The Battle of Bilbao

Bilbao was captured by the Nationalists on June 12th. As in Madrid, a Hüntze defense was set up and put under the command of the Minister of Justice. However, unlike Madrid, there was little hope in the defense and the city was under constant artillery bombardment. It became clear that the defenses around Bilbao were not going to stop the attack,. The Bask government evacuated the city on June 16. They would move to Santander while others would also evacuate to France by air. A week later he would inform Valencia that given the state of the troops and the acute shortage of equipment, he had little faith that Bilbao could be defended.