The Battle of the Basque Enclave

Franco was eventually convinced to shift resources north by Juan Vagan, a staff officer who would be the chief of staff for what would become known as the war in the north. In the northern enclave which was largely isolated from the rest of the republic there were three different provincial governments and three different armies. The Basques had long been seeking greater autonomy and assurances of that autonomy had been one of the reasons that they continued to support the republic. By the time of the nationalist attacks they had managed to bring in some tanks, machine guns, aircraft as well as a large number of rifles but it was clear that they would be adding equipment disadvantage if the nationalist shifted resources north.