On the 17th December 1937
the Republican
Army captured
the town of Teruel. Aware that the Nationalist
Army would counter-attack,
the 15th International Brigades
were moved from Madrid to a salient on
the 3,500 ft high Sierra Palomera overlooking Teruel. The soldiers
had trouble with the weather with temperatures dropping to -20C at
night. However, they were able to withstand continuous air attacks
made by the Condor
Legion and
the Nationalists eventually abandoned the attempt to take Teruel by
frontal assault.
(1)
Starement issued by the Nationalist
Army (18th December
1937)
At 6 p.m. the order for a general
attack was given and a
Republican force reached the first houses of the city. Another column
simultaneously attacked Teruel from the east.
At 930
p.m. the attack was still continuing, carried out under the rays of
Republican searchlights which lit up the city.
All the
rebel counter-attacks were repulsed with enormous losses, and rebel
aviation was unable to give much support.
The circle
round Teruel, far from being broken, is drawn closer. The number of
prisoners is enormous but not exactly known.
Republican
aviation brilliantly co-operated in the fighting.
Two Government planes were brought down by rebel anti-aircraft guns.
(2)
Luis
Bolin, Spain, the Vital Years
(1967)
Teruel fell on 7 January. Its defenders
fought desperately, but when the enemy seized building after building
the colonel in command of the city ordered the outlying houses to
be abandoned and finally expressed his willingness to parley. His
opponents treated him disgracefully and a year later, as they fled
from Barcelona to France, they riddled his body with bullets a few
miles before reaching the French frontier and at the same time murdered
the Bishop of Teruel, who like the
Colonel was their prisoner.
On 5 February, less than
a month after the fall of Teruel, Franco moved forward on the Alfambra
river and dealt his enemies a crushing blow. The battle of the Alfambra
was one of the war's decisive encounters. It reversed the shape of
the bulge which the Reds had driven into our front, with the southern
end at Teruel and the northern tip near Vivel del Rio, forty-two miles
away. Attacked at both ends and pushed back, the Red salient was obliterated.
According to our estimates, which at best were only approximate, the
Republicans suffered 14,000 dead, 20,000 wounded and 17,000 prisoners.
They also lost 20 batteries, 40 tanks, and 500 machine-guns. One hundred
of their planes were destroyed in air combat. Fifty pueblos and 620
square miles of land were captured, and a gap was opened in the enemy
lines wide
enough for our troops to reach the Mediterranean shortly afterwards
and split the Red front in two. Teruel was retaken on 18 February.
(3)
The
Manchester Guardian (8th January 1938)
Colonel Rey Dancourt, who was the
rebel military commander at Teruel, has surrendered with 1,500 men,
it is claimed here. The Colonel is reported to have said that a small
group of rebels remained in the Convent of Santa Clara, with whom
he had been out of touch. His surrender would seem to mean that only
a handful of rebels are now putting up resistance in the city.
Outside the city the battle
still continues with unabated fury. The rebels are daily massing new
troops in order to
recapture the city. These troops are being withdrawn from other fronts.
The Republican Command
declares that the rebels outside Teruel today employed the famous
Italian 'Black Arrows' for the first time on this front.
Throughout yesterday,
which saw the fiercest fighting since the rebel counter-offensive
began, the rebels made repeated attacks from the village of Concud,
north-west of Teruel. Preceded by intense artillery and aviation bombardments
these attacks were supported by tanks and armoured-cars. The Republican
infantry, it is claimed here, not only maintained their positions
but forced the attackers to retire with heavy losses.
In the Muela de Teruel
sector the Republicans took the offensive and occupied several positions,
which they held under fire, on the Villastar-Teruel road.
The rebel Army is considered
here a spent and weary force. During the last eight days it has suffered
several set-
backs and enormous casualties. It is felt that the rebel determination
to recover Teruel is dictated by the knowledge that
its presence in the hands of the Government must completely upset
plans for any offensive on other fronts.
(4)
Portela Valladares, the Spanish prime minister in 1936, was interviewed
in Barcelona
on 8th January 1938.
