48: The End of the Spanish Republic

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Everything that has a beginning has an end.

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Sources

• The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
• Spain in Arms: A Military History of the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by E.R. Hooton
• The Spanish Civil War A Modern Tragedy by George R. Esenwein
• Spanish Civil War Tanks: The Proving Ground for Blitzkrieg by Steven J. Zaloga
• The Anarchist Collectives: Workers’s Self-management in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939 Edited By Sam Dolgoff
• Patterns of Development and Nationalism: Basque and Catalan Nationalism before the Spanish Civil War by Juan Diez Medrano
• Blackshirts, Blueshirts, and the Spanish Civil War by John Newsinger
• Edge of Darkness: British ‘Front-Line’ Diplomacy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1937 by Tom Buchanan
• Franklin D. Roosevelt and Covert Aid to the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 by Dominic Tierney
• The Cult of the Spanish Civil War in East Germany by Arnold Krammer
• Fascism, Fascitization, and Developmentalism in Franco’s Dictatorship by Ismael Saz Campos
• Writing the Female Revolutionary Self: Deoloris Ibarruri and the Spanish Civil War by Kristine Byron
• A Spanish Genocide? Reflections on the Francoist Repression after the Spanish Civil War by Julius Ruiz
• The Spanish Civil War in the 21st Century: From Guernica to Human Rights by Peter N. Carroll
• The Revolutionary Spirit: Hannah Arendt and the Anarchists of the Spanish Civil War by Joel Olson
• Seventy Years On: Historians and Repression During and After the Spanish Civil War by Julius Ruiz
• Fascist Italy’s Military Involvement in the Spanish Civil War by Brian R. Sullivan
• The Spanish Civil War: Lessons Learned and Not Learned by the Great Powers by James S. Corum
• Truth and Myth in History: An Example from the Spanish Civil War by John Corbin
• ‘Our Red Soldiers’: The Nationalist Army’s Management of its Left-Wing Conscripts in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 by James Matthews
• Multinational Naval Cooperation in the Spanish Civil War, 1936 by Willard C. Frank Jr.
• ‘Work and Don’t Lose Hope’: Republican Forced Labour Camps During the Spanish Civil War by Julius Ruiz
• The Spanish Civil War, 1936-2003: The Return of Republican Memory by Helen Graham
• Soviet Armor in Spain: Aid Mission to Republicans Tested Doctrine and Equipment by Colonel Antonia J. Candil, Spanish Army
• The Soviet Cinematic Offensive in the Spanish Civil War by Daniel Kowalsky
• Soviet Tank Operations in the Spanish Civil War by Steven J. Zaloga
• The Spanish Military and the Tank, 1909-1939 by Jose Vicente Herrero Perez
• The Theory and Practice of Armored Warfare in Spain October 1936-February 1937 by Dr. John L. S. Daley

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War Episode 48 - The Spanish Civil War Part 13 - The End. Just as a reminder, on April 24th I will be presenting at Intelligent Speech along with a bunch of other excellent people. You can go to intelligentspeechconference.com/shop/ and use the code g-r-e-a-t to get 10% off your registration. It should be a fantastic day of learning and discussions, so don’t miss out. I have also set up a merch shop for the podcast over on teepublic, there are not a lot of designs right now, but you can find the shop over on historyofthesecondworldwar.com and click on the Shop link at the top or look in the podcast notes. Also, if there are any artists out there listening with experience creating art for physical goods let me know, I am looking to commission some art for some custom merch in the future as I am the least artistic person you will ever meet so I absolutely cannot do it myself. Back to the Spanish Civil War. After the failure of the attacks on the Ebro, the options remaining for the Republic were very limited. Their situation would continue to deteriorate as first Catalonia would fall, and then the nationalists would launch their final attacks against the Republican territory in south eastern Spain. In this episode we will chronicle these final months of the Spanish Civil War, from the aftermath of the disaster on the Ebro to the final surrender of the Republic to Franco and the Nationalists. This will not be the last episode of the series though, we will have one more next week as we will need to talk about some of the events that occurred after the surrender of Republican forces and the effects that the war in Spain had on the militaries of Europe as they were about to enter another war.

