Battle of Belchite (1937) in the context of Belchite

⭐ Core Definition: Battle of Belchite (1937)

The Battle of Belchite refers to a series of military operations that took place between 24 August and 7 September 1937, in and around the town of Belchite (almost 4,000 inhabitants in 1936, decreasing to around 2,600 during the battle, from the repression and displacement of the first year), in Aragon during the Spanish Civil War, as part of a much bigger offensive to take Zaragoza, that continued until the beginning of November 1937.

Since the Offensive of Zaragoza failed, the Republicans started calling it Battle of Belchite for propaganda reasons instead, so that it would look like a victory, the journalists that came to report the victory, including Ernest Hemingway, contributed to this change of names. The Nationalists continued the confusion, since they exploited the "Numantine" defense of the town for propaganda too, to counteract the bad image of the bombing of Guernica.

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Battle of Belchite (1937) in the context of International Brigades

The International Brigades (Spanish: Brigadas Internacionales) were volunteer soldiers organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigades existed for two years, from 1936 until 1938. It is estimated that during the entire war, there were some 32,000 Brigaders, yet at no single moment were there more than 18,000 actually deployed. Beyond the Spanish Civil War, "International Brigades" is also sometimes used interchangeably with the term foreign legion in reference to military units comprising foreigners who volunteer to fight in the military of another state, often in times of war.

The headquarters of the brigade was located at the Gran Hotel, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha. They participated in the battles of Madrid, Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, Teruel, Aragon, and the Ebro. Most of these ended in defeat. For the last year of its existence, the International Brigades were integrated into the Spanish Republican Army as part of the Spanish Foreign Legion. The organisation was dissolved on 23 September 1938 by Spanish Prime Minister Juan Negrín in a vain attempt to get more support from the liberal democracies on the Non-Intervention Committee.

View the full Wikipedia page for International Brigades

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