The war had stalemated around Madrid. The Insurgents could not take the capital, but they could take the gobemitos of Asturias, Santander, and the Basque provinces of Viscaya and Guipuzcoa, fanatically separatist areas in the north along the Bay of Biscay. Much of Spain's limited industry was located in the Basque Provinces and Asturias contained rich mineral deposits.

It took seven months for the methodical Franco to conquer the divided north. During this campaign, the German command experimented with the effects of massed air attack on an undefended town of no military significance, Guernica. At the time, Germany probably considered the bombing a success, but history characterizes the event as an example of barbarism.

The world was horrified when it learned of the attack, and supporters of the Nationalists in the West (including the Hearst papers in the United States) achieved new heights of invention as they tried to deny that the bombing happened at all.

During the spring and summer of 1937, the Republic launched a number of offensives in an attempt to save the North. The battles of Segovia, Brunete, Belchite, and all Loyalist offensives, for that matter, followed a pattern: first, tactical surprise, followed by a cautious and confused advance soon stopped by Nationalist reserves, then a Nationalist counterattack which regained most of the ground they had lost. The Republican army had developed offensive capability, but never possessed sufficient strength and material to exploit an advance.

Spanish Civil War

Introduction and Background
The First Six Months
Foreign Involvement
War in the Summer of 1937
Politics and The Aragon Front
The Czech Crisis and End of War
Bibliographical Note
Who Was Who in the SCW?