One of the goals of launching the attack over the Ebro had been to galvanize international support for the Republic and the continuation of the war. Unfortunately nothing like this happened, because while the assumption had been that the increased tensions between Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Western powers would increase the likelihood that those western powers would intervene in Spain, in actuality the increase in tensions made Britain and France far more concerned with their own security. This was also the period of peak Appeasement theory in London and Paris, the climax of which would be the Munich agreement in September 1938, which made it clear that neither the French or British leaders had any plans to intervene on behalf of any other nations in their disagreements with Germany or Italy. Spain was, by this point, considered something of a sideshow anyway, and many European governments were of the opinion that it was better that it was just ignored as much as possible sot hat it might reach a swift conclusion while they focused on what they saw as much more important matters closer to home. If there would have been interest in Geneva for discussing Spain at the League of Nations it is just as likely that the Republic would have been asked to make a Munich style sacrifice for the “greater good” of European peace. Within this general structure of international apathy, on September 21st Prime Minister Negrin announced in a speech that the International Brigades were being withdrawn from the fighting. The International Brigades had always been something of a thorn in the side of the relations between Republican Spain and the other nations, but removing them at this late stage did little to alter relations. Although, just to be clear, it is unlikely that it would have at any other moment as the presence of the International Brigades had made a handy excuse for London and Paris, instead of being a real roadblock. Pulling the International Brigades out of the fighting was not really a great sacrifice by September 1938, as the flow of international volunteers had dropped to almost nothing, and those that were left mostly just wanted to go home. On October 28th they would have their final farewell parade in Barcelona, with 300,000 people coming to see them off. The volunteers had entered the war in its opening stages, when it was seen as the best way to fight against fascism. They would now exit after suffering somewhere between 5,000 and 25,000 dead and 10,000 and 38,000 wounded. The range of these numbers is very large obviously, which is somewhat unfortunate. The only good part of this exit is that they would be out of Spain before the final acts of the war would occur. They would also leave at a point which was a real rough point for the Republic. Food was hard to come by, and there was a serious shortage of raw materials including coal for heat and electricity. In the larger cities citizens found themselves on the verge of starvation, and food rations had to be cut down to below the levels of sustainment. The military was in general fed a bit better, but not by much. The greater shortage for the soldiers was equipment. More men were conscripted into the forces that would defend Catalonia, but at this point the limiting agent was the equipment that could be provided, as they had simply run out of rifles. Along with the lack of physical items necessary to resist, there was also a growing set of leaders who believed that it was time to negotiate with the Nationalists. Negrin and many of those around him believed that they had to resist to the bitter end, but that was not a sentiment that found universal approval, a feeling that we will come back to in just a bit. The Republican military leaders, seeing that the Nationalist forces were obviously massing for their final attack on Catalonia tried to put in place some diversionary offensives in southern and western Spain. This included that attack in Estremadura that had been discussed for years, an attack that was finally ordered and would occur in January 1939. Some of these attacks would be successful, but were generally far too late and too small to divert Nationalist attention away from Catalonia.

Franco and the Nationalists could have opted to instead attack Valencia, but the Munich Agreement seemed to make it clear that there was little to fear from the French who seemed to want to stay out of war, at least for the moment. In fact, after the coming offensive began, and news of the Italian involved arrived in Paris, there were some rumblings of French intervention, mostly from those French leaders who had wanted a far more aggressive stance for the French in defense of Czechoslovakia. However, Italian Foreign Minister Ciano made it clear to leaders in London that Italy was willing to go to war with French if it sent troops to Spain. This caused Lord Halifax to make it incredibly clear to French leaders that if they intervened in Spain, Great Britain would not be there to help them with the aftermath. With British support being the primary driver of French foreign policy in the last half of the 1930s, this notification removed any possibility of French intervention. Those discussions were in the future when the Nationalist leaders decided to attack into Catalonia though, but Franco judged that any of his previous concerns with attacking north were no longer likely enough to prevent an attack north, and so thousands of train loads of troops and supplies would begin moving the Nationalist army into position for their move north. This included many of the best Nationalist troops, with a total of 270,000 combat troops, 340,000 men in total in position by December. General Davila would be put in command of the coming offensive, and he had incredibly high hopes for it. The effects of the Ebro attack on the Republican forces was well known, as were the challenges that were being faced by everyone in Catalonia. The overwhelming superiority in material that was experienced by the Nationalists also seemed to make success almost inevitable. There were also strong international contingents among the Nationalist forces, 28,000 Italian infantry, 80 aircraft of the Condor Legion, and hundreds of Italian artillery pieces. However, unlike in earlier attacks most of the military equipment was Spanish, with most of the aircraft, artillery, and tanks crewed by Spaniards. The initial plan for the attack was for it to begin on December 10th, however it would begin to rain which would not stop and the attack had to be delayed for two weeks to December 23rd. To meet the attack 220,000 republican soldiers would be available, however they would be desperately short of rifles. Some brigades would have only 1,000 rifles for over 1,800 men. Many of the units were also low on training, made up of men who had only recently been conscripted or who had seen little fighting. For the final defense of one of the last two areas of Republican control it was a sorry state of affairs.

