Spanish Civil War – Page 10

This Week in Spanish Civil War History – Week 25: 1 -7 January 1937

Published on January 2, 2017January 22, 2017 by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

January 1

By the 25th week of the war, neither side would be able to say their plans had been executed the way they hoped. The Nationalists had hoped to invade, take Madrid and rule the nation within weeks or months. The Republicans came together, multiple factions with similar principles, hoping to oust the fascists. At no stage were they prepared enough to see through their goals. 1937 would see Franco’s plans to take Spain become more established. Franco had much help from Hitler and Mussolini, while the Republicans still had the Soviets on their side, due to the large Communist faction in Spain. But with Republicans made up of many groups and no one clear leader, divisions were one of the main forces at play in the war, with Anarchists and Communists splitting constantly from the Socialists and workers’ militias. As with all wars, the regular people were constant losers.

January 3

The third battle for Corunna Road, just northwest of Madrid city, commences. General Orgaz Yoldi has gained more Nationalist reinforcements and begins the offensive, known as the Battle of the Fog. The Nationalists retake the town of Boadilla del Monte, as the Republicans are still suffering from their earlier losses. The Republican have five divisions working together, along with the XIV International Brigades, but have little ammunition and have to surrender the town and that portion of the crucial supply route of Corunna Road.

January 4

With surging numbers of Nationalist soldiers coming from the right, the Republicans have to retreat even further away from Boadilla del Monte and also lose the town of Las Rozas, just 11km north of Boadilla del Monte. The weather is at freezing point all day and night and the fog continues to make battle ever more difficult.

The Republicans deploy more units from Pozuelo, ten kilometers west of Madrid city. The Modesto division, a brigade of four units combined, manage to secure the front while other units retreat from advancing Nationalists. The fog continues to thicken, aiding to secure the front for the Republicans and keep the Nationalists at bay, though the strategic towns have been lost. But once the fog lifts, the Republicans know they are in trouble.

Some of the Thaelmann battalion prior to battle

January 5

As the fog lifts, the Nationalists, with 18,000 troops and air support, attack Pozuelo, where many Republican forces are in retreat. The Republicans run out of ammunition, including for the T26 tanks from Russia, which have destroyed 25 German tanks throughout the day. The Republicans have to scatter, without weapons or communication, being split by the attack. Republican General Miaja tries to get the German Thaelmann battalion of the XIV International Brigade back together, along with Lister’s Communist unit, in order to try to regroup. The Nationalists continue to widen their hold over Corunna Road and also take the opportunity to bomb the city of Madrid, mostly by day.

All of the XIV International Brigades are forced far back from Boadilla del Monte and the Nationalists have Corunna Road. They meet up with other Republican groups and are ordered to retake Las Rozas, but they lack the men or firepower to do so. Among the young foreigner volunteers was untrained machine-gunner 17-year-old Esmond Romilly, nephew of Franco-sympathiser Winston Churchill. (It was rumoured that Romilly was Churchill’s own son, Churchill having bedded his wife’s sister. The sisters’ mother was a notorious cheater, and their real father(s) is unknown. Several men are options, one being the grandfather of young Romilly’s wife – meaning the young couple were first cousins. The rich do like to make their own rules, and the family is fascinating/bizarre.)

January 7

The Nationalists bomb Las Rozas from the air, destroying the town and killing almost all the Republicans and International Brigades huddled nearby for safety. The locals of the town have already long fled, hiding in caves in the Hoyo de Manzanares mountains nearby. All but 35 Republicans are killed, those not killed manage to retreat wounded. Those foreigners who survived, such as young Romilly, are sent home with wounds and illness. Romilly went on to write a book named Boadilla, all about the slaughter of the battle. The Nationalists are in total control of the area, and ready to begin their final push to control all of Corunna road. Both sides have now lost around 15,000 men each.

I’ll will post a review when I get the chance

This is not a detailed analysis, just a highlight (lowlight?) of the week’s events. Things get lost in translation – Feel free to suggest an addition/clarification/correction below. The more the world remembers, the better. All photos are linked to source for credit.

This Week in Spanish Civil War History – Week 23 and 24: 19 – 31 December 1936

Published on December 21, 2016January 22, 2017 by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

Heart of the heartless world,
Dear heart, the thought of you
Is the pain at my side,
The shadow that chills my view.

The wind rises in the evening,
Reminds that autumn is near.
I am afraid to lose you,
I am afraid of my fear.

On the last mile to Huesca,
The last fence for our pride,
Think so kindly, dear, that I
Sense you at my side.

