ABSTRACT
The Republicans tried to stop the Nationalist advance toward the Mediterranean that threatened with cutting the government’s territory into two by launching an offensive in Guadalajara, in one of those static fronts described in the previous chapter. In this chapter I describe the forgotten Offensive of the Upper Tajuña River of April 1938 using a combination of archaeological and archival sources. The latter are scarce, while references in history books are virtually non-existent, despite the battle involving tens of thousands of men, tanks and aircraft. The chapter follows the footsteps of the soldiers of the Popular Army from their departing positions to the furthermost point that they reached in a war landscape that has been preserved largely unaltered. The Offensive of the Upper Tajuña was not the only forgotten battle of 1938. Another was the Levante Offensive, which took place immediately afterwards in the hills near the Mediterranean coast in the Valencia region. Here the Nationalists launched an attack to capture the Republican wartime capital. It was a total failure, which explains the oblivion in which the battle has fallen. Archaeological research in the area has explored battlefields, soldiers’ graves and the formidable belts of fortifications that largely thwarted the Nationalist offensive. Also the relentless bombing to which Mediterranean cities and towns were subjected by the rebels.
