MARCH I – INSURGENTS – Mud/Mud – Supplies, assault divisions, artillery, and engineers are moved to forward positions around Bilbao. Since Madrid forces will be at half strength it seems better to clear the North first.
MARCH I – LOYALISTS – Several Basque units upgrade to division strength as they nervously await liberation from the “thrust” from Aragon. But in Aragon the orders are “dig in.”
MAR II 1937
MARCH II – INSURGENTS – Mud/Clear – While poring over the maps Franco sees self-supported Basque divisions inching their way westward and decides mud be damned it would be better to attack a stack of 15 in the mud vs. 20+ in the clear. So a 4:1 – 3 attack against Bilbao goes forward with a DR result. The Basque units successfully retreat to Guernica. Two other attacks each destroy a Basque division and suddenly the Basque territory is nearly split in two. These actions included the largest air offensive of the war and it was equally bad in the air for the Loyalists: 3 units eliminated and 1 aborted; Insurgents had both H-51 units eliminated. Elsewhere forces in the mountains near Teurel retreat into that city to avoid a U-2 rating and a 3:1 Ex result attack occurs south of Madrid.
MARCH II – LOYALISTS – Panic mode up north as troops desperately scramble to shore up the lines outside of San Sebastian and others retreat eastward towards that lone outpost. In the south a 3:1 attack reclaims the hex south of Madrid seized by the Insurgents and results in the complete destruction of that rebel corps.
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