|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
- July 1936 -
please wait, page is loading...255KB
The Days Before The Uprising
|
|
|
The Days Of The Uprising
| 17 JUL *Military uprising of the Foreign Legion in Morocco, General Manuel Romerales, commanding officer of the East Army, murdered by the traitors. They also imprisoned commanding General Gomez in the late afternoon. | |||
| The police troops
from Guardia Civil (Civil Guard) and Guardia De Assalto are still holding
the cities Tetuan and Larache. They are under heavy attack by the rebels. General Franco orders to kill a nephew of him, Major in Tetuan, for standing loyal to the government. |
|||
| 17 JUL *Late evening, complete Morocco in the hand of the rebels, General Franco declares from the Canary Islands the "State of war" for whole Spain | |||
| 18 JUL *The Military Uprising spread over the whole country, the rebels gain control over good one third of Spain. Situation unclear. | |||
| Prime Minister Casares Quiroga is telephoning the whole day with the different regional military administrations to clear the situation. Pamplona, Saragossa, Oviedo, Salamanca, Avila, Segovia, Cadiz are already in the hands of the rebels. | |||
|
19 JUL *Seville in control of the rebels after defeating the local police troops and workers militia
|
|||
|
19 JUL *Workers Olympiad in Barcelona The peoples Olympiad opened today in Barcelona with athletes from all over the world. While the world is watching the Official Olympiade in Nazi Germany, many athletes refused to participate there cause the racist and political terror of the fascists and came to the Workers Olympiad in Barcelona instead. Racist Persecution and political terror against those Germans, who have Jewish religion or are leftist, by the ruling Nazis are already known to the whole world, also the aggressive politic of Hitler against the small eastern neighbors of Germany. But the German Fascists are the ideological leaders of a world movement, who is very popular in the 20th and 30th and so most of the world is playing its part in the biggest propaganda show ever made by Fascists. |
 |
| 19 JUL *The Uprising reaches Madrid and Barcelona | |
| While in Madrid the situation seems relatively under control, in Barcelona heavy streetfighting broke out between police, workers militias and loyal troops on one side and rebels on the other. The rebels in Barcelona command around 12 000 soldiers. | |
|
After it became obvious that Civil Guard, Assault Guard and City Police would not be enough to take back control over the city, and very close to be too late, the Regional Government of Catalonia, called Generalitat, decide to arm the people. The anarchistic union C.N.T. is organizing the resistance and, like in many other cities, gain enormous political influence. The complete summer of 1936 will be under the signs of a true revolution, in which the anarchist in fact control wide parts of the country, especially Catalonia and Aragon. |
 Barcelona 1936 |
 Daily work in an office of the C.N.T., Barcelona |
|
In Barcelona,
like in most of Spain, the police troops of the Assault Guard and local
police stood loyal to the government. Barcelona had the luck that the
strong armed Civil Guard stood aside the government. In many cities the
Civil Guard, known as mostly right winged, participated in the military
uprising.
