The Spanish Civil War

“Fortune is not a train which passes every day at the same time.  She is a prostitute who offers herself fleetingly and then passes on to others.”  Ciano

 The more I read about this, the more fascinated I got with it, starting with Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia.  Orwell has a fantastically mellow way of describing everything, articulating facts in an amused manner.  What he experienced and saw there in Spain gave him a perpetual WTF kind of mood.  This led me to read another book, considerably more detailed, titled simply The Spanish Civil War, by Hugh Thomas.

 Background.  Spain 1936.  The situation was majorly screwed up.  The government was nominally capitalist/democratic, with large substantial socialist and communist segments, and an anarchist movement lurking outside on the far left, mainly concentrated in Barcelona.  The right-wing elements did poorly in the elections, and a major right-winger, Jose Calvo Sotelo, was murdered.  The left-wing elements, particularly the anarchists, threatened revolution. No one was happy, but someone decided to do something about it.  In July 1936, starting in Morocco, a military rebellion broke out.  The government was republican/democratic/capitalist, whereas the rebels were fascist/nationalist. 

 The Fascists.  Led by General Francisco Franco, supported by Italy and Nazi Germany.  Franco’s rebellion started in the colonies (Morocco and Canary Islands) and quickly spread to Spain itself.  Franco had the Army and the Foreign Legion, while the Navy and Air Force (such as they were) remained loyal to the government.

            The Church supported Franco’s movement.  Although there was considerable friction and disagreement between the Falangists (fascists) and the Carlists (monarchists), ultimately Franco was able to sort everything out, “and in the darkness, bind them” – a Nationalist Spanish Sauron.

            Militarily, the fascists had several elements.  The most substantial were the Moroccan and Spanish Foreign Legion forces, which were the Spanish units of any real value and combat experience.  Initially they were stuck in Morocco due to an effective blockade by loyalist naval units.  However, soon after, the Germans provided Ju-52 transport planes which allowed most of Franco’s armies to be airlifted to mainland Spain.  Hitler remarked that Franco should build a Ju-52 memorial to recognize the value of these planes to his rebellion.

            Other elements were Falangist and Carlist volunteers, who were not regular military units.  Italy provided several Blackshirt and one regular Italian Army unit; Mussolini wanted to both give his armies some combat experience but also some glory.  Ironically, not only did these units perform poorly, they also embarrassed Mussolini AND ended up in combat against the Garibaldi Brigade, which was a unit of communist Italian volunteers fighting for the government; it seems the “volunteers” sent by Mussolini weren’t exactly volunteers, many of them were told they were being sent to Abyssinia.  Note also: there was a unit of Irish fascists fighting for the nationalists, which also – completely by accident – ended up in combat against International Brigades featuring English and Irish volunteers, in some cases against men who knew each other from WWI or the 1916 Rebellion (e.g. IRA forces).  Germany sent Panzer I’s, the Condor Legion, and various advisors, but no actual military units; Hitler was basically scheming to get maximum results from a minimal investment, hoping to tie down and distract the English, French and Russians in this backwater zone while he focused his real attention on Austria and Czechoslovakia.    

 Republican/Loyalist side.  This was considerably more confusing, as there were various forces momentarily allied with each other but working at cross purposes, sometimes with more antagonism and violence among each other than against the fascists.  The “center” bourgeois capitalist was squeezed out, really having no place on either side of the battle.  The CEDA (Confederacion Espanhola de Derechas Autonomas), under Gil Robles, was the closest to a center-right party, but this was dissolved in 1937 and Robles went into exile after the war.

 P.S.U.C. (Partido Socialista Unificado de Catalunha). This was the Socialist Party of Catalonia.

PCE (Partido Communista Espanha) Spanish Communist Party.  In Moscow it was determined that Spain was not quite ripe for a proletarian revolution, it being still in feudalism.  So what it needed was to move to capitalist democracy….so…the Communist line was to oppose revolution and support the government.  Indeed, they argued that fighting for revolution only strengthens the fascists, so any revolutionaries are in fact…fascist!  After some initial shipments of French aircraft from France – on the sly, because Leon Blum sympathized with the leftist Spanish government but didn’t want to antagonize the British, who were in favor of Franco - the major outside power supplying arms to the Loyalist/Republican side was the USSR, and it was only supporting the PSUC.  Stalin took most of Spain’s gold as “credit” for the planes, tanks, and machine guns, plus the pilots and advisors he sent.  The communists were the #1 factor on the “loyalist” side.  Indeed, the war was very much an ideological battle between the forces of fascism vs. socialism – with the bourgeois middle class almost nonexistent on the political map.

