Battle of the Ebro – History Wars Weapons About Battle of the Ebro The Battle of the Ebro took place in Spain, from July 24 to November 15, 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. It was fought between the Nationalist forces, composed of 90,000 men, under General Fidel Davila, and the Republican army, made up of 85,000 troops and commanded by Juan Modesto. Both armies were reinforced by foreign units: the Nationalists, who had risen up in arms against the socialist Republican government, were reinforced by the Condor Legion , while the Soviet-backed Republican Army had been shored up by the International Brigades, guerrilla units formed by volunteers that came from different countries, such as the Soviet Union, Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The Republican commanders were also assisted by Soviet military advisers. Having crossed the Ebro at different points on the night of July 24, 1938, the Republicans attacked the Nationalist positions on the other side of the river, taking several thousand prisioners of war during the first couple of weeks.

However, German and Italian aircraft from the Condor Legion destroyed the bridges across the river, stopping the socialist offensive. Then, the Nationalist army counter-attacked, annihilating more than half of the Republican Army of the Ebro, which had got trapped between the river and the enemy forces. By November 16, the Nationalist Army had recovered all the lost territory and cities and crossed the Ebro, setting up new military bases on the other side of the river. With about 26,000 soldiers killed in action on both sides, the Battle of the Ebro was the fiercest military engagement of the Spanish Civil War and the last socialist offensive against the Spanish Army. Map showing the Republican offensive across the Ebro before being mauled to pieces by the Nationalist counter-attacks Battle of the Ebro | The Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War Battle of the Ebro The Battle of the Ebro was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Tens of thousands of men were butchered between July and November 1938. The defeat spelled disaster for the Republic as it effectively finished the state’s chances of resistance to Franco’s armies.

Area of the Battle of the Ebre – excellent site with lots of tourist information about how to visit the Ebro Battle sites At midnight between 24th and 25th July, 1938, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Modesto, soldiers of the newly formed Army of the Ebro, crossed the river, breaking through the defensive lines of General Yagüe’s Moroccan Army. The Battle of the Ebro (as we know it today) had begun. Spartacus Schoolnet — Battle of the Ebro – feature an excellent series of quotes including this one from Jack Jones There were many casualties and I became one of them. Once more I had clambered up the hill with my comrades, taking cover where we could and firing at the enemy wherever he appeared. The bullets of the snipers whizzed over, grenades and shells were striking the ground, throwing up earth and dust and showering us with shrapnel. Suddenly my shoulder and right arm went numb. Blood gushed from my shoulder and I couldn’t lift my rifle. I could do nothing but lie where I was. Near me a comrade had been killed and I could hear the cries of others, complaining of their wounds.

While I was lying there, to make things worse, a spray of shrapnel hit my right arm. The stretcher bearers were doing their best but could hardly keep up with the number of casualties. As night fell I made my own way, crawling to the bottom of the hill. I was taken with other wounded men down the line to an emergency field hospital at Mora del Ebro where I was given an anti-tetanus injection. The place was like an abattoir; there was blood and the smell of blood everywhere. Maps of the Civil War in Catalonia – superb maps detailing the battle from an Atlas to the Civil War in Catalonia (in Catalan) Battle of the Ebro – Wikipedia This was the longest and bloodiest 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 sparsley-populated areas saw the largest array of armies in the Civil War.

The results of the battle were disastrous for the Second Spanish Republic with tens of thousands of dead and wounded, with little effect on the relentless advance of the Nationalists. Leave a Reply The Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War Home » 20th Century - The Last Wars » The Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War It all began with a coup d'etat on July, 1936, carried out by a part of the army against the Second Spanish Republic, carefully planned by José Sanjurjo , Emilio Mola (who commanded the uprising) and Francisco Franco among other generals. The coup was more successful where in the zones where the people had voted for the right wing, and failed where the Popular Front was victorious, such as in Madrid and Barcelona. The Republican side fought for the legitimate government of Spain, the Popular Front (a coalition made up of left wing parties supported by unions and labor movements). The rebel side, who called themselves "national side", made up of the high military ranks and supported by the Spanish Falange (fascist movements), the Catholic Church and the conservative right, as well as the highest Spanish classes, who saw their interest at risk after the Popular Front won the elections.

The nationalist parties defended the institution of a totalitarian state. The monarchists wanted the return of Alfonso XIII. The carlists wished to implement a new dynasty. But they did have something in common and this was the fear of the most fervent anticlericalism and possible proletariat uprises. Spain divided The coup mostly failed and the country was divided into two parts, giving way to one of the bloodiest civil wars of the 20th Century: the Spanish Civil War. The national side had Castile and Galicia's cereal and grain reserve and the cattle, as well as the León and Riotinto (Huelva) carbon mines. Above all it had a much more prepared army and the Spanish Legion, the Regulars and the African Army . The republican zone kept the industrial regions, wheat from La Mancha and orchard produce from Levante (eastern Spain), as well as the gold reserves of Banco de España. However the army units were quite disjointed, as most officers rebelled. The Navy (without many of its officers) and the air force remained in Republican hands. After the war broke out, the national side was commanded by a group of generals who established a militarized and authoritarian state.

Of course the state structures of the second Spanish republic were destroyed. The Popular Front lost control of the situation and power fell to organized labor committees who were not subject to any kind of centralized power. The repression was enormous from both sides. Executions and murder were the order of the day. On the national side, most of it's strength was directed to labor and peasant militants, but also against some intellectuals such as Federico García Lorca . The ones who suffered the republican repression were mostly priests and clerics and some lays related to church, and the wealthier classes. After the initial chaos, where all hell broke loose, both the government and the military authorities regained control, and the repression became much more organized. The nationalist forces received help from Portugal, Italy and Germany. The USSR supported the Popular Front and they also had help from Mexico (the Mexican revolution had taken place recently). In a way, it was a preview of what was to come during the Second World War, when Europe was divided into fascist regimes and those who wanted to maintain their independence. However France, Great Britain and USA stayed out of it, either because they didn't want to get into a conflict with Germany or because they preferred the nationalist side to win.

During the first few days of war the outcome was uncertain, and it was still possible that the insurrections would be crushed, but upon the 5th day (July 21) all hope of a quick resolution died when the rebels conquered the naval port Ferrol. This triumph encouraged fascist powers to support the nationalists. On the following days general Sanjurjo died in a plane accident and the command of the rebels went to Franco and Emilio Mola . Mola would be the only one to contend with Franco for a while. A key element to understand the final triumph of the nationalists was the help given by German and Italian planes, which allowed the quick transportation of the African Army to the Peninsula. The Spanish Legion and the Regulars were professional forces that by far surpassed the disorganized labour and peasant militias and the Popular Front. They made a quick advance to Madrid. However on they way, general Yagüe decided to make a detour to Badajoz. The city fell and the brutal repression that followed was one of themost brutal of the war and shocked the whole world. There were huge losses.

