The battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 (95 page)

4 Tuñón,
Historia de España
, vol. x, pp. 401–4.

5
El Socialista
, 30 October 1937.

6 Salas,
La guerra de España desde el aire
, p. 272.

7 Thomas,
La guerra civil española
, p. 846.

8 Zugazagoitia,
Guerra y vicisitudes de los españoles
, p. 343.

9 Cordón,
Trayectoria
, p. 340.

10 Tuñón,
Historia de España
, vol. x, p. 400.

11 Graham,
Socialism and War
, pp. 130–1.

12 The SIM incorporated the intelligence and counter-intelligence services, especially the DEDIDE (Departamento Especial de Información del Estado) and the SIEP (Servicio de Información Especial Periférico). For the creation, organigram and evolution of the SIM see François Godicheau, ‘La le´gende noire du Service d’Information Militaire de la République dans la guerre civil espagnole, et l’idée de controˆle politique’ in
Le Mouvement Social
, No. 201, October–December 2002. Also D. Pastor Petit,
La cinquena columna a Catalunya (1936–1939)
, Barcelona, 1978 and
Los dossiers secretos de la guerra civil
, Barcelona, 1978.

13 Skoutelski,
Les Brigades Internationales
, p. 254.

14 Azaña,
Diarios completes
, p. 1232.

15 Peirats,
La CNT en la Revolución española
, III, p. 278.

16 Franc¸ois Godicheau, ‘La légende noire du SIM…’, pp. 38–9.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid., p. 46.

19 IKKI report, RGASPI. 495/120/261, p. 7.

20 Thomas,
La guerra civil española
, p. 722n.

21 RGVA 33987/3/1149, pp. 211–26.

22 Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, pp. 258–9.

23 Ibid., p. 262.

24 Ibid., p. 265.

25 From the speech by the secretary of the Madrid branch of the Spanish Communist Party at the Plenum of Central Committee, December 1937, RGASPI 495/120/259, p. 112.

CHAPTER 28
: The Battle of Teruel and Franco’s ‘Victorious Sword’

1 Among the ‘garrison’ or front-holding formations were V Army Corps in Aragón commanded by Moscardó; the Army of the South under Queipo de Llano, which included II and III Army Corps; the Army of the Centre, led by Saliquet, which consisted of I Corps on the Madrid Front and VII Corps along the Guadarrama. In the Army of Manoeuvre there were: the Moroccan Army Corps under Yagu ¨e, with the major part of the Foreign Legion and the
regulares
in Barrón’s 13th Division and Sáenz de Buruaga’s 150th Division; Solchaga’s Army Corps of Navarre with the Carlist
requetés
; Varela’s Army Corps of Castille and Aranda’s Army Corps of Galicia. After the fall of the Asturias the Italian CTV, now commanded by General Berti, was sent to Aragón as reserve force. These corps were massively strong, and on the republican side only V Corps and XVIII Corps were in any way comparable.

2 The nationalist squadrons were reorganized into 1st Hispanic Air Brigade under the command of Colonel Sáenz de Buruaga, with the fighter ace García Morato as chief of operations. The fighter squadrons had nine aircraft each and the bomber squadrons twelve (Sabaté y Villarroya,
España en Ilamas
, p. 17).

3 GARF 4459/12/4, p. 268.

4 Salas,
La guerra
…, pp. 282–3.

5 Ibid., p. 280.

6 Richthofen war diary, BA-MA RL 35/38; see also Ranzato,
L’eclissi della democrazia
, p. 553, for details of the row. The Italians suspected that Franco was hoping for an internal collapse of the Republic and was avoiding a military victory.

7 Vicente Rojo,
Elementos del arte de la guerra
, p. 433.

8 The main formations were the 11th Division (Líster), 25th (García Vivancos), 34th (Etelvmo Vega), 39th (Alba), 40th (Andrés Nieto), 41st (Menéndez) 42nd (Naira), 64th (Martínez Cartón), 68th (Triguero) and 70th (Hilamón Toral). In reserve were the 35th Division (Walter) and the 47th Division (Durán).

9 RGVA 35082/1/95, pp. 33–58, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, pp. 444, 459 and 448.

10 Ciutat, pp. 113–14.

11 A. Vetrov,
Volontyory svobody
, Moscow, 1972, p. 178.

12 RGVA 33987/3/912, p. 126.

13 Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, p. 298.

