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

On 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption, a great ceremony was organized in Seville. The purpose was to pay homage to the old monarchist flag and adopt it as the banner of the ‘new reconquista’. The ceremony was also a part of Franco’s plan to assert his ascendency over potential rivals for the nationalist leadership. Queipo said that he would not attend, remarking that ‘if Franco wants to see me, he knows where I am’.⁵ Franco arrived with a large retinue, including General Millán Astray, the founder of the Foreign Legion. He was received by all the local dignitaries, headed by Cardinal Ilundaín, but not Queipo. They proceeded to the town hall on the Plaza de San Fernando. Queipo, who had decided to turn up at the last moment, made a long rambling speech which caused consternation among Franco’s entourage. The republican tricolour was lowered, then the monarchist flag of red-gold-red hoisted to the strains of the Royal March. Franco made a much briefer speech, in which he hailed ‘our flag, the authentic one, the one to which we have all sworn loyalty, and for which our forefathers died, a hundred times covered with glory’.⁶ He then embraced the flag, followed by Cardinal Ilundaín.

Seville had rapidly become the personal fief of Queipo and Franco was galled by his cavalier behaviour. Queipo’s portrait was everywhere. His face dominated the town and was reproduced even on vases, ashtrays and mirrors. Households where ‘reds’ had been killed were the first to be forced to display his photograph in their windows. Against this barrage of publicity Franco’s staff desperately sought to obtain exposure for their chief. Eventually they managed to arrange for his photograph to be projected on cinema screens to the tune of the Royal March. The audience gave the fascist salute during the five minutes that this lasted. Later on, public establishments in the nationalist zone were obliged to display his portrait. And whenever the Royal March was played on the radio all those who did not want their loyalty to be suspect rose to their feet and gave the fascist salute.

The publicity of other nationalist groups was just as strident. Posters appeared everywhere. The Carlist message proclaimed, ‘If you are a good Spaniard, and you love your country and her glorious traditions, enlist with the requetés.’ The Falange’s slogan was briefer and more threatening: ‘The Falange calls you. Now or never.’ More than 2,000 new Falange members were said to have enlisted in a 24-hour period in Seville alone. Queipo de Llano was both cynical and accurate when he referred to the blue shirt as a ‘life-jacket’. Many a left-winger or neutral who wanted to avoid the máquina de matar, the killing machine, rushed to enlist and often tried to prove himself more fascist than the fascists, a counterpart to the phenomenon in republican territory.

José Antonio’s pre-war fears were confirmed, when this influx of opportunists swamped the surviving camisas viejas, the ‘old shirts’. Nearly half of the pre-war veterans had died in the rising. Meanwhile, José Antonio was in Alicante jail guarded by militiamen, Onésimo Redondo had been killed and Ledesma Ramos was also in enemy hands. The Falange was thus in an uncomfortable position. Its membership was greatly swollen just at the time that its leaders were out of action.⁷ As a result the Falange operated in an unpredictable fashion. Some militia units went to the front, but the majority stayed in the rear areas to provide an improvised bureaucracy and an amateur political police. The Falangist patrols, supposedly checking suspicious characters, were blue-shirted and flamboyantly conspicuous as they forced passers-by to give the fascist salute and shout ‘Arriba España!’. Girl Falangists went into cafés to ask men why they were not in uniform. They then presented them with sets of doll’s clothing in a contemptuous manner while a backup squad of male comrades watched from the door. One German visitor reported to the Wilhelmstrasse: ‘One has the impression that the members of the Falangist militia themselves have no real aims and ideas; rather, they seem to be young people for whom mainly it is good sport to play with firearms and to round up communists and socialists.’⁸