The Battle of Madrid On October 1936, the nationalist forces under the command of José Enrique Varela arrived at Madrid's outskirts and in November, the battle of Madrid began. Soon they took over Alcorcón, Leganés, Getafe and Cuatro Vientos. The fall of the capital into rebel troops seemed imminent. After witnessing the nationalist forces' military superiority, left wing parties and labor unions encouraged the people to rise in defense of their city. They shouted"¡No Pasarán!" ("they won't get through"). The morale of the Madrileños increased at the arrival of external reinforcements. The International Brigades and bodies of voluntaries organized by the communist party, as well as Russian tanks and planes came to help to defend the capital, and for now the Battle of Madrid's outcome was still uncertain. The city was bombed by German Junker planes and fierce combat took place in Casa de Campo, Ciudad Universitaria and Puente de los Franceses. The republican troops managed to resist and finally Francisco Franco ordered a frontal assault of the city, however he did not succeed.

Other important battles After Francisco Franco failed to take Madrid he planned to encircle the city which resulted in the battles of Guadalajara and Jarama in March 1937, with victories for the republicans and the battle of Brunete with nationalist victory, however it was still inconclusive. Malaga had been recently taken by nationalist forces. Now Franco planned a new strategy. He would no longer try to shorten the war, but attack the Republican's weakest spots. In the spring of that same year, the Nationalist troops conquered the northern part of the country that was still Republican and also isolated: Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias. The famous bombing of Guernica took place during this campaign, when a German air group sent by Hitler bombed a city that posed no military interest in the Spanish Civil War theatre and devastated it. It inspired Pablo Picasso 's most famous painting: Guernica. During the Basque campaign general Mola died in a plane accident. Soon the Nationalist troops had conquered all of the north of Spain with grave consequences for the Republicans. Not only did they lose the carbon and iron mines, but it also meant that franquista troops were able to concentrate all their entire force towards the south.

In December 1937, an intensive republican offensive took place in Teruel, but they failed. After securing Teruel, Francisco Franco attacked Aragon. On April 15, 1938 the nationalist troops arrived at Vinaroz and the Republican zone was divided in two. The last republican campaign lead to the Battle of the Ebro in July of the same year, it resulted in more than 100,000 deaths, and it finally exhausted the republican morale and reserves. The last Nationalist operation was against Catalonia. After taking Barcelona, the franquist forces got access to the French borders in February 1939. There had been a huge exodus, and more than 500,000 people had escaped to France, they were contained in refugee camps. It was the end of the Spanish civil war. Aftermath and consequences It's impossible to calculate the number of casualties and only an approximation can be made, but it is estimated that some 500,000 died (though some versions say it's closer to one million) Thousands were exiled, many of them to France and South America.

The rebels -or Nationalists- successfully overthrew the Republican government and claimed victory. Francisco Franco established a conservative dictatorship and all the right-wing parties assimilated into Franco's regime. The Spanish Civil War inspired several important artists; there are thousands of paintings, novels, poetry and films that recount this dark time in Spanish history. It also effectively changed the Spanish school of thought in regards to war. Up until today there are serious war crimes investigated. Tombs have been dug up, parents whose children were taken for them are still trying to find them, investigations to find Garcia Lorca's body are being still underway. This was only possible after Franco's death in 1975 but every year, new information keeps appearing that proves once and for all how macabre and shocking the events of the civil war really were. © 2012, Spanish Wars. | Sitemap. The Spanish Civil War: An Overview--by Cary Nelson The Spanish Civil War: An Overview Cary Nelson In a longer historical perspective the Spanish Civil War amounts to the opening battle of World War II, perhaps the only time in living memory when the world confrontedin fascism and Nazismsomething like unqualified evil.

The men and women who understood this early on and who chose of their own free will to stand against fascism have thus earned a special status in history. Viewed internally, on the other hand, the Spanish Civil War was the culmination of a prolonged period of national political unrestunrest in a country that was increasingly polarized and repeatedly unable to ameliorate the conditions of terrible poverty in which millions of its citizens lived. Spain was a country in which landless peasants cobbled together a bare subsistence living by following the harvests on vast, wealthy agricultural estates. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church, identifying more with wealthy landowners than with the Spanish people, was in full control of secondary education; education for women seemed to them unnecessary and universal literacy a danger rather than a goal. Divorce was illegal. The military, meanwhile, had come to see itself, rather melodramatically, as the only bulwark against civil disorder and as the ultimate guarantor of the core values of Spanish society. When a progressive Popular Front government was elected in February 1936, with the promise of realistic land reform one of its key planks, conservative forces immediately gathered to plan resistance.

The Spanish Left, meanwhile, celebrated the elections in a way that made conservative capitalists, military officers, and churchmen worried that much broader reform might begin. Rumors of plotting for a military coup led leaders of the Republic to transfer several high-ranking military officers to remote postings, the aim being to make communication and coordination between them more difficult. But it was not enough. The planning for a military rising continued. The military rebellion took place on July 18, with the officers who organized it expecting a quick victory and a rapid takeover of the entire country. What the military did not anticipate was the determination of the Spanish people, who broke into barracks, took up arms, and crushed the rebellion in key areas like the cities of Madrid and Barcelona. It was at that point that the character of the struggle changed, for the military realized they were not going to win by fiat. Instead they faced a prolonged struggle against their own people and an uncertain outcome. They appealed to fascist dictatorships in Italy, Germany, and Portugal for assistance, and they soon began receiving both men and supplies from Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Antonio Salazar.

The 1936 Spanish election had already been widely celebrated as a great victory in progressive publications in Britain, France, and the United States. In the midst of a worldwide depression, the military rising was thus immediately seen as an assault against working people's interests everywhere. But the rapid intervention of German and Italian troops gave what might otherwise have remained a civil war a dramatic international character. Almost from the outset, then, the Spanish Civil War became a literal and symbolic instance of the growing worldwide struggle between fascism and democracy. Indeed, the Republic, the elected government, perceived the country as being invaded by foreign troops. By the time the pilots of Hitler's Condor Legion reduced the Basque's holy city of Guernica to rubble the following April, many in the rest of the world had come to share that opinion as well. It is important to remember in this context the curiously contradictory character of life during the Great Depression. Hand in hand with widespread poverty and suffering went a certain fervent hope for change and a belief in the possibility of finding collective solutions to common economic problems. The government elected in Spain in 1936 seemed like it would contribute materially to those solutions.

Fascism, on the other hand, presented the forces of reaction in their most violent form. Its territorial ambitions became apparent when Japan invaded Manchuria in the winter of 1931-32 and when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Meanwhile, Hitler elevated religious and racial hatred to national policy almost immediately after establishing his dictatorship in 1933. A relentless series of anti-Semitic campaigns, beginning with a 1933 boycott of Jewish firms and followed by the formal liquidation of Jewish businesses and a prohibition against Jewish doctors continuing their medical practices, culminated in 1935 when Jews were stripped of all rights of citizenship. When Hitler and Mussolini immediately allied themselves with Franco, and when Franco himself began to make pronouncements about conducting a holy war against a progressive conspiracyrhetoric with long-standing anti-Semitic connotationsthe cultural and political status of the Republic's enemies became clear. In retrospect, it seems possible that world history might have proceeded differently had the democracies taken a strong stand against fascism in Spain in 1936. But they did not.

