When was the Catalonia Offensive?

From 23 December 1938, when Franco's armies attacked on the Segre and Ebro, to 10 February 1939, when they reached the French border.

When did Barcelona fall?

On 26 January 1939. The Nationalists crossed the Llobregat the day before and entered a half-empty, silent city.

How many people fled to France?

More than 400,000 soldiers and civilians crossed the border by the end of the campaign, in the exodus known as the Retirada.

Why did the Republic lose Catalonia so quickly?

Its army was worn out after the Ebro, short of rifles and aircraft, and filled with raw recruits, while the Nationalists had more than 300,000 men and nearly 500 aircraft.

What happened after the fall of Catalonia?

President Azaña resigned and officers in Madrid plotted a negotiated surrender; the Republic had essentially lost the war.

Catalonia Offensive, 1938 to 1939: the fall of Republican Catalonia

Location map of the Catalonia Offensive, drawn for this article. Location map: Natural Earth data (public domain)

Quick answer

What was the Catalonia Offensive?

It was the Nationalist campaign, launched on 23 December 1938, that conquered the last Republican-held region in northern Spain. Franco's armies broke the front on the Segre and Ebro, took Tarragona in mid-January and entered a silent Barcelona on 26 January 1939. By 10 February they stood on the French border, and more than 400,000 soldiers and civilians had fled across the Pyrenees.¹

The Catalonia Offensive decided the Spanish Civil War. In seven weeks the Republic lost Barcelona and all of Catalonia, its president, prime minister and chief of staff crossed into France, and the only question left was how long the rest of Republican Spain could hold out.²

After the Ebro

The Battle of the Ebro ended in mid-November 1938 with the Republican army in Catalonia badly worn down. According to Muy Interesante, Franco had three possible objectives, Madrid, Valencia and Catalonia, and chose Catalonia. He set 10 December for the attack, but bad weather delayed it. The task fell to General Fidel Dávila's Army of the North, six corps strong, among them the Moroccan corps of General Juan Yagüe and the Italian volunteer corps, the CTV.³ › Aragon Offensive, 1938

The two sides were badly mismatched. The Nationalists were well equipped and their morale was high. Muy Interesante counts more than 300,000 Nationalist soldiers on the Ebro and Segre and nearly 500 aircraft of the Italian Aviazione Legionaria and the German Condor Legion, against a Republican air force that hardly existed. The Republic's Eastern Region army group under General Juan Hernández Saravia was hoping for Soviet arms held up on the closed French border. Its ranks were filled with very young and very old recruits, called up in what Catalans named the baby bottle draft and the scraping the barrel draft. Of 90,000 Republican soldiers at the front, Muy Interesante writes, only 60,000 had a rifle.⁴

The front breaks

On 23 December Franco gave the order. Muy Interesante writes that on the first day, helped by bombing, the Nationalists advanced about 16 kilometers and shattered the Republican 56th Division. Even so, the Virtual Spanish Civil War project notes, the advance was slow at first: the Republicans facing it were some of the best units left in the Popular Army, bad weather limited the aircraft, and the Ebro and Segre were in flood.⁵

The decisive break came at the start of January. The Nationalists entered Artesa de Segre on 4 January and Les Borges Blanques the next day, the turning point of the campaign according to Muy Interesante; the Virtual Spanish Civil War dates the breakthrough to 3 January. General Vicente Rojo, the Republican chief of staff, ordered a fall back to a second line, but it was overrun as easily as the first.⁶

Tarragona and Barcelona

The advance now ran fast up the coast. Tarragona fell on 14 January according to the Virtual Spanish Civil War, on the 15th according to Muy Interesante, which credits Yagüe's men. In the same magazine's account, the Republican government called up men from 17 to 55, too late to matter. On 20 January, Muy Interesante recounts, Lluís Companys, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, gave his last speech, telling Catalans he had visited the tomb of his predecessor Francesc Macià and promised him the enemy would not get there.⁷

According to the magazine, on 22 January Juan Negrín held his last cabinet meeting in Barcelona, and the next day ordered government offices evacuated to Girona. The Nationalists crossed the Llobregat on 25 January and on the 26th entered Barcelona, which they found half empty and silent. Muy Interesante describes the new order that followed at once: Republican appointments annulled and Catalan banned from public life.⁸

The Retirada

A flood of soldiers and civilians now headed for the French border. France opened it to civilians on 27 January, reluctantly, and later let in disarmed Republican soldiers. By the end of the campaign more than 400,000 people had crossed. Italian aircraft had bombed Barcelona again around the feast of the Three Kings on 6 January, and the bombing of the whole region continued even though, as the Virtual Spanish Civil War puts it, the Nationalist success was never in doubt.⁹

On 1 February the Republican Cortes met for the last time on Spanish soil, in the castle of Figueres. Girona fell on 4 February by one account, on the 3rd by the other. According to the Virtual Spanish Civil War, President Manuel Azaña, General Rojo, Companys and the Basque president José Antonio Aguirre left Spain on 5 February, Negrín on the 8th, and on 10 February all of Catalonia was in Franco's hands.¹⁰

The end of the Republic

The fall of Catalonia meant that the Republic had essentially lost the war. Negrín and his Communist allies wanted to fight on; Azaña, convinced that defeat was unavoidable, resigned; and in Madrid officers and politicians began to plan the coup that would seek a negotiated surrender.¹¹