The offensive would begin at 8AM on December 23rd, and it would occur at many places along the front. In the east the Navarre Corps, along with the Italians, attacked towards Montblanc and Valls, the resistance in front of them crumbled. In the west Nationalist troops attacked at places like Tremp, with roughly similar results. This was all occurring even though poor weather prevented much of the Nationalist air superiority from being used in the attack, with rain, sleet, and fog continuing throughout the next several days. There were still some air operations, but nothing like a full sortie rate was attainable in the conditions. On the central front, the Nationalist breakthrough would wait until early January 1939. On January 3rd the forces on that front, which were only facing a hodge podge of defending units that had been thrown together after the Ebro offensive, were completely outmatched. Key areas like the town of Artesa and the Borjas Blancas-Montblanc road were rapidly lost to the Nationalists. On January 5th, that Diversionary attack in southern Spain in Estremadura would begin, and while it would see some initial success, and would even manage to break through the second line of Nationalist defenses, it would soon be contained by local Nationalist troops, without the need to divert any strength from actions in the north. In the end of the Estremadura attack would capture 500 square kilometers, one of the most successful Republican attacks during the entire Civil War, but not enough to shift the overall situation in Spain. On January 9th the Republican troops on the Ebro began to retreat in what rapidly became severe disorder. The advances made on other areas of the front had made their defense vulnerable and so once again another retreat was ordered. By the point of this retreat the Nationalists had already taken 23,000 prisoners and their attack was simply accelerating. to give a scale of the collapse that was occurring some units were advancing 20 to 30 kilometers a day without stopping and day after day whole swaths of Catalonia were lost. There had been some designated fall back positions that had been drawn up in the weeks and months before the attack, but there was no way to actually man them before they were also lost to the Nationalist attack. The attack continued with Nationalist leaders determined not to give the Republicans even the slightest breather in which to reorganize their forces. On January 9th the classes of 1922 and 1942, that being people as young as 17 and as old as 35 being called up, before just a week later a general mobilization was ordered and all citizens between the ages of 17 and 55 were called into service. Even with this the Republican forces were still outnumbered, and while calling up more hands may have made the creation of defenses easier, it did nothing to solve the equipment problem, and there was little that the new conscripts could do without weapons. Meanwhile at the front the Nationalist advances continued, there was nothing that the defending troops could do, they were exhausted and so disorganized that all they could do was try to keep ahead of the advance. Along with the number of prisoners were taken by the Nationalists, the desertion rates were huge, with the number of men wo simply disappeared outnumbering those that were captured.

With the front collapsing it was only a matter of time before the Nationalist forces approached Barcelona. The entire population of the city was, in theory, mobilized for the defense, and the hope was that the miraculous defense of the Madrid defense from earlier in the war would be repeated. In Barcelona in 1939 that was simply very little of the determination and morale that was necessary to the success of those earlier defenses, and after almost 3 long years of war the Catalans were no longer willing to mount such an impassioned defense. Instead, as word arrived in the city that the Nationalists were approaching most of the population simply took flight. They would try to move to the coast or toward the French border was quickly as possible, and the roads were full of every kind of motor vehicle, hand cards, and just thousands of people on foot. When the Nationalist troops did arrive on January 26th resistance in the city was light. On the very next day, January 27th, Nationalist news papers would begin to be printed in the city, stating that the city had finally been liberated. On January 28th there was a parade of troops through the city. After Barcelona was captured the rapid pace of Nationalist advances would slow as the rest of the Republican controlled areas were slowly reduced. This had far more to do with the overall exhaustion of the nationalist forces, instead of some kind of stiffening defense. There were a few very solid bits of defensive rearguard actions as Republican forces were squeezed into a smaller and smaller area in north eastern Spain, but those were very much the exception. On February 3rd, all Republican aircraft were ordered to either be in the air in 48 hours and on their way to France or to be destroyed. Along with those aircraft were the members of the Republican government who would cross into French territory on February 5th. The French were the recipient of a massive wave of Spanish refugees in January and February 1939. The initial policy of the French government was that the border should be closed and those were were attempting to cross should be prevented from doing so. When it became known that there were 150,000 people wanting to cross, most of which were women and children, the political pressure to let them across became too much and the policy was changed on January 28th. There were still some restrictions, for example men of military age and soldiers were not able to cross, but this still allowed 200,000 people to cross the border. The restrictions on soldiers were then removed on February 5th. Eventually almost half a million people would cross into France, which would create a humanitarian disaster. Many of the normal citizens who were able to make it across the border were very quickly found themselves in camps either along the Mediterranean coast or near the border in the Pyrenees. The conditions in the camps were very bad, and there was little political will to make the conditions better because any attempt to put more resources into the camps were met by constant and consistent criticism from the French right-wing political parties, who were always complaining about how many leftist Spaniards were being brought into France. To be clear, these complains included the absolute monstrous idea that the refugees should be provided with adequate food. There were efforts to move the refugees on to literally any other area of the work, with 180,000 convinced to go back to Spain by the end of 1939 while 300,000 would either stay in France or be emigrated to other nations by the French government. It may also be worth noting that none of the Republican political leaders were in such dire straits, having access to money that they had put in place while they were leading the Republican government and this money allowed them to live a relatively comfortable life first in France and then near London.