Despite almost universal support for the Republic amongst British intellectuals and widespread support amongst the working classes, the British government preferred not to act. It was not only that they feared anything that might lead to a wider war in Europe, a fear that would eventually lead to the infamous Munich appeasement policy of 1938, but also that British businessmen and a majority of the British Cabinet felt more sympathetic with Franco. Large corporations in America also worked on Franco's behalf. In France, the government's sympathies were with the Republic, but the government was weak and feared not only a wider war but also any acts that might alienate its own military. After providing the Loyalist government with a score of planes, France decided instead to propose an international policy of Non-Intervention that would bar all foreign aid to Spain. In fact, if Franco and the rebellious generals had been denied Italy's and Germany's aid in the early days of the war, the rebellion might well have collapsed. But Hitler and Mussolini simply ignored the Non-Intervention agreement. Meanwhile, Mexico responded by shipping rifles to the Republic, and the Soviet Union sold the Spanish government arms in exchange for Spain's gold reserves.

But it was not enough over time to counter-balance the men and supplies Franco received. Over and over again throughout the war government campaigns would be overwhelmed by superior arms. And just as frequently in the letters that follow you will hear the hope that non-intervention will be overturned. For the Americans this was not an abstract matter. Better machine guns would have kept some of them alive at Jarama. More planes and artillery would have made a difference at the Ebro. On July 18, 1936, a carefully coordinated series of military uprisings were staged all across Spain. Success or failure sometimes depended on accident or clever strategy. In one small city the military commander pretended to support the Republic, armed the workers, and sent them to help secure Madrid; he then took over for the rebels. In Barcelona, on the other hand, anarchist workers seized arms and put down the rebellion with violent street fighting. After a few days, the rebels held about a third of the country, though there were large stretches of Spain under no real military control. Meanwhile, the government kept control of most of the navy when ships' crews rose up and threw their rebellious officers overboard.

That left the rebel generals in serious difficulty, for their best troops, the Army of Africa, were in Morocco with no means of transport to the mainland. At that point Hitler and Mussolini provided support that proved criticalplanes to move the Army of Africa, now under command of General Francisco Franco, to Seville. It would be the first major air-lift of troops in military history. Hitler would later observe that "Franco ought to erect a monument to the glory of the Junkers 52. It is this aircraft that the Spanish revolution has to thank for its victory" (Thomas, 370). The first battles in the field, still in mid-July, took place over the mountain passes that would have given the rebels access to the capital city of Madrid. The people of Madrid had organized into militias based on political affiliation, and these untrained troops paid dearly to defend the passes through the Guadarrama mountains to the city's north. In any case, the battles resulted in a stalemate. The rebels, now calling themselves the Nationalists, began to organize to attack Madrid from the southwest. Four columns moved across the Spanish countryside, systematically murdering government supporters in each town they captured.

On October 1 Franco took overall command of the rebel armies. Meanwhile, in the major cities a period of chaos was coming to an end. For a time the militias had carried out summary executions against their enemies, but gradually more centralized control prevailed. As the rebel columns approached Madrid there was widespread expectation that the city would fall. The government fled to Valencia, leaving the city's defense to General Miaja. Then several remarkable events occurred. On November 7 Madrid's defenders found a highly detailed plan for the conquest of the city on the body of a fascist officer. The plan was so specific that the Loyalists concluded it could not be changed even if the rebels guessed it might have been captured, and it enabled the city to position its best forces exactly where they would do the most good. The following day the first International Brigades marched through the city, signalling world support for the city's defenders and placing a number of people with battlefield experience at key points. That night Fernando Valera, a Republican deputy, read this statement over the air: Here in Madrid is the universal frontier that separates liberty and slavery.

It is here in Madrid that two incompatible civilizations undertake their great struggle: love against hate, peace against war, the fraternity of Christ against the tyranny of the Church . . . . This is Madrid. It is fighting for Spain, for humanity, for justice, and, with the mantle of its blood, it shelters all human beings! Madrid! Madrid! The Spanish capital had come to stand for something much more than itself; it was now the heart of the world. For a time, indeed, international volunteers often declared themselves off to defend Madrid. The first volunteers came spontaneously, though their individual decisions were often based in antifascism. A number of foreign nationals were in Barcelona for the "Peoples' Olympiad," scheduled in protest against the 1936 Olympics to be held in Berlin. When the Olympiad was cancelled by the outbreak of war, some of these men and women stayed on to fight. British painter Felicia Brown joined the street fighting in Barcelona and was killed in August. Two British cyclists in France crossed the border and volunteered. Andr� Malraux, the French novelist, organized a squadron of a dozen pilots, the "Escuadrilla Espa�a," based first in Barcelona and then in Madrid.

Before long, American volunteers were in the skies over Madrid as well. But perhaps most telling of all decisions to volunteer were those by German and Italian exiles from fascism, some of them escapees from Nazi concentration camps. Some were already living in Barcelona; others made their way to Spain from elsewhere in Europe. It was thus in Spain that German and Italian antifascists in significant numbers took up arms against the fascist powers they could not fight at home. German volunteers formed the Thaelmann Centuria; Italians organized themselves into the Gastone-Sozzi Battalion and the Giustizia e Libert� Column. In all, perhaps 1,000-1,500 foreign volunteers fought in the Barcelona area in the opening two months of the war. Not many lived to see the war's end. Two years later, in September of 1938, other German volunteers, now members of the Thaelmann Battalion in the International Brigades, were occupying a hill of unforgiving rock in the Sierra Pandols west of the Ebro river. They faced a vastly superior fascist force in full counterattack and were ordered to retreat.

Their reply came back, saying, in effect, "Sorry, we've retreated before fascism too many times. We're staying." Shortly thereafter their positions were overrun. The International Brigades themselves became a reality when the Moscow-based Comintern (Communist International) decided to act on Spain's behalf. Negotiations with the Spanish government took place in late October. Stalin's motivations, no doubt, were pragmatic. He probably hoped, for example, to use an alliance to help the Spanish Republic as a way of building a general antifascist alliance with the Western democracies. But it was too soon. That alliance would come, but only after Munich, after Spain had fallen, and after the West tried every imaginable means of appeasing Hitler. In any case, early in November, about the time the attack on Madrid commenced, word reached New York to begin recruiting Americans for service in Spain. Although the task had to be carried out in secret, it was less difficult than one might think, for antifascism was already intense among the American Left. Indeed, future Lincoln Battalion members were already taking public stands. Poet and journalist Edwin Rolfe began publishing newspaper articles attacking Nazism in 1934.

In Philadelphia, Ben Gardner was arrested for disorderly conduct at a demonstration at the German consulate. A pro-German judge sentenced him to a year in the county jail. And in New York harbor in 1935 seaman Bill Bailey scaled the mast of a German passenger ship, the Bremen, that was flying the swastika. With the enraged crew shouting beneath him, Bailey cut the black flag loose and flung it into the water. Two years later these men would all be in Spain. Despite the diversity of their backgrounds, one may make some generalizations about the Americans who volunteered. The youngest were three eighteen-year-olds, the oldest were fifty-nine and sixty. Over eighty of the volunteers were African Americans, and the International Brigades were entirely integrated. In fact, the Lincoln Battalion was commanded for a time by Oliver Law, an African-American volunteer from Chicago, until he died in battle. It was the first time in American history that an integrated military force was led by an African American officer. Most of the American volunteers were unmarried, although, as their letters reveal, many had relationships back home they tried to sustain by correspondence. Their median age was twenty-seven, their median birth date 1910.

