On the evening of 24 July 1938, Spanish Republican troops, joined by foreign volunteers of the International Brigades, found themselves creeping in the dark through mud and reeds towards the banks of the Ebro (Ebre in Catalan), the mighty river that flows through Catalonia in a south-easterly direction towards the Mediterranean.
They were part of an offensive which involved about 80,000 men on the Republican side, and ranged from Xerta, about 50 kilometres inland from the river’s mouth, to Fayón, another 80 kilometres upstream. The attackers achieved complete surprise – a remarkable military achievement.
The 930-kilometre (580-mile) Ebro is the longest river running entirely in Spain. Republican troops on the east bank had spent weeks assembling boats and pontoon bridges and, in many cases, learning to swim. This could not have gone unnoticed by spies working for General Franco, the Nationalist leader, who were passing information to Nationalist troops dug in on the river’s west bank. But their commanders dismissed any possibility of a ‘Red’ attack.
