Battle of Guadalajara

Battle of Guadalajara
	Part of the Spanish Civil War
	; Nationalist forces at Guadalajara
Date	March 8–23, 1937
Location	Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Spain
Result	Republican victory
Belligerents
Republican Spain; International Brigades	Nationalist Spain; Italian Volunteer Corps
Commanders and leaders
Vicente Rojo Lluch; José Miaja; Enrique Jurado Barrio; Enrique Líster; Nino Nanetti; Cipriano Mera	Mario Roatta; Annibale Bergonzoli; Edmondo Rossi; Guido Coppi; Luigi Nuvoloni; José Moscardó Ituarte
Strength
20,000; 45 artillery pieces; 60 armoured vehicles; 70 aircraft	35,000; 15,000; 270 artillery pieces; 140 armoured vehicles; 62 aircraft
Casualties and losses
Republicans:; 2,000 dead; 4,000 wounded; 258 captured; Total:; 6,258	Italians:; 600 or 3,000 dead; 2,000–4,000 wounded; 800 missing; 300-800 captured; Nationalists:; 4,000 dead; 4,000 wounded; 800 captured; Materiel lost: 65 artillery pieces ; 500 machine guns ; 13 mortars ; 67 trucks ; 10 tanks captured ; Plenty ammunition; Total:; 17,400

The Battle of Guadalajara (March 8–23, 1937) saw the victory of the Spanish Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano, or EPR) and of the International Brigades over the Italian and Nationalist forces attempting to encircle Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist forces involved in the Battle of Guadalajara were primarily the Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie, or CTV).

The battle opened with an Italian offensive on 8 March. This offensive was halted by 11 March. Between 12 and 14 March, renewed Italian attacks were supported by Spanish Nationalist units. These were halted too. On 15 March, a counter-offensive of the Republicans was prepared; it was successfully launched between 18 and 23 March. The battle was decided by the superiority of Soviet armoured vehicles over Italian ones; in Britain, the defeat of Italian forces drew mocking comments by former-UK Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, who called it "the Italian skedaddle".

The combined Italian and Nationalist losses are estimated to have been 17,400 killed, wounded and captured, compared to 6,258 for the Republicans. As a result of a re-organisation and new leadership, the CTV improved its combat record after Guadalajara, which was the force's only defeat of the war.