Spanish Civil War 1936-1039 Republican Forces

    I have to hand it to author Alejandro De Quesada, he does his best to stay positive about a lost cause. But no matter how hard you look at it, or how nicely the author puts it, the Spanish Loyalists were doomed from day #1. The commanders were incompetent, the militia members disliked military-style discipline, and the Soviet suppliers ripped them off. There was a small professional army among them, and there were some qualified people among the volunteers, but none of them got along. The trained soldiers didn’t like the undisciplined militias, and there was no communication between the groups. With few officers trained in strategy, there would be no logistics.

    De Quesada writes about how Franco’s Nationalist Falange used battle-hardened troops, fresh from the Rif war in Morocco, and the Loyalist militias often ran away from them. Then the extremists in the militias would go on purges against suspected enemies (whoops, didn’t know the town’s only doctor was among the 30 that we shot for being too bourgoise) and loot every church they found. Seeing as the European industrialists and bankers were all Catholic, I doubt the anti-church activities were good for public relations.

    The armor and equipment are shown to have been a problem too. It’s well-known that the Soviets sold the Loyalists outdated Remington rifles for whatever gold there was, and that left the legitimate government cash-strapped. The Soviets did send in a fleet of T-26 tanks, which were better than the ones that the Nationalist and Italian armies used, along with instructors. However, the T-26 was prone to engine malfunction, and the Nationalists had anti-tank artillery. Bungling by the unqualified and incompetent Loyalist commanders made things worse, and loads of T-26 tanks were captured and used by Franco.

    Undisciplined rabble, a hodgepodge of different firearms and ammo, lack of communication, zero coordination, abuse of the Catholic clergy, blatant robbery of church property, and incompetence on the part of the brass, it all contributed to the Republican failure and 40 years of fascist dictatorship. Soviet sympathies among the Republicans didn’t do much to gain the support of France, USA, and Britain, all of whom were wary about the Soviet’s presence in the region. Once the German Luttwaffe came to the aid of Frando’s forces, the Republicans were dead in the water.