Ebro

The Christians might enjoy the dreary waste and the rocky defiles of the north, provided they did not interfere with the Moors' enjoyment of the warm and fertile provinces of the south and east.

From the end of the 8th century, when the Moorish boundaries took a tolerably final shape, to the time of the advance of the Christian kingdoms in the 11th century, the division between the Christian north and the Muslim south may be roughly placed at the great range of the mountains called the Sierra de Guadarrama, which runs in a north-easterly direction from Coimbra in Portugal to Zaragoza, from whence the Ebro may be taken as a rough boundary.

The Moors thus enjoyed the fertile valleys of the Tagus, the Guadiana, the Guadalquivir, the very name of which bears witness to its Arab owners, for Guadalquivir is a corruption of the Arabic Wadi'l Kabir, or the Great River, besides possessing the famous cities of Andalusia, the wealth and commerce and climatic advantage of which had been celebrated from Roman times.

The division was a natural one.

Many and strange were their adventures, so many and strange indeed that I shall not try to relate the half of them.

At length, on a sunny day, they came to the banks of the River Ebro.

As the knight sat on Rosinante's back and gazed at the flowing water and at the grass and trees which bordered the banks with living green, he felt very happy.

His squire, however, was in no pleasant humor, for the last few days had been days of weary toil.

France's government reopens the Spanish frontier March 17th and sends 18,000 tons of war material into Catalonia.

With a new round of conscription for males aged 16 and up and retreating forces consolidated, Catalonia's remaining manpower is organized into the Ebro Army.

May, the Republican government, defended in Valencia behind the impressive XYZ or Masayana line, fortifications ringing the city and surrounding Iberian System mountain range sues for peace.

General Franco declines and demands unconditional surrender.

They were trying, um, but that wasn't, that wasn't gonna happen.

There was n- it was not gonna be a split country.

The Battle of the Ebro, the fall of the Republic.

The Nationalists focused upon Valencia hold the Catalonian front along the Ebro River with a light complement of units and little fortification.

The conquerors accepted the independence of the northern provinces as an inevitable evil which would cost more blood to remove than the feat was worth; and leaving Galicia, Leon, Castile, and the Biscayan provinces to the Christians, they contented themselves with the better part of the land: the Christians might enjoy the dreary waste and rocky defiles of the North provided they did not interfere with the Moor's enjoyment of the warm and fertile provinces of the south and east.

From the end of the eighth century--when the Moorish boundaries took a tolerably final shape—to the time of the advance of the Christian kingdoms in the eleventh century, the division between the Christian north and the Muslim south may be roughly placed at the great range of mountains called the Sierra de Guadarrama, which runs in a northeasterly direction from Coimbra (in Portugal) to Zaragoza,—from whence the Ebro may be taken as a rough boundary.

The Moors thus enjoyed the fertile valleys of the Tagus, the Guadiana, the Guadalquivir,--the very name of which bears witness to its Arab honors, for Guadalquivir is a corruption of the Arabic Wadi-l Kebir, or "Great River," besides possessing the famous cities of Andalusia, the wealth and commerce and climatic advantages of which had been celebrated from Roman times.

The division was a natural one: the two parts have been distinguished geographically from time immemorial on account of their climatic differences.

The Christians might enjoy the dreary waste and the rocky defiles of the north, provided they did not interfere with the Moors' enjoyment of the warm and fertile provinces of the south and east.

From the end of the 8th century, when the Moorish boundaries took a tolerably final shape, to the time of the advance of the Christian kingdoms in the 11th century, the division between the Christian north and the Muslim south may be roughly placed at the great range of the mountains called the Sierra de Guadarrama, which runs in a north-easterly direction from Coimbra in Portugal to Zaragoza, from whence the Ebro may be taken as a rough boundary.

The Moors thus enjoyed the fertile valleys of the Tagus, the Guadiana, the Guadalquivir, the very name of which bears witness to its Arab owners, for Guadalquivir is a corruption of the Arabic Wadi'l-Kabir, or the Great River, besides possessing the famous cities of Andalusia, the wealth and commerce and climatic advantage of which had been celebrated from Roman times.

The division was a natural one.

They get everything together for one last real big throw of the dice.

And that is the big, big battle and the republic offensive in the Battle of the Ebro, which is a river running in this territory, in this area that the nationalists have just captured.

So basically what the republicans are trying to do, they're trying to reconnect these two parts that have been cut off.

And this is a very, very long battle.

Nevertheless, the communist commanders in Spain were still determined to fight on, and the Soviet Union was still providing them means to do so, including much improved fighter aircraft.

On July 25th, 1938, they launched a last offensive along the Ebro River, 70 miles northwest of its mouth at the Mediterranean, hoping to outflank and outmaneuver the nationalists on the coast and restore communications with the remaining Republican areas in the south around Valencia and Madrid.

In this offensive, every corps and divisional commander and all but two brigade commanders were communists.

Lister led the initial attack, advancing 25 miles in the first day, but the nationalist commander in that sector was the redoubtable Yagüe, and by August 1st, he had halted the communists at a hill fronting the town of Gandesa.

By the 14th, Yagüe began making periodic counterattacks, and on September 3rd, he pressed forward with two corps and regained almost all the territory that had been lost.

After a steady buildup, the nationalists were able to launch a full-scale offensive of their own on October 30th, and by November 16th had secured a decisive victory in what was to prove the last major field action of the war.

When on December 23rd, 300,000 nationalist troops moved north from the Ebro into Catalonia, there was hardly any resistance.

Just over a month later, on January 25th, 1939, Barcelona was taken, almost bloodlessly.