This article covers the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The outbreak of war can be seen to be the uprising in Morocco on the 17th of July triggered by events in Madrid. By the summer, important tendencies of the war become clear, both in terms of atrocities being committed and in the difference between the intermittent help the Republican government will recieve from France and the Soviet Union and its contrast with the committed support of Fascist Italy and Germany for Franco.
Police lieutenant José Castillo is murdered by four fascist gunmen who awaited the recently married lieutenant in the afternoon hours in front of his house. He was a member of the UMRA, an antifascist organization for military members, and also worked with socialist youth.
In retaliation, around 3am, Calvo Sotelo, leader of the right-wing monarchist party, is murdered by police officers. Only a few hours after the assassination of Castillo, his close friend Police Captain Fernando Condes and other police officers, acting on their own initiative, arrest Calvo Sotelo in his house. Driving with him in a police car of the Assault Guard (Guardia de Asalto) police officer Luis Cuenca shoots him in the back of the neck. His dead body is given to a municipal undertaker.
Shootout between Police Assault Guard and fascist militias in the streets surrounding the cemetery of Madrid, where the burials of José Castillo and Calvo Sotelo are taking place. Four people killed.
Army uprising in Morocco. Military uprising of the Foreign Legion in Morocco. General Manuel Romerales , commanding officer of the East Army, murdered by rebels, who also imprisoned commanding General Gomez in the late afternoon. Loyal police troops from the Guardia Civil and Guardia de Asalto hold the cities Tetouan and Larache, but are under heavy attack by the rebels. General Franco orders the killing of his nephew, a major in Tetuan, for standing loyal to the government. By late evening, all of Morocco is in the hands of the rebels. From the Canary Islands, Franco declares a "state of war" for all of Spain. Prime Minister Casares Quiroga spends the whole day telephoning different regional military administrations to clarify the situation. Pamplona, Saragossa, Oviedo, Salamanca, Avila, Segovia, and Cadiz are already in rebel hands.
Franco flies from the Canary Islands to Tetuán and takes command of the army in Africa. Santiago Casares Quiroga resigns as chief of the Republican government. Diego Martínez Barrio tries to form a new government, but cannot obtain broad enough parliamentary support. José Giral forms a government, which orders that arms be issued to the general populace. Seville, one of the most important cities in the south, is unsuccessfully defended by local police troops and a poorly armed workers' militia. While the heaviest weapons police possess are machine guns, the rebel General Queipo de Llano sends in artillery and heavily armed troops. Seville falls to the rebels. The People's Olympiad opens in Barcelona, a protest against the official 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. In Barcelona, heavy streetfighting breaks out between police, workers militias and loyal troops on one side and around 12,000 rebel soldiers on the other. After it becomes obvious that Civil Guard, Assault Guard and City Police would not be enough to keep control of the city, the Generalitat (regional government of Catalonia), decide belatedly to arm the people.
Start of the siege of the Alcázar de Toledo. Rebels defeated in in Madrid and Barcelona, but they take Mallorca. In Madrid, around 10,000 citizens, among them police officers and soldiers, attack the Montana Barracks, held by rebel General Fanjul and around 2,500 soldiers. Some soldiers in the Barracks want to surrender and wave a white flag. The crowd moves towards the barracks, while the soldiers who wanted to surrender are overwhelmed by the rebels. The rebels then immediately fire heavy machine guns and grenades into the masses, leaving many wounded or dead. The crowd storms the Barracks and massacres the defenders. General Fanjul is among the few captured alive. Barcelona: The combined forces of local police troops, workers' militias and citizens gain back control over the city in a dramatic two-day barricade fight. Mallorca: After heavy resistance, especially at the Air Base, the rebels gain control over Mallorca. The official leader of the uprising, General Sanjurjo, dies in an air accident in a small airplane bringing him back to Spain from his exile in Portugal. He had insisted, against the advice of the pilot, on taking all of his possessions with him. The overloaded airplane crashed taking off.
