HE GREAT PRELIMINARY Bour-THE SPANISHCIVIL WAR

'r: Spanish Civil War.I.. ;roved to be the momen-tous ideological and culturalflash point of the 1930s, strik-ing deeply into the conscious-ness of the West. It represent-ed the first armed confronta-tion between the form ofnationalism that came to becalled fascism and commu-nism. To the respective ban-ners rallied Western tradi-tionalists, Catholics and non-fascist anti-communists ofthe right; liberal idealists,vague utopians and non-com-munist anti-fascists of the left.For the first time in Europeanhistory, thousands of foreignvolunteers rallied to faceeach other in a land strangeto them.

Alfonso xm abandoned the Spanishthrone in 1931. From 1923 until January28, 1930 Spain was ruled by GeneralPrimo de Rivera's benevolent and tradi-tionalist military dictatorship. Followingconsiderable internal dissent, a Republi-can-Socialist coalition was elected onJune 28, 1931. A single-chamber parlia-ment (Cortes) began functioning undera new and liberal constitution.

Left-Communist influence grew inMadrid, and on January 6, 1936 theCortes was dissolved. The leftist parties(Republican, Socialist, Syndicalist andCommunist) combined to form a "Pop-ular Front" totally unacceptable to

By ERIK NORLING AND GEORGE FOWLER

Spanish traditionalists. The SpanishCivil War began in effect on July 18,1936 with an army revolt at Melilla inSpanish Morocco.

The revolt spread rapidly to Spain'sgarrison cities and towns, such as Cadiz,Seville, Saragossa and Burgos. The par-ties of the left, already strongly influ-enced by Soviet and international Com-munist pressures and support, united toresist the rightist uprising. Antagonismswere heightened by the Republican gov-ernment's confiscation of all religiousproperties.

The insurgent leaders, Generals Fran-

cisco Franco and Emilio Mola, were sup-ported by the military, save for mostnon-commissioned officers. A formida-ble Moorish force in Spanish Morocco(The Army Of Africa) numbered about32,000; half of them required for domes-tic duty. Toward war's end some300,000 Moroccan troops would befighting alongside the Nationalists.Spain's civil population was deeplydivided.

Thus began a crucially important civilwar of no-quarter brutality and agonythat would last until Franco's triumphwith the fall of Madrid on March 28,

GermanJunkers 52 transports in Spanish Morocco stand by near the endof July, 1936 to ferry Moroccan regulares to Seville at the war's outset.The Moroccans were fierce and often brutal opponents. They were led bySpanish officers deeply dedicated to the eradication of Communists andtheir fellow travelers. GeneralFranco had asked Germanyfor transportplanes on fuly 22, 1936. Hitler gave his approval while visiting BayreuthonJuly 25.

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PAGE 22 THE BARNES REVIEW

France's socialist premier Leon Blum (light suit, center) personalty favoredthe Spanish Republicans. But strong French Catholic opinion forced hisPopular Front government to remain o.fficiaUy neutral; while Blum turned a

, I:v~ blind £ryeto French shipments to the Republicans. To Blum's right is Jules') Moch, a close associate and member of his administration. In Germany,

Hitler was convinced that the Communists would wrap up France if theincreasingly Communist-controlled Spanish government prevailed.1939. Both sides received massive out- tagion would then spread to their asso-side assistance so that they might keep ciates like Czechoslovakia where theup the fight. The Nationalist right was seed was already sown. Germany wouldsupported mainly by Germany, Italy and then be caught between two, if not(to a much lesser extent) neighboring three, fires and must be prepared."Portugal, which was ruled by its long- Hitler's ambassador to Britain (andtime folk dictator, Antonio Salazar. The subsequent foreign minister) JoachimRepublicans were supported mainly by von Ribbentrop wrote that on July 26,the Soviets and the leftist governments 1936 Hitler told him: "Germany couldof France and (again to a much lesser not tolerate a Communist Spain underextent) Mexico. The forces of interna- any circumstances ... If a Communisttional finance and fund-raising weighed [state] actually does emerge, in view ofheavily on the Republican side. the current situation in France the

