Battle of the Ebro

Battle of the Ebro
Part of the Spanish Civil War
Date July 25 – November 16, 1938 Location Terra Alta and Lower Matarranya, Spain Result Decisive Nationalist victory territory loyal to the Spanish Republic split in two; backbone of the Republican Army broken
Belligerents
Second Spanish Republic International Brigades	Nationalist Spain Aviazione Legionaria Condor Legion
Commanders and leaders
Vicente Rojo Lluch Juan Modesto Enrique Líster Etelvino Vega Manuel Tagüeña	Fidel Davila Francisco Franco Juan Yagüe Rafael García Valiño Fernando Barron
Strength
80,000 Thomas:70–80 field batteries 27 anti-aircraft guns Beevor: 150 guns 22 T-26 tanks	90,000 July: 140 bombers 100 fighters 31 August: 300 guns 500 aircraft 100 tanks
Casualties and losses
Beevor: 30,000 dead Thomas: 10,000–15,000 dead Jackson: 10,000 Preston: 7,150 dead 20,000 wounded 19,563 captured 80 aircraft downed	Thomas: 6,500 dead Preston: 6,100 dead Jackson: 5,000 30,000 wounded 5,000 captured

90,000
July: 140 bombers 100 fighters

The Battle of the Ebro (Spanish: Batalla del Ebro, Catalan: Batalla de l'Ebre) was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War. It took place between July and November 1938, with fighting mainly concentrated in two areas on the lower course of the Ebro River, the Terra Alta comarca of Catalonia, and the Auts area close to Fayón (Faió) in the lower Matarranya, Eastern Lower Aragon. These sparsely populated areas saw the largest array of armies in the war. The results of the battle were disastrous for the Second Spanish Republic, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded and little effect on the advance of the Nationalists.

By 1938, the Second Spanish Republic was in dire straits. The Republican Northern zone had fallen, and in the winter of 1937/38 the Republican Popular Army had spent its forces in the Battle of Teruel, a series of bloody combats in subzero temperatures around the city of Teruel, which ended up being retaken by the Francoist army in February.

Then, the Nationalists launched an offensive in Aragon in March without giving their enemies a chance to recover. Fighting in the middle of bitter winter temperatures, the exhausted Republican army could offer only feeble resistance. By April 15, Franco's troops reached the Mediterranean Sea at Vinaròs, cutting Republican territory in two. As a result, the Nationalist army conquered Lleida and the hydroelectric dams that provided much of the Catalan industrial areas with electricity.

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Wikipedia