About eighteen percent came from New York and most of the rest came from other cities. Perhaps a third were Jews. By the time large numbers of American volunteers began to arrive in Spain early in 1937, the flamboyant early days of the militias were over. The militias had been reorganized into Mixed Brigades more firmly under government control. In those first months untrained and lightly trained men and women had held the fascist advance at the very outskirts of the capital. Barricades had been thrown up across Madrid's streets in anticipation of fighting in the city itself. As the front stabilized, the University campus overlooking the wooded Casa de Campo on the city's western edge was heavily entrenched, with both sides holding some of the shattered buildings. Mount Garibitas, the highest point in the area, was taken by the fascists and provided a good site from which to shell the city. But the Republic's fully organized People's Army was yet a dream; it would take the bloodletting at Jarama, described in Chapter 3, to persuade many of its necessity.

Meanwhile, most Americans passed through the massive fort at Figueras near the border and headed on to Albacete, a provincial capital midway between Madrid and Valencia that was the administrative center for the International Brigades. From there they moved to one of several nearby villages where individual battalions trained. In March an overconfident Italian-Spanish force commanded by one of Mussolini's Generals, Mario Roatta, suffered an embarrassing defeat at the battle of Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid. That, for all practical purposes, put an end to major assaults on the capital, though it continued to be shelled throughout the war. The next important battles took place in northern Spain, as Franco set out to overrun the isolated Basque provinces loyal to the Republic. On April 26 Hitler's Condor Legions firebombed the ancient Basque town of Guernica, a place of no military importance, and reduced it to rubble. It was the single most telling indication of fascist ruthlessness toward civilians to date, a lesson residents of cities in Europe and England would themselves learn in time. It led Picasso to produce his massive painting "Guernica," perhaps the most famous work of graphic art to come out of the war.

Meanwhile, the Spanish government attempted to take pressure off the north with a major offensive west of Madrid in the summer of 1937. It was called the battle of Brunete. Though Franco's northern campaign was delayed, it did not stop. After eighty days of fighting, Bilbao was taken on June 19th, Santander on August 26th. Meanwhile, the Popular Front government (a coalition of middle-class republicans, moderate socialists, and communists) had endured a civil war within the civil war in Catalonia. The government was about to integrate the remaining Catalan militias into the People's Army, a step the radical Left regarded as "a euphemism for disarmament and repression of the class-conscious revolutionary workers" (Jackson, 119). Believing that the government was exclusively concerned with defeating Franco and indifferent or antagonistic toward the major social revolution needed in Spain, an anti-Stalinist Marxist group, the POUM, provoked several days of rioting and sporadic fighting in early May of 1937 in Barcelona. They were joined by the more radical contingents of Catalonian anarchists.

This gave the Spanish communistsa rather small party at the outset of the war that had gained membership and prestige in the months sincethe excuse they needed to crush the POUM, a group they reviled beyond reason. In the ensuing crackdown the POUM leader Andr�s Nin was taken prisoner and murdered, and other enemies of the Communist Party were tortured. By mid-June the POUM had been declared illegal. For some, this meant the betrayal of all the more utopian aims of the Spanish Left and a certain disillusionment with the cause of the Republic. For others, a crackdown seemed essential because a unified leadership focused on winning the war was indeed necessary; a full social revolution would have to wait until fascism was defeated. What is clear is that the internal dissension on the Left damaged the spirit of resistance in Catalonia. Negotiation and compromise, rather than violence, would have served all parties better in the face of Franco's armies. Although International Brigade members did not have fully detailed knowledge of events in Barcelona, their letters show consistent antagonism toward the POUM. Moreover, since they were being bombed, strafed, and shot at by Franco's troops, they certainly considered winning the war the first priority.

And their own experience confirmed the need for a unified military command that could train recruits; coordinate troop movements with aircraft, artillery, and tanks; and supply food, ammunition, and medical services, tasks that were quite beyond the Catalonian militias. In any case the ensuing months were taken up for the Lincolns not in intrigue but in battle. Like the perspective of Spanish soldiers in the field, the Lincolns' view of the war was thus quite different from that of those Spanish nationals who were occupied with political struggles in Madrid and Barcelona. The battle of Brunete in the unbelievable heat of July of 1937 was followed by Quinto and Belchite in August and Fuentes de Ebro in October. Then, after a brief period of training, the Lincolns faced the snows of Teruel in January and February of 1938. Taken by the Republic for a time, Teruel was recaptured by a massive Nationalist counterattack in February. Franco followed up that victory with a major offensive aimed toward the Levante and Catalonia. Launched on March 9, 1938, it involved 100,000 men and over six hundred Italian and German planes.

In the histories of the American role in Spain the events are known as "The Great Retreats," for that is what the Republic's forces had to do. They were faced with continuous bombing from the air and a Panzer-style massed tank assault at key points. At the end of the month El Campesino's division made a last stand before the city of L�rida, but Franco's offensive continued. It was to prove the single worst blow against the Republic in nearly two years of war, for on April 15 the rebels reached the Mediterranean and cut the Republic in two. By the end of the month Franco held a fifty-mile stretch of coast. Some felt the war was over, but the Republic held on, buoyed by a brief resupply of arms and by the hope that the democracies would surely now repeal the Non-Intervention policy, for Germany had invaded Austria on March 12. Did the world need still more evidence of fascism's ambitions? To resist, to hold on, was in part to buy enough time for the world to confront reality. Unfortunately, the British commitment to an appeasement policy was already in place.

The Republic now had enough arms for one last great campaign, training and planning for which began immediately. It was to be a crossing of the Ebro in July of 1938, into territory lost in March and April. Initially successful, the Republic's forces were gradually pressed back by the rebel counter-offensive. Even in August or September, arms might have made a difference, but the watershed event of the fall of 1938 was not to be the resupply of Spain's democracy. It was to be Munich. At the end of September, British and French representatives met with Hitler and Mussolini and granted Hitler Czechoslovakia. Shamefully, Czech representatives were not invited. Meanwhile, with that agreement another unrepresented nation's fate was effectively sealed, for with the signing of the Munich Accord it was clear that the democracies would not stand against fascism in Spain. The Internationals were withdrawn, and Spain fought on alone for several more months. In late November Hitler resupplied the Nationalists with arms. Franco started his final offensive, taking Barcelona in January. At the end of March, Madrid fell. On April 1, 1939, the Spanish Civil War officially came to an end.

For many, however, the suffering was not over. It was not to be a civil war ending in reconciliation, for Franco began a reign of terror aimed at the physical liquidation of all his potential enemies. Concentration camps were set up. Tens of thousands were shot. Mass executions would continue until 1944. Meanwhile, World War II was under way, and many of the volunteers took up arms against fascism again. References and Recommended Reading Alvah Bessie, ed. Heart of Spain (New York: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 1952). Perhaps the best anthology of poems and short prose pieces about the war. Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans In the Spanish Civil War (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994). The first book to give a detailed account of the Lincolns' postwar experience, it includes new insights into the civil war as well. Carl Geiser, Prisoners of the Good Fight (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Company, 1986). The story of the Americans who were captured in Spain.