P Bolshevism of that country is also only arior to the war, a major factor matter of a short time and Germanywas the May 2, 1935 signing of [with the Soviet Union in the East and a

the Soviet-French Treaty of Mutual strong Communist bloc in the West] canAssistance. In it both powers promised einpacken -pack up."immediate mutual consultation if either his famed The Spanish Civil Warwere threatened. In June, 1936, a Hugh Thomas wrote that Soviet warPopular Front government under Leon materiel was first used in Spain inBlum took the reins in Paris; thereby October, 1936. In 1956 the Soviet gov-assuring "Republican" Spain a warm liai- ernment stated that the long-goneson across the Pyrenees. Spanish Republican government owed it

On August 5, 1936 Germany's Chan- $50 million; on top of monetary goldcellor Adolf Hitler met with and reserves equal to 63 million Britishexpressed his concerns to a prominent pounds sent them in 1936. In OctoberBriton, Sir John Vansittart (who during 1938 General Franco estimated (fromWW II would become a BBCpropagan- captured weapons and other sources)dist). The Englishman later recalled: "He that the Spanish Communists hadthought the left in Spain would eventu- obtained the following across theally win ... If his prediction were veri- French border: 198 cannon, 200 tanks,fied, France would be infected danger- 3,247 machine guns, 4,000 trucks, someously, perhaps desperately, and the con- 9,500 other vehicles, 47 artillery units,

JULY. 1996

4,565 tons of munitions and 14,889 tons \of fuel.

This land-delivered materiel camemostly from Russia, Czechoslovakia andthe United States, although President \Roosevelt had declared an embargo onarms to Spain. The French governmentalso supplied some 200 aircraft toRepublican Spain. Figures on Soviet seadeliveries are somewhat vague. In 1936and 1937 most Republican air forceplanes were flown by Soviet pilots; sub-sequently by Spaniards. Much of the aidto both sides arrived irregularly. Forinstance, German military figures showthat in January, 1938 the Republicansreceived 15,400 tons of gasoline fromthe Soviets, 7,200 tons of crude oil fromthe United Kingdom and 4,650 tons oflubricants from Greece.

Dobert H. Whealey wrote inftHitler and Spain that "as of

September 12-14 [1936] it became offi-cial Soviet policy to send military aid tothe Republican government in Spain.Shortly thereafter, on September 25-inviolation of the spirit of the Non-Aggression Agreement-the first of fiveRussian ships, the Neva, arrived inRepublican Spain with food, secret armsand munitions. According to Italian intel-ligence reporting from Alicante, theNeva unloaded 3,000 cases of rifles,4,000 cases of ammunition and variousboxes of aviation equipment on Sep-tember 29."

Whealey wrote that "One good wayof measuring foreign intervention overthe course of the Spanish CivilWar is tocompare the money spent or loaned onboth sides for military aid . . . the Sovietsutilized some $518 million in Spanishgold (via the Bank of Spain) to pay whatRussia charged the Republic for the ser-vices of the International Brigades, plusa $65 million Soviet loan. Axis creditincluded 540 million German reich-marks ($215 million in 1930s dollars)plus 6.8 billion Italian lire ($354 mil-lion)-totaling $569 million." A largepart of the Spanish gold was re-exportedto the Banque Commerciale pourl'Europe du Nord in Paris for the Madridgovernment to draw on. Whealey saysthe figures don't include private contri-butions from leftists and Communists inthe West or Nationalist payments to itsMoroccan troops.

In terms of attracting both contribDUtions and volunteers to fight, the Com-munist side enjoyed a decided edge rela-tive to both media bias in many coun-

JULY. 1996 THE BARNES REVIE~ PAGE 23

tries and glamorous celebrity-activistfund-raisers. These included famedwriter and Republican ambulance driverErnest Hemingway, artist Pablo Picasso,black Communist baritone PaulRobeson and French literary lion AndreMalraux, who formed his own, but inef-fective, air squadron. Fund-raising insuch moneyed circles as Hollywood wasstimulated not only by many Jewish filmfigures but leftist stars such as FredricMarch, Myrna Loy and James Cagney;the latter turning sharply to the right inlater years.

