Spanish Civil War

From the very beginning, the "Republicans" were fighting a Civil War within a Civil War; the Communist began to take from the other groups. Stalin sent his "hatchet-men"to Spain, the Argentine Vittorio Codovilla, the old but ruthless Palmiro Togliatti, the Bulgarian Spepanov, , the idiotic and paranoid Frenchman André Marty, who was in charge of the the International Brigades at Albacete, seconded by the latter two Italians. Of Marty Hugh Thomas writes in "The Spanish Ciivl War" (Harper and Row, New York, 1962) pag.300-301" Even Stalin had a less suspicious nature than André Marty" At Albacete Marty was seconded the Italians Giuseppe di Vittorio, and Luigi Longoy a French communist , Gayman, a French Artillery Major by the name of Hagar, who established specialists schools of artillery, observers, commissars and cartographers, and an Italian, Captain Alloca who commanded the cavalry base at nearby La Roda. Of André Marty, even a well known apologist for the Communists t the writer Ernest Hemmingway , in his "For Whom the Belld Tolls" makes one of his characters say: " he kills more people than the bubonic plague, he kills all sorts of rare birds, democrats, republicns, socialists, anarchists, Trotkyites.."

According to the Republican historian Salvador de Madariaga in his "Spain": A Modern History" (Praeager, New York, 1962) when the International Brigades arrived in Madrid, although the men came from every nation in Europe, the crowds shouted :" Long Live Russia", for it was quite obvious who had organized and sent them."


As early as September 1936 the NKVD established HQ in Madrid, and later on under direct orders from Stalin, Codovilla and Togliatti had Andrés Nin, head of the Trozkite Party known as the P.O.U. M. (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista) assasinated. Late in 1938, Miguel Azaña, president of the Republic telephoned d Claudio Sanchez Albornoz, former Minister Republican Ambassador to Portugal (and future president of the Republcan Government in Exile)-to warn him " Claudio, if the Repoublic wins the Ciivil War, you and l will have to go into exile, because it will become a Commuist state". When questioned about this conversation in the late 1970s in Argentina, the former diplomat acknowledged that such a conversation, had in fact, taken place. Despite all of its initial advantages (for at the ouset of the war, the Republic controlled virtually the entire Spanish Fleet, more than 90% of the aircraft of the military and Naval arms, all the main Arsenals and armament factories, because of indept leadershp, internal diviisons and Communist interference the rpublicans were defeated, and despite , may l add the massive nature or Soviet military aid. From memory l can quote the following figures: Beginning Oct. 1936 through 1938, , the "Republicans" received 450 Polikarkov I-16, and more than 500 I-15 fighters, 210 twin-engined Tupolev SB2 bombers,and an estimatyed 600 tanks of the T-26 and BT-5 types.

Franco was no military genius,however, he was a skilled (and personally quite brave) officer, who at the succesful conclussion of the Morrocan wars in 1927, had become the youngest general in Europe (at age 27) and won the prized "Laureada de San Fernando" medal, Spanish equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor or the V.C, a decoration not easily given in Spain, except posthumously. So that we may understand each other: I am no fan of Franco, he dismissed generals that did not think like he did (Cabanillas, Yagüe, to name a few) and he established a personality cult, but from everything l've read, and from many interviews l held with veterans from both sides , it was obvious that without his intervention, Spain woud have been another Communist state..

 

Would Spain have been worse off as a communist state than it was as a dictatorship that lasted until 1975? Worse yet, a fascist dictatorship favoring Hitler! :-?

 

Well, Franco didn't favor Hitler too much, and the only significative help was the "División Azul", and his requests to declare war agaisnt England (1940) were obviously excessive even to Hitler. The country was in no shape to enter another war so soon, and german military aid dried up fairly quick when they invaded Russia. I'll have to dig out an article about the company Panzer IV sent here, could be interesting (One of them ended in the Golan Heights against the Israelis!).
Sadly, most interesting articles i have are dispersed among tons of magazines, books and military publications, not all of them at home because i moved recently
.
Actually Franco was more anticommunist than profascist (that's why the american help-for-bases accords were achieved), and after the hard repression times, it became a strange dictatorship, with a king in exile, and his heir studying in country. Of course, that's what i think (i was born 1 year before Franco died), and everybody has a different idea.
After the worst years, and with the opening of our borders to tourism and the modern world, the country climbed very fast from it's depths.

