The Spanish Civil War

On 17 July 1936, Spain suddenly captures the world's attention when a small band of generals mutiny against the newly elected Republican Government. Of these generals, the youngest, Francisco Franco, former Governor of the Canary Islands, seizes command of 47,000 soldiers of the African Army. The 44 year-old Franco enlists the aid of the German Luftwaffe and Mussolini's Regia Aeronautica to airlift these well-trained, battle-hardened warriors across the narrows of Morocco and into the Spanish mainland.

The government, led by the ineffective Santiago Casares Quiroga, was supported by the Popular Front; (a coalition of democratic parties that won the February elections), readies itself for war. Still maintaining the lion's share of the General Staff, the Republic boasted 46,000 men of the metropolitan infantry, another 42,000 police officers of the Guardias de Asalto and the Guardias de Civil, a fundamentally rural police force. Controlling most of the urban centers, the Quiroga's government was supremely confident that the coup would be crushed within a month.

But the Republic was splintered from within by 70-odd political parties and factions. Self-serving communists, anarchists, Basque separatists and in particular, the Guardias de Civil, had often rebelled against the Republican authorities.

Within a week, Franco's forces aided by a vast majority of aggressive and capable junior officers, had penetrated 125 miles into Spain and set it sights on the capital city of Madrid, a mere 100 miles away.

Although a lack of willing men to fight for the Republic was not an issue, the General Staff was unable to organize a quick resistance and the terrible losses continue. Amputated at several points, the army is forced to do without adequate leadership from a beleaguered officer corps which, even if not openly involved in the rebellion, could no longer inspire the trust of the populous. However, it was the militias - the civil troops organized by political parties and labor unions and comprised of artists, intellectuals and peasants that managed to cut off and hold the rebel army.

Spain had entrenched itself in a bloody stalemate reminiscent of the Great War.

Quiroga's moderate successor, Diego Martinez Barrio, proposed a diplomatic solution to the growing bloodshed. But the main perpetrator of the coup, General Emilio Mola, refused any talk of peace. Leading from his Navarre Headquarters, Mola had embraced the certainty of a barbarous war, for he held an ally, the well-oiled war machines of fascist Germany and Italy.

After the Nationalists had openly embraced their dictatorial intentions, Barrio's government pleaded with Britain and France for aid. World public opinion already saw that a democratically elected government besieged by a Fascist military rebellion as a flagrant attack against democracy.

Being slaves to the shortsighted policy of appeasement that plagued their governments, both countries vowed absolute neutrality in the conflict and prohibited the dispatch of arms and men to Spain. The pact was signed by all the world powers, save the United States.

The legitimate Spanish Government was reduced to the same level with a power that had no right to international recognition.

In August 1936, Nazi Germany too had agreed to the pact, but by now thousands of tons of weapons and war supplies had already embarked for Nationalist ports. Though the League of Nations had turned their its on the Republic, many of its citizens did not.

The International Brigades first began arriving in October 1936. Mostly comprised of untrained idealists, communists and adventurers, these volunteers hailed from many countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States. So many answered the call that their ranks eventually swelled to 60,000. Of these, more than 10,000 will never see their homelands again.

At this point, another international power thrusts itself onto the Spanish stage: The Soviet Union. The USSR's ideological inspiration is paradoxical to that of fascism, and sends thousands of men, tanks and aircraft.

Thus the die is cast. On one side the rural, nationalist, Catholic country, the other - the metropolitan, secular, Republican. By the fall of 1937, a University of Madrid professor Juan Negrin heads the fractured Republican forces while Franco assumes the Nationalist leadership after the death of Mola in an air crash.

The death toll of this brutal struggle between fascism, communism and democracy has reached the hundreds of thousands. New weapons and tactics of mass destruction have been introduced and the world is shocked by the horrific destruction of the town of Guernica.

As the major military powers use the Spanish earth as a cruel testing ground, the world helplessly watches from the sidelines. However, one of it greatest creatures, snuggled at home with brandy and cigar, sees a golden opportunity to save it.

Victoria Cross