Corpo troop volunteering
The Corpo Truppe Volontarie ( CTV ) was an Italian volunteer corps set up by dictator Mussolini to support the rebellious nationalists under Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War .
Military background
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Spanish armed forces split into a republican and a nationalist army. The army, under the legitimate Republican government, had 36,000 regular soldiers, 20,000 members of the Guardia Civil and 25,000 members of a Home Office militia established in 1931 to protect the republic. Both the navy (1 battleship, 3 cruisers, 8 destroyers and 6 submarines) and the Spanish air force (around 200 aircraft) remained largely loyal to the Republican government. The republican camp was subsequently supported by up to 400,000 so-called militiamen and by the International Brigades , which consisted of 40,000 volunteers from 52 countries (including 10,000 French, 5,000 Germans, 3,350 Italians, 2,800 Americans, 2,000 British, 1,000 Canadians, 550 Soviet citizens). The Italians were combined in the so-called Garibaldi Battalion ( brigade from July 1937 ). Communist Italian politicians like Luigi Longo and Palmiro Togliatti took part in the organization of the republican associations.
The rebellious nationalists of Franco had 32,000 soldiers from the regular Spanish army, 30,000 men from the Spanish Foreign Legion and the Moroccan colonial troops, 14,000 men from the Civil Guard, 10,000 men from the Interior Ministry and 6,000 Carabineros (customs guards). The nationalist camp received an old battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer as well as a small number of torpedo and gunboats from the navy, and about 100 obsolete aircraft from the air force.
Franco's insurgent troops initially controlled the north and northwest of Spain (with the exception of the coastal strip near Santander), as well as the western and southwestern areas on the border with Portugal . Franco's elite troops stayed in Morocco and the Balearic Islands due to a lack of transport. For this reason, the uprising on the mainland threatened to be put down. Franco sent emissaries to Berlin and Rome to ask the fascist governments there for support, especially in the field of transport and logistics. Both governments complied with the request, mainly for ideological and power-political reasons.
The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini initially sent a squadron of transport aircraft (without national emblems) to the Spanish nationalist colony of Morocco . In addition, Italian naval associations supported the nationalists by landing supplies in nationalist and also Portuguese ports. Italian submarines began sinking Spanish Republican, Soviet and other ships believed to be bringing supplies to Republican ports in a manner contrary to international law. Due to international pressure, this soon had to be discontinued. The Republicans received extensive financial and material support in particular from the Soviet Union and France (from Moscow just under 120 million rubles, 250 fighter jets, 730 tanks, 1,230 artillery pieces; from Paris 260 aircraft, 200 tanks, 200 guns, just under 14,000 vehicles).
During the war, the nationalist camp was supported by more than 50,000 Italians, 20,000 Portuguese ( Viriatos ), 16,000 Germans ( Condor Legion ) and 700 Irish ( Irish Brigade ) as well as a few hundred French, Russians, Yugoslavs and Romanians. In addition, there were 6,000 monarchist Carlist and around 15,000 Falangists from Spain.
The CTV
organization
After Italy formally ended one of the largest colonial wars in history with the Italian-Ethiopian War in Italian East Africa in early 1936 (but not in substance because of the ongoing popular uprisings), Mussolini embarked on another military adventure after Franco's (limited) request for help in which his political comrades-in-arms in Rome could mostly see no real advantage for Italy. Although the cost of this support would later be charged to Franco (in 1940 it was 14 billion lire), Mussolini hoped to win the Balearic Islands as compensation for Italy. In addition, a fascist Spain should allow, in consultation with Hitler, to encircle France politically or, if necessary, militarily. The limited Italian military arsenal was further dispersed and worn down by this engagement. In total, around 760 aircraft, 2,000 guns, 150 L3 / 33 and L3 / 35 light tanks (tankettes), 7,660 vehicles and over 240,000 rifles were made available as part of the “Italian Military Mission in Spain” (MMIS) and then as part of the CTV (Italy could no longer have this material in 1940).
After Franco's offensive against republican Madrid had failed in mid-December 1936 , the leadership in Rome decided to send Italian troops. At first there were 3,000 volunteers, mostly fascist black shirts , who landed in Cádiz on December 22nd . By January 1937 that number had grown to just under 50,000. These were officially volunteers in Spanish service. De facto there were 19,800 men in the regular Italian army ( 4th Motorized Division Littorio ), who were predominantly ordered to operate in Spain and who performed their military service in this way. 29,000 so-called black shirts formed three divisions of the fascist militia ( 1. Dio lo Vuole, 2. Fiamme Nere, 3. Penne Nere ) and provided parts for Spanish-Italian militia units at brigade level ( XXIII Marzo, Frecce Nere, Frecce Azzurre , later z. T. divisions ), whereby there was a blatant shortage of qualified officers . Half of the “volunteers” in the three militia divisions were over 30 years old, a quarter had a criminal record, and the majority came from southern Italy. Their main incentive to work in Spain was financial incentives and promised jobs. They had actually signed up for work assignments with construction battalions in East Africa.
