Battle of Santander

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Battle of Santander

Nationalist troops enter Santander on August 26, 1937.

Date	August 14 - September 1, 1937
Location	Santander, Cantabria, Spain
Result	Decisive Nationalist victory

Combatants

Second Spanish Republic

Nationalist Spain

Commanders

Mariano Gamir Ulibarri

Fidel Dávila Arrondo

Strength

80,000 infantry

90,000 infantry
126 guns
220 aircraft

Casualties

60,000 dead, wounded, or captured

Unknown

Spanish Civil War
Alcázar – Gijón – Oviedo – Mérida – Mallorca – Badajoz – Sierra Guadalupe – Monte Pelato – Talavera – Cape Espartel – Madrid – Corunna Road – Málaga – Jarama – Guadalajara – Guernica – Bilbao – Brunete – Santander – Belchite – El Mazuco – Cape Cherchell – Teruel – Cape Palos – Ebro Chronology: 1936 1937 1938-39

The Battle of Santander was fought over the summer of 1937 in the War in the North campaign in the Spanish Civil War. Santander's fall on September 1 assured the Nationalist conquest of Cantabria and marked the last stand of the Republic's "Army of the North," which was destroyed and captured in the fighting.

[edit] Consequences

Santander's fall, coupled with the capture of heavily-fortified Bilbao, tore an irreparable gap in the Republic's northern front. The destruction of the Army of the North marked another crippling blow to the Republic's sagging strength and turned the war to Franco's favour. Factors accounting for the Republican defeat include:

The Nationalists' overwhelming superiority in artillery and air power.
A lack of unified command among Republican units.
The precision, shock, and rapidity of the Nationalist advance, which had as its objective the destruction of enemy forces and not the consolidation of territory.
The defenders' poor morale, in contrast to the exceptional confidence and enthusiasm of the Nationalists.
Mutinies and sedition in the Republican camp.

The disaster proved total and the losses beyond repair. Of the twelve Basque brigades there remained at the end only eight battered battalions. The Republican Army of Santander of twelve brigades was reduced to six battalions. The Asturians committed 27 battalions and escaped with only fourteen. In no other theatre of the civil war did Franco's troops achieve results as decisive as those of the Santander campaign: sixty thousand Republican soldiers were wiped off the wap, with corresponding losses in materiel. The war in the north was all but won.