And if bad luck should lay my strength
Into the shallow grave,
Remember all the good you can;
Don’t forget my love

John Cornford, English volunteer killed one day after his 21st birthday.

This Week in Spanish Civil War History – a round-up to the end of the first deadly year. Week 23 and 24: 19 – 31 December 1936

December 20

The Nationalist Aceituna Offensive through Andalusia in Spain’s south continues –

The Nationalist troops are controlling small towns throughout southern Spain. Around 4,000 men, all Moroccan soldiers and Spanish troops, take the town of Bujalance, right in the centre of southern Spain, near Córdoba.

The Nationalists are still trying to occupy the town of Boadilla del Monte, in constant battle with the XII and XIV International Brigades, just outside Madrid. General Orgaz Yoldi leading the Nationalist troops decides to end the stalemate and retreats, leaving the Corunna Road into Madrid again in Republican hands.

December 22

The same troops who occupied Bujalance move on to take control of the nearby towns of Pedro Abad and Villafranca de Córdoba. This leads the Republicans to set up the new Army of the South under General Fernando Martínez-Monje Restoy, with International Brigades dispatched to the Córdoba front.

Thousands of Italian volunteers arrive in Nationalist-held Cádiz, ready to help the Nationalists’ hold on the south of Spain.

International Brigades in December 1936

24 December

Some 600 men of the 9th company of the XIV International Brigade battle Nationalist troops at the town of Villa del Rio in Córdoba, and 400 volunteer men are killed. The remaining men move on to the nearby town of Montoro.

December 25

Thousands of Spanish fighters and international volunteers spend Christmas in trenches. The country is awash with refugees fleeing continuous violence all over the nation and hide through the Christmas period in refugee camps or in subway stations, many in bitter conditions.

Nationalist troops take the town of Montoro, after fighting off and killing many left from the 9th company of the XIV International Brigades.

Christmas being ‘celebrated’ on the Basque front

27 December

The two-day Battle of Lopera begins. The tiny town in the Jaén province sees the XIV International Brigades attack to take control of the area. The initial attack fails and 300 of the 3,000 initial force are quickly killed, another 600 seriously wounded. General Walter’s men have not had time to be trained in Albacete and have no communication and no air or ground support. Still, they battle the 4,000 Nationalists who have machine guns and other artillery. Fighting continues for 36 hours before the International Brigades are forced to retreat, after gaining no ground, though 200 Nationalists are killed.

The English 10th battalion of the XIV International Brigades lose 78 of their 145 men, including Ralph Winston Fox, a British journalist, novelist and historian, famous for writing the biography of Genghis Khan. Also among the dead is poet John Cornford, great-grandson of Charles Darwin and well-known communist, just a day after he turns 21. The bodies of the volunteers still remain buried on the lonely hillside where they died.

John Cornford

The French Marseillaise 12th battalion of the Brigade have their commander, Major Gaston Delasalle, detained by André Marty, the Political Commissar of the International Brigades, and leading man in the French Communist Party. Marty accuses Delasalle of gross incompetence, resulting in the decimation of his men. Without evidence, Delasalle is also accused of being a fascist spy and of cowardice during battle. Marty arranges a quick court-martial and Delasalle is executed by firing squad. While no one speaks in Delasalle’s defence, Marty has many afraid of him and his ‘mentally sick’ behaviour, though he is regarded by most as a hero and revolutionary.

30 December

General Orgaz Yoldi receives reinforcements after the battle of Boadilla del Monte a week earlier, and readies another attack, which will become known as Battle of the Fog in early January. During this period, the Republican and the International Brigades are trying to regroup after heavy losses, and have little in the way of help.

Author George Orwell enlists himself in a Republican POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) militia to fight against fascism.

POUM training in December

31 December

The town of Pocuna, of around 5,000 people, isolated 50km from Córdoba and 40km from Jaén, is taken by the Nationalists. Due to taking this prime location in the olive-growing region, they are able to slow their advance for a quick break as the Republicans are overwhelmingly losing the region.

Famous Spanish writer and professor Miguel de Unamuno dies at home in Salamanca, where he has been under house arrest for speaking against Franco at Salamanca University months earlier. Both of his sons, Fernando and Ramón de Unamuno, instantly sign up to fight the fascists.

Miguel de Unamuno’s being taken from the university, where he was arrested. It was his final public outing

From January 1, posts will return to weekly.

