At the time the capital of Spain was in grave danger of being overtaken by the fascists and Federica Montseny convinced Durruti to leave Catalonia.
Durruti was concentrating himself on helping the collective.Īt the beginning of November 1936 Buenaventura Durruti with more than 3,000 people from the column directed themselves to Madrid. Due to the lack of armaments, most of the advances were small and were mostly initiated due to the actions of the column's guerrilla groups. The offensive stopped at this point and there was no major battle. Waiting for the more convenient moment to attack Zaragoza turned out to be a grave mistake because, in time, Franco's forces became more powerful there and made it impossible to reclaim the city. Durruti made his temporary headquarters in Bujaraloz. Nowadays it is doubted if that was a good decision since the republican forces were greater in number however, some state that in the event of open battle a lack of weapons and supplies could have led to total disaster. The advance stopped near the city banks because Durruti became convinced by Colonel Villalba, the leader of all the republican forces, that if he reclaimed Zaragoza, he may become isolated from the rest of the fighters. As Durruti left Barcelona, there were about 2,500 people in the column, and before they got to Zaragoza their number had increased to 6,000. There they were joined by a small group of militiamen commanded by Captain Negrete from Guardia Civil.
They fought their first battle in Caspe, a city located about 100 kilometers southeast of Zaragoza.
Intending to take Catalonia back from the Francoists, Durruti and his column headed toward Zaragoza, which was controlled by General Emilio Mola. After some time, it became dominated by the communists. The committee was responsible for supplying and coordination of the actions different militias. Despite being in the majority they took only one third of the committee's seats. The next day, as the outcome of that meeting, they formed with other leftist organisations The Central Committee of the Antifascist Militias. On 20 July 1936, Durruti and other anarchists such as Juan García Oliver and Diego Abad de Santillán, participated in a meeting with Lluis Companys, the President of Catalonia. Later on, the headquarters of the Durruti Column was attacked at Bujaraloz, halfway between Barcelona and Madrid. The anarchists, under the command of Buenaventura Durruti, one of the most popular leaders of Federación Anarquista Ibérica attacked the Atarazanas/Drassanes barracks. Fearing attack, the anarchist and communist organisations such as CNT-FAI along with Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ("Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista", POUM) and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ("Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya", PSUC) organised themselves into militia units and took weapons from the arsenals with the support of the people responsible for the arsenals, mostly non-commissioned officers. The republican government had done nothing to protect the city from the rebellious army under the command of General Franco Barcelona was left undefended. The column was formed in Barcelona where, on 18 July 1936, the anarchists started fighting against General Goded and his armies.
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