The Nationalist insurgents have control of the Spanish zones of Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Balearics (except Minorca), the part of Spain north of the Sierra de Guadarrama and the Río Ebro (except Asturias, Santander, the north of the País Vasco (Basque Country), and Catalonia). Among the major cities, the insurgents hold Seville, but the Republicans retain Madrid and Barcelona. Toledo: After three days of street battles against forces loyal to the government, about 1000 Civil and Assault Guards, Falangists (comparable to the German S.A.), and a handful of infantry cadets, under the leadership of Colonel Moscardo, retreat into the Alcázar de Toledo, a stone fortress set on high ground overlooking the Tagus River and the city. They take with them their own families, plus a few hundred women and children as hostages, most of them families of well known leftists.
Vallehermoso in La Gomera, a village of 4,000, is the last place in the Canary Islands to fall to the rebels. Police Officer Francisco Mas García organized the hopeless resistance. The actual battle for the town lasted several hours. The councilor, the police officers and the leader of the local workers' council were condemned to death. In the hour before his execution, police chief Don Antonio wrote to his wife: "I die calm, because I believe in the justice of God". The navy and air force remain loyal to the government. Thanks to the initiative of noncommissioned officer Benjamin Balboa, most of the Navy stayed loyal to the Republic. He was on duty in the central military radio station. As soon as he got notice of the uprising he informed the Naval Ministry and arrested his commanding officer, Captain Castor Ibáñez, then spent the night informing navy ships about the uprising. The soldiers on the ships formed councils and gained control of the ships, despite heavy resistance from the officers. Spain lost three quarters of its navy officers that night, but the Navy was saved for the Republic. The officers of the Spanish Air Force are traditionally very Republican, but the air force has only a few obsolete planes.
Start of French aid to the Republican side. For the moment, the help only involves sending a handful of obsolete airplanes for the Spanish Republican Air Force, but the very fact that France seems willing to help is eminently morally important for the supporters of the Republic. The Durruti Column , around three thousand men, mostly workers, led by Buenaventura Durruti are the first volunteer militia to leave Barcelona, heading for the Aragon front.
Under British pressure, France reverses its policy of helping Republican Spain, and together both nations found the Committee of Non-Intervention . At the pleading of the Marqués de Viana and the exiled ex-king of Spain, Alfonso XIII, Mussolini sends airplanes in support of the rebels. Mussolini wants money for this help; the Spanish billionaire Juan March pays for the Italian airplanes. Because Franco has no air personnel or pilots, Mussolini sends the airplanes with Italian pilots. After two of the airplanes crash on their way in French Morocco, the world becomes aware of this clear breach of nonintervention.
The Nationalists take Mérida on their way to Madrid cutting off the Republicans in Badajoz. The well-known female Republican activist Leiva is executed by the Nationalists.
Nationalist forces under Colonel Juan Yagüe take Badajoz, uniting the two parts of the Nationalist territory. Around 4,000 people die during and after the attack in Badajoz. In the local bullring, thousands of people are shot down by the Nationalists with machine guns. There was a systematic mass rape of the female populace. This was the official policy of the Nationalist generals, as proved by many radio speeches of General Queipo de Llano, who was very proud of the sexual behavior of his troops. First in line to rape and kill were the so-called "moros" (Moors), Moroccan volunteers, for whom this was a chance at a sort of revenge for the Spain's colonial occupation of their country. Fighting, ironically, on the side of the colonialists against the common people of Spain, they were to become elite troops of the fascist army.
The Republican Army land on the coast of Mallorca, under heavy bombardment by Italian planes. Captain Alberto Bayo establishes a small base on the coast.
Viznar, Grenada: Federico García Lorca, among others, is murdered by members of the fascist "Escuadra Negra". Before being killed, they are forced to dig their own graves. Later, the official excuse for the brutal assassination of García Lorca will be that he was homosexual.
Italy and Germany join officially the Non-Intervention agreement. This gives them the possibility to participate in the international blockade of Spain: Italian and German warships are now allowed to stay in Spanish territorial waters and prevent other ships from reaching the Spanish shore.
The Republican forces under Captain Alberto Bayo retreat from Mallorca. After establishing a small base on the shore of Mallorca two weeks earlier, the Republican troops could not make it to the inner area of the island. Under permanent attack by enemy land and air forces, the retreat was more of a flight, leaving behind many men, weapons and valuable material.