President Roosevelt, althoughcontinually badgered by his wife

Eleanor to lift the arms embargo onRepublican Spain, never moved in thatdirection. In the 1930s American Cath-olic voters were largely Democratic onelection day, and the great majority ofparishioners sided with the strongly anti-Communist clergy; particularly as atroci-ties committed against priests and nunsand the looting and burning of churchesbecame known. However, according toPeter Wyden's The Passionate War, thepresident wondered at a cabinet meet-ing (after the fall of Madrid to theNationalists) whether the government

should simply have prohibited transportin American flag ships.

On the Nationalist side, their limitedair force was enormously and cruciallybackstopped by the presence of Ger-many's Condor Legion and the ItalianExpeditionary Air Force. The CondorLegion, according to Hugh Thomas,reached a maximum of 10,000 person-nel in the autumn of 1936 and averagedabout 3,000 throughout the war. As iswell known, air action in Spain proved avital testing ground for the fledglingLuftwaffe.

The total number of Germans whoparticipated in Spain came to 16,000;many of them civilian experts and in-structors. The Condor Legion lost about300 men in air combat. Some 14,000 vet-erans marched in the Condor Legion'svictory parade in Berlin following theNationalist victory. Germany also sent30 anti-tank companies. Colonel vonThoma, who commanded the Germantank corps, told the Americans in 1945that he had experienced 192 tankengagements in Spain.

The Italian contingent, true volun-teers and "volunteers" dispatched by Be-nito Mussolini, numbered about 55,000(of whom 6,000 were killed). In 1941

InJuly, 1936 many of the churches in Barcelona were sacked and burnedby those on the Republican side. This photo shows the remains of disin-terred nuns placed on exhibition at the front of a convent. Such scenes typ-ified levels of brutality that would not be approximated in 20th centuryEuropean warfare save in Yugoslavia and when the Red Army reachedGerman soil

Italy's usually reliable Stefani NewsAgency reported that Italy had sent 763aircraft to Spain plus large numbers ofaircraft motors, bombs, ammunition,guns, rifles and side arms, plus 7,663vehicles. Its air force (where the bestand most courageous were largely gath-ered) flew 135,265 pilot hours, partici-pated in 5,318 air raids, hit 224 shipsand brought down 903 planes. All toldItaly's air force provided the Nationalistswith 5,699 officers and men plus 312civilian personnel.

Mussolini placed his Black Shirtlegions under General Mario Roatta,who had been chief of Italian intelli-gence. Many fought well but greatnumbers broke in panic on occasion.Roatta reported that "the best Redtroops" were international volunteers,because they fought with fierce hatred.His Italians, Roatta concluded, lackedmotivation.

Over the years a great deal hasbeen made of Republican-side

volunteers. Among them were Com-munists, classless society theorists, and amix of leftist sympathizers with a yen foradventure in the midst of a gray depres-sion. Some 40,000 foreign volunteersfought with the Communist-controlledRepublicans. There were approximately3,000 Jewish volunteers in the Inter-national Brigades. Some 3,200 Americancitizens enlisted in the InternationalBrigades, mostly in the Abraham LincolnBrigade. The first 76 of these sailed fromNew York on the French liner Nor-mandie and arrived at le Havre, withsome irony, on Christmas Eve, 1936.

About 1,500 of them made it back tothe U.S. Cecil Eby's Between The Bulletand the Lie states that these leftist vol-unteers were victims of their own mili-tary leadership as well as Nationalist fire-power. Ebywrote: "The large number ofJewish intellectuals aboard the Norman-die were abysmally green. All had donetheir stint on picket lines and were upon party theory, but few had ever fired arifle."

Hugh Thomas's research concludedthat the largest contingent in the Inter-national Brigades were the 10,000French, of whom 3,000 were killed.About 5,000 German and Austrian Com-munists and leftists went to Spain, ofwhom 2,000 were killed. There werealso about 1,000 Canadians, 1,200 Yugo-slavs, and about a thousand each ofHungarians and Scandinavians.

