The Summer Offensives – Campaigning Season in Spain 1938
Exhausted from the battles of 1936 both the Republicans and Nationalists had settled down into a series of trenches which stretched through the centre of Spain. For more than a year the Spanish Civil War deteriorated into a conflict very similar to the Western Front of the Great War just with a lot less offensives. Neither side had the numbers, equipment or will to launch a major offensive against the other. All that would change in March 1938.
On March 1st, using their entire tank force in one concentrated thrust to break through the Nationalist trenches the Government army went on the offensive. The assault smashed straight through the Nationalist defensive line and the Republican armour raced dozens of miles behind the Nationalist armies into the territory of Siguenza before beginning a sharp drive westward towards the city of Valladolid and the Portuguese border. Just three weeks after breaking through the Fascist lines the Government army had successfully surrounded over 100,000 Fascist troops around the cities of Madrid and Salamanca however just at the point when victory seemed assured the Nationalists launched an offensive of their own.
The Fascist army chose a completely different method of attack when they broke past the Republican defences in late March as around 150,000 Nationalist infantrymen crossed the Ebro River just to the south of the military base of Tarragona. With most of the Republican army concentrating on the battles to the West only 50,000 militiamen stood between the Nationalists and the Republican capital city at Valencia. Luckily for the Republic however, unlike their own offensive the Nationalist one was slow and relied on slow moving heavy artillery. Yet despite some significant resistance at the Ebro itself the Republicans could do little to stop the Nationalist charge until it reached the outskirts of Valencia itself on April 12th.
Just as the Fascists approached Valencia Franco began a counterattack against the Republicans at Valladolid as he used a tank heavy army from Burgos in conjunction with large amounts of infantry from the pocket at Madrid and Salamanca to force the tired Republican spearhead eastward and relieve the troops previously trapped around the Spanish capital.
Franco’s battle in the West was a mere sideshow to the carnage that would ensue in the Northern suburbs o Valencia. For three weeks the Nationalist artillery pounded the city into the ground whilst their infantry fought from street to street, from building to building to root out the Government soldiers. This tactic, although extremely costly in terms of casualties was working well right up until the second week of May. Ever since the start of the battle for Valencia the Republicans had slowly been drawing more and more troops to save the city however the Nationalists had continued to advance so during the second week of May they decided to launch and offensive to the North of the city, against the Nationalist supply lines. The sudden and total collapse of the Fascist army was truly incredible as following just four days without supplies the Nationalists began to desert in their thousands and at the end of May their commander called for a retreat back across the Ebro, this quickly turned into a rout as the Government army pursued back across the river and into Catalonia where they captured the military base at Tarragona before finally being halted only a few miles to the west of Barcelona.
After the fall of Tarragona the conflict once against reverted back to trench warfare however there was one more major territorial change to be made in 1938, through June, July and August wave after wave of Fascist offensives smashed against the province of Siguenza and wave after wave was fought off however in early September with the largest attack yet the Nationalists were finally able to take the province and thus add some more security to the city of Madrid.
With that the campaigning season came to a close with the only long-term territorial change of the year being the transfer of Tarragona from the Nationalists to the Republicans. Over the Winter both sides would lick their wounds and prepare for the following years battles.