Prime Minister Francicso Largo Caballero presents new government: 6 Socialists, 4 Republicans, 2 Communists, 1 Catalan Republican, and 1 Basque Nationalist.
After heavy fighting, the Basque city of Irún is taken by the Nationalists. Anarchist militias, defending the city, destroy most of the government buildings with dynamite to prevent their use by the Fascists. The Fascists control now a large and contiguous portion of Spain. The Basque Country is separated from the rest of the Republic, the Basque coastline is already blocked by warships of the "Non Intervention" states, and eventually even its supply lines over the French border are cut off.
23 countries attend first official meeting of the Non-Intervention committee in London. The psychological effect on the Republican side is horrible. Instead of helping the legally elected democratic government, the democratic nations turn away, in favor of the Insurgents. "One country alone reacted without fear, and with great generosity, towards the plight of the Spanish republic. Mexico supported fully and publicly the claim of the Madrid government. Mexico refused to follow the French-British Non-Intervention proposals, recognizing immediately the great advantage they offered the Insurgents. Contrary to the United States, Mexico did not feel that neutrality between an elected government and a military junta was a proper policy.[...] Mexico's attitude gave immense moral comfort to the Republic, especially since the major South American governments - those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru - sympathized more or less openly with the Insurgents." But Mexican aid meant relatively little in practical terms if the French border were closed and if the dictators remained free to supply the Insurgents with a quality and quantity of weapons far beyond the power of Mexico. Nationalists have been under siege in the Alcázar de Toledo since July 21. Today, Lt. Colonel Vicente Rojo Lluch enters the Alcázar under a flag of truce to try to obtain its surrender, and failing that, the release of the hostages. Colonel Moscardo refuses both proposals.
Basque city of San Sebastian taken by the Nationalists, who now advance in the direction of the Basque capital, Bilbao. The government agree to send part of the national gold reserves to the Soviet Union. The gold is sent as security for future buying of war material from the Soviet Union.
Against the recommendation of his German advisors, Franco postpones the advance on Madrid in order to aid the Insurgents in the Alcázar of Toledo. The siege has taken on immense symbolic importance for both sides.
The new Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) includes now the groups who gained power resisting the military rebellion. The Socialist P.O.U.M. and the Anarchist C.N.T./F.A.I. send ministers.
Toledo falls to the Nationalists. Some hundred militia man try to stop the Nationalist advance into the city and were all killed by Foreign Legion and Moroccan mercenaries, the "Moros". Around 40 Anarchists, running out of ammunition, set fire to the building they were defending and are burned alive rather the be taken as prisoners. The Nationalists murder the doctor and the nurses in the hospital of Toledo; unarmed, wounded militiamen are killed in their beds. It develops that the hostages taken by Nationalist Colonel Moscardo were killed in the beginning of the siege, what explains why Moscardo refused to handle them over on September 9.
Franco declares himself head of state and Generalísimo. The Republican government concedes autonomy to the Basque Country (in practice, Biscay and Guipúzcoa) as Euzkadi, with José Antonio Aguirre as its president.
In order to "legitimate" the fascist rebellion inside and outside Spain, Franco establishes a civil government for the "National Zone". This Civil Junta has practically no say in any matter, because at the beginning of their uprising the insurgent generals declared a State of War covering all of Spain.
The Soviet Union declares it will be no more bound by Non-Intervention than are Portugal, Italy, and Germany. The Spanish Republic will now, 3 months after the uprising, be able to buy armaments and ammunition. Unlike the "National Zone", who is supplied openly over the Portuguese border, the Republic still suffers under the closed French border and the "Non-Intervention" blockade at sea.
The first International Brigades founded in Albacete. The Italian Communist chief Togliatti and the French Communist Andre Marty are the effective organizational heads.
Foundation of the "Popular Army" in the Spanish Republic. The plan is to organize the loyal portion of the former army, along with the militias, under a modern and efficient officers corps with a central command.
