Aragon Offensive

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Aragon Offensive


caption=
partof=the Spanish Civil War
date=March 7, 1938 – April 19, 1938
place= Northeastern Spain
result=Decisive Nationalist victory
combatant1=flagicon|Spain|1931 Spanish Republic
combatant2=flagicon|Spain|1939 Nationalist Spain
flag|Italy|1861
flag|Nazi Germany
commander1=Vicente Rojo
Enrique Lister
Karol Świerczewski
El Campesino
commander2=Fidel Dávila Arrondo
Juan Vigón Suerodíaz
José Solchaga
José Moscardó
José Enrique Varela
Antonio Aranda
Juan Yagüe
Italian General Mario Berti
strength1=Over 100,000
strength2=100,000
casualties1=~heavy including many captured
casualties2=~moderate|

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.

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. [Gabriel Jackson, "The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-1939", (1965), p. 407.] 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. [Herbert L. Mathews, "Half of Spain Died, A Reappraisal of the Spanish Civil War", (1973), pp.15-16.] The Nationalists had almost 950 airplanes, 200 tanks and thousands of trucks. [Gabriel Jackson, p.407.] 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 its 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 production of the Anarchists. One 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...." [Hugh Purcell, p. 98, Colonel Vicente Rojo as quoted in Stanley G. Payne, "The Spanish Revolution", (1970).]

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. [Hugh Thomas, "The Spanish Civil War", (2001), pp. 776-777.]

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. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), p. 777.] The Republic could not replace its lost equipment as Soviet aid was starting to dry up. [Herbert L. Matthews, p. 16.] Essentially the Republican army was surprised by the Nationalist attack. The Nationalists had redeployed their forces much faster than the Republican general staff thought possible. Although warned by spies, the Republican generals convinced themselves that the Nationalists were going to resume the Guadalajara offensive. Another mistake that the Republican military leadership made was that they assumed that the Nationalists were as tired and worn out as the Republicans. [ Anthony Beevor, "The Battle for Spain, The Spanish Civil War 1936-39", (2006), p. 324.]

Attack begins

The attack began on March 7, 1938, preceded by a heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. [Hugh Thomas (2001), p. 777.] At 6:30 in the morning, three Nationalist armies attacked the Republican 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. [Cecil Eby, "Between the Bullet and the Lie, American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War", (1969), p. 207.] 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. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), p. 777.]

Everywhere the Republican forces were falling back. A large part of the army just ran, soldiers and officers, and the retreat became a rout. In addition, the spreading anti-Communist sentiment in the Republican Army helped spread the demoralization. The Communist commanders were accusing each other of various acts of wrongdoing or failure to act. Andre Marty and Enrique Lister attacked each other. [Anthony Beevor, pp.325, 326.] To protect his responsibility for the disaster, 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.

Republican disaster

Even as Rojo ordered the Republican concentration at Caspe, the Italians were approaching Alcañiz, and the Republican rout became absolute. Even where a Republican unit would fight effectively, it had to fall back because of the collapse of neighboring units. Entire units fell apart and desertions became rife. The Italian and German airplanes controlled the skies; their 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 days 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 the positions they had held when the battle started. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), p. 778.] This first part of the offensive punched a huge hole in the front, created a salient from Belchite to Caspe to Alcañiz and then back to Montalbán. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), p. 779.]

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 one day. The villages in eastern Aragon that had experienced social revolution either by their own actions 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, Lleida, but El Campesino held him off for a week, giving the Republicans a chance to withdraw with valuable equipment. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), pp. 778-779.]

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 officers sometimes being shot in front of their men. In general, the campaign seemed lost, and nobody knew where the rout would end. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), pp. 779-780]

End of the campaign

Air power decided this campaign. The plains of Aragon provided easy landing fields allowing rapid air support from close behind the front. Nationalist aircraft continually drove back the Republicans, forcing them to abandon position after position and attacked the retreating columns. Both Germans and Soviets learned valuable lessons about the use of fighters in support of infantry. On the ground, on April 3, Lleida and Gandesa fell. One hundred and forty American 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. The Nationalists could easily have taken Catalonia and Barcelona, but Franco made a decision to advance to the coast. This decision turned out to be a strategic mistake, but Franco had intelligence reports that to extend the conflict further into Catalonia might draw French intervention. He directed that the attack continue towards the sea. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), pp. 780-781.] By April 19, the Nationalists held forty miles of the Mediterranean coastline. This series of victories that started with Teruel inspired great confidence in the Nationalists that the war was almost won. [Hugh Thomas, (2001), p. 781.] In the meantime, the French had reopened the border, and military aid that had been purchased and piling up in France because of the embargo, streamed into Spain and to the Republican forces. This slowed the Nationalists and the Republican defense stiffened. The disaster was contained for the time being, and although the Nationalists pursued other attacks in the north toward the Segre River and in the Valencia area, the Aragon Offensive was for all intents and purposes concluded by April 19. The Nationalist attack was spent and the resistance on the coast was much more formidable.

Notes