approaching Alcañiz. The Republican rout became absolute. Even where a Republican unit would fight effectively, it had to fall back because of collapse of neighboring units. Units fell apart and desertions became rife. The Italian and German airplanes controlled the skies. Bombers attacked the fleeing Republican units with aerial protection from modern fighters. Karol Świerczewski known as General Walter, commander of the International Brigades barely escaped capture at the fall of Alcañiz. Finally after two day of heavy fighting Caspe fell on March 17 to elements of Varela's attacking army. The International Brigade performed valiantly in the defense but was driven off. After eight days, the Nationalists were seventy miles east of their positions when the battle started.^[12]This first part of the offensive punched a huge hole in the front and created a salient from Belchite to Caspe to Alcañiz and then back to Montalbán.^[13]

The Nationalist Army now paused before the Ebro and Guadalupe Rivers to reorganize. But on March 22, the attack started once again this time in the area east of Saragossa and Huesca. This part of the front that the Republic had held since August, 1936, was lost in a day. The villages in eastern Aragon that had experienced social revolution either by their own action or from the anarchist columns from Catalonia were all taken by the Nationalists. A large part of the inhabitants became refugees. In this part of the offensive, Barbastro, Bujaraloz and Sariñena succumbed to the Nationalists. On March 25, Yagüe took Fraga and entered Catalonia. He attacked the next town, Lérida, but El Campesino held him off for a week giving the Republicans a chance to withdraw with valuable equipment.^[14]

In the north Republican forces pinned Solchange down in the Pyrenees, but in the south, the Nationalists drove across the Maestrazgo, the high plains of southern Aragon. Almost everywhere, the Republicans started to fall apart. The various factions started to accuse each other of treachery. The Communists starved anarchist troops of needed munitions. Andre Marty, the insane overall commander of the International Brigades, travelled around looking for traitors but he could not prevent the virtual destruction of the International Brigades. Republican troops suffered arbitrary executions with sometimes the officers being shot in front of the men. In general the campaign seemed lost and nobody knew where the rout would end.^[15]

[edit] End of the Campaign

Air power decided this campaign. The plains of Aragon provided easy landing fields. Both Germans and Soviets learned valuable lessons about the use of fighters in support of infantry. Aircraft continually drove back the Republicans forcing them to abandon position after postion. On the ground, on April 3, Lérida and Gandesa fell. 140 United States and British soldiers from the XV International Brigade became prisoners of the Nationalists. Also on this day, Aranda's troops saw the sea for the first time. In the north the Nationalist advance continued and by April 8, Barcelona's hydro-electric plants in the Pyrenees fell to the surging Nationalists. Barcelona's industries suffered a severe decline, and the old steam plants were restarted.^[16]

[edit] Notes