The best tank in the war was the Russian T26 (a liutenant coronel of my brigade back then restored one to working condition 10 years ago).
Best armor and more powerful AT gun (45mm) than panzers I and II used by the Nationalists, and with a bounty of 500 pesetas of the time (back then 11 pesetas=1 $US) so the Nationalist army could use them.

The problem was mainly the "advisers" sent with the materiel. That, and the useless, obsolete weapons sent by Russia or bought by the republic wherever they could find it. Many of them hadn't the right ammo and never were used.

In next months, the ARMAS magazine publishes articles about why Spain didn't enter WWII. But this time they had access to reports and private documents of general Jose Enrique Varela Iglesias (the only man awarded 2 Laureadas de San Fernando and living to tell it).
He was tasked with the reconstruction of the army after the war, and listing all captured war material. He paid special attention to African territories, Canary and Balearic Islands for obvious reasons.

I've been told at my base that recently apeared some documents about Stalin wanting to promote a communist coup to "use the Iberian Peninsula against his enemies". Still haven't confirmed this rumour. :-?

 

Oh yes! Most definetly... in Spain the Reds murdered almost 20,000 priests and nuns during the Civil War, destoyed manyhundreds of Chruches and historical works of art simply because they were religious .(which by the way, l am not....) In the areas they dominated ; the rich and even the middle class were hunted. If you went to mass, or even if you were a tie could earn you a death sentence....In the city of Alicante alone there were no less than 32 chkcas.. Franco might have copied the outer external trapings of Fascism , but by the 1950s the regime had softened considerably and even signed a defense agreement with the US under which NATO bases were established in Spanish soil. By the 1960s Spain was on the road to an economic boom, and having visited that country on numerous ocassions since 1965 l can tell you that people spoke openly; without fear of a secret police; which is not what l encountered when l travelled behind the Iron Curtain.The International Left which so readily embraced the so-called "Russian" Revolution; which applauded the assasination of the Tsar enthusiastically supported the Spanish "Republic"- but these are the same groups that supprted Fidel Castro, the Viet Cong etc. Communism suffered a defeat in Spain in 1939, and that is something which the International Left will never forget. or forgive. They have tried to distort the events; despite the evidence...but they fail compoletely with those that know their history...

 

They keep distorting events here, and they're not the only ones.
Comunists and Catalan nationalists still complain about the execution of Luis Companys, president of the Generalitat (tha catalan State), but forget the mass execution that Checas and independentists committed.
And anybody who dares to remind them is acused of fascist and nazi. :angry:

The military museum in Montjuich Castle, in a dominating place over Barcelona (and home of a signals company), is going to close after years of presure. One of the alleged reasons (besides "being violent and promoting war and injustice") is that there was nazi parafernailia, insignias and equipment on display, and that had to be moved to the basement depots!
After is closed, it will open a "Museum of Peace".
What will happen to all material on display? Because not averithing is from private collections. There are from viking chainmails to XVIII century french uniforms, 88mm flak cannons, dioramas and even an artillery Luger with snail magazine!

That who forgets his history...

 

[/quote]

....is condemmed to live it again....
Sad story you're telling here.

 

THe process of "damnatio memoriae" -the destruction oe memory, the collective memory is well underway. Many libraries here are "purguing" their history collections and replacing them with books on computers and politically correct works. Ah! Orwell knew well what Communism was when he wrote "1984" and described a dictatorship of the future which periodically engaged in the re-writting fo history Naturally, "Big Brother" was modelled on Joseph Stalin...