Guadalajara
On February 8, 1937, nine motorized CTV battalions under Roatta's deputy Emilio Faldella, along with other nationalist forces , captured the city of Malaga . Shortly afterwards, in view of this first success, Mussolini decided that the CTV should launch an offensive on Madrid alone. Although Franco had failed there four times and advised against a renewed attempt by the CTV, he also provided a limited number of ground troops. The commander of the CTV, General Mario Roatta , planned a northwest containment of the Spanish capital and then an attack from Guadalajara to Alcalá de Henares and on to Madrid. Roatta's offensive began on March 8th. After intensive artillery preparation, 35,000 well-equipped Italians, with the support of light tanks, broke through the front lines of the approximately 7,000 Republicans (who were trained here on Soviet T-26 tanks, among others ) and advanced up to 12 km in thick fog. On March 9, the Italians won a further 18 km in very bad weather against the resistance of republican reinforcements and despite the bridges being blown, but then took a break at Brihuega on the road from Masegoso de Tajuña to Torija . The day after, further Italian attempts to breakthrough failed. a. at the XII. International Brigade, later the Garibaldi Battalion . Italian brigadists then used loudspeakers to urge their compatriots to overflow. The XI. However, the International Brigade lost a very important strategic position, the manor Palacio de Ibarra near Brihuega, so that the brigadists had to withdraw. On March 11th, the CTV managed to advance up to 3 kilometers before Torija, with the battalion "Commune de Paris" suffering heavy losses and thereby the flank of the XII. International Brigade bared. On March 12, the Republicans began a counter-offensive, supported effectively from the air, in which the 3rd CTV Division Penne Nere was almost completely wiped out. By embracing the Italian forces by the XI. Republican division from the south, the Italians had to retreat to Brihuega on March 14th. The Italians who had retired to the manor Palacio de Ibarra were defeated by the XII. International brigade wiped out, resulting in bitter house-to-house fighting between the Italians and the brigadists.
Roatta asked Franco to temporarily postpone further operations to reorganize the CTV units, which happened on March 16. On March 18, the now numerically equal Republicans started an offensive with their best associations in which the XII. International Brigade captured the town of Brihuega and routed the CTV troops. The Littorio division prevented a disaster that day after the three militia divisions of the CTV began to disband. Franco refused to use nationalist reserves, mainly because he was secretly against a success of the Italians in front of Madrid. In addition, Italian aviation associations came too late or - because of the weather - not at all. The republican counterattack caused the CTV to retreat to its starting positions (km 97 on the axis from Madrid to France) by March 24th, which meant that a fifth attack on Madrid had failed. Because of this failure, Roatta was replaced by General Ettore Bastico , who immediately disbanded two of the militia divisions ( Dio lo Vuole , Penne Nere ) and instead requested regular troops. However, this was initially rejected in Rome because they did not want to provoke France and Great Britain any further.
The losses suffered by the CTV near Guadalajara amounted to 423 dead, 1,835 wounded, 496 prisoners and 1,500 unfit for combat due to weather conditions. On the Republican side there were 2,200 dead, 4,000 wounded and 400 prisoners.
Further operations
The CTV came after a period of reorganization and training on the offensive launched on August 14, 1937 in the Basque Country and played a decisive role together with Italian air units in the conquest of Santander . More than 50,000 Republicans were taken prisoner here, and the CTV lost 2,000 dead and wounded. Smaller units of the CTV had been operating in northern Spain since March 1937. a. near Bilbao .
After Santander, the CTV operated in Aragon , supported Franco's troops in the Battle of Teruel (late 1937-early 1938) v. a. with artillery and took part in the fighting on the Ebro in spring 1938 with three divisions , as a result of which Catalonia was isolated. The defense against the republican counter-offensive on the Ebro was supported by the Italians mainly with artillery and from the air. Under an agreement with the British government, Mussolini temporarily withdrew 10,000 of his soldiers during this time. After five months of heavy fighting, the Republicans were finally defeated in November 1938.
From December 1938 to February 1939, the newly reinforced CTV led the nationalists' attack on Catalonia. Here the CTV suffered heavy losses again, but managed to invade Barcelona at the end of January 1939 . Many Republicans and former members of the International Brigades then fled to France.
