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.”