By February 9th, Catalonia was fully in Nationalist hands and there were some discussions among the exiled Republican government that perhaps now was the time to negotiate a surrender. Negrin continued to be in favor of fighting on to the end, and there were others that agreed with them, however it is perhaps telling that many of the political leaders of the Republic who wanted to continue the fight also did not make the trip back to Spain. They claimed that all the Republic needed to do was to hang on until the autumn with the hope that British and French support was forthcoming, which was really wishful thinking given the state of the remaining Republican military forces. Any thoughts of maybe some foreign intervention were dashed on February 27th when the British and French governments officially recognized the Nationalist government as the legitimate government of Spain. President Azana, in exile in France, would officially resign the next day, citing the Nationalist recognition as the reason, with the additional statement that the Cortes and the Republican government had ceased to function. Back in Spain at the port of Cartagena the massive refugee movement that had ben seen in Catalonia was getting repeated, here there was the added friction of various political groups with many non-Communists concerned that the Communists would all be the first aboard the ships leaving everybody else holding the bag to face Nationalist revenge. These concerns resulted in a March 4th revolve among non-Communist military units, which then spread to some naval units with one small Republican ship being sank by shore batteries after mutinying. On March 7th Communist troops arrived and brought the city back under control, and were even able to sink two Nationalist ships that were almost in port which had been sent to help the rebellion. While this was all happening, on March 5th a new government was proclaimed by Colonel Casado in Madrid, with the statement that the Negrin government had no legal or moral authority over the continuation of the Republic, and that it was time for the military to take control. In the speech to announce the new government Negrin and the others were blamed for the previous failures while also taking resources to ensure that they were able to live a comfortable life in exile, while if I’m being honest was a pretty astute observation. This new government was not recognized by Negrin and the other exiles who decided on March 15th to send several Communist Party leaders back to Spain to prepare for a future underground resistance against Franco. Meanwhile the Casado government, calling itself the National Council of Defense, made some approaches to the Nationalists to try and organize a surrender. This was driven partially by the desire to try and slow the next Nationalist offensive to allow Republican forces to organize themselves and for more civilians to be evacuated from the Mediterranean ports. The Council would eventually be taken over by General Miaja, who then ordered the arrest of all Communist commissars and other party officials wherever they might be found. On March 12th a note was sent by the Council to Franco, stating that they wanted to establish the conditions under which they would be required to surrender so that the war could end.

Negotiations began with the Nationalists, but there was a serious problem. Many of the Republican military leaders did not fully understand the situation that they were in, and they hoped that they could negotiate a surrender under somewhat favorable terms. This caused the negotiations to be completely pointless, and they were broken off on March 25th. Then the notification was sent a few days later that Franco believed that the only option was ‘Unconditional surrender incompatible with negotiations and presence in nationalist zone of senior enemy commanders.’ In Spain in Arms: A Military History of the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 E.R. Hooton would say “Franco […] demanded unconditional surrender and the irresistible force shattered the immovable object. Negrín hoped to erode Nationalist resolution with a prolonged defense, but his military leaders, as well as the rank and file, while still committed to the ideals of the Republic, were unwilling to be sacrificed upon the altar of his diplomacy.” With negotiations stalled, the final Nationalist attack would begin on March 25th, when they advanced and encountered almost no resistance. While the formal surrender had not occurred, the mindset of surrender had already become pervasive in the military. Units surrendered in mass, and just as many threw down their weapons and began the journey home. The National Council of Defense collapsed, some like Miaja fled the country, others remained in Madrid, some went to Valencia. On March 28th Nationalist troops moved into Madrid, and on the 29th the formal surrender occurred. Then on March 31st the last Republican unit surrendered, and when Franco was informed he is reported to simply have said “very good, many thanks.” After 988 days Spanish Civil War was over.