14 Richthofen war diary, 15 December, BA-MA RL 35/38.

15 BA-MA RL35/39.

16 BA-MA RL 35/38.

17 Herbert Matthews,
The Education of a Correspondent
, New York, 1946.

18 Bernardo Aguilar, quoted by Pedro Corral,
Si me quieres escribir
, Barcelona, 2004.

19 Zugazagoitia,
Guerra y vicisitudes
…p. 358.

20 Corral,
Si me quieres escribir
, p. 160.

21 Zugazagoitia,
Guerra y vicisitudes
…, p. 354.

22 Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
…, pp. 298–9.

23 Salas,
La guerra
…, p. 292.

24 BA-MA RL35/39.

25 Ibid.

26 Salas,
La guerra
…, p. 294.

27 Zugazagoitia,
Guerra y vicisitudes
…, p. 354.

28 RGVA 33987/3/1149, pp. 211–26, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, p. 484.

29 BA-MA RL35/39.

30
Crónica de la guerra de España
, vol. iv, p. 442.

31 R. de la Cierva,
Francisco Franco, un siglo de España
, p. 56. Rey d’Harcourt was treated very badly by Franco. The republican government gave orders that the colonel should be taken to the rear with the local bishop, Anselmo Polanco, and his chaplain, Felipe Ripoll. The three men were executed on 7 February 1939 by republicans during the final collapse of Catalonia.

32 RGVA 35082/1/95, pp. 33–58, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, p. 447.

33 Corral,
Si me quieres escribir
, p. 213.

34 BA-MA RL35/39.

35 Seidman,
A ras de suelo
, p. 243.

36 BA-MA RL35/39.

37 Zugazagoitia,
Guerra y vicisitudes
…, p. 354.

38 Palmiro Togliatti,
Escritos sobre la guerra de España
, Barcelona, 1980, p. 189.

39 Stepánov,
Las causas de la derrota
, p. 108.

40 ‘Count Rossi’ was a fascist whose real name was Aldobrando Bonaccorsi. Ciano put him in charge of the Balearic Islands, especially Mallorca. His crimes and reign of terror became infamous. Mussolini and Ciano wanted him to bring the local Falange under Italian fascist influence. See Ranzato,
L’eclissi della democrazia
, pp. 554ff.

41 Delperrié du Bayac,
Les Brigades Internationales
, Paris, 1985, p. 331. Von Thoma had four tank battalions, each of three companies with fourteen tanks. See Blanco Escolá,
Falacias de la guerra civil
, p. 241.

42 RGVA 33987/3/1149, pp. 211–226, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, p. 485.

43 RGVA 33987/3/1149, p. 230.

44 BA-MA RL 35/40.

45 Stepánov, p. 109.

46 Skoutelsky,
Les Brigades Internationales
, p. 99.

47 José M. Maldonado,
Alcañiz 1938. El bombardeo olvidado
, Saragossa, 2003.

48 Tagüeña,
Testimonio de do guerras
, p. 107.

49
ABC
of Seville, 16 April 1938.

CHAPTER 29
: Hopes of Peace Destroyed

1 On 30 June 1936, Spanish banknotes in circulation amounted to 5,399 million pesetas. In April 1938 they reached 9,212 million in just the republican zone (Joan Sardà,
Banco de España
, p. 432). Exacerbated by military disasters and the export of the gold reserves, the republican peseta had fallen catastrophically. At the end of 1936 it had depreciated by 19.3 per cent of its value and one year later by 75 per cent. By the end of 1938 it had lost 97.6 per cent of its original value. In December 1936 the exchange rate was 42 pesetas to the pound sterling. A year later, just before the Battle of Teruel, the exchange rate was 226 to the pound sterling, but after the nationalist campaign in Aragón it fell to between 530 and 650 to the pound. See also, A. Carreras and X. Tafunell,
Historia económica de la España contemporánea
, Crítica, Barcelona, 2004, pp. 270–1; ángel Viñas et al.,
Política comercial exterior en España(1931–1975)
, Banco Exterior de España, Madrid, 1979.

2 The main arms-buying teams were headed by Dr Alejandro Otero Fernández (replaced later by Antonio Lara), Jose´ Calviño Ozores and Martí Esteve in Paris; Antonio Bolaños, Daniel Ovalle and Francisco Martínez Dorrién in Belgium; Carlos Pastor Krauel in Britain; A ´n Ordás, with Fernando de los Ríos, in Mexico and the US. They had to do business with traffickers such as Josef Veltjens, Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiades, John Ball, Jack A. Billmeir, Stefan Czarnecki, Kazimierz Ziembinski, Stefan Katelbach and others of their type. See Howson,
Armas para España
.

3 The work by Professors Morten Heiberg and Mogens Pelt for their book,
Los negocios de la guerra
, has finally confirmed the details of an outrageous paradox which had previously just been suspected: Hermann Göring was selling weapons to republican Spain, while his own Luftwaffe fought for Franco.