Miguel de Unamuno opposes Nationalist General Millán Astray . During a celebration in the University of Salamanca (National Zone), with guests including Franco's wife, world famous philosopher and chairman of the university, Miguel de Unamuno, speaks out against General Millán Astray, first commander of the Foreign Legion. Until now a supporter of the Nationalist Rebellion, he says that listening to the official speech of Millán Astray he has come to realize the inhuman and ignoble nature of the uprising. Meanwhile, supporters of the General are shouting "Long Live Death". Unamuno says in a loud voice to the general that they have not only to win (vencer), but to convince (convencer), that he doesn't think they were fit for the latter task, and that the general himself, a cripple who lost an eye and an arm in an former war, is also an cripple in his mind, and therefore his hatred wants to cripple all others. The choleric General becomes so furious that he wants to strike Unamuno, shouting "Death to Intelligence". Only the intervention of Franco's wife prevents this. Unamuno is removed as rector of the university. Because of his international fame and the trouble after the assassination of poet García Lorca, Franco refuses his own and Millán Astray's wish to execute Unamuno. Instead, he is confined to his house and is not allowed to express himself in public. He will die of chagrin in December. The day he dies, his two sons enlist themselves voluntarily in the Republican Militias.
First Shipment of the Spanish Gold Reserves to the Soviet Union, which insists on having a security for selling armament and ammunition. Spain will ultimately send more than half its gold reserve to the USSR; at $35 per ounce the shipment was worth US$578,000,000.
The first Russian tanks arrive in Madrid. They are heavily armored T-26 tanks, which weigh more than 10 tons apiece, drive from the central train station directly into battle. The defenders of Madrid, who until now had to use Molotov cocktails (glass bottles filled with gasoline and burning cloth) against the German and Italian tanks on the Nationalist side, gain the ability to slow the Nationalist advance.
16 people dead and 60 wounded in air raid against Madrid. Six bombs detonate in the Plaza de Colón, in the middle of the City. One bomb falls into a queue of women waiting for milk for their children. This is the first bombing in modern history without any military meaning, other than to spread terror among the civil population. The air raid was made by German pilots in Junkers Ju-52. Madrid has no air defenses to prevent enemy airplanes from flying over the city.
The Nationalist army arrive in Madrid. An army of roughly 25,000 men arrive the suburbs of Madrid. Italian planes drop leaflets demanding the citizens to help them to take the city, "otherwise the National aviation will wipe Madrid off the earth".
The first Russian Airplanes over Madrid surprise the Nationalist bombers. The Republican aviation had till now only a handful of obsolete machines, but today the people of Madrid can see the first Russian "Chatos" defending the city. Citizens stand in the streets and watch the sky, ignoring the alarms and the calls for shelter. Several attacking airplanes are shot down; some Russian airplanes are also shot down by Italian Fiats guarding the bombers. One Russian pilot suffers a horrible death: After his machine is destroyed by a Italian Fiat he saves himself with a jump out of his burning plane, his parachute brings him safely to the city, but he is lynched by a mob of furious citizens, who think he is a German Fascist from the Condor Legion.
Four Anarchist ministers join the Republican government: Frederica Montseny - portofilio of education, Juan Garcia Oliver - law, Juan Lopez , and Joan Peiro . By this means, Llargo Caballero brings figures from what is by far Spain's largest mass movement into the government. The Nationalists take the Madrid suburb Getafe. After a heavy attack by Moorish cavalry, tanks, and airplanes, the defenders are completely defeated. The wounded are walking disorientated over the battlefield, the organization of the defense in this area breaks down. Fascist General Varela tells foreign journalists in a press conference: "You can tell the world, Madrid will fall within one week." General Mola plans the attack route: over the Casa de Campo and the practically unpopulated university quarter, to avoid heavy losses in the fierce street fight he would anticipate if he had to enter through the south suburbs, traditionally strong districts of the working class.
For the first time, the Republican air force forces attacking bombers and their escort to break up the attack on Madrid before they even reach the city.
Yague occupies the suburb Carabanchel and the strategically important hill Cerro de los Angeles. With that, the Nationalists are standing on the door to Madrid, whose defense is organized under the newly created Junta de Defensa directed by General Jose Miaja. The Republican government moves to Valencia.
The attack on Madrid. Nationalists gain important bridges on the way to the inner city. General Varela's troops enter Casa de Campo and the University Quarter in fierce man-to-man and house-to-house combat. Both sides have horrible losses. Franco declares that he will be listening the very next day the holy measures in the cathedral of Madrid.