Gabriel Jackson, A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War (New York: John Day, 1974). The best short history of the war as a whole. Arthur H. Landis, The Abraham Lincoln Brigade (New York: Citadel Press, 1967). Not the most readable book on the Lincolns but immensely valuable as a source of detailed information available nowhere else. Cary Nelson, ed. Remembering Spain: Hemingway's Civil War Eulogy and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994). Previously unreleased tape of Hemingway reading his famous eulogy to the American dead, with explanatory essays. Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks, eds. Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War (New York Routledge, 1996). The first and only major collection of letters written by American volunteers. With color illustrations. Edwin Rolfe, Collected Poems, ed. Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993).

Rolfe was the Lincoln Battalion's poet laureate and the American poet who did the most sustained work on the Spanish Civil War. Robert A. Rosenstone, Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (New York: Pegasus, 1969). The best narrative account of the Lincolns in battle. Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (Revised and enlarged edition, New York: Harper and Row, 1977). The most thorough one-volume general history of the war. Milton Wolff, Another Hill: An Autobiographical Novel about the Spanish Civil War. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994). Wolff was the Lincoln Battalion's last commander. Copyright � 2001 by Cary Nelson Ebro Ebro ▼ Primary Sources ▼ Ebro In April 1938 the Nationalist Army broke through the Republican defences and reached the sea. General Francisco Franco now moved his troops towards Valencia with the objective of encircling Madrid and the central front. Juan Negrin , in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the Spanish capital, ordered an attack across the fast-flowing Ebro.

General Juan Modesto , a member of the Communist Party (PCE) , was placed in charge of the offensive. Over 80,000 Republican troops, including the 15th International Brigade and the British Battalion , began crossing the river in boats on 25th July. The men then moved forward towards Corbera and Gandesa. On 26th July the Republican Army attempted to capture Hill 481, a key position at Gandesa. Hill 481 was well protected with barbed wire, trenches and bunkers. The Republicans suffered heavy casualties and after six days was forced to retreat to Hill 666 on the Sierra Pandols. It successfully defended the hill from a Nationalist offensive in September but once again large numbers were killed. Spanish Civil War Encyclopedia On 23rd September, Juan Negrin , head of the Republican government, announced at the League of Nations in Geneva that the International Brigades would be unilaterally withdrawn from Spain . That night the 15th Brigade and the British Battalion moved back across the River Ebro and began their journey out of the country. The rest of the Republican Army remained and had to endure continuous attacks from the Condor Legion .

General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano also brought forward 500 cannon which fired an average of 13,500 rounds a day at the Republicans. By the middle of November, the Republicans were forced to retreat. During the battle of Ebro the Nationalist Army had 6,500 killed and nearly 30,000 wounded. These were the worst casualties of the war but it finally destroyed the Republican Army as a fighting force. ▲ Main Article ▲ Primary Sources (1) Jack Jones , was with the International Brigades at Ebro. He wrote about his experiences in his autobiography, Union Man (1986) People have asked me: "Did you kill anyone in Spain"? Frankly, I do not know, but it is possible. In that engagement I didn't think of death, yet people were being killed and wounded by my side. In battle, one experiences a numbness that is difficult to describe; one's first impulse is to protect oneself as much as possible and then to fire in the direction of the enemy. One tries to pinpoint a target, but almost in a frenzy. To keep cool and calm in such circumstances is an ideal not easily achieved.

Nor did I have great confidence in the accuracy of my rifle. It was a Remington-type rifle, Russian made, and after firing a few rounds the bolt got very hot. All I do know is that some of my comrades were killed and wounded and men on the other side suffered the same fate. That is war. There were many casualties and I became one of them. Once more I had clambered up the hill with my comrades, taking cover where we could and firing at the enemy wherever he appeared. The bullets of the snipers whizzed over, grenades and shells were striking the ground, throwing up earth and dust and showering us with shrapnel. Suddenly my shoulder and right arm went numb. Blood gushed from my shoulder and I couldn't lift my rifle. I could do nothing but lie where I was. Near me a comrade had been killed and I could hear the cries of others, complaining of their wounds. While I was lying there, to make things worse, a spray of shrapnel hit my right arm. The stretcher bearers were doing their best but could hardly keep up with the number of casualties. As night fell I made my own way, crawling to the bottom of the hill.

I was taken with other wounded men down the line to an emergency field hospital at Mora del Ebro where I was given an anti-tetanus injection. The place was like an abattoir; there was blood and the smell of blood everywhere. (2) Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (1961) A secret F.A.I. - Federacion Anarquista Iberica - circular of September 1938 pointed out that of 7,000 promotions in the Army since May 5,500 had been Communists. In the Army of the Ebro out of 27 brigades, 25 were commanded by Communists, while all 9 divisional commanders, 3 army corps commanders, and the supreme commander (Modesto) were Communists. This was the most extreme case of Communist control, but the proportions for the Anarchists were nearly as depressing elsewhere.

In all six armies of Republican Spain the Anarchists believed the proportions to be 163 Communist brigade commanders to 33 Anarchists, 61 divisional commanders to 9 Anarchists, 15 army corps commanders to 2 Anarchists (with 4 Anarchist sympathizers), and 3 Communist army commanders, 2 sympathizers and one neutral. (3) Tom Murray took part in the Ebro offensive. He wrote about his experience in Voices From the Spanish Civil War (1986) The crossing of the Ebro at night was a remarkable performance. The pontoons consisted of narrow buoyant sections tied together and men would sit straddled across the junctions of these sections to hold them firm, because the Ebro was a very fast-flowing river. And then others went across in boats. The mules were swum across. We went across the pontoons carrying our weapons, our machine guns. We had light machine guns as well as the heavy ones. We had five machine gun groups in our Company. No two people had to be on one section at the same time. We got across all right, lined up and marched up to the top of the hill.

The Fascists got scared stiff. They had been about to celebrate Mass, some of them, down in the valley, and there were tons, great streams of white muslin, which had been part of the preparation for this mass. We used them as mosquito nets, as a matter of fact, later on. But we crossed the Ebro and made a rapid advance towards Gandesa. The real fighting then began, because the Nazi German planes were sent back and they bombed us like the devil. However we got our machine guns set up and we defended ourselves. I think we maybe made a tactical mistake in not rushing down right past and round Gandcsa to prevent the Fascists fortifying it, which they did next day. (4) Luis Bolin , Spain, the Vital Years (1967) The Red onslaught on the Ebro was launched on 25 July. For some time we had known that our opponents were planning to cross the river, but so stealthily was the operation carried out and so well had it been rehearsed beforehand that part of our troops were taken by surprise. Hundreds of boats, built in Barcelona, had been stored near the river in preparation for the attack.

The sluggish waters of the Ebro, wide in all places, deep in some, fordable at others, were crossed by the enemy at night. Bridges were rapidly set up. Some of our positions were overwhelmed; others were isolated and surrounded by the triumphant Republicans. Our opponents fought well, at times outstandingly well, yet there were signs of demoralization in their ranks. Threats of drastic punishments were being circulated to deter their troops from giving way to negligence or cowardice. Any man who lost his rifle would be shot without trial and his name would be published; soldiers who abandoned their posts or inflicted wounds upon themselves would also be executed. Those who failed to hold their ground would be forced to recapture it with their officers marching in front. Though these threats were carried out, the Reds surrendered daily in greater numbers, trusting more in the treatment they hoped to receive from us than in the fate that awaited them should they return defeated and unscathed. Combatants were urged to write to the Government, declaring their will to win or die, but instead of doing this units on their way to the Front complained they were being led to a slaughter-house.

