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"Can anyone on this forum actually name a battle from the Spanish civil war? or name 1 General?...other than Franco."
Spanish civil war (1936-9), conflict precipitated by a failed military coup d'état in July 1936, itself provoked by violent social and anticlerical disorders following the election of a Popular Front government. It became a protracted struggle between two uneasy alliances of traditionalist and fascist ‘Nationalists’ and the socialists, communists, Trotskyites, anarchists, and separatists known as ‘Republicans’.
The Nationalists were assisted by some 60, 000 Italian, 20, 000 Portuguese, and 15, 000 German ‘volunteers’ sent by their governments, plus about 2, 000 French monarchists and Irish Catholics. They were further aided by an effectively one-sided Anglo-French-American policy of non-intervention. The Republican cause attracted 40, 000 international volunteers in all: 15, 000 French, 5, 000 German, 4, 000 Italian, 3, 000 US, 2, 000 British, and 1, 000 each from Canada, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Scandinavia. The Soviets, who acquired disproportionate political influence as well as Spain's gold reserves, were seldom more than 500 at any time. Although they provided many senior officers and much of the Republic's air, armour, and artillery, their contribution was curtailed in 1937 when Stalin recalled all his Comintern agents and most of his army officers and executed them as part of the great purge.
Although long portrayed as a dress rehearsal for WW II, it is best understood as a uniquely Spanish phenomenon, fought mainly by Spaniards in their own archaic military tradition and for very idiosyncratic reasons. With the exception of some experiments by the German Condor Legion in close support of infantry operations by fighter aircraft, the conflict cannot be seen as a proving ground for WW II tactics. The Republican cause attracted intellectuals from all over the world, whose idealized view of the conflict did not survive exposure to its realities. Like other ‘lost causes, ’ an oversimplified myth has tended to obscure the less black-and-white history.
The rebels included virtually the whole regular army officer corps and the long-service Army of Africa, plus the bulk of the rural paramilitary Guardias Civil. These were soon joined by the well-trained Navarrese Carlists and a larger number of fascist Falangist (political movement) volunteers. The Republic retained the support of most of the urban paramilitary Guardias Asalto and of variously armed and organized trades unions and revolutionary groups. It was the latter, in the face of the government's timid refusal to summon a levée en masse or to release arms to the spontaneous popular uprising against the coup, which provided the necessary leadership to thwart barracks revolts in Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid, while closely besieging Nationalist garrisons in Oviedo and the alcazar of Toledo.
Once the coup failed, political leadership became decisive. The early deaths of possible rivals, including the Falange's charismatic founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera, left Franco unchallenged and he maintained unity of purpose on his side, including the Italians and Germans despite their impatience at his deliberate generalship. By contrast, Republican leadership was divided and rancorous, unable to command respect at home or abroad. The Basque provinces and Catalonia had their own separatist agendas while the rival leftist parties fought ferocious internal civil wars.
The Nationalists quickly gained control of a northern swathe encompassing all of Galicia and Navarre, most of León and Old Castile and half of Aragon and Extremadura. They established their capital at Burgos and their first attempt to advance on that front towards Madrid was halted in the first major battle of the war in the Guadarrama mountains. In the south, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada were seized and soon consolidated by the vanguard of the Army of Africa, airlifted by German transports. While half remained to garrison Morocco, the rest followed by ship under Italian fighter cover. After an early Republican counter-attack towards Cordoba was defeated and a coastal strip around Malaga was eliminated by Italian armoured troops in January 1937, the southern front became a backwater for the duration.
In the centre, the Spanish Foreign Legion spearheaded a Nationalist advance from Seville into Extremadura marked by characteristic atrocities. It then relieved the alcazar of Toledo and pushed on towards the capital, being stopped inside the city limits by militia and a small Soviet armoured unit. Although the defence of Madrid captured the imagination of sympathizers all over the world, the Republican government set a lamentable example by fleeing to Valencia. During the 1936/7 winter a Nationalist attempt to sever Madrid's communications with the Guadarramas failed and in February the newly formed International Brigades checked the Army of Africa in the Jarama mountains. In March an Italian armoured division, rendered overconfident by success against light opposition and on more suitable terrain around Malaga the year before, was humiliatingly repulsed near Guadalajara. In July the Republicans launched a bloodily unsuccessful counter-offensive at Brunete, but thereafter a vicious stalemate prevailed around Madrid.
In the north, the Nationalists under Mola advanced from Navarre to close the Basque provinces' French border in August-September 1936. Oviedo was relieved in October, many of the dynamite-throwing Asturian miners having gone to defend Madrid. Starting in late March 1937, Mola again attacked the Basque provinces from the east and Bilbao fell to his ponderous advance in mid-June. Santander fell in August and the conquest of Asturias was completed in October.
In the east, the revolutionary armies of Barcelona twice launched broad offensives in Aragon, but the Nationalists held the major towns, including a vulnerable salient at Teruél where savage fighting took place during the winter of 1937/8. Starting in March the Nationalists counter-attacked with heavy artillery preparation followed by short infantry advances across northern Valencia, severing the land-link with Catalonia in mid-July. Republican strength was shattered in a desperate battle on the Ebro in July-October and Catalonia collapsed early the following year. The Republican rump, torn by another internal civil war, fell to Nationalist advances from all sides in March.
The Nationalists had about 600, 000 under arms to the Republicans' 450, 000. They lost 110, 000 and 175, 000 respectively in battle, but 80, 000 Nationalist sympathizers were caught on the wrong side of the lines and executed, while 40, 000 Republicans were also executed during and after the war.
The Spanish civil war, 1936-9, and (inset) operations around the Madrid salient
— Hugh Bicheno
copied from ANSWERS.COM [:D] I cheated. [;)][:p][:o)]
MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos
The Union Forever! Huzzah!
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