Among Americans, the right did not

PAGE 24 THE BARNlES REVIEW JULY. 1996

munists, placing themselves onthe line against an internationalplague that Mussolini termed"the disease of the 20th centu-ry." But others, rather thanbeing "unwitting tools" of fas-cism, saw that ideology as thepositive answer to their respec-tive nation's future. Many hadwitnessed either the triumphor the threat of communism intheir own countries

These foreign volunteerswho fought on the Na-

tionalist side would becomethe war's forgotten fighters.The largest group was Por-tuguese, calling themselves theLegion de Viriatos in remem-brance of a guerrilla leaderwho had fought the Romaninvaders. Hugh Thomas statesthat these numbered some20,000, of whom 8,000 werekilled. At least 4,000 Portu-guese fought in the ranks ofthe Spanish Foreign Legion(Banderas de Falange) andthe royalist units (Tercios re-quetes) in which foreignerscould enlist. It has been calcu-lated that between 600 and700 of these died fighting intheir adjoining country. They

were mostly nationalists, but includedmany members of the Portuguese fascistparty.

Frenchmen provided the secondlargest Nationalist contingent. Some1,000 volunteers enlisted in the SpanishForeign Legion. The others formed anindependent unit, Campania Juana deArea, named for the French heroine ofthe Middle Ages. Former Czarist militaryofficers received commissions on theNationalist side. AWhite Russian contin-gent of company strength (some 200)sought vengeance against the Soviet-backed Republicans. There were also anumber of individuals from variousEastern European countries who hadcome to know and despise communism.

Hundreds of the French volunteersfell in action, were badly wounded orwere captured. Many of the survivingFrench volunteers would fight commu-nism again in World War II on the east-ern front; members of the FrenchVolunteer Legion against Bolshevism.

Six hundred men of the Irish FreeState fought the Reds in Spain underIreland's fascistic Blue Shirt leader Eoin

O'Duffy. Most of these Irishmen werepart of O'Duffy's organization but anumber were adventurers who wantedto fight on the Catholic side. Evidentlyno more than a dozen British subjectsfought for Franco. Of these, most wereat least half Irish. They included formerBritish Army officers and men of acade-mic accomplishment.

The Romanian Fascist party, the IronGuard, dispatched a select unit of volun-teers. They fought for a year, until con-ditions at home required their recall.

One American woman volunteer inRed-held Madrid showed incredible self-less courage and, had she been a figureof the left, would no doubt have becomea celebrated heroine courtesy of theWestern media. Her name was HelenWalker, the daughter of an lIT engineerin Spain who had married AntonioGarrigues y Diaz Canabate, a SpanishNationalist nobleman-lawyer. PeterWyden wrote that the couple had joineda Nationalist resistance cell. They shel-tered seven nuns in their basement andarranged for food and hiding places forNationalist fugitives. Just before Madridfell to the Nationalists, the couple usedtheir clandestine influence to preventlast minute firing squad executions ofimprisoned rightists.

With the surrender of the Communist-dominated leftist coalition, a number ofits troops fled north across the Pyreneesto France. They operated against theGermans during WWII with the leftist orCommunist elements of the Maquis ter-rorist underground.

Many foreign volunteers who hadfought for the Nationalists would subse-quently fight the Soviets in the snows ofFinland, on the Russian front and even inthe streets of Berlin in 1945. The largestnumber would don the gray uniform ofthe Waffen (foreign) SS in the titanicstruggle to come. In all, some 600,000Spaniards and foreigners were killed. Asixth of these fell as a result of summaryexecutions, to give slaughter a some-what pristine reference.

With World War II approaching, the

The Irish Brigade was poorly equipped andled by the often drunk "General"Eoin O'Duffy.To say the least, its 600 men were misused.These wounded arrived inDublininJune, 1937-The ForeignLegionwas among the best equip-ped of Nationalist forces, yet until the 1938Aragon offensive it was issued old machineguns whose firing pins broke continuaUy.have "rally to the Nationalist banner"centers remotely comparable to theNational Maritime Union and some otherunion halls, certain campus centers aswell as Communist and some Jewishorganizations. The Catholic clergy andits school systems were strongly op-posed to Republican Spain, but stoppedshort of encouraging young Americansto take up arms. No members of the Ger-man American Bund are known to havegone to Spain. Some sources claim oneAmerican pilot flew for the Nationalists,and was killed early in the war.