Many preferred to desert and fight on our side, a tendency shared alike by raw recruits and hardened veterans, some of whom, at the outbreak of hostilities, had vociferously proclaimed their unshakable abhorrence of all that we stood for. Including prisoners, the battle of the Ebro cost us 41,414 casualties, the enemy 70,000. The so-called 'Army of Catalonia' was destroyed, International Brigades faded from the picture, and on the enemy side the resultant shortage of manpower was such that convicts were freely pardoned provided they immediately enlisted. Out of a total of 19,653 men captured during this battle, 45 per cent were approximately the same age as our soldiers, 10 per cent were older, the remaining 45 per cent younger. The Reds were also promoting untrained men and threatening relatives of deserters with reprisals of the utmost severity. (5) Lillian Urmston , was interviewed about her experiences at Ebro during the Spanish Civil War in October 1938. We moved forward to just a few kilometres from the river Ebro.

We took a huge cave - our first bomb-proof hospital, and installed 120 beds. For a few days the wounded poured in. Ambulances were continually arriving, day and night. Then rumours began to circulate that hundreds of wounded were lying on the other side of the river, and could not be brought across. The fascist aviators were bombing the pontoon bridges all day long, and all night long our fortification battalions were repairing them. Also, almost all the territory which we had taken was within range of the fascist artillery. We were all sick with horror at the thought of this unnecessary suffering, and begged our chiefs to send us across the river ... The following morning, at 1 a.m., the Spanish Medical Director told me to pack equipment and be ready in 20 minutes to move across the river. I hurriedly issued orders, and in a very short time we were ready. I was to go, along with Dr Jolly, the Spanish doctors and sanitarios (medical auxiliaries), and set up as large a hospital as possible. Just as dawn was breaking, we were crossing the newly-repaired pontoon bridges.

We had just reached the other side, and our ambulances were toiling along the hastily prepared road, when we heard the familiar cry of 'Aviacion!' Ambulances were pulled up at the side of the road, under the shelter of the cliffs - and we lay in ditches, tense with expectation and apprehension. But it was only our usual early morning caller, the observation plane. We continued our journey for exactly 25 minutes, and then twelve huge bombers came into sight. We all pulled into an olive grove, just off the road, and hastily camouflaged our ambulances and autochir. Then, a brief whistle - no movement - and we all lay down under trees and bushes. The planes bombed all along the river banks, and roads and crossroads. Our anti-aircraft guns were going magnificently, and managed to bring down one bomber. Suddenly came the familiar rat-tat-tat of machine guns - they were strafing the helpless people who happened to be anywhere in view. At last came a number, six I think, of our pursuit planes, and engaged in a glorious dog fight. It is a most stimulating sight,this, to see our small planes tackling these gigantic bombers.

After an hour of this the bombers soared higher, and disappeared. We were all relieved. And weren't we hungry! Rations of bully beef and bread were issued, then we again moved off. At 2 p.m. we reached Santa Magdalena, a huge white hermitage set high on the hills. Rather a landmark - but the only available habitation. We cheerfully acted as charwomen, then quickly set up a hospital. We were again interrupted by a heavy bombardment - luckily the bombs did not fall too near. By 11 p.m. our hospital was complete, and a steady stream of ambulances started to arrive. We only received the more severely wounded cases and our beds were quickly filled. (6) Gösta Karlsson was born in Hällefors, Västmanland in 1915. In March 1937 Gösta Karlsson went to Spain. He fought at Ebro and was wounded in his face. I had never been in any battle before the offensive at Ebro. I shot a few shots at Ebro in May, but that hardly counts. Then, on the night of the 25th of July, we rowed over the river in boats.

When we reached the other side, we were fired at. I jumped out of the boat. I could stand on the bottom. I was going to shoot, but I had got water in the rifle, and had to quickly remove the bolt to dry it out. Then I shot some rounds and threw a grenade up the slope. But by then the Swedish company had already broken through. We rushed forwards. There were no Fascists left in the positions on the riverside, but they had left a lot of stuff, like ammunition girdles and leather bags. We didn't have anything like that. I carried my ammunition in a trouser leg that had been sewn together. We had used Russian guns first, but they were later exchanged for Czech carbines. The Poles were given the Russian guns, so that each company would have uniform equipment. The offensive continued. You can't remember everything. But I do remember the Scandinavian Death-hill at Corbera. One morning we were going to storm. We advanced towards the Fascist positions, but met heavy defence from the side. We received contra-orders. We had to retreat to our original positions. I was in charge of a light machine-gun together with a Danish guy.

When we reached our positions he got a ricochet in his back. It ripped off a little piece of meat. He gave me the machine-gun and said: "Goodbye, comrade! I'm done for." I pulled up his shirt to take a look. It wasn't that bad. The wound was bleeding a lot, but we managed to bandage it. Maybe he had gone into shock. It was a Czech machine-gun. We took care of it for a long time, the Dane and me - until he was wounded. After that I was alone among the Spaniards. They had never received any military training. At times, when there wasn't much fighting, I would sit and train them, taking my weapon apart and putting it back together. During my time as a conscript back in Sweden you'd got used to that kind of stuff. But I wasn't licensed to use any machine-gun when I left home. You had to learn it all down there." Yes, if you compare it to the conscript days. To go from shooting with a wooden plug to the real thing it can turn out that way. But I saw it more as a job, actually.

You went to Spain to help, and part of that help, when you were on the font, was to try and eliminate the enemy. Before we came to Ebro I was already used to it, having to take aim at people and shoot. What you remember is mostly how people around you would get killed or wounded. I saw eight or nine Scandinavians killed in one single artillery-explosion. We were going to relieve the others out on the front. We marched in column, advancing through a grove, but were discovered by enemy planes, and got all hellfire over us from the artillery. That's when they died. We were headed over a hill. In front of it was another hill, lower than the first. That's where we were going. But we found a cave we could take cover in. There they couldn't reach us with the artillery fire, and we waited in there until it calmed down, before we headed for the positions. If you can really call them positions. There were no trenches. We had to dig little by little. It wasn't easy. You'd start out with a little pit, and make it bigger with time until we had trenches with connections backwards as well.

I was wounded three or four days before we were going to be pulled off the front. It took place at Sierra Caballs. I was temporarily outside of the trenches that evening, behind them. They were shooting with grenade launchers in the dark. I heard the hum - sort of like birds, when the grenades go by high above you. But if they hit anywhere close by you don't have any time to hear anything. You just hear a sizzle and then it's over. The grenade hit close to me. I had a burning sensation in my cheek. I had blood in my eyes and couldn't see anything. I called for the medics. They came, but couldn't see the wound in the dark. I took his hand - and took it to my cheek so he could feel the wound. He bandaged my entire head. The medic a Catalan led me some kilometres backwards to the stretcher carriers. They carried me into a first-aid tent. I was given a shot. Then they lifted me into an ambulance. I fell asleep there and woke up in a hospital. I can't remember where it was situated.