Francoist Street Names Are Out. Women’s Accomplishments In Spain Are Finally In

Published on December 8, 2016February 8, 2017 by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

2016 saw the 80th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, and the 41st celebration of Francisco Franco‘s death. Yet on many streets all over Spain, the men who fought and assisted Franco though his 39 years of war and dictatorship are still revered with street names, vile and cruel men who harmed untold thousands. It is long past time to remove these names, and the opportunity to name streets after women has finally arrived.

Spain’s political situation is a hot mess – the December 2015 election ended in a stalemate, and subsequent efforts for coalition and even new elections have produced not a lot. The left-wing Podemos party, made of newcomers and small groups coming together to gain power, have found their place in some cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona. Spain has the History Memory Law, enacted in 2007, which provides rules to allow the reburial of SCW victims, and removal of all Franco (and Franco cronies) monuments, dedications and street names (the law has a wide range of powers; this is just an example). While many cry about leaving the past in the past, those with a wider view want to put right as much as can possibly be done. It is time to use Article 15 of the memory laws to change the streets named after men who murdered their way to power and used fear to stay there.

Some examples of names changes is in Calle de Soledad Cazorla (Spanish link), named after Spain’s first female public prosecutor, who used her position to fight gender violence. Until now, the street was named after Andrés Saliquet (Spanish link), an old-school General and fascist party member, serving in the war and the dictatorship. The notorious General José Varela loses his street name to journalist Carmen de Burgos in Granada, likewise Federica Montseny, Spain’s first female minister, will replace Colonel Chápuli. Madrid’s Plaza Caudillo (if you’re new, Franco was referred to as the Caudillo, the leader) will be Plaza Mayor in El Pardo.

Places like León have just 5% of female street names, Cadiz has just 3%. People ask why it matters – the naming of a street in your honour is a great privilege; it shows prominence. The lack of female names shows that they are considered better at home than out in the world. Women’s achievements are simply not being recognised in this traditional way of having a street in their honour in Spain. Madrid has 137 streets which are named after the Virgin Mary, but not streets named after real women. Women’s roles are confined to being imagined virgin saints, not actual accomplished members of a community.

Valencia has a new law, meaning that 80% of new names, or streets in need of a change, must be female names. In the Poblet area in the west of the city, eight new streets are needed, and are being decided by public suggestion. Author Carmen Martín Gaite is in the running, along with Las Trece Rosas, 13 women murdered by a firing squad in Madrid in 1939.

The northern city of Oviedo has 22 new streets, a majority going to women. Alicante has a new law ensuring women are included while 50 Francoist streets are removed, and northern Bilbao and southern Cadiz now have mandates in place guaranteeing female names. Cadiz has only eight female street names, all saints, a situation about to be rectified. In Santander, a motion is in place to remove Francoism from the city and celebrate women, a move which has faced steady criticism (aka fascist man tears).

Without surprise, all this comes with its complainers. The usual cries of ‘that’s just complaining feminists, don’t indulge them’ is rife, with machismo still strong in Spain. Giving women the same rights and rewards as men scares many, as does the notion of altering traditions, even when traditions are inappropriate. Somehow, giving a street name to a fascist murderer is okay, as is keeping the name because ‘tradition’. Changing the name to erase an evil man from memory, and embracing a successful woman still frightens many delicate flowers.

The 2007 memory law has had little success in its nine years. Granada alone has 4,000 victims still dumped in mass graves, Seville has only reburied two of the 104 mass graves in the region. You only need to look at the maps of each region on the Historical Memory Association website to see how many mass graves (fosas) country-wide are ongoing. As family members of the victims pass away themselves, voices are becoming lost and the commitment to the past needs to be honoured. Trouble is, Europe is doing its terrifying swing to the right. Spain is no stranger to the Hitler-fascist salute, regularly done at Francoist sites (especially Valle de los Caídos), and Nazi groups have been springing into violence recently in Madrid. Spain needs to be un-Francoed as fast as possible, and that level of hate needs to be eliminated.

It can be easy to say that what happened in the Franco years is in the past and no longer relevant. But as long as dedications to remarkable women like Dolores Ibárruri are opposed by those in power (due to her left-wing work), the past is still haunting the present. Guadalajara, near Madrid, has the highest number of female street names at a tiny 9.5%, all-but named after virgins and saints. The names are dedicated to women who are bound in legend and many hundreds of years out of date. Women are overlooked in history, so inaccuracies are ever-present. Meanwhile, Spain has a plethora of successful feminists, leaders, scientists, teachers, and modern sports stars who could be honoured, yet are forgotten. Why not Calle Maruja Mallo (artist), Avenida Clara Campoamor Rodriguez (suffragette), or Paseo Margarita Salas (biochemist). Spain needs more streets named after women like Ángela Iglesias Rebollar (Spanish link), murdered by Franco’s killers, remembered for their struggles.

