La Ultima Cruzada

La Ultima Cruzada

Spanish Civil War Military Source Book

by

Bob Cordery

2017

Eglinton Books

Copyright © 2017 by Robert George Cordery.

Robert George Cordery has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All the line drawings used herein were originated by Robert George Cordery, Copyright © 2017.

As far as can be ascertained by due diligent search, all the photographs used herein are no longer within copyright.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher in writing except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Typeset in Arial font

First published as ‘Ultima Cruzada’ by Caliver Books in 1989 (First Edition) and as ‘La Ultima Cruzada’ in 1993 (Second Edition).

This revised Third Edition published in 2017 by Eglinton Books

Eglinton Books

84 Eglinton Hill

Shooters Hill

Plumstead

London

SE18 3DY

United Kingdom

eBook:ISBN 978-0-244-67050-4

This book is dedicate to the people whose lives were – and still are – affected by the events of the Spanish Civil War.

Books by the same author

FICTION

The Elephant and the Cobra

NONFICTION

When Empires Clash!

Brothers in Arms and Brothers in the Lodge

The Portable Wargame

Developing The Portable Wargame

Foreword to the Third Edition

It is over twenty years since I sat down to write the first edition of this book. At the time sources written in English were far more limited than they are now, and as a wargamer it was very difficult to come by much that was of any use.

Over the intervening years this situation has changed … but I still get people asking if I am going to make my book available again as they have found it to be a very useful ‘one stop shop’ for information about the Spanish Civil War.

This edition has therefore been published to fulfil those requests. Considerable additions and changes have been made to some sections of the original text of the second edition, and I have tried to correct any errors, improve the layout, and to include relevant illustrations where possible.

I would like to thank Susan Bayne, Arthur Harman, and Robert-Jan Maycock for proof-reading the text of this book. Without their help and support this would not have been as good a book as it is. Any mistakes and errors are mine, and certainly not theirs.

Bob Cordery,

London, November 2017

Introduction to the Second Edition

When the leading Generals of the Spanish Army led their troops into a revolt against the Republican government on 18th July 1936, they expected little opposition to their coup d’etat. They were, however, mistaken. The supporters of the government proved to be much stronger than expected and as a result Spain experienced three years of bloody Civil War.

It was a war of contradictions and political in-fighting. Both sides experienced problems in retaining the support of groups or political parties that were, more often than not, in violent opposition with one another.

The government had the support of all the left-wing political parties. These included the Republicans, the Socialists, the Communists, and the Anarchists. They and their associated Trade Unions provided the armed militias that resisted the rising in its earliest stages. Support was also forthcoming from the Catalan and Basque Nationalists as the Republic had given them their much longed for regional autonomy. Some elements of the armed and paramilitary forces remained loyal to the Republic; included amongst these were most of the Navy’s seamen (but not the officers), a large part of the Air Force, some units of the Peninsular Army, sections of the Guardia Civil (the national police force) and Carabineros (the Frontier Guards), and a majority of the Asaltos (the national riot police).

The government received some military material from the French socialist government in the early stages of the war, and substantial assistance from the Mexican government throughout the conflict. Considerable help also came, in the form of weapons and advisers, from the Russian government once the left-wing nature of the Republic was established and a large part of the Spanish Gold Reserves was safely housed in Russia! Further military aid was provided by the many foreign volunteers who were organised, with the help of the Communist International, into the International Brigade.

The Insurgents (who soon became known as the Nationalists) had the support of the Army of Africa (which contained the most battle-hardened units in the Spanish Army), the remainder of the Peninsular Army, Guardia Civil, Carabineros, and Asaltos, and the Right-wing and Traditionalist political parties. These parties included the Monarchists, the Carlists, and the Falange. The two latter parties were of particular importance as both had armed militias that could assist in putting down resistance to the rising. With the exception of the Basque Region, the Catholic Church gave its support to the insurgents.

The Nationalists also received foreign military aid. The right-wing governments of Italy and Germany sent ‘volunteers’, tanks, aircraft and artillery to aid the Nationalist cause. In addition small numbers of Portuguese, French and Irish volunteers fought with the insurgent armies.

The Spanish Civil War was a war of ideals fought by soldiers who thought that God or History was on their side. It foreshadowed many aspects of the Second World War whilst at the same time harking back to an earlier age; it seemed at times to be a war of medieval ferocity fought with twentieth century technology.

A note about foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War

Although the Spanish saw their Civil War as a war between different visions of Spain’s future, the rest of the world thought of it as a confrontation between Left and Right, Communism and Fascism, legitimate government and military dictatorship. Thus when both the Republicans and the Nationalists asked for aid from other countries, it was forthcoming.

As it was the legitimate government of Spain, the Republicans expected that they would be able to purchase war materials and armaments abroad. It came as a shock, therefore, when most foreign countries imposed an embargo on the export of such goods to Spain. The Republicans were thus forced to look to ‘friendly’ governments, such as Russia and Mexico, to provide for their needs.

The Republic was as short of technical specialists as the Nationalists, and sought to recruit them from abroad. The Russians offered to supply both training personnel and equipment (at a price!) and as no real alternatives existed, this was accepted. In the long term this led to the take-over of the Republican government by the Communists as they were able to control the supply and use of materials and equipment.

No formed units of Russian ‘advisers’ were committed to combat, although Russian officers often commanded Republican troops in the field and Russian pilots flew combat aircraft for the Republican Air Force. The main supply of foreign personnel who served in combat on behalf of the Republic were the International Brigade. These were formed with the help of the COMINTERN[1] and were intended to be the Republican equivalent of the Foreign Legion. The members of the International Brigade tended to be left-wing but were by no means dyed-in-the-wool Communists. Many were socialists and anti-fascists.