4 Morten Heiberg and Mogens Pelt,
Los negocios de la guerra
. Howson estimates that Göring received the equivalent of one pound sterling for every one of the 750,000 rifles supplied by Bodosakis.

5 Colonel Ribbing’s report from Spain, General Staff, Former Secret Archive, Foreign Department, KA E III 26, vol., p. 20.

6 The nationalist debt to Nazi Germany rose to RM 372 million, but it was paid off over a long period and mainly in kind, through raw materials from mining and other produce.

7 Heiberg and Pelt,
Los negocios de la guerra
.

8 Howson,
Armas para España
.

9 See Chapter 19.

10 In five shipments, $15 million worth of silver was sold. Another $5 million was disposed of in other ways.

11 Viñas,
Guerra, dinero, dictadura
, p. 174.

12 For the whole episode see Villas,
El oro de Moscú
; Viñas,
Guerra, dinero, dictadura
; Howson,
Armas para España
and Kowalsky,
La Unión Soviética y la guerra civil española
, The Republic paid for: 5 Katiuska bombers; 26 Tupolev bombers; 121 I-16 (Moscas); 25 T-26 tanks; 149 75mm field guns; 32 anti-aircraft guns; 254 anti-tank guns; 4,158 machine-guns; 125,050 rifles; 237,349 shells; 132,559,672rounds of ammunition. All the arms and ammunition which left the Soviet Union after August 1938 never reached the Republic. Most of it was handed over to Franco at the end of the war by the French government. See Chapter 35 below.

13 AVP RF 18/84/144, p. 5.

14 Ibid., pp. 14–15.

15 Jackson,
La República española
…, p. 387.

16 Ibid., p. 388.

17 Rafael Abella,
La vida cotidiana durante la guerra civil. La España republicana
, Barcelona, 2004, p. 359.

18 Ciano,
Diarios
, p. 87.

19 Jackson,
La República española
…, p. 387.

20 Sole Sabaté and Villarroya,
España en llamas
, p. 170.

21 Ciano,
Diarios
, p. 109.

22 During the course of the war, Barcelona was bombed 113 times by the Aviazione Legionaria, 80 by the Condor Legion, (40 times between 21 and 25 January 1939) and once by the Brigada Aérea Hispana. Altogether, these bombing attacks caused 2,500 deaths, 1,200 of them between March and December 1938 (Joan Villarroya,
Els bombardeigs de Barcelona durant la guerra civil
, Barcelona, 1981).

23 Ibid.

24 He did the same thing in
La Vanguardia
under the pseudonym Juan Ventura, describing Prieto as an ‘impenitent pessimist’.

25 Mije, La Pasionaria and Díaz for the Spanish Communist Party; Mariano Vázquez and García Oliver for the CNT; Herrera and Escorza for the FAI; Vidarte and Pretel for the UGT; Serra Pàmies for the PSUC and Santiago Carrillo for the JSU.

26 To José Prat, under-secretary of the cabinet. Quoted by Miralles,
Juan Negrín
, p. 198.

27 Prieto always maintained (
Cómo y por qué salí del Ministeri de Defensa Nacional
and in his bitter correspondence with Negrín collected in
Epistolario Prieto–Negrín
) that Negrín forced him out of the ministry of defence at the insistence of the communists.

28 Those present included Negrín, Martínez Barrio as president of the Cortes, Lluís Companys as president of the Generalitat, Quemades of the Izquierda Republicana, González Peña of the PSOE, JoséDíaz of the PCE, Monzón of the PNV and Mariano Vázquez of the CNT.

29 Negrín appointed Méndez Aspe (Izquierda Republicana) as minister of finance, González Peña (PSOE) as minister of justice; Paulino Gómez Sáez (PSOE), minister of the interior; álvarez del Vayo (PSOE, but pro-communist) as minister of state; Giral (Izquierda Republicana) and Irujo (PNV) as ministers without portfolio; Giner de los Ríos (Unión Republicana) as minister of communications and transport; Velao (Izquierda Republicana) as minister of public works; Blanco (CNT) as minister of education (in the place of Jesús Hernández, PCE); and kept Ayguadé (ERC) as minister of work and Uribe (PCE) as minister of agriculture.

30 Eden,
Facing the Dictators
, p. 571.

31 Ciano, Diarios, p. 221.

32 Ibid., p. 117.

33 These were presented to the council of ministers on 30 April 1938. He described them as part of his new programme ‘for the knowledge of his compatriots and as an announcement to the world’, to emphasize the national character of his political programme and as the basis of a future compromise between all Spaniards.

34 Faupel to Wilhelmstrasse, 5 May 1937, DGFp. 282.