            The communists spent more time hunting down political rivals – socialists, non-Stalinist communists (aka “Trotskyists”) and anarchists – than they did fighting fascists.  They were ruthless, opportunist, and also making profits on the arms deals.  Stalin sold all the weapons to the government at full market value (as much as anything produced by a communist dictatorship has a value) and not simply at cost. 

            The communists also were trying to take over most of the military units and dictate most of the government’s policies, virtually turning Republican Spain into a Soviet puppet.  Many in the government, e.g. Azana, Negrin, Largo Caballero, and Prieto, would have liked to distance Spain from Russia and secure arms from England or the US, but Stalin had Spain’s gold supply.  Moreover, despite substantial public opinion in the US and UK in favor of the government and against the fascists, the US and UK governments were at best neutral (US) and at worst sympathetic to Franco (UK), and in any case were politically committed to nonintervention – however much of a farce “nonintervention” was, in reality, with Germany’s Condor Legion over the skies, Italian Black Shirt troops on the ground, and Russian planes, pilots, tanks, and military advisors in Spain.  Britain had substantial mining interests in Spain which could conceivably be – and often were – diverted to the Germans depending on the success of the fascists, so the British government had a substantial stake in hoping for Franco’s victory.  Texas oil companies were selling oil to Franco on credit, a deal which would be ruined if Franco lost.  Finally, FDR was concerned about alienating Catholic voters, who tended to support Franco.

 UGT (Union General de Trabaladores).  This was the socialist trade union.

CNT.  This was the anarchist trade union.  Its political side was the FAI (Federacion Anarquista Iberica).

 P.O.U.M. (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista) This was the non-Stalinist Marxist party, also referred to as Trotskyist – although Trotsky himself denounced the POUM.  Opposed to the PSUC, the POUM decided that Spain was ripe for proletarian revolution and fought to achieve that.  Their concern was, “suppose we defeat the Fascists but keep capitalism anyway – why did we fight this war?  What’s the difference?  What’s the point in fighting the fascists if we aren’t going to have a worker’s society when this is all over?”  This put it at odds with the PSUC.  Orwell, along with many other volunteers who didn’t have explicit communist party backing from back home, ended up in this group.  Eventually the communists blacklisted the POUM and hunted down its members.  It reached the point of street fighting in Barcelona in May 1937, as described by Orwell.  As mentioned earlier, this side of the war had as much problem fighting among themselves as they did with the fascists, who ultimately managed to get their asses in gear under Franco.

 Anarchists.  This group was loosely allied with the POUM as it also wanted a revolution.  I always wondered why anarchists, who advocate no government – a decentralized economy where businesses are run by the workers themselves and no central authority to control, dominate, or exploit the workers – should ally themselves with socialists, who advocate even greater government (a dictatorship of the proletariat at least, if not nationalization and regulation of large parts of the economy, with the means of production in the hands of the government, ostensibly as a representative of the working class).  In essence, anarchists wish to leapfrog from capitalism to communism without going through socialism, and are true communists in the truest meaning – and the socialists were really those out for power for its own sake. 

            On the other hand the anarchists, by their nature, were difficult to control, so they basically did as they pleased, which sometimes devolved into little more than banditry.  Plus they had the perpetual dilemma of whether to acknowledge and support “the government” or to remain independent and a loose cannon, which the communists complained worked to weaken their side and play into the hands of the fascists.  Indeed, it was the unruliness of the anarchists vs. the excellent organization (if somewhat ruthless and intolerant) of the communists which persuaded many from various parts of the political spectrum to support the latter, even without understanding Marx or caring much for Stalin. 

 Catalan & Basque separatists.  It didn’t help the republican cause that in Catalonia (northeastern region near Barcelona) and in Basque territory (up near the French border) there was a substantial movement for independence from Madrid’s control and from Spain itself.  This managed to complicate matters dramatically without providing any tangible benefits for the separatists. 