As is often observed, the winnerswrite the histories. The fascist side wonSpain's war, but before the end of thatsummer World War II had begun; itswinners setting the historical tone andground rules. Thus the saga of theNationalist volunteers was swept silentlyinto the dustbins.

The Spanish Nationalists and their for-eign volunteers were depicted by post-war historians and propagandists (whichof course includes documentary produc-ers) as simple puppets of the Axis pow-ers. When not ignored they have beenvilified. Many were primarily anti-Com-

Erik Norling is a writer living inFuengirola, Spain. He is in the processof preparing his doctoral dissertationin law relative to post-World War IIrepressions. He is conversant in theNorwegian, Swedish and Danish lan-guages as well as English and Spanish.His article Vidkun Quisling: Traitor orPatriot? appeared in the March, 1996issue of TBR.

JULY, 1996

guns of Spain were silenced. Hitler wasseverely dismayed that Franco did notjoin the Axis cause. Franco felt that hiscountry was psychologically and physi-cally incapable of what would berequired. Had he joined Germany andItaly, given the situation that would havecaused relative to Britain's Mediterrane-an lifeline, Churchill might indeed havebeen forced to accept peace in the Westfollowing Dunkirk; his FDR administra-tion's alliance notwithstanding. In thiscourse Franco and his Falange partyassociates were helped immeasurably byAdmiral Wilhelm Canaris, Germany'sdouble dealing intelligence chief.

In any event, the little rememberedsacrifices of the Spanish right, its foreignvolunteers and Moroccan troops as wellas the crucial assistance of Germany andItaly, kept the Iberian peninsula andprobably much more of Europe beyondthe Soviet bear's claws. .•

BmuOGRAPHYBrasillach, Robert & Bradeche, Maurice, La

Guerre Civil Espanola, Spanish edition, AdolfoPorcar, Valencia, 1966.

Cuningham, Valentine, Spanish Fr07.tWriters on the Civil War, Oxford UniversityPress, New York, 1986.

Kemp, Peter, Mine Were of Trouble, Englishedition, 1957, Spanish edition Luis de Caralt,Barcelona, 1959.

Mota, Ion, Testamento, Colectia Europa,Munchen (Germany) 1984.

Norling, Erik, La Derecba IntelectualFrancesa y fa Guerra Civil Espanola, RevistaAportes, Madrid, 1992.

THE BARNES REVIEW PAGE 25

A contingent of Italian "volunteers" is welcomed back from Spain as theydisembark at Naples. At the time of the major Nationalist offensive againstCatalonia in December, 1938 the Italian Legionary Corps numbered 55,000.Although both sides held their fighting qualities and lust for battle in lowregard, the Italians performed creditably at Catalonia. By this late stage of.the war, as stated by Antony Beevor in his The Spanish Civil War, FDR}admitted that the embargo of arms to the Republicans "had been a gravemistake" while "Cburcbill and Eden. " now realized what [Republican]extinction signified."

Totu, Neculai, Notas del Frente Espanol;Editura Dacia, Madrid, 1970.

Trunbull, Patrick & Burn, Jeffrey, TheSpanish Civil War 1936·1939, Osprey Military,London, 1994.

Tusell, Javier, El Catolidsmo Mundial y faGuerra de Espana, Biblioteca de AutoresCristianos, Madrid, 1993.

Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War,Harper and Brothers, New York, 1961.

Wyden, Peter, The Passionate War, Simonand Schuster, New York, 1983.

Eby, Cecil, Between the Bullet and the Lie,Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1969.

Beevor, Antony, The Spanish Civil War,Peter Bedrick Books, New York, 1983.

I. During World War I he reputedlytold a general: "When theRussians lose, my father cries.When the Germans lose, mymother cries. When am I to cry?"

2. Location of British PM JohnMajor's parliamentary seat.

3. George I, son of Christian IX ofHA T Denmark, ruled this Mediterrane-

an country from 1863 to 19 I 3.4. In 1948, accepting his party's

presidential nomination atPhiladelphia's Shibe Park, hecalled for U.S. withdrawal fromBerlin as a solution to the Sovietblockade of that city.

HERE 5. This president added a "corollary"to the Monroe Doctrine relative toproblems with Venezuela andthen-Santo Domingo.

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