The Republican zone behind the frontlines of the civil war was a hot mess, and nowhere was it hotter or messier than Catalonia. As it turns out the Leftist joke "Anarchists and Communists can be friends until the Revolution" isn't actually a joke. 

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Starting a long break from the battlefield, today I am covering political jockeying and the social/economic conditions faced in the zone of Spain controlled by the Nationalists. 

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Busy episode today as in the first part I cover the blizzard battle of Teruel, in the second the lopsided Aragon Offensive, with updates at sea and in the air in between. 

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With Bilbao fallen and the Basques effectively knocked out of the war, the Republic was desperate to stall the final collapse of their enclave on the northern coast of Spain. Two large offensives were launched with the intent of drawing Franco's attentions south, but their failures only minimally delayed the final result for their isolated comrades. 

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Madrid may have been a bust, but Franco still had the initiative. Looking around on where to strike next, he settled on the Republican-held coastal strip along the northern coast. While this was indeed where the anti-Fascist forces were weakest, the combination of terrain and determined fighters would turn the campaign into a months-long affair taking up the bulk of 1937. 

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Picking back up with the course of the fighting, the Italians enter the fray in force in both the south and north of Spain. Franco also tries again to make a play on Madrid, to about the same results as before. 

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The aftermath of the Battle of Madrid left both sides of the war realizing that the conflict was going to be a long and grinding one, and so each began scrambling to consolidate their positions and expand their armies. 

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The big showdown in the Spanish capital got underway in early November 1936 and lasted until just after the new year. While the Nationalists would hurl their forces in the fray time and time again, the resolution of the defenders in forcing them back would shock the world. And maybe even themselves a little bit. 

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The Nationalist assault Madrid begins. 

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The SCW was from word go an international affair, although the help rendered was not even on the two sides. Today I take a look at how material aid for both factions materialized. 

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