It’s not like Spain isn’t in need of change; young women need role models, advertised the way men are exposed to their role models, and largely take for granted – because they’ve always been right in front of them. Why have streets and plazas named after Nazi-style killers when you can have streets named after María Mayor Fernández de Cámara y Pita, who fought against the English in 1589, or Manuela Malasaña Oñoro who saw off the French from Madrid in 1808, or pianist Alicia de Larrocha from Barcelona who was an extraordinary composer, or Rosalia Mera Goyenechea from A Coruña who became the richest female entrepreneur worldwide and used her riches to help other women, as such as fighting anti-abortion laws.

Another issue is not just the lack of female names, it’s irrelevance of those that do exist. Margaret Thatcher was given a plaza in Madrid, hardly a popular move. Madrid also has Calle de Quiñones, homage to the first female run printing workshop, but without her full name, how can anyone look up Maria de Quiñones from the 17th century (did any of you reading this know that until now?).

Galicia is leading the way by looking through historical information to find forgotten women, as is Barcelona, and making sure people can find information about all people awarded a street name. The southern city of Córdoba has passed a law saying 50% of new names must be female, which currently boasts just 6% of female names.

My personal suggestions (in addition to the ones above) –

Isabel-Clara Simó i Monllor – Valencian writer, one of the most important writers in the Catalan language

Clara Campoamor Rodriguez – women’s right campaigner

Federica Montseny Mañé – first female cabinet member – minister of health

Carmen Amaya – influential flamenco dancer

Alicia de Larrocha – extraordinary pianist and composer

Margarita Salas – biochemist and geneticist

Rosalia Mera Goyenechea – world’s richest female entrepreneur, co-founder of Zara

Rosa Montero Gayo – journalist and author

María de los Ángeles Alvariño González – fishery research biologist and oceanographer

Magdalena (Magda) Bermejo – primatologist

Emilia Espinoza Hazelip – pioneer of the concept of synergistic gardening

Patri Vergara – professor in Physiology, first woman President of the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science

Dolors Aleu i Riera – first female Spanish doctor

Ana María Matute Ausejo – writer and member of the Real Academia Española

Emilia Pardo Bazán – Galician novelist, journalist, essayist, critic and scholar

María Josefa Crescencia Ortiz Téllez- Girón/ Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez – insurgent and supporter of the Mexican War of Independence

Rosalía de Castro – Galician writer and poet

It’s not about women being elevated above men, it’s about women being given their due. It’s about successful people (yes, women are people) not being forgotten, their accomplishments out there for all to remember.

Sign at entrance to town of Águeda del Caudillo. Photo: Gaceta de Salamanca

This Week in Spanish Civil War History – Week 21 and 22: 5 – 19 December 1936

Published on December 6, 2016January 22, 2017 by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

Week 21 and 22: 5 – 19 December 1936

December 11

Germany, Italy and Portugal are still helping the Nationalist rebel cause despite signing the Non-Intervention Agreement. Julio Alvarez del Vayo, Spain’s delegate to the League of Nations, gives a speech in Geneva, arguing they must pull out from supporting the rebel cause. He also blasts the democractic nations still holding to the Non-Intervention pact for isolating the elected Spanish government. The committee for non-intervention and its signees are either helping the invaders or sitting back for personal comfort, making the whole situation worse.

Julio Álvarez del Vayo

December 13

The Aceituna Campaign starts when the Nationalists try to take the town of Andújar, near Jaén in Spain’s south. They attack with 4,000 troops, occupying 2,600 square kilometres and quickly take the small town Lopera. It is the start of a three-week campaign, with the first week seeing little advance as the Nationalists occupy uninhabited country areas in preparation to take protected towns. Part of the campaign includes saving the 1,200 fascists trapped in the Siege of Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, a hilltop monastery which has been a sanctuary since the outbreak of war. By now, troops are around 20 kilometres from the monastery but no help is provided to the civilians inside (though they have been getting air drops of supplies since August).

A great many number of people were displaced around the Andújar region in 1936

December 13

Hot on the heels of the first campaign, The Second Battle of Corunna Road starts north of Madrid. The Nationalists have already tried to cut the Corunna Road so nothing can get in or out of Madrid but failed, and launch another attack. The battle will last for over a month before the Nationalist control the road but still cannot cut Madrid off from the rest of Spain.