I said to a friend: "I think I've gone blind." But then I pulled down the bandage and noticed that I could see perfectly clearly. I had been bleeding a lot, but I hadn't been in much pain. It got worse later on. The piece of shrapnel was stuck in my right cheek. The wound got infected. My whole face swelled up, and then I was in a lot of pain. I was in a convalescent home when they removed it fifteen days later. They were missing material there. So they took the piece out without any anaesthetic. (7) Reginald Saxton , Heroic Voices of the Spanish Civil War (2009) At the Ebro I was actually there with my mobile laboratory. The frontline was along the Ebro, along the two sides of the river. It was a very well-planned offensive from our side from Catalonia, and it was supposed to have been coordinated with the corresponding attack from the other side, and there were the fascist forces in the middle. We set up a hospital in some caves on our side of the river to receive casualties at the beginning of the attack. We had this hospital in this cave and the cave was on two levels inside.

It had been levelled up inside and was very nicely protected by this enormous hill over the top of it. It was lit up with electric lighting, which an American engineer did for us. On one level there was a ward and an operating theatre, and on another level another ward. In the end we found that we were using one ward for Republican soldiers and the other ward for prisoners of war, and in the valley just below the caves were canteens and feeding arrangements, ambulance parks and a tent or two. It was quite well arranged. Then we had the first casualties brought back across the river to us in this cave. Our transfusion and laboratory was there. It was quite a temporary affair, and as soon as some territory had been cleared on the other side of the river we took this laboratory and mobile service and went across a pontoon bridge. It was very exciting in a way, going across the pontoon bridge, which the Spanish engineers had organized so well across the River Ebro. They had spare pontoons concealed in various places not far away, where there was vegetation or something to hide them from the aviation because there were a lot of planes.

Every day the Italian planes would come over and try to destroy this pontoon bridge, and indeed they hit it on numerous occasions. But since it was all in sections, all standard-sized boats, when one was sunk, that evening a similar pontoon was floated into position. The next morning things would be going across again. We went across it at night and there were planes all around even then. We got across and drove up to a farmhouse along very narrow roads. We had to stop every now and then to cut down a tree because the road was not wide enough for this very wide vehicle. Then we set up our little hospital in the farmhouse. We were digging ourselves shelter there and our driver was digging a trench beside a car. He was a very energetic, strong young man. He dug us a nice shelter, a trench beside the vehicle and he also cut down lots of branches from the trees to camouflage it for when the wounded came in. (8) Patience Darton , quoted in Women's Voices in the Spanish Civil War (1991) The Ebro was where we attacked again; a really big formal attack, not just a holding thing; its doing the attacking.

We were right up on the side of the Ebro, in a cave on the south side of the river. The fighting had crossed the Ebro so we didn't get the people back until it was dark, because the bombing and the shelling were so extreme, that you couldn't get them back until it was dark. Then they all streamed in, terribly bad, much worse than we usually had - ever so much worse. The cave was very uncomfortable; it was very dark, very low and all uneven. The metal beds were all higgledy-piggledy over the floor and you could barely see - we hadn't got lights. We had lights for the theatre, run off of one of our ambulances, but we hadn't got lights in the cave, and we had to do our work by little tiny oil lamps, cans - ordinary tin cans with wick in them with oil. It isn't much light; a miserable little fickle light, and you couldn't see across the cave, and you kept banging yourself on those iron beds. (9) Reginald Saxton , quoted in We Cannot Park on Both Sides (2000) The front line was along the... river.

I The left hand bank I was in Republican hands, right hand in Fascist. It was a very well planned offensive ... very well organised. As soon as some territory had been cleared on the other side of the river... we ... went across a pontoon bridge. It was very exciting in a way, going across a pontoon bridge which the Spanish engineers had organised so well. They had spare pontoons camouflaged in various places not far away to hide them from the aviation. Every day Italian planes would come over and try and destroy the pontoon bridge. Indeed they hit it on numerous occasions, but since it was all sections standard size boats... the same evening an exactly similar pontoon was floated into position and things were got going again. (10) John Gates , The Story of an American Communist (1959) I was now with a group of three. We ran into a fascist foot patrol but got away successfully into the brush. Deciding now that it was unsafe to move by daylight, we hid and went to sleep, and moved only under cover of the dark. That night we reached the river near the town of Mora del Ebro. We could find no boats, no materials with which to build a raft.

Coming upon a small house, we decided to go in. I was leading the way, grenade in hand, when from inside came a call: "Who's there?" My impulse was to throw the grenade and run, but I was suddenly struck by the realization that the words had been spoken in English and the voice sounded like George Watt, who had been in the rear of our column the previous night. I answered "It's me." Sure enough out came George and several other of our men. They had bedded down for the night-very foolishly, I thought, in view of how close they had come to being killed by their own men. Watt told me later that his group had come just as close to opening fire on us. It made a good story to tell afterwards, and a never-settled debate on which of us had been more unwise. The river was very wide at this point and the current swift. Some of the men were not sure they could make it, so fatigued were we all, but we decided to join forces and swim across at dawn. We stripped naked, threw away all our belongings, and made for the opposite bank. Three of us got across safely just as the day was beginning to break.

The bodies of two other men were washed up on the shore several days later. Besides myself, those who made it were Watt and Joseph Hecht, who was later killed in World War II. In the excitement I had kept my hat on. Between the river and the road stretched a field of cockleburrs which we now crossed on our bare, bruised feet. This was the last straw: naked (except for my hat), hungry and exhausted, I felt I could not take another step. I had sworn never to surrender to the fascists but I told Watt that if they came along just then, I would give up (actually, we would not have had much choice, having no arms). We lay down on the side of the road, with no idea of who might come along, too beat to care much. Suddenly a car drove up, stopped and out stepped two men. Nobody ever looked better to me in all my life-they were Ernest Hemingway and New York Times correspondent Herbert Matthews. We hugged one another, and shook hands. They told us everything they knew - Hemingway, tall and husky, speaking in explosions; Matthews, just as tall but thin, and talking in his reserved way.

The main body of the Loyalist army, it seems, had crossed the Ebro, and was now regrouping to make a stand on this side of the river. The writers gave us the good news of the many friends who were safe, and we told them the bad news of some who were not. Facing the other side of the river, Hemingway shook his burly fist. "You fascist bastards haven't won yet," he shouted. "We'll show you!" We rejoined the 15th Brigade, or rather the pitiful remnants of it. Many were definitely known to be dead, others missing. Men kept trickling across the Ebro, straggling in for weeks afterwards, but scores had been captured by the fascists. During the first few days, I took charge of what was left of the Lincoln Battalion; we were dazed and still tense from our experience. Meanwhile, the enemy conducted air raids daily against our new positions, but we were well scattered and the raids caused more fear than damage. (11) Alvah Bessie , Men in Battle (1939) At Ebro...

the country was so mountainous it looked as though a few machine-guns could have held off a million men. We came back down, went up side roads, crossroads, through small towns, and on a hillside near Rasquera we found three of our men: George Watt and John Gates (then adjutant Brigade Commissar), Joe Hecht. They were lying on the ground wrapped in blankets; under the blankets they were naked. They told us they had swum the Ebro early that morning; that other men had swum and drowned; that they did not know anything of Merriman or Doran, thought they had been captured. They had been to Gandesa, had been cut off there, had fought their way out, travelled at night, been sniped at by artillery. You could see they were reluctant to talk, and so we just sat down with them. Joe looked dead. Below us there were hundreds of men from the British, the Canadian Battalions; a food truck had come up, and they were being fed. A new Matford roadster drove around the hill and stopped near us, and two men got out we recognized.

