The Balaguer Offensive was an offensive carried out by the

Spanish Republican Army The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939. It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Repú ...

around

Balaguer Balaguer () is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Noguera, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre. The municipality includes an exclave to the east. Balaguer also has a sister city i ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. The offensive consisted in a series of counterattacks in the spring and summer of 1938 after the disastrous

Aragon Offensive The Aragon Offensive was an important military campaign during the Spanish Civil War, which began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon, and conq ...

. The offensive was a failure for the Spanish Republic and many lives and military material were wasted.

History

The offensive was planned by General

Vicente Rojo Lluch Vicente Rojo Lluch (8 October 1894 – 15 June 1966) was Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Armed Forces during the Spanish Civil War. Early life He was the posthumous son of a military man who fought against the Carlists and in t ...

as a morale-lifting

counterattack A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in "war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically seek ...

by Republican military units after the defeats suffered at the Aragon fronts. Historically this battle was part of the longer

Battle of the Segre The Battle of Segre is the collective name of a series of battles that took place along the Segre River between 4 April 1938 and 3 January 1939 during the Spanish Civil War, after the Nationalist Faction had broken the lines of the Spanish Repub ...

.Jesús Mestre i Campi, ''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', Edicions 62. 1998, p. 86 ("Balaguer, batalla de") Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana - Batalla de Balaguer
/ref> The town of Balaguer had fallen in the hands of the

rebel faction The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...

in a series of vehement surprise attacks between 5 and 6 April 1938, following which the Francoist armies captured the strategic bridge over the

Segre River The Segre ( or ; french: Sègre) is a river tributary to the Ebro (''Ebre'' in Catalan) with a basin comprising territories across three states: France, Andorra and Spain. The river Segre, known to Romans and Greeks as Sicoris, and to the Arabs ...

on 10 April when the Republican Army withdrew to the other side of the river. In order to retake at least the

bridgehead In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...

of the left bank the 27th, 60th and 72nd divisions of the XVIII Army Corps of the

Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...

counterattacked between the 12 and the 15 April. The Republican soldiers however, were mostly very young men – some only 17 years old, hastily recruited and ill-trained – who, despite their enthusiasm, were not successful. Again, another series of efforts to reconquer the Balaguer bridgehead took place between 22 and 29 May, but these were again fruitless and the Republican units had to withdraw in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the enemy, leaving many casualties behind.

Last effort

After almost three months, together with the wider Republican offensive of the

Battle of the Ebro The Battle of the Ebro ( es, Batalla del Ebro, ca, Batalla de l'Ebre) was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War and the greatest, in terms of manpower, logistics and material ever fought on Spanish soil. It took place between Ju ...

, there was again a series of combats to retake the bridgehead at Balaguer. The attacks were made between 9 and 11 August but the Republican forces were defeated again, being smashed against the superior firepower of the rebel lines.

References

External links

Cabeza de Puente de Balaguer (I) Mayo 1938
Battles of the Spanish Civil War Battles in Catalonia 1938 in Spain Conflicts in 1938 Noguera (comarca) April 1938 events May 1938 events {{catalonia-hist-stub

History

Last effort

See also

References

External links