At the beginning of October 1936, after only three months, the control of the Second Spanish Republic was pressed to Catalonia, in the northeastern corner.

Due to the slow pace of Franco's national army moving north, Rommel's German-Spanish corps stopped at Madrid for repairs, and the Italian expeditionary force had no desire to go south. Thus, the Government of the Republic was given a brief respite and reorganized the scattered troops that had been drawn back from all directions.

During this period, the Second Republic of Spain established two armies totaling 230,000 men to defend Catalonia. After Francisco was directly rebuilt from the troops brought back by Francisco and replenished with more than 3,000 government soldiers, Francisco dismantled his 27,000-strong troops and integrated them into a People's Guard with a total of 45,000 men.

The 72,000-strong Southern Front Group Army were: the New 1st Division, the New 2nd Division, the New 3rd Division, the New 4th Division, the New 5th Division, the Provisional 6th Cavalry Division, the Temporary 7th Garrison Division, and the Temporary 8th Garrison Division.

Among them, the new 1st Division to the New 5th Division are all standard infantry divisions, with 3 infantry regiments, 1 bicycle reconnaissance battalion, 1 elite battalion directly under the division, 1 engineer battalion, 1 communications battalion, 2 machine gun companies, 3 infantry supplementary companies, 3 ambulance convoys, and dozens of military police units. Each division, with an average of 12,000 men, was densely deployed along the Ebro River in an attempt to keep the future enemy at bay west of the Ebro.

The 3,500-strong Provisional Sixth Cavalry Division was placed by Francisco in the city of Tarrega in the handover to Army Group North, as a "two-way reserve" that could go both north and south. Of course, the placement of the Provisional Sixth Cavalry Division in the city of Tarrega was not just a follow-up for Francisco's fear that Army Group on the Northern Front would make a mistake. As the most important transport node in Catalonia, the Provisional Sixth Division of the city of Tarrega could also move quickly south along the road and act as a reserve to support various parts of the southern route.

The remaining two garrison divisions, which are less than 8,000 men, have a high proportion of government soldiers, and the ratio of government troops to the people's guard is even close to one. The two divisions were placed east of the vast Ebro River defensive line, leaving the relatively safe rear to establish a long field defensive line. According to Francisco's plan, the main task of these two divisions was to stay in the rear and establish a line of defense in depth. At the same time, new recruits from the Catalan region were recruited, the scale was expanded, and the opportunity was seized to form two large divisions with combat effectiveness.

The Northern Front Army of the Second Spanish Republic, which did not rely on the Ebro River, had twice the size of the Southbound Army, with a total of 150,000 troops. Almost all of the troops under its command were transferred by the government of the Republic from the previous front, which led to the accelerated fall of many defense areas. However, the government of the republic at this moment could not manage so much, and soon reorganized these scattered troops into 15 infantry divisions.

These squeezed out troops are almost all regular army soldiers. Although the combat quality of individual soldiers is still a lot worse than that of German soldiers, it is much better than that of militia people's militia soldiers. Therefore, don't look at the fact that the number of an infantry division of the army group on the northern front is less than that of an infantry division on the southern front, but the combat effectiveness is much higher. However, unlike the Southern Front Army brought back by Francisco, the Northern Front Army lacked heavy weapons and transport vehicles, and could only form "pure infantry divisions" with extremely poor mobility.

Unlike Francisco, the commander of the Southern Front, the commander of the Northern Front was a middle-aged general Sarkozy with no prestige. Under the command of Sarkozy, Army Group of the Northern Front combined the lessons of the previous Battle of Madrid and deployed 15 divisions to avoid being completely annihilated by the enemy at one time. A full 150,000 people, deployed on average in 15 medium-sized and large cities between Zaragoza and Visca.

In this way, the army group of the northern front did get rid of the danger of being completely annihilated at one time, but because of this, the various units could not cooperate with each other, so that the entire army group of the northern front had no cohesion at all.

However, although Francisco had great opinions on the deployment of the army group on the northern front, he had no choice but to give up because he was out of reach.

After all, the upcoming Battle of Catalonia was an asymmetrical defensive battle against the strong. In such a battle, the Republican Army really didn't have much else to do except defense.

..............

In the city of Menorca, on the island of Menorca, teams of Spanish Republican Army soldiers in khaki uniforms are being lined up for intensive training.

As the last island in the hands of the government of the Republic, Menorca, with an area of 668 square kilometers, has now assembled an elite army of Republican troops who are about to carry out secret missions.

8,000 people, this is the maximum mobile force that the Second Republic can come up with. Their mission was to seize the 728-square-kilometer island of La Palma, which was under the control of the National Army.

In contrast to the economically backward and sparsely populated island of Mecano, La Palma, with an area of 728 square kilometers, is much larger and has a population of 72,000. La Palma has a large area of forests, distributed in the coastal plain of developed agriculture, producing bananas, tobacco leaves, vegetables, sugar cane, fruits, grains, grapes, etc. Furthermore. La Palma is also home to winemaking, sugar and flour mills. Handicrafts such as logging, fishing and embroidery are also well developed.

The port of La Palma de Santa Cruz, on the island of La Palma, is even one of the largest ports in all of Spain!

Such a large island, which is well-established and difficult to defend, is the ideal location for the Second Republic to move its capital next.

That's right! This was the next retreat that the Government of the Second Spanish Republic had prepared for itself. While Franco's National Army was advancing all the way, the government defended by the Republican Army was thinking about the way back again and again.

"Sir, why are we running to seize an island? Shouldn't we stay on land and have a good fight with the rebellious Nationalists? A Republican colonel asked his superior, Lieutenant General Dirks, the commander of the Menorca Division as the commander of the island-seizing operation, with two questions in a row.

Looking at the colonel who had just been appointed as a staff officer, Lieutenant General Dirks sighed and said, "I understand your feelings, but our tasks are equally important, and it is worth our fight." ”

The colonel looked at Lieutenant General Dirks with a suspicious expectant gaze, expecting to hear a reason to stay here. This reason is obviously not to find a refuge for the timid government.

Dirks thought about it and felt that he didn't need to continue to hide it, so he simply let go and told the colonel: "In fact, the Catalan campaign was not just a defensive battle along the Catalan border. The aim of the campaign was to use the whole of Catalonia as much as possible to deplete the rebels. And to do this, it is necessary to ensure the security of the republican government that has moved to Catalonia. ”

"That's why we need to take La Palma and move the government out of Catalonia, so that our two armies can be free to entangle with the rebels." Dix looked at the distant sea and said with a determined gaze.