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

2 This first government was made up as follows: vice-president and minister for foreign affairs, General Gómez Jordana; minister of the interior and secretary-general of the council, Ramón Serrano Súñer; minister of justice, Tomás Domínguez; minister without portfolio, Count de Rodezno; minister of national defence, General Fidel Dávila; minister of public order, General Martínez Anido; minister of finance, Andrés Amado; minister of public works, Alfonso Peña Boeuf; minister of national education, Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez; minister of agriculture, Raimundo Fernández Cuesta; minister of organization and unions, Pedro González Bueno; minister of industry and commerce, Juan Antonio Suanzes.

3 Preston, Franco, caudillo de España, p. 371.

4 Carlos Fernández, El General Franco, p. 109.

5 Callahan, La Iglesia católica en España, p. 302.

6 Colonel Martín Pinillos, see Javier Rodrigo, Prisioneros de Franco.

7 Coal and steel production underwent a ‘rapid recovery and by 1938 volume output surpassed those of 1935’. See J. M. Bricall, ‘La economia española, 1936–1939’inTuñón de Lara, La guerra civil española 50 años después, p. 377.

8 Carreras and Tafunell, Historia económica de la España contemporánea, p. 267.

9 Abella, La vida cotidiana…, p. 241.

10 Luis Suárez, Franco: la historia y sus documentos, vol, iii, p. 67.

11 Rojo, Alerta los pueblos, p. 40.

12 8 September 1936, DGFP, p. 87.

13 Richthofen war diary, 21 November, 1937, BA-MA RL 35/38.

14 German ambassador in France to Wilhelmstrasse, 17 March 1938, DGFP, p. 621.

15 Richthofen war diary, 17 January 1939, BA-MA RL 35/38.

16 Ciano, Diarios, p. 166.

17 Ibid., p. 167.

18 Fraser, Recuérdalo tú…, p. 659.

19 Jesús Salas, La guerra de España desde el aire, p. 332.

20 Coverdale, La intervencíon italiana…, p. 317.

21 XVI Corps under Palacios, García Vallejo’s XVII, Vidal’s XIX, Durán’s XX, and Ibarrola’s XXII, as well as Group ‘A’ under Güemes and Group ‘B’ under Romero, together made up the Army of Levante under Colonel Leopoldo Menéndez.

22 Ciutat, Relatos y reflexiones, p. 199.

23 Preston, Franco, caudillo de España, p. 387.

24 Francisco Franco, Palabras del Caudillo, Vicesecretaría de Educación Popular, Madrid, 1943.

25 ‘Spain arise! Long live Spain!’

CHAPTER 31: The Battle of the Ebro

1 Franco cracked down on anybody who favoured negotiation with the enemy. He saw it as treason to the nationalist cause. See Saña, Serrano Súñer, p. 91.

2 V Corps consisted of the 11th, 45th and 46th Divisions; XV Corps of the 3rd, 3xh and 42nd Divisions; and XII Corps (commanded by Etelvino Vega) of the 16th and 44th Divisions.

3 Each division in theory had 10,000 men with 5,000 rifles, 255 machine-guns, 30 mortars, four anti-tank guns, three artillery groups of nine field guns, and a battalion of engineers to organize the crossing.

4 For the progress of the battle: see Francisco Cabrera Castillo, Del Ebro a Gandesa. La batalla del Ebro, Julio–noviembre 1938, Madrid, 2002; Julián Henríquez Caubín, La batalla del Ebro, México, 1966; J. M. Martínez Bande, La batalla del Ebro, Madrid, 1988; Lluís M. Mezquida i Gené, La batalla del Ebro, Tarragona, 2001; Estanislau Torres, La batalla de l’Ebre i la caiguda de Barcelona, Lérida, 1999; Gabriel Cardona and Juan Carlos Losada, Aunque me tires el Puente, Madrid, 2004; and above all, Jorge M. Reverte, La batalla del Ebro, Barcelona, 2003.

5 The 50th Division was commanded by Colonel Luís Campos Guereta and the 105th Division by Colonel Natalio López Bravo.

6 Francisco Franco Salgado, Mis conversaciónes privadas con Franco, pp. 262-3.

7 Blanco, La incompetencia militar…, p. 476.

8 Skoutelsky, L’espoir guidait leurs pas, p. 104.

9 Castells, Las Brigadas Internacionales, pp. 355ff.

10 Fraser, Recuérdalo tú…, p. 661.

11 Jesús Salas, La guerra desde el aire, pp. 356ff.

12 Miguel Mateu, personal testimony.

13 Quoted by Reverte, La batalla del Ebro, p. 112.

14 Castells, Las Brigadas…, p. 358.

15 RGVA 33987/3/1149, p. 284.

16 Legion Condor Lageberichte BA-MA RL 35/5 H 7202.

17 Rolfe, The Lincoln Battalion, p. 131.

18 Legion Condor Lageberichte BA-MA RL 35/5 H 7162.

19 Reverte, La batalla del Ebro, p. 141.

20 BA-MA RL 35/5 H7197.