After the battle of Teruel, the Nationalists led by the general Fidel Dávila, launched an offensive in the Aragon front on March 1938. The Nationalists broke the Republican lines, pursued them and by April the Nationalist reached the Mediterranean sea at Vinaroz and the river Segre, occupying Aragon. One republican division was isolated by the Nationalist advance in the valley of the Alto Cinca river, near the French Frontier. By the end of March, the 43rd division of the Republican Army, led by Antonio Beltran, nicknamed El Esquinazado (The Dodger), was surrounded by the Nationalist troops in the Cinca river Valley.