The most important foreign assistance to the Nationalists came in the form of military units – the most important being the ‘volunteers’ of the German Condor Legion and Italian Corpo Truppe Voluntarie – military equipment (almost exclusively from Germany and Italy), and financial credit, supplies of oil, and approximately 12,000 motor vehicles from the United States[2].

[1]Communist International.

[2]Texaco supplied oil and Ford, Studebaker, and General Motors supplied trucks.

A map of Spain

The main towns and cities of Spain.

The Republicans and the Nationalists

Over the years it has become quite normal to refer to the two sides in the Spanish Civil War as the Republicans and the Nationalists, but this tends to obscure the fact that the so-called Republicans were actually the supporters of the legitimately elected government of the Republic of Spain whilst the Nationalists were supporters of the insurgents who had risen in revolt against that government.

The confusion is made worse by the fact that Basque and Catalan Nationalists (i.e. Basques and Catalans who wanted full independence for their regions) supported the Republican government and were not supporters of the Nationalist rebels[3].

Both sides were coalitions of very varied political groups with different aims and objectives, and this certainly affected they way that troops drawn from those political groups behaved on the battlefield and behind the front-line.

[3]It has been suggested in several sources that the term Nationalists or Nationals (nacionales) was originally suggested by Joseph Goebbels, the German Minister of Propaganda. The convention of referring to the anti-Republican forces as the Nationalists been used throughout this book.

The Republican Political Parties

The Anarcho-Syndicalists

The red and black flag of the CNT-FAI.

The anarchist movement in Spain was the strongest in Europe. Its main support came from the industrial workers of Barcelona, who formed the anarcho-syndicalist trades union, the CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo)[4], in 1911.

The anarchists also founded a youth movement, the FIJL (Federacion Iberica Juventudes Libertarias)[5], to promote anarcho-syndicalist beliefs amongst the young.

The most influential organisation within the anarchist movement was the FAI (Federacion Anarquista Iberica)[6]; this was a federation of militant anarchist groups founded in 1927. It worked in secret, and formed the backbone of the anarchist militias at the outbreak of the Civil War.

The Basques

The Ikurriña or Basque flag. It has a green background with a red saltire cross and a white cross.

The Basques had always considered themselves to be a separate nation. The region had its own language, culture, traditional laws and style of government, and its people looked to the Republic to reintroduce the autonomy that had previously existed.

The PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco)[7] was founded in 1895 as a Catholic conservative political party that wanted greater autonomy for the Basque region. It enjoyed considerable popular support, and its members formed the majority of the members of the wartime Basque government.

Its main rival for political power was the more socialist Eusko Abertzale Ekintza (Basque)/Acción Nacionalista Vasca (Spanish)[8].

The Catalans

The Catalan flag. It has alternate horizontal stripes of gold and red.

Like the Basques the Catalans thought of themselves as separate from Spain. They too had a language and culture of their own, and expected to gain autonomy when the Republic was founded.

The main Catalan political parties were the ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya)[9], which was a left-wing republican nationalist party founded in 1931, and the PSUC (Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluna)[10], which was formed in 1936 from several socialist and communist groups. The latter was affiliated to COMINTERN[11] and was the Communist Party in Catalonia.

The Communists

The PCE (Partido Comunista de España)[12] was founded in 1921. Due to the strength of the socialist, anarcho-syndicalist and Marxist movements in Spain, the Spanish Communist Party was small; it was also highly efficient and enjoyed the support of Stalinist Russia. This was to prove highly significant as the Civil War progressed; as the other political parties declined in power the communists were to exert more and more influence, especially in the armed forces.

The Marxists

The flag used by the Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista. It was red with the traditional white hammer and sickle in the top corner and the initials of the party in white letters at the bottom.

The revolutionary anti-Stalinist Marxist Party, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista)[13], was formed in 1935 as the result of the merger of the BOC (Bloque Obrero y Campesino)[14], led by Joaquin Maurin, and ICE (Izquierda Comunista de España)[15], led by Andres Nin.

The Republicans

The badge of the Izquierda Republicana.

The two main republican parties were founded in 1934. They were the IR (Izquierda Republicana)[16] which was formed from four smaller left-wing social-democratic groups, and the UR (Union Republicana)[17], which had broken away from the PRP (Partido Republicano Radical)[18].

The Socialists

The flag used by the Partido Socialista Obrero Español. It was simple red square with the initials of the party in white on it.

The socialists were the most powerful left-wing political force in Spain before the Civil War. The Spanish Socialist Workers Party, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español)[19], was founded in 1879; it was supported by the socialist trades union, the UGT (Union General de Trabajadores)[20], and the FJS (Federacion de Juventudes Socialistas)[21]. In 1936 the latter amalgamated with the Communist Youth Movement to form the JSU (Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas)[22], which was soon dominated by the communists.

[4]National Confederation of Labour.

[5]Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth.

[6]Iberian Anarchist Federation.

[7]Basque Nationalist Party.

[8]Basque Nationalist Action.

[9]Republican Left of Catalonia.

[10]United Catalan Socialist Party.

[11]Communist International.

[12]Communist Party of Spain.

[13]Workers' Party of Marxist Unification.

[14]Workers and Peasants' Bloc.

[15]Communist Left of Spain.

[16]Left Republican Party.

[17]Republican Union Party.

[18]Radical Republican Party.

[19]Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

[20]General Union of Workers.

[21]Federation of Socialist Youth.

[22]Unified Socialist Youth.

Some leading Republican Politicians