My opinion is that the Republican
army is stronger than the
rebel army. I said this three months ago, and now the capture of Teruel
has proved it to the world. The northern front collapsed because it
was technically impossible to defend, because it lacked unity of command,
and because it was geographically inaccessible. In spite of his 80,000
Italians and 10,000 Germans, in spite of all the supplies provided
by these two great
nations, Franco is now being defeated because he has aroused the spirit
of independence in the Spanish people.
Ten thousand officers
are graduating from the Republican academies each year. War production
has been organised. The Republican command, which contains 6,000 officers
belonging to the former Spanish army, has growing intelligence and
technical services. But nothing is more tremendous than the spirit
of resistance which has withstood all defeats. The war of the Republic
is only now beginning. The Negrin Government has restored order in
Republican Spain to such a degree that the percentage of crimes is
lower than ever before. It has instituted full and normal constitutional
law and respect for this law.
(5)
Laurie
Lee, A
Moment of War (1991)
Franco had held Teruel for three years, a vulnerable
line towards the coast, and when the Republicans recaptured it that
Christmas it was thought that fortune had changed at last, that the
days of retreat were over.
The worst was only beginning.
The occupation of Teruel had been by Spanish troops only. No International
Brigades were called on. Then Franco began his counterattack with
an artillery barrage so heavy, they said, that it clipped off the
tops of the hills and completely altered the landscape. Protected
by the Condor Legion, and two Generals in a twelve-carriage train,
the Army Corps of Castile and Galicia began to advance and the Republicans
had to give up their brief-held prize.
As the weather worsened,
the International Brigades were at last brought in. Fred Copeman,
who commanded the British battalion, fell ill, and Bill Alexander
took over. The 'Major Attlee' company received its christening, and
thirteen men were killed the first day. Slowly the Republicans retreated
outside the city, when the very war itself was halted by a four day
blizzard, the worst in generations, during which men and their weapons
froze together.
(6)
The
Manchester Guardian (23rd February 1938)
The rebels who abandoned Teruel
at the end of December regained it completely yesterday. At eight
o'clock in the morning, after eight days of bitter fighting, General
Franco's forces were back in the ruins of the town.
Having
broken through, the column joined the Republican forces outside Teruel
and with them launched a strong counter-attack against the enemy.
They are reported to have re-formed their line along the road to Valencia
a short distance south of Teruel. This they intend to hold at all
costs.
The plateau
the Government holds is an important position and is a natural starting-place
for a rebel push to the coast towards Valencia.
Reports
of the last stages of the advance on Teruel and its final re-occupation
received from rebel sources told of
tremendous artillery and aerial bombardments, cavalry charges, street
fighting, and the capture of quantities of supplies and
prisoners.
Street fighting lasted
for two hours after the occupation of
Teruel yesterday morning, it was reported. One report claimed
that 2,600 prisoners had been taken, as well as a large quantity
of war material, including machine-guns, rifles, mortars
and munitions.
(7)
Juan
Negrin, radio broadcast (27th February 1938)
The loss of Teruel was an episode
of the war brought about by the enormous quantity of arms and men
sent to the assistance of Franco by Italy and Germany. We need the
aid of no one. With the men, material, and ideals at our disposal
we are certain of ultimate victory, which has been so long postponed.
The delay in victory is due solely
to the intervention of foreign Powers and the injustice of the Non-Intervention
Committee which hinders our purchase of armaments.
We believe
that German and Italian superiority in armaments will not last long
and that the Spanish Government with its resources will supply the
Republican Army with all the aeroplanes and war material which are
required, superior to the
Fascists. The Spanish people have shown in history what they are capable
of when their country and liberties are in danger and at stake. The
country of so much suffering and of so great morale
will win in the long run.
(8)
Tom
Wintringham,
The Manchester Guardian (13th
October 1938)
The capture of Teruel by
the Government forces in December, 1937, was almost the only great
action in which the 'English' could have taken part but were not called
upon to do so. At the beginning of this year they were fighting in
deep snow in the vain effort to hold Teruel. In the retreat of seventy
miles that followed, from Alto Aragon to the coast,
they were twice almost surrounded and got away by legs and luck. Twice
they stood, at Caspe and Gandesa, to hold up for some days the drive
to the sea; and near Gandesa they were ambushed by Italian tanks and
Moorish cavalry. They lost a hundred captured, but fought so stiffly
that the raiders withdrew.
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