One was tall, thin, dressed in brown corduroy, wearing horn-shelled glasses. He had a long, ascetic face, firm lips, a gloomy look about him. The other was taller, heavy, red-faced, one of the largest men you will ever see; he wore steel-rimmed glasses and a bushy mustache. These were Herbert Matthews of The New York Times and Ernest Hemingway, and they were just as relieved to see us as we were to see them. We introducd ourselves and they asked questions. They had cigarettes; they gave us Lucky Strikes and Chesterfields. Matthews seemed to be bitter; permanently so. Hemingway was eager as a child, and I smiled remembering the first time I had seen him, at a Writers' Congress in New York. He was making his maiden public speech, and when it didn't read right, he got mad at it, repeating the sentences he had fumbled, with exceptional vehemence. Now he was like a big kid, and you liked him. He asked questions like a kid: "What then? What happened then? And what did you do? And what did he say?

And then what did you do?" Matthews said nothing, but he took notes on a folded sheet of paper. "What's your name?" said Hemingway; I told him. "Oh," he said, "I'm awful glad to see you; I've read your stuff." I knew he was glad to see me; it made me feel good, and I felt sorry about the times I had lambasted him in print; I hoped he had forgotten them, or never read them. "Here," he said, reaching in his pocket. "I've got more." He handed me a full pack of Lucky Strikes. Battle of the Ebro Battle of the Ebro Battle of the Ebro Story: At midnight between 24th and 25th July, 1938, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Modesto, soldiers of the newly formed Army of the Ebro, crossed the river, breaking through the defensive lines of General Yagüe’s Moroccan Army. The Battle of the Ebro (as we know it today)had begun. The Ebro campaign was a Republican attempt to divert the Nationalist army’s attention from the Valencian front.

The threat to the industrially important area of Sagunto and the city of Valencia was becoming increasingly apparent. Coupled with this, international circumstances, tensions generated within Europe by the Nazi regime’s obsession with territorial expansion made it clear that the Republican government needed to act in order to regain a more favourable position abroad. The campaign, based on a surprise factor was planned by General Rojo of the General Staff who proposed a risky multiple river crossing. Once the first phase was accomplished, the Republican troops would have to take advantage of this initial success by covering ground quickly and moving inland from different points. The surprise of the initial attack was a success and different units from the 42nd, 3rd, 11th and 45th Divisions of the Army of the Ebro crossed at various points from Mequinensa as far as Amposta, with the central offensive concentrating on the area between Riba-Roja and Benifallet.

The units of the 50th Division of the Moroccan Army, defending the central territory offered very little resistance and were forced to retreat to a line of defence along the Faió – Pobla de Massaluca – Vilalba dels Arcs – Gandesa – Vall del riu Canaletes axis. This line was established on 26th July and was continually attacked by the Republican Army until the 3rd August, in an attempt to break through and continue the advance. The Nationalist forces’ reaction was very quick and within a few hours units were sent to the battle area from all parts of the country to hold the new defensive line. Their use of aircraft and the control of the upstream reservoirs made it more difficult for the Army of the Ebro to supply the frontline. Once it was clear that it was impossible to continue advancing, on 3rd August, Lieutenant Colonel, Modesto gave the order to adopt defensive positions. The Republican Army had achieved their original aims: the pressure on the Valencian front had been relieved and the campaign had brought the military initiative back to the Republic in the war and gained the attention of the main European powers. The Battle of the Ebro could have come to an end here.

However, in spite of some of his general’s advice who believed in maintaining a stationary frontline and initiating an attack against Catalonia via Lleida, General Franco decided to recover the lost ground at any price. This decision made the Ebro campaign to become known as the cruellest and most bloody battle of the whole Spanish Civil War and indeed of Spanish history. From this time onwards and until 16th November, the Nationalist Army took part in six offensives against the Republican lines. The territory gained by the Army of the Ebro in just one day required more than a hundred days to be recovered. The result was a war of attrition, the downfall of the Army of the Ebro, which had fewer material and human resources. Both armies suffered around 130 000 casualties in total and lead to the fight for Catalonia, starting in December of 1938. As well as its importance from a military and historic point of view, the Battle of the Ebro became known as the last ditch attempt of Negrín’s government during the Munich Conference from 29th to 30th September of 1938 to get the European powers to support the Spanish Republic.

The rest of Europe bowed down to Hitler’s Germany during the Sudetenland crisis and effectively condemned the Spanish Republic to defeat at the hands of the Nationalist uprising. The Ebro campaign was also the last battle in which the International Brigades fought for the Republic. On 21st September, President Negrín announced their withdrawal from action in Spain. All these events lead the Battle of Ebro to become a fundamental reason for the understanding of contemporary Catalan and Spanish history, with a powerful link to events in the rest of the world. They also have recommended routes for you to follow. The Spanish Civil War History: General Franco's fascist troops invaded Spain in July 1936. They overthrew the democratically elected Republican government headed by the Popular Front which had been composed of liberal democrats, socialists, anarchists, trade unionists, communists and secularists. The country was basically divided into those fighting for the government (Republicans), and those fighting against the government (Nationalists). The Nationalists were represented by the landed elite, Fascists, the urban bourgeoisie, the Roman Catholic Church, and other conservative sectors whilst Juan Modesto Guilloto was in charge of the Republican Ebro army and commanded the Republican offensive.

The number of war deaths is estimated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Many of those casualties were the result of brutal mass executions perpetrated by both sides. This area was hugely important as the last great Republican offensive in the Civil War, and each town has its own stories of the 115 day long Battle of the Ebre. On 3 September 2008 it was reported that human remains were unearthed at the site of the Battle during a project to install wind-powered electric generators. This comes just a week after High Court judge, Baltasar Garzon, launched the start of an investigation into atrocities committed by Franco's fascist forces. The investigation is an attempt to compile the first ever record of those on the Republican side who were exiled, executed or forced into slave labour camps during and after the war and to compile a census of all those who disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and Franco's subsequent forty-year dictatorship.

A 68-page ruling published on 16 October 2008 estimates the total number of people that vanished between July 17th, 1936 and December 1951 at 114,266. Given that Franco and all 34 of his senior aides named in the ruling as being responsible for instigating the crimes, are dead, they cannot face prosecution though Judge Garzón has requested to see their death certificates just to make sure. However, a list of the names of the leaders of the fascist Falange party during the period under investigation has been requested from the Interior ministry, and any survivors could face trial. Civil War/ Franco regime 'desaparecidos', totals by region: Andalucía 32,289

Question: During which war did the Battle of the Ebro take place?
Answer: SPANISH CIVIL WAR