Republicans take a break (morale and sanity were low by this time) – Robert Capa

December 14

Troops, tanks and machine guns are used by the Nationalists to take the town of Boadilla del Monte (now a suburb of Madrid), as part of the Battle for Corunna Road. Russian tanks and International Brigades on behalf of the Republicans fight back and take the town back, but are surrounded by the Nationalists. The fighting continues until December 19 when the Nationalists retreat to focus on other areas in the Corunna Road area.

Snipers (wo)manning the Aragon front

December 17

A new government, Consejo de Aragon, is established in the northeast anarchist stronghold of the Aragon region. The front line keeping Aragon safe is an anarchist and socialist coalition. Villages have already started their revolution, changing to live under anarchist ideals, with self-organization, collectives to run farms and factories, and public shared rule. Money is replaced with anarchist approved coupons in some areas, and land and wealth is distributed evenly between all. This area is the most radically changed by self-governing revolution.

Agarian collective workers in Aragon

This Week in Spanish Civil War History – Week 19 and 20: 21 November – 5 December 1936

Published on November 28, 2016January 22, 2017 by Caroline AngusLeave a comment

Weeks 19 and 20: 21 November – 5 December 1936

“I will destroy Madrid rather than leave it to the Marxists” – Francisco Franco, November 1936

November 21

The Nationalists attack the Model prison and Don Juan barracks. Using bases by the Asilo Santa Cristina Hospital and Dr Rubio Research Institute, they manage to get as far as Parque del Oeste, but are bombed by their German counterparts.

The Commune de Paris column fighting for the Republicans recapture the Hall of Philosophy and Letters Building. Books are used to protect themselves inside. It takes around 350 pages to stop a bullet.

November 22

The ground assault in Madrid has failed and the Nationalists now only have their German pilots to bomb the city constantly, in an effort to weaken the Republican lines.

Carabanchel barricades after the fighting

November 23

Battle of Madrid ends with both sides decimated. Franco pulls back from the outskirts of the city with huge losses and no way into Madrid. The death toll on both sides is unknown after two weeks of killing, though around 2,000 civilians in the city have been killed, and some estimates say a total of 10,000 are dead on both sides. The aerial bombing has been a huge failure; while much of city has suffered serious damage, it hasn’t killed many people and the population are not afraid. The worst aerial bombing of Madrid is now over for the remainder of the war, as Republican supplies increase and pilots gain experience in fighting back. The Nationalists’ plans of storming their way into Madrid and taking the country is over, and now a war will have to rage for another 2.5 years. The Republicans hold the city with the front line the Manazares River, around the Casa de Campo and Ciudad Universtaria in the north and the Carabanchel suburb in the south.

Madrid is left to clean up

November 27

Operation Ursula, a group a German submarines have been active in the Mediterranean. They had been out in the Atlantic for around a week, but enter the Med on around November 27 to take over patrols done by Italian submarines. They primarily survey Alicante and Cartagena, but have constant trouble identifying any targets coming and going from the ports and have constantly failing torpedos. The submarine operation is a total failure; only one Spanish submarine is sunk, and that was an internal error, though the Germans attempt to claim it as their success. They will sail out of the Mediterranean on December 3.

November 29

The First Battle of the Corunna Road starts, with the Nationalists retreating northwest from Madrid, so try to cut off the city by holding Corunna Road. The Republicans are ready and attack soldiers on the road, and keep the road open for Republican movements. The fighting lasts for five days as Nationalists try to cut off water and electric supplies from the Sierra de Guadarrama to Madrid. Some 3,000 soldiers under Colonel Varela fight a single Republican brigade and lose, forcing a retreat. They take the small towns of Boadilla del Monte and Villanueva de la Cañada and wait to make another attack on the region.

November 30

The Villarreal Offensive starts, and fighting will last for a month. Basque soldiers, fighting on behalf of the Republicans want to launch an attack Vitoria, in order to pull Nationalist soldiers away from Madrid. The Basques have 4,300 men from the Basque Army and now want to take Villarreal.

The Basques are keen to fight but have little supplies and no aerial back-up. The Nationalists only have 600 men but they have machine guns, plenty of supplies, civilians on their side, and their planes from Burgos have already spotted incoming Basques.

The Basques move into the mountains around Vitoria and surround Villarreal, 3 kilometers from Vitoria. Heavy ground fighting sees 1,000 Basques killed and they do not take Villarreal. The first two weeks of battle sees constant fighting with no outcome, as back-up will not arrive until December 13.