Fortunately, l have acess fo the collections at various university libraries here when my own library (4,500 volumes) or that of our club (16,765 vols.) does not provide the necessary sources... Yes, the Montjuich Castle-been there. Did you know Kellhound that there's a Bolivian 20 mm Oerlikon A.A. that was sold to the "Republicans"..As far as the arms utilized by the Republic: when one considers that the arsenals were well stocked with weapons; and that these were distributed to the people at large, that a variety of weapons were produced in large scale by the Republic (e.g. the Hotchkiss mod. 1914 machine guns, Mauser rifles and carbines, various types of pistols,a copy of the Schmeisser MP 28/II smachine pistol, knwn in Spain as the "Naranjero", one wonders why, with the wild abandonment with which "arms purchasing commissions" working for their own benefit procurred weapons from ever possible source without rhyme or reason..Renault FT 17s, and Mauser mod. 98s from Poland, Krupp mod. 1907 75 mm mounain guns, Vickers Berthier lmgs and Maxims 1891/1898 from Paraguay, Mausers from Mexico (at least these fired the standard Spanish 7 m round)which also provided several batteries of field artillery...for a price..of course! -but these were for the most part distributed to the various party militias-the regular units of the Republican Army had an abundant supply of small arms and artillery (Spain manufactured the Schneider mod 1906 mm field gun, the Schneider 155 mod. 1917 howitzer, mortars from 52 to 82 mm in large quantities)-And if case these were not sufficient; there were enormous numbers of Russian Moisin Nagants, Maxim 1910, and Russian artillery available.. In fact, with the captured equipment, the Nationals re-equipped entire regiments and divisions.... So much for the myth that the Spanish Civil War was a stuggle between the military and an "unarmed, defenless people "

In mid 1938, the Republican Army in had over 25,000 officers and over a million men...But Stalin was selective with his" military aid". .The Basques, who were not too keen on Stalin or the Communists, , were purposely denied weapons by Moscow...but here the Reds cut off their nose to spite their face; for with the fall of the Basque provinces; many key armament factories and the strategic iron ore mines of Viscaya fell into National hands...



."Nations that forget their past are condemned to repeat the same mistakes in the future"

Santayana

 

Montjuic castle entrance


Inner court, from the bar






Ordoñez & Vickers guns:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/ ... elona.html

A tourist in Barcelona:
http://www.claus-seyfried.de/barca/mon_e.htm

 

n next months, the ARMAS magazine publishes articles about why Spain didn't enter WWII. But this time they had access to reports and private documents of general Jose Enrique Varela Iglesias (the only man awarded 2 Laureadas de San Fernando and living to tell it).
He was tasked with the reconstruction of the army after the war, and listing all captured war material. He paid special attention to African territories, Canary and Balearic Islands for obvious reasons.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kellhound, if you do get that issue, can you scan the article for me and send it to me privately? It would be most appreiciated..I imagine poor gral. VArela Iglesias had to face a logistical nightmare..... :-?

 

No problem. The first article is only a general introduction listing the titles of the documents used, but there are some useful photos of them.

One lists the number of machineguns in service in 1940:

Peninsula 2054
Balearic islands 472
Canary islands 462
Morocco 818
Mosocco series B. (?) 818
Armories 1677
Plus 1558 in parts in armories

 

[Moderator Edit - Large section on the ideals vs the reality of Communism split into seperate topic]

Mmmmm, :-? just being curious...

What does this have to do whit the Spanish Civil War? :roll:

 

I was wondering the same thing myself, and the answer is "Not a damned thing...".l responded to misinterpretations, .but l did not climb on a soap box..... :smok:

 

This is a major digress indeed, sorry about that, let's return to the Spanish Civil War...

It was all just me trying to clarify to scaramouche that national socialism and communism are not the same thing.

 

Conceptually no, but results have been on par.
With us humans you never know how things will end up.

 

Like l never knew that??? :smok:

 

Just making sure. By the way, I see Skua has split this topic so we can continue this there and continue about the SCW here...

 

Ok..l'lll call Guido back...

 

155mm at the first combats of the war on the Madrid front.

 

I haven't had much time of late to do much for this forum.
For now, i hope this links are interesting enough:
http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=4845
http://lacucaracha.info/ (in several languages)
http://www.uclm.es/ceclm/virtual/imagen ... .htm#busca (700 photos, in Spanish)
http://www.worldwar2maps.co.uk/index.ph ... lay&pid=19 (maps, interesting for WWII too)
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... i_56909072 (interesting article)http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAB/is_3_113/ai_n6129837 ("Flawed lessons learned: the role of U.S. military attaches in assessing armored warfare during Spanish Civil War")
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/scw/photessay.htm (more pictures)

Fora Advanced Squad Leader players:
http://www.santacruzchronicles.com//asl.html

Also, i'm trying to start a spanish forum, so you are invited to join if you understand spanish
www.milsimspain.com

 

The communists lost because they were poorly equipped ,and had poor leadership , while the nationalists had germany providing it with it's equipment and advising in leadership roles. Allthough the russians had more(like always) the quality of their equipment was inferior to that of their opposition.