the two months of may and june in 1811 were to prove his most testing time while stationed on spain's eastern seaboard. he went to great lengths to help the spanish besieged at tarragona by the french army of aragon under louis gabriel suchet. convinced that the marquis de campo verde, the spanish general in charge of tarragona, was not up to the task, codrington, who had a clearer understanding of the situation, helped the british military agent charles william doyle to contrive a plan of succour. through his own personal efforts codrington brought to tarragona 6,300 spanish infantry and 291 artillerymen as reinforcements. he spent many nights in the port area guiding cannon launches against the enemy. when the city fell, he rescued over 600 people from the beach in a dunkirk-style operation under fire from enemy cannon and personally undertook to reunite mothers and babies who had been separated during the evacuation. afterwards, he intervened on a political level to stop captain general de lacy disarming the local catalan somaténs (militias).