page_title: Battle of the Ebro
section_title: Republican assault
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of the Ebro / Battle / Republican assault
caption_attribution_description: Mapa con la distribución de fuerzas durante la Batalla del Ebro. Las bolsas de color rojo equivalen a divisiones del Ejército Popular con su denominación oficial. Las bolsas de color azul equivalen a las divisiones del Ejército Franquista con su denominación. Los cuadros que aparecen se refieren o bien a presencia de un Estado Mayor o de una unidad militar independiente.
context_page_description: The Battle of the Ebro 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 in the lower Matarranya, Eastern Lower Aragon. These sparsely populated areas saw the largest array of armies in the war. The battle was disastrous for the Second Spanish Republic, with tens of thousands left dead or wounded and little effect on the advance of the Nationalists.
context_section_description: The Republican Army spent a week preparing to cross the Ebro. According to the historian Antony Beevor, the commandos of the XIV Corps slipped across the river in order to obtain information about the Nationalist positions and the Republican troops rehearsed the crossing in ravines, and rivers on the coast. Some key players, including Ramón Rufat, explained in detail the intelligence gathering and preparation process. The Nationalist intelligence assets passed back reports to the Nationalist High Command, detailing troop movements and the concentration of the International Brigades, as well as the presence of rafts and pontoon bridges on the other side of the river, but Franco thought that the Republican Army would not be ready to undertake an offensive across the Ebro.
  For the crossing, the Republicans chose the bend of the Ebro River between Fayon and Benifallet, an area held by the 50th Division of the Nationalist Army. The Republican army started the crossing on the night of 24–25 July during a no moon period. Republican commandos crossed the river, killed the Nationalist guards and fastened lines for the assault boats, then the first Republican troops crossed in ninety boats (each of which carried ten men). The remaining troops of the V and XV Corps crossed the next day, using three pontoon bridges and another 12. The surprise was total and Republican forces were initially successful. Nevertheless, a secondary assault near Amposta, carried out by the XIV International Brigade, failed after 18 hours of combat, and the XIV International Brigade retreated, after suffering huge losses.
  During the first day, Republican troops surrounded the troops of the Colonel Campos’s 50th Division, taking 4,000 prisoners, and many other Nationalist soldiers deserted. By the evening, Tagueña had advanced three miles in the north and Lister twenty one in the center. By 26 July, the Republican troops had occupied 800 square kilometres and reached the outskirts of Gandesa; nevertheless the Nationalists deployed Barron’s 13th Division in the town and the Republican troops failed to occupy it.
  Then, Franco decided to send heavy reinforcements to the Ebro’s front (eight divisions, more than 140 bombers and 100 fighters) and passed the order for the dams at Tremp and Camarasa to be opened. The flood water destroyed the pontoon bridges, although the Republican engineers managed to repair them within two days. Furthermore, the Condor Legion and the Aviazione Legionaria started to bomb and destroy the pontoon bridges each day, although the Republican engineers managed to repair them each night. Because of this, only 22 tanks and a handful of artillery managed to cross the Ebro River, and Republican troops began running low on supplies, ammunition and drinking water.
caption: Positions of the Republican and nationalist armies before the battle (Nationalists in blue, Republicans in red)
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