The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

On 31 March Franco’s armies reached their ultimate objectives. ‘Lifting our hearts to God,’ ran Pope Pius XII’s message of congratulation to Franco, ‘we give sincere thanks with your Excellency for the victory of Catholic Spain.⁴⁰ ‘Ciano wrote in his diary that ‘Madrid has fallen and with the capital all the other cities of red Spain. It is a new formidable victory for fascism, perhaps the greatest one so far.’⁴¹ In London on 20 April, exactly three weeks after Franco’s conquest, the Non-Intervention Committee dissolved itself at its thirtieth plenary session.

PHOTOGRAPHIC INSERT III

December 1937. The winter fighting of Teruel.

An International Brigade officer at Teruel.

Prieto (third from right) observes the fighting at Teruel.

The nationalists’ devastating offensive in Aragón, 1938. Condor Legion Stukas with nationalist markings.

On 15 April 1938, the nationalists reach the sea at Vinaròs cutting the republican zone in two.

Panzer Mark Is advancing.

Summer 1938. Condor Legion 88mm anti-aircraft guns were also found to be effective against tanks and vehicles.

Republican soldiers under bombardment during the Battle of the Ebro.

A republican hospital train behind the Ebro front, summer 1938.

General Rojo (left) Juan Negrín (second left) and Líster (fourth left) at a farewell parade for the International Brigades, October 1938.

The anti-communist coup of March 1939, which ended the war. Colonel Casado (left) listens while Julián Besteiro broadcasts the manifesto of the National Council of Defence.

Republican refugees swarm across the French frontier in the Pyrenees, January 1939.

Republican prisoners in the French internment camp of Le Vernet.

19 May 1939. Condor Legion standard dipped in salute to Franco at the victory parade.

The indoctrination of republican orphans.

October 1940. Hitler and Franco meet at La Hendaye, a photo-montage after the event.

The Spanish Blue Division in Russia on the Leningrad front.

PART SEVEN Vae Victis!

The New Spain and the Franquist Gulag

On 19 May 1939 the grand victory parade of nationalist Spain took place in Madrid along the Castellana, now renamed the Avenida del Generalissimo. A huge construction of wood and cardboard had been erected to form a triumphal arch on which the word ‘Victory’ was displayed. On each side the name ‘FRANCO’ was repeated three times, and linked with the heraldic arms of the Catholic monarchs.

Franco took the salute at this march past from a large tribune. He wore the uniform of captain-general, but the dark blue collar of a Falangist shirt could be seen underneath and on his head the red beret of the Carlists. Below him in front of the stand his personal bodyguard of Moroccan cavalry was drawn up.

Altogether 120,000 soldiers–including legionnaires, regulares, Falangists and requetés–took part in the parade, with artillery and tanks. The rear was brought up by Portuguese viriatos and the Condor Legion. The German contingent was led by Colonel von Richthofen. ‘I am driving at the front,’ he wrote in his diary. ‘The spectators go wild. “¡Viva Alemania!”’¹ In the sky above, aircraft formed the initials of ‘Viva Franco’.

The next day Cardinal Gomá, primate of Spain, gave Franco the wooden cross to kiss at the door of the church of Santa Bárbara, where the Caudillo entered under a canopy, as the kings of Spain used to do. In the middle of a solemn ceremony, imbued with heavy medieval imagery, Franco laid his victorious sword in front of the miraculous Christ of Lepanto, brought especially from Barcelona for the occasion. All the trappings and incantations represented the sentiments and self-image of the crusading conqueror. In his struggle to defeat the Marxist hydra Franco had been fighting against the past as well as the present: against the nineteenth century poisoned by liberalism; against the eighteenth century which had produced the Enlightenment and Freemasonry; and against the defeats of the seventeenth century. Only in an earlier period could the Caudillo find the roots of a great and united Spain, the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Franco was now master in his own country, but he could not ignore the debts to barons and clans who had helped him achieve the victory. In feudal style, he knew that he could maintain the loyalty of his generals by making them ministers, under-secretaries and military governors. But there were a few–Kindelán, Varela, Aranda–who only accepted his power as a form of regency until the Alphonsine line was restored. Others, such as Queipo de Llano or Yagüe, had their own plans.