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

2 It was at this point that the Council of Asturias ordered the evacuation of 1,200 children to the French port of Saint-Nazaire, from where they were taken to Leningrad. Already 14,000 children had been evacuated from the Basque country, most of them going to Britain, France, Belgium and the Soviet Union. In all, the republican government arranged the evacuation abroad of 33,000 children. See Alicia Altea, ‘Los niños de la guerra civil’ in Anales de Historia Contemporánea, 19, 2003, pp. 43ff.

3 Viñas, Guerra, dinero, dictadura, pp. 141–52.

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.