The siege of Gandesa took place between July and November 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, a few months after a battle in the same town.

Defended by the Nationalist 50th Division, the republican troops launched repeated attacks against Gandesa town, the wall of the local graveyard bearing the brunt of much of the combat action.

[2] Disregarding the advice of fellow generals García Valiño and Yagüe and Aranda who preferred to hold the front as it was and initiate an offensive in the North towards Barcelona, Franco wanted to regain the lost territory at any price.

General Aranda compared the lack of progress at Gandesa to a fruitless fight of two rams, but Franco concentrated on the fact that he had the best of the Republican Army caught up in a 35 km long line and if he annihilated it, there would be not enough manpower on the side of the Spanish Republic to continue the war.

There were a very high number of casualties on both sides; the Nationalist armies could bear them, but the Republican military would not recover from the heavy losses inflicted.