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Spain History - Spanish Civil War - (1936 - 1939)
In 1936 the death of Calvo Sotelo brought to a head the
discontent that had been simmering in the army for some long time. At the beginning the army revolt was headed by General
Sanjurjo who had been exiled to neighbouring Portugal. The active
leaders prior to the outbreak of the Civil War were in fact General Goded and Mola with
Franco still waiting to see which side to join. The army was well
prepared when the time arrived with its loyal offers holding lists
of all suspected left-wing activists. They quickly moved to make the
necessary arrests and often ended up shooting the suspect. General
Franco had made his decision prior to the revolt in Melilla and was
hand in glove with the other army generals. A famous Mallorca
business tycoon had chartered a plane in England on the 11th of July
to make its way to the Canary Islands to bring General Franco back
to Tetuan and his Spanish Legionnaires on the 19th.
In 1936 Francisco Franco Bhamonde had reached the age of 43 and had
distinguished himself as a soldier having acquired promotion at
remarkable speed. Son of a naval family he had only become a soldier
to the lack of vacancies in the navy at the admission age of 15. His
academic ranking at Toledo Infantry Academy was poor but his
Moroccan service won him 13 medals for leadership, discipline and
bravery. He reached the rank of general at the early age of 33 which
made him the youngest to have reached this position in Europe
after Napoleon Bonaparte. His social life was so conservative in
comparison to his fellow officers and ladies seemed to be of little
interest until he met Carmen Polo who he married in 1923. He
appeared as a devoted military man with discipline at the top of
his priorities, then patriotism, followed closely by strong concepts
of honour and integrity.
At the outbreak of the revolt it seemed to be the answer for both
sides of the political division believing that the army would
support their cause. Spanish Morocco, Canary Islands, Galicia,
Navarra and parts of Castille and Aragón immediately sided with the
new military rebels. However, due to either lack of communication or
division of thought not all the garrisons and their officers joined.
The public also took a hand in the matter and in Madrid their
intervention kept the garrison loyal to the left-wing government.
General Goded equally failed in Barcelona and was shot, whilst,
Sanjurjo died as his plane crashed on takeoff in Portugal. This
situation left in the field three very independent leaders, the
Generals Franco, Mola and Queipo who by not winning or losing
created a division in Spain of its population and forcing it to
either support the elected government or the army uprising.
The rebel army now only held five large cities and a quarter of the
mainland. The government had the backing of about 75 per cent of the
industry and commerce plus a sizable support from the rest of the
army and the important security forces. Fortunately for Franco and
his fellow conspirators the government leaders in Madrid failed to
arm or maintain a united policy to its civilian supporters. The
reaction was typical of Spain's past recent history with each
party or Union taking power into their own hands. Catalonia became
ruled by both the Generalitat and the CNT party and the Basques were as
elsewhere divided and at the same time considered once again that
they were a State that was apart from Madrid. Confusion led to wild
propaganda with the end result that the bitterness in people took to
the streets which was keenly fueled with horrific stories and
half-truths. One true story about the appalling death of 500
inhabitants of Ronda in Andalucía was made famous by Ernest
Hemingway in his book "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Within days some hundreds of churches were burnt or ransacked and it is
estimated that over 7,000 priests, monks, nuns, and even bishops
were horrifically slaughtered. But this was only the beginning
of the indiscriminate or mass killings that were committed in this
Civil War by both sides.
The key to advancement from Franco's view was to transport his
Moroccan Legionnaires into Spain. In this aspect Germany decided to
join his side and lent him twenty transport planes which through
August and September brought the troops across into Algeciras. Their well trained force contained soldiers
had
gained many years of fighting experience in Africa. However, as a
counter weight the enthusiasm of the Republican street militia
helped to balance this armed power. At first the Nationalists,
as General Franco's army became known, quickly captured eastern Andalusia and
Estremadura. In Madrid this
militia stopped their steady advance with a heroic stand. At this
time international support was forthcoming for both sides as the
idealism of youth was roused in both their defense. The
countries of Germany, Italy and Portugal, sent men, much needed arms and
planes to assist General
Franco. The Italian leader Mussolini claimed his 70,000 troops were
just volunteers, and the Germans one hundred planes based in
Salamanca had a decided effect on the outcome. Russia was the principal supporter to the Republicans
and she sent arms and some much needed other equipment and military
advisers. The fighting men were
forthcoming for the Republicans in the form
of the famous "International
Brigades" which were drawn from ardent left-wing idealistic
supporters from the entire world.