 International Brigades.  Non-Spanish volunteer units fighting on the government’s side.  Exiled German and Italian communists joined these, along with French, Belgians, Americans (e.g. Abraham Lincoln Brigade) and English.  Some had WWI combat experience, others were just poets, writers, and other “fellow travelers”.  Anarchist units had, as can be imagined, difficulties with discipline issues, whereas the communists were often admired for their organization and discipline.  The Russians provided substantial advisors, even leaders, to these units and most of the tanks and weapons.  It was the International Brigades, led by General Miaja, who saved Madrid from the fascists in November 1936.

 Notables

There was actually another Spanish Civil War, in 1820-23, but one we usually think of is this one, from 1936-39.  Likewise, Spain had a military dictatorship in 1923-30 under Primo de Rivera, and his son Jose Antonio was a prominent member of the fascist elite. However, his son was imprisoned immediately after the rebellion broke out by the republicans, and was eventually executed. 

“Fifth Column”.  This expression was introduced into the language by nationalist General Mola, leading four columns of nationalist armies against the capital, Madrid, then held by the government/republicans.  He bragged that a “fifth column” of secret nationalist supporters in the city would aid their attack.  As it was, Madrid was attacked in November 1936, but General Miaja managed to rally the International Brigades into an effective defense of the city against the nationalists.  The city remained under siege and only fell when the whole war collapsed in March 1939.  With any civil war, duplicity and treachery were inevitable, so the government had a legitimate concern about such “fifth columnists”, but the communists tended to use this excuse to rid themselves of political rivals, e.g. POUM and anarchist forces with no known connection to the fascists.

“Molotov Cocktails”.  Glass bottles of gasoline with a burning rag tied around it.  Reportedly first used on October 29, 1936, by nationalist legionaires against the Russian T-26 tanks provided by Stalin to the government forces.

Guernica.  Bombed by the Condor Legion, and famously memoralized by the painting by Picasso.  Much of the civilian bombing was an experiment to see the reaction and results, but it’s unclear those results were clear enough to warrant continuing the policy in WWII against London.  Indeed, the public outcry against the bombing was so severe, that any tactical advantage on the ground was far exceeded by the political repercussions abroad.  The Germans had to backpedal and make up nonsense about trying to bomb the bridges or Basque explosives going off on their own. 

The German MG-34 machine gun and “88” anti-aircraft gun were first used in Spain.

Tanks.  The Germans provided Panzer I’s to the nationalists, of minor effectiveness due to being armed only with machine guns.  The Italians provided their own typically undersized, underarmored mini-tanks.  For the loyalist side, the Russians provided the T-26, which had stronger armor and a 40mm gun, and totally outclassed the Panzer Is and Italian “tanks”; though the nationalists were able to get their hands on some of these themselves by capturing them or offering bounties for their defection.

            The Germans, through Van Thoma, tried to experiment with massed tank attacks in Spain as a proving ground for their theories as articulated by Liddell-Hart and Guderian.  Unfortately they really didn’t have enough tanks to make this practical, but at least they realized this.  The Soviets went back convinced that the earlier “spread them out among infantry units” tactics were still valid, much to their detriment in the early days of Operation Barbarossa.

Air power.  The Spanish air force had been nothing to write about before the war, so neither side really had any meaningful air power when the rebellion broke out in July 1936.  The French provided some aircraft to the government early in the war, then the Russians took over this responsibility.  On the fascist side, the Italians and Germans supplied aircraft and many pilots, the latter being the famous Condor Legion.  The Russian planes proved to be competitive with the Italian planes, and to some extent the Me-109, which made its debut in Spain.  The Condor Legion featured such stars as the Me-109, the Ju-52, and the brand new Heinkel He-111 bomber, which participated in the Guernica bombing. 

