The Segovia Offensive was a Republican diversionary offensive which took place between 31 May and 6 June 1937, during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. The main goal of the offensive was to occupy Segovia and divert Nationalist forces from their advance on

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

. After a brief initial advance the offensive failed due to Nationalist air superiority.

Background

In April 1937, the Nationalists started an offensive against the Republican held, Biscay Province, and, by the end of May, the Navarrese troops had reached the eastern side of Bilbao's defenses. The Republican government then decided to launch two diversionary offensives on the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

fronts in order to divert Nationalist troops.

Battle

The Republican Army had three divisions in the '' Sierra de Guadarrama'': Galan's 34th, General Walther's 33rd and Duran's 69th divisions (according to Thomas, the commander of the 69th division was

Luis Barceló Luis Barceló Jover (31 August 1896 – 15 March 1939) was a Spanish military officer. Spanish Civil War A professional officer of the Spanish Army, he supported the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 he was a majo ...

), under the command of Colonel Domingo Moriones, supported by artillery and a company of

T-26 The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light ...

tanks. On 31 May the Republicans started the attack in the ''Sierra de Guadarrama'' with a heavy bombardment of the Nationalist positions, broke the Nationalist lines at San Ildefonso and the same day the 69th division occupied Cruz de la Gallega and advanced towards Cabeza Grande, threatening the Segovia Road, although the XIV International Brigade suffered appalling casualties. The Republican advance reached La Granja, but on 1 June the Nationalists started a counteroffensive with General Varela's division, the reinforcements brought from the Madrid front by Barrón and heavy air support. The Nationalists recovered Cabeza Grande and threatened the Republican troops. On 6 June Moriones ordered the Republican troops to retreat to their start lines. The Republicans had lost 3,000 men, among them 1,000 members of the XIV International Brigade.

Aftermath

The Republican offensive failed because of the air superiority of the Nationalists and the ineffectiveness of the

Spanish Republican Air Force The Spanish Republican Air Force was the air arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. Initially divided into two branches: Military Aeronautics () and Naval Aeron ...

. Colonel Moriones said: "Our own aircraft carried out bombing attacks from a great height and carelessly...our fighters kept a respectable distance and rarely came down to machine-gun the enemy...enemy aircraft were highly active and extraordinarily effective.". The Segovia offensive only delayed the Nationalist offensive against Bilbao by two weeks.

In literature

The Segovia Offensive is the offensive described in the

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

novel, ''

For Whom the Bell Tolls ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned ...

''.Beevor, Antony (2006). ''The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.'' Penguin Books. p.276

References

Bibliography

*Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Penguin Books. London. 2006. *Thomas, Hugh. The Spanish Civil War. Penguin Books. London. 2001. {{coord missing, Spain Battles of the Spanish Civil War

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is located in the Meseta central, Inner Pl ...