Aragón Offensive

Aragon Offensive
Part of the Spanish Civil War
Date March 7, 1938 – April 19, 1938 Location Northeastern Spain Result Decisive Nationalist victory
Belligerents
Spanish Republic International Brigades	Nationalist Spain Corpo Truppe Volontarie Condor Legion
Commanders and leaders
Vicente Rojo Lluch Enrique Líster Karol Świerczewski Valentín González	Fidel Dávila Arrondo Juan Vigón Suerodíaz José Solchaga José Moscardó José Enrique Varela Antonio Aranda Juan Yagüe Mario Berti
Strength
100,000	Beevor: 150,000 Jackson: over 100,000 Preston: 100,000 Preston: 1,000 airplanes Jackson: 700 italian and 250 german airplanes Beevor: 600 airplanes 700 guns 150-200 tanks thousands of trucks
Casualties and losses
Very heavy including many captured	Nationalist: moderate; Italian: 731 dead 2,481 wounded 13 missing

The Aragon Offensive was a Nationalist campaign during the Spanish Civil War, which began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon, and conquered parts of Catalonia and the Levante.

The Battle of Teruel exhausted the material resources of the Republican Army, and wore out the veteran Republican troops. A slowdown of supplies from the Soviet Union exacerbated the difficulties of the Republican government, whose armament industry in Catalonia was already beleaguered. At the same time, however, Francisco Franco had concentrated the bulk of the Nationalist forces in the east and was preparing to drive through Aragon and into Catalonia and the Levante. The Nationalists were able to concentrate 100,000 men between Zaragoza and Teruel with the best troops in the lead. Even though the Nationalist army was numerically inferior to the Republican forces, the Nationalists were better equipped and had almost 950 airplanes, 200 tanks and thousands of trucks. In addition to his foreign aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Franco by this stage had the advantage of controlling the efficiently-run industries in the Basque Country.

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 Valiño constituted the main force. José Enrique Varela with the army of Castile was to stand by, on the wings of the attack, at Teruel. The Condor Legion was also on standby. Colonel Ritter Von Thoma, its commander, convinced Franco to concentrate his tanks rather than spread them out.

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Wikipedia