Battle of Teruel The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War . The combatants fought the battle between December 1937 and February 1938 , during the worst Spanish winter in twenty years . The battle was one of the bloodier actions of the war with the city changing hands several times , first falling to the Republicans and eventually being re - taken by the Nationalists . In the course of the fighting , Teruel was subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment . The two sides suffered over 140 , 000 casualties between them in the two - month battle . It was a decisive battle of the war , as Francisco Franco ' s use of his superiority in men and material in regaining Teruel made it the military turning point of the war . Background . The Republic ' s decision to move against Teruel was motivated by several strategic priorities . Republican military leaders thought that Teruel was not strongly held and sought to regain the initiative through its capture . By 1937 , the Teruel salient was similar to the fingernail on a fat finger of Nationalist territory inserted into Republican Spain , and its capture would shorten the lines of communication between central Republican Spain and Valencia on the coast . Teruel was surrounded on three sides by Republican Spain . In addition , Teruel was a symbol of Nationalist power on the Aragon Front . Indalecio Prieto , Republican Minister of War , wanted a spectacular victory to reflect well on his tenure in the war department and to show how the army could function under his reorganization . A victory at Teruel would also aid the government of Prime Minister Juan Negrín in its quest to take over the industries of Catalonia from their workers . Lastly , Republican intelligence learned that Franco intended to start a major offensive against Madrid in the Guadalajara sector on 18 December , leading the Republican to want to divert the Nationalists away from the Madrid area . The Republic therefore started the battle on 15 December . Terrain . Teruel , located in Southern Aragon , population , 20 , 000 was the bleak walled capital of a poor province , renowned for the glum legend of the Lovers of Teruel . It had been fortified in 1170 to buffer the warring Moorish and Christian states ; in 1937 it served essentially the same purpose , separating the Republicans in Valencia from the Nationalists in Zaragoza . Because of its elevation in the mountains ( 3 , 050 feet high ) , it usually had the lowest annual winter temperature in Spain . The town was Spain ' s remotest provincial capital , a gloomy , walled and mountain - ringed natural fortress . The town itself sits on a high knoll above the confluence of the Turia and Alfambra rivers . It is surrounded by a geological potpourri of scragged gorges , tooth - shaped peaks , and twisted ridge fingers . West of the town , however , the Calatayud highway runs up a slight gradient to a pancake - flat plain around the village of Concud , about three miles away . A key position was the ridge to the west of the town known as " La Muela de Teruel " — Teruel ' s Tooth . Teruel ' s defensive position was much improved by previously prepared trenches and wire because of its position protruding into Republican territory . Combatants . The Republican Army was under the command of Juan Hernández Saravia , who had reorganized the army almost from scratch . The Republicans had 100 , 000 men in two armies . The total Republican force had 100 , 000 men . The Army of the Levante was to conduct the main part of the assault supported by the Army of the East . Saravia wanted the coup de main against Teruel to be an all Spanish operation without the assistance of the International Brigades . Among his commanders was the trustworthy and able Communist commander , Enrique Líster , so Saravia chose Lister ' s division to lead the first assault . Colonel Domingo Rey d ' Harcourt was the Nationalist commander at Teruel when the battle began . The Teruel salient had a Nationalist defending force of about 9 , 500 men and that would include civilians . After the attack began , Rey d ' Harcourt eventually consolidated his remaining defenders into a garrison to defend the town . The Teruel Nationalist garrison numbered between 2 , 000 and 6 , 000 according to various estimates . The garrison was probably about 4 , 000 and half of those were civilians . Battle . Lister ' s Republican division attacked Teruel , in falling snow , on December 15 , 1937 , without preliminary aerial or artillery preparation . Lister and fellow commander Colonel Enrique Fernández Heredia moved to surround the town . They immediately took a position on Teruel ' s Tooth , and by evening encircled Teruel . Rey d ' Harcourt pulled his defenses into the town , and by December 17 gave up trying to keep a foothold on