Thaelmann – CAROLINE ANGUS

February 12

Pingarrón ‘Suicide Hill’

The Soviet planes are giving the Republicans power in the area and the German Condor Legion planes have to retreat. The Nationalists still have to cut off the Madrid-Valencia road. International Brigades try to hold these last few key locations to save the road and keep it open. The volunteers are hacked into pieces by the Nationalists over a fateful day in civil war history.

Thanks, Richard, for the always great maps

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After a week of fighting, the Nationalists have fresh troops in reserve and bring them into the valley to attack the town of Morata. At dawn, XV International Brigade British volunteers are sent to the Morata-San Martin de la Vega road and head towards the Jarama river. They have Spanish men to one side and the 18th battalion, the Balkan Dimitrov battalion, to the other, protecting them. They attempt to take a ridge and were unaware the Nationalists have already crossed the river, so once they reach the top of the hill, they have to scatter and take positions, with the machine-gun company ready, with one company either side, and one in reserve. Three hours of fighting commences with the Nationalist Moorish soldiers, men well-trained, compared to freshly arrived volunteers. The machine guns have the wrong ammunition, and men armed with rifles have Nationalists swarming towards them. All four companies need to engage in fighting to hold back the Nationalist onslaught, but men are quickly cut down. The British have a French/Belgian battalion just to their north in the hills, but they retreat, leaving the British and Balkans exposed. As the day continues, the volunteers are forced to retreat further and further, as the death count rises. They need to retreat back down the hillside onto the plateau, but the Nationalists get over the top of the ridge and not many men make down the hillside alive.

Finally the Republican machine-gun company gets the right ammunition and they are able to start firing back at the invading Moorish men. They have taken the Pingarrón hill, now nicknamed Suicide Hill, but with machine-guns in place, the Nationalists must hide in the darkness and retreat back over hillside in the night. But the damage has been done; a day of fighting has killed half the Brigade , the British losing 375 men out of 600. Both Pingarrón Hill, ‘Suicide Hill’ and the Morata-San Martin road are still in Republican hands, but only nightfall has saved them. The Balkan, German and even fleeing French/Belgians have also suffered heavy losses. The survivors have around fifty desperately wounded man to care for, but most lose the battle. Survivors are threatened in order to get them back to the front lines before daybreak.

some of the British battalion at Jarama

February 13

Fighting begins early in the morning. The German Thaelmann and Balkan Dimitrov battalions engage in early battle, and the British are ordered to engage and help them, with the help of the Spanish Lister brigade, also suffering heavy from losses. The Nationalists have set up strategic machine gun positions, and the Republican tanks do not appear, and only three planes arrive to help, only flying over once to drop bombs. The British battalion are forced into having to run 600 metres straight at the Nationalist machine guns and ignore their orders, knowing death would be the only outcome.

As the day goes on, the French/Belgians and the Dimitrovs are forced back by fighting, leaving the British again surrounded on three sides. The British are forced back to the road, leaving their machine gunners. All 30 men including their commander are captured.

The British send 40 men to recapture their machine gun positions, but all but six are killed. By now their commanders are captured, injured or defeated, with the battalion now very short of men.

British machine gun company captured

February 14

A fresh brigade of Nationalists arrive with tanks, and the volunteers, with a new commander have no choice but to retreat from the road by early afternoon. The British, German, French/Belgians, Irish and the Balkans are all attacked in every direction, men slaughtered as they try to escape. The road is lost to the Nationalists and the Republican machine guns are destroyed by tanks. Men lie dead and left behind, many wounded and all tired, starving and broken.

The Colonel of the XV Brigade turns the battled men back towards the fighting, in order to hold the vital Madrid-Valencia road open, the Morata – San Martin road already lost. The brigade of 140 rally head back to the front, where Nationalists are surprised, and think reserves have arrived. They manage to hold the line and keep the Madrid-Valencia road open.

February 15

Overnight, the Nationalists pull back and the Republicans gain fresh companies of Spanish men. The Republican line is now protected and will not change in position for the rest of the war, which a stalemate developing, much like in the battle for Corunna Road a month before. But killing continues with snipers and machine guns constantly battling for position, which will never advance. The battle of Jarama is now ten days old and 20,000 men are now dead, around 13,000 are Republicans. Everyone who came to Spain to fight fascism has taken a heavy blow.

February 16

The new American Lincoln Battalion arrives at Jarama, a total of 550 men. They include a battalion of Irish men who have left the British company to join the Americans. They have trouble with finding a good leader and most have little or no training at all, but they get to spend their first five days as reserves before their own battle commences.

Irish men incorporated into the Lincoln Brigade

February 17

The Republicans have been commenced by two Generals, Miaja and Pozas, which causes problems in communication, and Miaja takes over alone. The Spanish Lister battalion attacks Pingarrón once again, in which half of the men killed over two days. They retreat and the Nationalists are amazed such a stupid attack was ordered towards them. The battle still has another ten bloody days to go.

Fresh Lincoln battalion fighters

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 and captions are auto-linked to source for credit, and to provide further information.

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.