For Whom The Bell Tolls.  This is Hemingway’s novel set in the war, in 1937, and made into a movie with Gary Cooper as the main character, Robert Jordan, and Ingrid Berman as his love interest, Maria.  Not being a big fan of Hemingway, the way I am with Orwell, I simply watched the movie.  Jordan is sort of an independent contractor working for the Republicans, and his assignment (“Mission: Impossible” theme plays here) is to blow up a bridge immediately before a Republican offensive so that the fascists are unable to send reinforcements.  He has to earn the trust of a band of irregulars, including Maria – who had her head shaved and was otherwise inconvenienced by a band of fascists who took over her town and murdered her parents – and Pilar, an older women jealous of Maria’s youth and beauty and who has an obnoxiously aggressive and cynical attitude.  The playoff character is her husband Pablo, who is now a drunken coward, resentful of the “Ingles” (English – Jordan) who comes by recruiting his own band for this bridge job.  Surely, when the bridge is blown, the fascists will come looking for the culprits, and he doesn’t want to risk his neck.   I found the movie long (3 hours) but suitably chock full of the various ingredients for a Spanish Civil War story: ragtag Republicans, some communist Republicans, and fascists with Spanish style uniforms but German helmets and weapons.  Of course the Spanish ask Jordan why he’s fighting a war far from his own country, in which he personally has nothing at stake.  Remind me how many Spanish units fought in the US Civil War.

Civil guards.  These were the hated local police in various towns, with their distinctive two-corner hats and green uniforms.  In republican sectors they often ended up lined against the wall by the irate locals.  These are not to be confused with the Assault Guards, who were the urban equivalents, and wore blue uniforms.  Most of the civil guards joined the fascists, while the assault guards mostly remained loyal to the government.  To make matters a little more confusing, the Falangists, Spain’s fascists, wore blue shirts, similar to Mussolini’s Black Shirts and Hitler’s Brown Shirts (SA). 

Progress.  In July 1936, rebellion broke out in various Spanish cities.  Depending on who chose which sides, the fascist rebels had various degrees of success across the country, which split up into rebel/fascist and loyalist/republican sectors.  For the time being, most of Franco’s forces were stuck in Morocco, with the republican navy sufficiently strong relative to the rebel naval forces to prevent a seaborne invasion of mainland Spain.  In each side’s sectors, the “wrong” people were either thrown in jail or shot.  In nationalist won sectors, these were socialists, communists, and anarchists.  In republican sectors, these were not only rebel officers, but also monarchists, Falangists, and also priests – and eventually anarchists and non-Stalinist communists (e.g. the POUM).  In republican areas, churches were burned, looted, and destroyed.  This was particularly bad wherever anarchists were prevalent.

            Eventually Franco’s reps in Germany managed to persuade the Nazis to loan them enough Ju52s to airlift the Moroccan forces to mainland Spain.  This airlifted nationalist force drove up the Portuguese border to the northern coast.  Madrid was besieged but not captured until the final collapse, thanks to a heroic defense of the city by General Miaja and the International Brigades in November 1936. In September-October 1937, the northern pocket of government resistance – in the Basque area close to France – was wiped out.

            The nationalists finally got their battleship online, the republican navy cowered in port in Cartagena, the Germans and Italians lent their own navies to assist the nationalists, while the Royal Navy – much to the embarrassment of many British politicians – avoided any kind of confrontation.  Thus what had been a republican blockade turned into a nationalist blockade.

            From March to July, 1938, the nationalists drove southeast and reached the Mediterranean, cutting off Barcelona (northeast pocket, Catalonia) from Valencia, which is where the government moved the capital once Madrid fell under siege, though the government had various expedients, by air and sea, by which to lessen the impact of this otherwise strategic defeat.  Various republican attacks initially surprised the nationalists in local sectors, but eventually Franco transferred troops from other sectors, took back the lost territory, so the republicans were left with heavy casualties they could ill afford, but no permanent gains.

            From December 1938 to February 1939, the nationalists followed up their earlier successes with a knockout blow to Catalonia, sweeping across to the French border and taking Barcelona without a fight.  By this point France and England recognized Franco’s regime as the legitimate government of Spain, and their acquiescence in 1938 with Hitler over Czechoslovakia made it clear to the republic that they could expect no real help from the democracies, who were willing to accept almost anything from Hitler and Mussolini just to avoid a war.  For his part, Stalin was also unwilling to do enough to ensure a republican victory.  Not only was he unwilling to risk a war over Spain, he was pissed that the British and French didn’t include him in the Munich peace talks and was convinced that dealing with Germany was far more worthwhile.

