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Conspiracy
1933 – election→2 “black years”1934 – Franco suppresses miners’ strike/revolution, made CGS
1936 – election→”Popular Front”April – plotting starts in earnest – by:• Mola• Queipo de Llano • Sanjurjo (a leading africanista – “The lion of the Rif” – & the figurehead)• Franco vacillates, but is essential: exact date of decision ?9-13 July: Calvo Sotelo murdered 13th
1931 - elections→IInd Republic: Sanjurjo’s failed coup 1932
Rebellion
July 13 – Calvo Sotelo murdered
17/18 - Military uprising, inspired by:
• Hatred of communism & revolution
• demands for Catalan & Basque independence
• undermining of authority of Church
• government “failure to maintain public order”, violent strikes, street clashes, occupation of estates
The “tourists”
Luis Bolín + 1 or 2 other Spanish to France & Casablanca
Chief Pilot of Olley Air Service Cecil Bebb ex-RAF
Major Hugh Pollard, adventurer
Diana Pollard, his 19-yr-old daughter
Dorothy Watson, 29, their chicken-minder
Croydon→G.C. via Bordeaux, Lisbon, Casablanca thence to Tetuan
July 11 – Dragon Rapide chartered by Luis Bolín departsCroydon to Casablanca thence Gran Canaria, arriving 14th
Franco refused permission to visit GC to carry out “inspection”
The DH Dragon Rapide
Conspiracy & RebellionJuly 16 – mil commander GC fatal accident on shooting rangeFranco has to proceed GC to preside at funeral
July 17 – intelligence that loyal troops about to close on plottersin Melilla precipitates uprising there & Ceuta & Tetuan
July 18 – Franco & Orgaz take over Las PalmasNews from Morocco reaches mainland, accelerating rebellion
July 19 – Rapide flies Franco to Tetuan
July 20 – Mola sends Puss Moth to Portugal for Sanjurjo – it’s overloaded & crashes on take-off, killing him
Conspiracy & RebellionBut - majority of senior officers remained loyal, also half the men, most of the more junior officers joining the rebels:Army split 55,000 loyal to 62,000 rebels on PeninsulaGuardia Civil & Asaltos 40,500 loyal to 27,000 rebels.
But – a lot of loyal troops “self-discharged” (deserted) and joined the militias, and a number of units were thought to be disloyal & were disbanded, leaving an effective force of not much >10,000 – and many of the loyal officers were distrusted. Mixed combat columns comprising remains of loyal units + guardia civiles + asaltos + militias proved unsatisfactory.
Organization of a coup•Garrison rises•Falange ± Guardia Civil support
•If no garrison, GC + Falange + sympathisers act without•Leader of rebels proclaims state of war from balcony of ayuntamiento
•Socialist, Communist & Anarchist militias + Asaltos + loyal officers resist•UGC & CNT call general strike
•Barricades of wood, masonry, sandbags erected
•Fighting ensues
North• Pamplona• Vitoria• Segovia• Salamanca• Ávila
All taken over by rebels with little loss of life
Events unfold – bloodily – on Peninsula
Nationalist gains
Valladolid – fighting ++Burgos – executions ++Oviedo – Col ArandaVigo – heavy fightingCorunna – ” ”El Ferrol – subterfuge ++Zaragoza - ”Cordoba – fighting ++Huelva ”Jerez ”Algeciras ”La Linea ”Seville – atrocities ++Granada – fighting, terrorCadiz – taken by ChurrucaMallorca Irun – fighting ++
Remaining loyal
Bilbao Cartagena Malaga Valencia – fighting ++ Madrid – massacre at barracks Toledo – except Alcázar Barcelona – fighting +++ - 600† Menorca
End of month – insurgents control 1/3rd – Galicia, Castilla, Aragon, partExtremadura, + 3 cities inAndalucia
Montana Barracks Madrid before the war& preparing to storm the barracks
General Gonzalo Queipode Llano
Late July 1936
Situation end July 1936
“Red” Spain• Territory 2/3 & 5/7 biggest
cities• Pop 13 million• Industry + gold reserves• G.c. + Asaltos 40,500* (60%)• Soldiers + airmen 58,000• Ships of the line 32 &
airforce
“White” Spain
• Territory 1/3• Pop 11 million• Agriculture• G.c. + Asaltos 27,000 (40%)• Soldiers + airmen 64,500• Ships of the line 6
BUT – Army of Africa
BUT – it’s in bloody Africa!It has all gone a bitpear-shaped → SCW
End July
‘Red’ Spain• 1 Battleship• 3 Cruisers• 12 Destroyers• 12 SubsNB lack of officers2/3 merchant fleet200 planes + 70 French
‘White’ Spain• 1• 2 + Canarias nearing• 1 (completion• 2
1/3100
The Terror
“Red” Spain• Culture - chaotic
revolutionary fervour,
collectivization, militiasCollapse authority
“White” Spain• Culture - military
discipline & strict Catholicism
• Authority ++, blindeye to death squads
Denunciations & executions ++ both sides (many
“extra-judicial”)
Gerald Brenan –“ When soldiers and police have to go to the front because other soldiers and police have rebelled, who is left to keep order among an enraged population?” --- which explains many of the extrajudicial killings in the Republican zone until order was restored during 1937
Franco’s zone• More numerous
(>130,000 )• Deliberate policy to keep
conquered territory subjugated
• Maintained throughout
Government zone• 49,300
• In spite of authority
• Declined throughout1937/8
Killings
Conspiracy & RebellionFranco sends emissaries to Mussolini & Hitler: Mussolini sends 12 bombers (later >40,000 troops)Hitler, ?persuaded by Goering, forms Condor LegionInitially 20 x Junkers 52 transports + 6 x Heinkel 51 fighters+ 86 Luftwaffe personnel
28 July – 1st major mil airlift starts Morocco → Seville1,500 in 1st week, then 500/day12,000 men flown in 1st two months
Italian & German air cover permits further supplies by seaaided by withdrawal of Republican fleet 21/09/36
Airlift
Over the BrinkCoup fails on Peninsula: army dividedDecisive weapon will be Army of AfricaRepublican Navy initially stronger, controlsStraits
Hitler & Mussolini agree to supplyNationalists, airlift Morocco→Seville
Non-intervention agreement August 1936
Conspiracy & RebellionSeptember 9 – Non-Intervention Agreement ratified (!!)
August to October – Army of Africa storms northwards, links with Mola’s Army of the North in Caceres, wheels eastwards along Tagus towards Madrid
September 13 – San Sebastian capitulates
Terror unleashed in both zones
Advance of Armyof Africa –August to October 1936
The Militias
Organised by union, party, village, factory:“...left the line at will to visit their families...sheer inefficiency & incompetence...everyone fled...their morale is terrible...they obey nobody...if the enemy appears they simply run away...for anarchists a salute was an indignity, uniforms a symbol of slavery......commands would be obeyed if given by elected officers and if they were reasonable...no maps, no torches, no tin hats, 1 grenade between 5 men, rifles that went off by themselves or jammed...the CNT accepted conscription only on condition that a conscript could choose his unit...”But in many places, just armed/unarmed civilians
“. . . I hadn’t chosen my side; I’d simply stayed where the war had taken me by surprise.”
“Every day somebody or other changes trench; you have to understand that it’s a two-way flow . . . if the war lasted long enough, we’d find that all the Republican soldiers had gone over to the fascists and vice versa.”
“I cannot understand why people who themselves had so much in life should have risen against we who had so little.”