Teruel ' s Tooth . Francisco Franco , Nationalist Commander , finally decided on December 23 , to aid the defenders at Teruel . Franco decided as a matter of policy that no provincial capital must fall to the Republicans . That would be a political failure , and Franco determined to make no concession to the enemy . Franco had just started a major offensive at Guadalajara and to relieve Teruel meant he had to abandon that offensive much to the disgust of his Italian and German allies . The Nationalist relief of Teruel also signified that Franco was giving up the idea of a knockout blow to end the war , and was accepting a long war of attrition to be won by weight of arms and foreign aid . Republican advances and the siege . By December 21 , the Republican forces were in the town . Ernest Hemingway and two journalists , one being New York Times correspondent , Herbert Matthews , accompanied the assaulting troops entering Teruel . Rey d ' Harcourt , the Nationalist commander , however , pulled his remaining defenders back to an area where he could make a last stand in the south part of the town . By Christmas Day the Nationalists still occupied a cluster of four key points , the Civil Governor ' s Building , the Bank of Spain , the Convent of Santa Clara and the Seminary . Republican Radio Barcelona announced that Teruel had fallen , but Rey d ' Harcourt and the remnants of the 4 , 000 man garrison still held out . The siege continued with fighting hand to hand and building to building . The Republicans would intensely shell a building with artillery and then move in with the bayonet . Nationalist relief attempts . Franco canceled the Guadalajara offense on December 23 , but the relief force could not begin its attack until December 29 . All Franco could do was send messages to Rey d ' Harcourt to hold out at all costs . In the meantime the Republicans pressed home their attack in atrocious weather . The Nationalist attack began on schedule on December 29 with the experienced Nationalist generals Antonio Aranda and José Enrique Varela in command . The Condor Legion covered the attack . By New Year ' s Eve with a supreme effort , the Nationalists were on Teruel ' s Tooth and actually broke into the town to take the bull ring and the railway station . The Nationalists could not hold the gains within the town , however . Then the weather actually turned for the worse with the start of a four - day blizzard , four feet of snow falling and temperatures of minus 18 C . Fighting ground to a halt as guns and machines froze , and the troops suffered terribly from frostbite . The Nationalists suffered the worse from the cold as they did not have warm clothing . Many amputations were performed to remove frozen limbs . Franco continued to pour in men and machines and the tide slowly started to turn . The Republicans pressed home the siege however , and by New Year ' s Day , 1938 , the defenders of the Convent were dead . The Civil Governor ' s Building fell on January 3 , but Rey d ' Harcourt fought on . Ernest Hemingway was present during the fall of the Governor ' s Building . The attackers and defenders were on different stories of the building and fired at each other through holes in the floors . The defenders now had no water , few medical supplies and little food . Their defenses were piles of ruins , but still they held out . The Nationalist advances were stalled because of the weather , and finally Rey d ' Harcourt , with the Bishop of Teruel , at his side , gave up on 8 January . Teruel had fallen to the Republicans . The Republicans , in one of their last acts of the Civil War , killed Rey d ' Harcourt along with forty - two other prisoners including Anselmo Polanco , Bishop of Teruel . After Rey d ' Harcourt ' s surrender , the civilian population of Teruel was evacuated and the Republicans became the besieged and the Nationalists the besiegers . The Nationalist counter - offensive . After Rey d ' Harcourt ' s surrender , the Nationalist buildup began to tell on the Republican forces . With the weather clearing , the Nationalists started a new advance on 17 January 1938 . Two days later the Republican leadership finally gave up its scruples about the Battle of Teruel being an all Spanish operation and ordered the International Brigades to join the struggle . Many of these units had been in the area but in reserve . Celebrities and politicians entertained and visited the units during this time . American pro - Communist singer , Paul Robeson , sang for them on Christmas Eve with a repertoire that included L ' Internationale and ended with Ol ' Man River . Future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Clement Attlee , left - wing Labour politician , Ellen Wilkinson and future Labour Government official and diplomat Philip Noel - Baker visited a British unit . Both high commands now were in heated trains , near the battlefield , and directing their troops in the final part of the battle . Slowly but surely , the Nationalists advanced . Teruel ' s Tooth fell to them . The Republican forces launched fierce counterattacks on 25 January and the next two days , but gains were temporary . Finally on 7 February , the Nationalists attacked north of Teruel . This was a weak area since most Republican forces had been concentrated to the south around Teruel itself . A massive cavalry charge , one of the last in the history of warfare ( there were one or two exceptions near the Caspian Sea in World War II ) , broke the Republican defenses and scattered them . Aranda and Yagüe swiftly advanced and the victory was complete . The Nationalists took thousands of prisoners and thousands of tons of supplies and munitions . Those Republicans who could , ran for their lives . The final battle began on 18 February . Aranda and Yagüe cut off the town from the north and then surrounded it similar to what the Republicans accomplished in December . On 20 February , Teruel was cut off from the former Republican capital in Valencia , and with the Nationalists entering the town , Hernández Saravia gave the order of withdrawal . Most of the army escaped before the route was cut off , but about 14 , 500 men were trapped . Colorful Communist Republican commander , El Campesino , was surrounded but eventually broke out to escape . He always claimed that Lister and other Communist commanders had left him to his fate hoping he would be killed or captured . The Nationalists finally recaptured Teruel on 22 February . The Nationalists found 10 , 000 Republican corpses in Teruel . The battle was over . Aftermath . The Battle of Teruel exhausted the resources of the Republican Army . The Spanish Republican Air Force could not replace the airplanes and arms that it lost in the Battle of Teruel . On the other hand , the Nationalists concentrated the bulk of their forces in the east as they prepared to drive through Aragon into Catalonia and the Levante . Franco had the edge on resupply as the Nationalists now controlled the efficiently run industrial might in the Basque Country . The Republican Government , however , had to leave the armament industry in Catalonia in the hands of the 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 . . . " Franco ' s act of retaking Teruel was a bitter blow to the Republic after the high hopes engendered by its capture . The recapture of Teruel also removed the last obstacle to Franco ' s breakthrough to the Mediterranean Sea . Franco did not waste much time and began the Aragon Offensive on March 7 , 1938 . The Republic had withdrawn its best troops for rebuilding purposes after the loss of Teruel on February 22 , and the Republicans , still reeling from the heavy losses at Teruel , made little resistance . The Nationalists rolled through Aragon , entered Catalonia and Valencia Province , reached the sea , and by April 19 , 1938 , controlled forty miles of coast line , thereby cutting the Republic in two . Laurie Lee , British poet and writer , who , by his account , served in the International Brigade , sums up the Republican strategy of attacking Teruel . " The gift of Teruel at Christmas had become for the Republicans no more than a poisoned toy . It was meant to be the victory that would change the war ; it was indeed the seal of defeat . " Casualties . Casualties from the Battle of Teruel are difficult to estimate . The Nationalist relief force lost about 14 , 000 dead , 16 , 000 wounded and 17 , 000 sick . In the original Teruel defensive force including the garrison , casualties were about 9 , 500 and nearly all were dead or captured . That is a total of 56 , 500 casualties for the Nationalists . It is very likely that the Republican casualties were 50 % higher so that would be about 84 , 750 . The Republicans lost a large number of prisoners . Round figures would be Nationalists 57 , 000 and Republicans 85 , 000 for a total of 142 , 000 . To round down to an even number would make a total casualty list for both sides over 140 , 000 . Celebrities at Teruel . Mathews , Hemingway , Robeson and the British politicians have been mentioned previously , and the battle certainly attracted many other such celebrities . One of them was Soviet spy Kim Philby , who was nominally a correspondent for " The Times " covering the war from the Nationalist side . Evidently he was already under Moscow ' s orders in Spain but wrote glowing reports about Franco . Near Teruel in December 1937 , a shell hit an automobile in which Philby and three other journalists ( Bradish Johnson , Eddie Neil and Ernest Sheepshanks ) were riding . Philby was the only survivor . Franco personally decorated Philby to Philby ' s great exhilaration .