|
 Barcelona, July 1936, loyal policemen defending a building against the fascists |
 Barcelona, July 1936 |
 Plaza Catalunya, Barcelona, July 1936 |
 Barcelona, July 1936 |
One of the phenomena in the Spanish Civil War was the strong emancipation and participation of, mostly, young women in the active resistance. They just won their social and cultural independence a couple of years before, with the foundation of the Republic in 1931. They had to loose under fascism and feudalism even more than the men. Fascism, Feudalism and Catholic Church, in Spain 1936 various faces of the same beast, allows women only one role: to be a married quite wife, mother of children. |
| 20 JUL *The rebels in Madrid and Barcelona are defeated, Mallorca falls to the rebels | |
|
Madrid: around 10 000 citizens,
among them police officers and soldiers, attacked the Montana Barracks,
holded by rebel General Fanjul and around 2 500 soldiers. A drama took
place after some soldiers in the Barracks wanted to surrender and waved
a white flag. The crowd moved towards the barracks, while the soldiers
who wanted to surrender where overwhelmed by the rebels. The rebels then
immediately fired with heavy machine guns and grenades into the masses,
leaving many wounded or death. After that the crowd stormed the Barracks
and massacred the defenders. General Fanjul was among the few who could
be captured alive. |
|
| 20 Jul *The official leader of the uprising, General Sanjurjo, dies in an air accident | |
| The General insisted, against the advice of the pilot who came in a small airplane to bring him back to Spain from his exile in fascist Portugal, in taking his complete equipage with him. The airplane was then too heavy to fly and crashed while attempting to start. | |
| 22 JUL *Vallehermoso, a small city on the Canary Island resisted the rebels and fell today | |
| While the rest of the Canary Islands fall immediately to the rebels, Vallehermoso in La Gomera, a small 4000 inhabitants village, stood loyal to the government. Police Officer Francisco Mas Garcia was informed on the morning of the 18 July about the uprising and organized the resistance for his town, without any chance to win this conflict. The city was attacked and resisted several hours. The councilor, the police officers and the leader of the local workers council were condemned to death. In the hour before his execution, police chief Don Antonio wrote to his wife: "I die calm, cause I believe in the justice of god". | |
| 22 JUL *Navy and Air Force loyal to the government | |
| Thanks to the initiative
of Noncommissioned Officer Benjamin Balboa, most of the Navy stayed loyal
to the Republic. He was in duty in the central military radio station, as
soon as he got notice from the uprising he informed the Naval Ministry and
arrested his commanding officer, Captain Castor Ibanez. Then he informed
the whole night long the Navy Ships about the uprising. The soldiers on
the ships form councils and overtake the ships against heavy resistance
from the officers. Spain loose 3/4 of his Navy Officers that night, but
the Navy is saved for the Republic. The Officers of the Air Force are traditionally very republican, but the Spanish Air Force has only a few obsolete machines. |
|
| 23 JUL *In Burgos the rebel generals found the "Junta De Defensa Nacional" | |
| After realising that their military coup will not success within days, the generals found the "Junta de Defensa Nacional" in Burgos as first step for building up an administration in the so called "National Zone". They already sended on the 20th of July emissaries to Italy and Germany. | |
 |
|
In the beginning of the uprising not the leader, but the most popular general of the traitors. Franco called later Hitler, Mussolini and Chamberlain his friends. Without the help of this three man, two Fascist leaders and a right-winged conservative politician, the uprising had never succeeded. |
| 24 JUL *First volunteers from Barcelona head to the front in Aragon | |
| The first Volunteer Militia leave Barcelona today, heading for the front in Aragon. Its the "Columna Durruti", around three thousand man, mostly workers, leaded by Buenaventura Durruti. | |
| 25 JUL *Paris decide to aid Republican Spain | |
| Paris decide to aid Spain against the military uprising. The help involves for the moment only the sending of a handful of obsolete airplanes for the Spanish Republican Air Force, but the single fact that France seem to be willing to help is from eminent moral important for the Spanish people. | |
| 29 Jul *Italian Airplanes in Morocco to support the fascist military uprising | |
| Italian Dictator Mussolini sends airplanes to Morocco for support of the military uprising. This is the first international involvement to directly support this complete illegal military uprising against the elected democratic government of Spain. What the rebels need now is the possibility for fast transportation of the foreign legion from Spanish Morocco to Spain. With Seville in their hands the rebels have a Spanish city nearby. | |
| 29 Jul *Foundation of the Nazi German "Legion Condor" | |
| Hitler decided on 26 of July to support the Spanish Fascists and General Franco. Only a few days later the Legion Condor is founded, a troop of nazi soldiers, mostly pilots, volunteering in Spain. The Legion Condor is flying German airplanes and stands under german command. | |
 |
Members of
the Foreign Legion, the elite troops of the fascist rebels, posing in
front of a German Junkers Ju. Without the help of Hitler and Mussolini,
General Franco could not have passed his troops fast enough to Spain to
consolidate the rebel territory.
|
| On the right side is a map of Spain in which you can see the progress of the Fascist military revolt. In today's Spain, right wing newspapers like "La Vanguardia" are playing stupid games about the the "impossibility" of a Fascist military revolt. They claim that a revolt can only be Fascist or military. We will see in the next weeks and months about this. |
|