All-out assault on Madrid. The International Brigades arrive. The defenders are running out of ammunition; on several points the front is close to breaking; in the university quarter the enemy pushes through the Republican lines. This is the moment when the first "Internationals" arrive in Madrid. The shocked citizens think in the first moment that the Nationalists are in the inner city when they see 3,000 uniformed and disciplined soldiers marching in. The members, mostly German, Polish, and Italian veterans of WWI and of German concentration camps, start to sing revolutionary songs and the "Internationale". The citizens rush out of their houses and sing and shout for joy. The "Brigadistas" march immediately to the front, and throw themselves unflinchingly into battle. 2,000 of them die or are wounded within 48 hours. In the War Ministry of Madrid, telegramms are arriving congratulating General Franco on his victorious entry, but only Republican officers are there to read them. When the Moroccan mercenaries of Franco break through the Republican lines in direction of the Model Prison, General Miaja himself drives to the threatened sector, takes his pistol in one hand and shouts at the retreating soldiers: "Cowards! Die in your trenches. Die with your General." This encourages his men, the gap is closed. All over the city, citizens, women as well as the men, are reinforcing the trenches, taking the rifles from dead or wounded soldiers. Around 1,000 mostly political prisoners are massacred by their Republican Militia guards today in Paracuellos del Jarama . The prisoners, most of them accused Nationalists, were to be evacuated from Madrid to prevent their liberation by Nationalist troops. Their Guards decide to join the defense of Madrid, kill all of the prisoners and return to Madrid.
Front line established in Madrid, the university quarter back under Republican control. The famous Anarchist Buenaventura Durruti arrives today with the 3,000-man "Durruti Column". They left the Saragossa Front to help defend Madrid.
Italy and Germany recognize the Franco government. Everybody expects the fall of Madrid within hours. Franco throws everything he has into the battle, German airplanes are fighting over Madrid, and both countries expect this diplomatic step to strengthen the position of Franco and weaken the stand and the morale of the Republic. The Durruti Column has been fighting in the University City without rest since the 15th, only 400 of the 3,000 survive, and those are completely exhausted. Durruti will launch an attack at the University hospital the next day.
Anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti is gravely wounded during the fighting in Madrid. The Durruti Column launches their attack on the University hospital, held by the Nationalists. Around 2 p.m., Durruti is hit by a bullet on the right side of his breast, which passes through his chest and lungs. It is suspected that he may have shot from behind by one of his men, either by accident or possibly in an intentional effort to stop the suicidal attack. What actually happened remains controversial.
Buenaventura Durruti dies at 6 a.m. José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera and founder of the Falange, is executed in a jail in Alicante, where he has been a prisoner since before the insurgency. The execution is carried out by the new Communist civil governor of Alicante, without awaiting the confirmation of sentence by the government. This breaking of the law and insubordination angered Llargo Caballero, but the Republic is already dependent on Soviet supplies and the Spanish Communist Party. This Party starts to act as a state within the state.
Battle of Madrid ends; with both sides exhausted, a front stabilizes. After 2 weeks, Franco has to give up his plans of taking the city. He now begins preparing himself and his allies for a long and expensive war.
Alvarez del Vayo complains today before the League of the Nations in Geneva about the support of Portugal, Italy and Germany for the Rebels and the political and economic isolation of the Spanish Republic by the Democratic Nations and the Non-Intervention Committee.
New government constituted in Aragon. The new Consejo de Aragon has a clear majority of Anarchists. The front-line in Aragon is basically formed by Anarchist and Socialist militia. Some areas and villages in Aragon start immediately with the "revolution", what means the reorganization of public life under Anarchist ideals, foundation of communes and self-organization of factories and farms. Some of the villages replace money with coupons handed out by the local authorities. In Aragon, the world can see the most radical reformation of public life and a true people's revolution.
Thousands have to spend the Christmas days in the trenches on the front. Many refugees have nowhere to go and have to stay at subway stations and refugee camps.
Miguel de Unamuno dies in his House in Salamanca. As soon as they got notice of the death of their father, his two sons enlist themselves in the Antifascist Militias.