            Although the remaining republican forces in southeastern Spain, including Madrid, were substantial, the writing was on the wall – a threshold, tipping point was reached.  The Soviet advisors packed up and left while they still could, and the half the remaining Spanish officers either left or started making deals with Franco – or had been “Fifth Columnists” all along, most notably Colonel Casado.  By the end of March, Franco’s forces swept across the rest of Spain, with what was left of the republican army either melting away into civilian clothes or switching sides by entire units, many of their commanding officers having either been Fifth Columnists or simply persuaded by Casado to switch sides.  Large numbers of refugees had crossed over into France in huge camps, whereas the most prominent leftist politicians had fled out of Spain. 

            At this point Franco focused on rounding up his enemies who couldn’t make it out of Spain, the reprisals lasting well into the 40s.  Oddly, the leftists who went back to Russia ended up being wiped out by Stalin; having solid revolutionary credentials is often as much a liability as an asset, as it makes you a potential rival and thus a target for purges.  During WWII, Spain remained neutral, mostly out of fear of the French and British.  Franco did send troops to the Eastern Front, the Blue Division.  When it came time for Franco to pay up to the Germans what they owed, Hitler remarked that Franco made him “feel like a Jew”.

            In 1975, Franco died, and eventually Spain became a democracy for the first time since 1936.  The lasting legacies of the war were not only this regime which lasted almost 40 years, but also Germany’s blitzkrieg in the early parts of WWII.  It also served to uncover, for an earlier generation of socialists, communists, and anarchists not only the dangers of fascism but the ruthless opportunism of many on their own side, particularly in Russia – George Orwell being the most notable example to expose his discoveries not only in Homage to Catalonia, but also 1984. 

One Million Dead, by Jose Maria Girondella.  After having digested the lengthy and verbosely detailed The Spanish Civil War, by Hugh Thomas, and endured the dull and not particularly exciting movie adaptation of Hemingway’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (see above), I delved into this 668 page novel.  Unlike the latter, which only focuses on Jordan and a modest array of pro-Republican characters – all the Fascists are unknown extras only encountered at the very end – this gives almost equal time and sympathy to characters from both sides, as well as a wide array of historical characters, with the notable exception of Franco himself. 

            The main focus is on the Alvears, a family from Gerona, a town in Catalonia somewhere between Barcelona and the French border in northeastern Spain.  Their son Cesar, a seminarian, has been shot by the Reds at the very beginning of the story.  His brother Ignacio goes to Barcelona, then Madrid, crossing the lines there and finally joining a ski unit of the nationalist forces.  He romances Marta and Ana Maria.  His cousins in the nationalist zone end up victims of the Fascists.  Others include International Brigade characters, anarchists, communists, priests, Falangists, Russians, Germans (Nazis), Italians (a fascist delegate and a black shirt soldier), foreign journalists (Fanny and Bolen), and a few who find themselves not particularly disposed to one side or the other.  The story follows the characters throughout the war, from July 1936 through April 1939.  I found that it paralleled the non-fiction book very well, but giving a perspective from the ground, from the eyes of individual characters, so much so that perhaps someone else could forgo the non-fiction book in favor of this one alone and still come out with an excellent knowledge and understanding of the war.

            Three small portions I feel are worth reciting:

            1.  At the beginning of the story, Ignacio goes to the local cemetery in Gerona to find and identify his brother Cesar, who they believe – correctly – has been shot by the Reds.  Others are there for the same purpose.  One woman finds her husband’s body, with a note written in his handwriting in his pocket, addressed to her, “we’ll see each other in heaven.”

            2.  In Gerona, which was under communist control until the end of the war, many bourgeois and landowners were held in the prison, and occasionally “taken for a walk”, the slang word meaning taken out to be shot, almost at random.  The prisoners knew they were under a death sentence.  One landowner was taken out by car, with three communist militiamen.  When they reached a militia checkpoint, the victim – who knew exactly what was in store for him – opened the window and yelled, “Hey!  We’re Fascists!  Long live Franco!”, which led the checkpoint guards to open fire on the car, killing not only him, but also the driver, and wounding the two others. 

            3. The Alvears back in Gerona decide to adopt Eloy, a small boy who was orphaned when his parents were killed in the Condor Legion air raid on Guernica.  He seems happy enough in his new home, but when the air raid siren goes off, the poor boy panics and screams, and his new foster parents have to comfort him.