Franco's African Army moved successfully north from Andalucía close
to the border of Portugal taking Badajoz and once again slaughtering
the population in a gross manner that when reported in detail it
outraged many to the north in Europe. The old city of Toledo was to
prove too strong in its defense when some 2,000 inhabitants
retreated into the old Alcázar fortress against the besieging Republican army. Franco appreciating the
propaganda value of the
situation in Toledo marched across and broke the siege and took
blood in revenge. Among many other events worth recording is one
that occurred earlier at the town of Gijon. The Nationalists realizing they could not hold there garrison any longer against the
attacking Republicans called upon a Nationalist warship to shell
their barracks as they would rather die than surrender. Their request
was respected and they all died as they wished.
The episode at Toledo gave Madrid sufficient time to build its defenses and the subsequent 10 day battle for the capital gained
much support internationally as women and children took up arms in
support of their men. The fighting was in the area of the Casa
del Campo to the west of the city and the Nationalists attack failed
so an unsuccessful siege was laid which lasted for more than two
years.
The imbalance of the outside support from Europe helped
the outcome to sway towards the Nationalist. This was further
helped by the strong conflicts that lay between the different left wing
fractions in the Republican ranks. Barcelona became an example of
division in extremes with prostitutes forced to learn to cook and
sew, bars closed and coffee and alcohol banned, meanwhile half-naked
male and female supporters of an eccentric Colonel Mangada were
driven around town in army lorries. Barcelona extremists longed for
a counter revolution and the anarchists wanted their Cátalunia to be declared an
independent country.
In April 1937 there occurred the famous destruction of Guernica, a
town which had previously played its part in Spain's earlier
history. After a completely unexpected bombing attack lasting three
hours from German planes, this historic town lay in ruins with some
thousand bodies under the destroyed buildings. Through the
masterpiece painted by Pablo Picasso this event has become permanently remembered by the
world.
By the end of 1937 much of the action had moved to the northern coast where the iron and ship building industry fell into the hands of the
Nationalists. The death of General Mola in a plane accident that year
left the centre stage clear with one leader, General Francisco
Franco. Almost by coincidence in May of the same year a crisis
occurred in Barcelona amongst the Republicans and the Communists.
The end result was that leadership fell firmly in the hands of the
Communists. As the conflict moved into its final stages the Republicans
appointed a puppet leader by the name of Dr
Juan Negrin who had earlier in the war committed the absolute blunder of all
blunders. Fearing that Spain's huge hoard of gold bullion would fall
into the hands of the Nationalists he decided to move it to Russia.
Stalin is reported to have received the gold as a present! Negrin
as the new Prime Minister allowed the setting up of a new security
police force whose prinicple job was to rid the Communist party of
any dissenters and Trotsky sympathizers.
In Spring of 1938 the Nationalists drove through the defense line in
Aragón and ended up on the east coast of Spain. Ignoring the
problem of Barcelona, the army marched south to unsuccessfully
attach Valencia. Seizing the moment the Republicans attacked
Franco's rear with an offensive in the River Ebro valley which cost
in total over 50,000 casualties and 20,000 dead. In December Franco
marched on a virtually undefended Barcelona and the Republicans fled
north to France. The final theatre was in 1939 in Madrid with the
Nationalist forces posed on the outskirts a Colonel Casado staged a
coup within the Republic defenders in the hope of better surrender
terms. On March 28th Franco's army marched into Madrid and on the
1st of April the war was officially over. The
war ended with the control of Spain
firmly in General Franco's hands. The Spanish
Civil War had done untold damage to the prosperity and structure
of Spain and had "sent brother to kill brother". It is
estimated that well over 500.000 Spaniards had died and in some
cases many of these were slaughtered in mass killings rather than
on the actual battlefield. It had been a very sad and costly war for
Spain.
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