Durruti Column - Advance

Advance

The anarchists started to take Catalonia back from the hands of the Franquists. They were headed towards Zaragoza controlled by General Emilio Mola and the Durruti column, concentrating 2,000 people at that time contrary to other units did not stop too much to liberate the countryside, they were moving only towards the city, mostly because of the lack of proper maps. They fought their first battle in Caspe, a city located about 100 kilometers southeast of Zaragoza. There they encountered a small group of militiamen fighting fascists commanded by Captain Negrete from Guardia Civil. While leaving Barcelona there were about 2,500 people in the column but before they got to Zaragoza their number increased to 6,000. The advance stopped near the city banks because of the Colonel Villalba, the leader of all the republican forces who convinced Durruti that if he had reclaimed Zaragoza, he may have been isolated from the rest of the fighters. Nowadays it is doubted if that was a good decision because of the superiority in numbers of the republican forces, but some state that in the event of open battle lack of weapons and supplies could have led to total disaster. Durruti installed his temporary headquarters in Bujaraloz. Waiting for the more convenient moment to attack Zaragoza turned out to be a grave mistake, because in passing of time the forces of Franco became more powerful there and made it impossible to reclaim the city. The offensive stopped at this point and there was no major battle. Most of the advances were small and were mostly initiated due to the actions of guerrillas. Durruti was concentrating himself on helping the collective.