For the victory of the nationalist camp in the Spanish Civil War, the Italian material deliveries, the support of the CTV and the Italian flying units of the Aviazione Legionaria were of decisive importance. In addition, the Italian commitment led to the formation of the Axis, as Hitler intended, and with the victory of the fascists in Spain to an intensification of ideological polarization in Europe, which then led to World War II. The war in Abyssinia (1935–36) and the subsequent participation in the Spanish Civil War led to a serious weakening of Italy in the field of armaments, which had fatal consequences in the years that followed.
Aviazione Legionaria
The Corpo Truppe Volontarie was supported from the beginning by an air force, whose name Aviazione Legionaria should indicate the voluntary status of their relatives. In fact, they were regular units of the Italian Air Force . On July 30, 1936, twelve Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers without a national badge were dispatched to Spain in the strictest of secrecy . Nine of them arrived (one bomber had to make an emergency landing in French Morocco due to lack of fuel , which sparked an international storm of indignation, and two more were lost due to technical problems). On August 13, 1936, twelve Fiat CR.32s arrived with the merchant ship "Neraide" in Melilla , which together with the nine bombers were officially assigned to the Spanish Foreign Legion , actually remaining as Aviación del Tercio under the command of the Italian lieutenant colonel Ruggero Bonomi. The only partially operational Fiat fighters came into action on August 17th and shot down a first Republican aircraft over Granada on the 20th . With further new CR.32 as a substitute for flight disabled machines of the first supply is formed the Jagdstaffel La Cucaracha , which until the end of 1936 predominantly in Salamanca , Sevilla was used and Granada. The SM.81 bombers mainly transported nationalist soldiers as well as weapons and ammunition from North Africa to Spain.
As part of a further agreement of November 28, 1936, Italy increased its support for the nationalists, in particular because the Republicans from abroad received better and better aircraft. The three now existing seasons ( 6th Leonello or Gamba di Ferro, 16th Cucaracha, 23rd Asso di Bastoni ) were reinforced with three more in January and February 1937. By the end of the year, 182 Fiat CR.32s had arrived (348 by the end of the war, another 60 went to the Spaniards), along with Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 (64 in total) and Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 ( around 100), as well as various types of support aircraft (around 80). Some of these machines were also stationed on the Balearic Islands .
In 1937 the Aviazione Legionaria intervened in almost all theaters of war, except in Asturias . In the north there was evidence of the Condor Legion attack on Gernika and the bombing of Durango . The units stationed in the Balearic Islands repeatedly bombed Barcelona in March 1938 . They were supposed to bomb the port facilities , but did a lot of damage to the rest of the city as well. A total of around 1000 civilians died, whereupon the Vatican protested vehemently.
The deployment of the 6,000-strong Aviazione Legionaria ended in April 1939 with the nationalists' offensive in Catalonia . 276 remaining aircraft were then handed over to the nationalist air force.
The aircraft of the Aviazione Legionaria had a total of 135,265 flight hours and dropped 11,524 tons of bombs. The Italians destroyed almost half of the Republican Air Force, 943 enemy aircraft (40 of them on the ground). They also damaged or sunk 224 ships. Its own losses amounted to 171 dead, 192 wounded, 74 fighters, eight bombers, two fighter-bombers and two reconnaissance planes. The statistically positive outcome of the operations reinforced the Italian leadership's belief that they still had one of the most powerful air forces in the world. In fact, other states used the Spanish Civil War or the time to test and improve their own arsenal, while the Italian Air Force failed to keep up to date with technology, especially during the Civil War. In 1940 the Regia Aeronautica went to war against British Hurricanes and Spitfires with Fiat CR.42 biplanes and Macchi MC.200s equipped with heavy radial engines .
Conclusion
The victory of the nationalists on April 1, 1939 meant for the Italians only that they gained an ally in the western Mediterranean. Italy acquired this ally with the loss of 3,819 Italians killed and approximately 12,000 Italians wounded in Spain. The Italian military lost around 3,400 machine guns, 1,400 mortars, 1,800 artillery pieces, 6,800 vehicles, 760 aircraft and 160 tanks to combat operations. The financial cost of using nearly 78,500 Italians was high. The cost of the operation ranged from 6 to 8.5 billion lire. With 14 to 20 percent of annual government spending, this is an immense burden on the Italian economy.
Order for the Italian Volunteers
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On June 6, 1940 was by Viktor Emanuel III. by decree 1244/40 donated the medal for the volunteers of the campaign in Spain ( it. Medaglia commemorativa della campagna di Spagna ). This order was the counterpart to the German Spanish Cross and could be awarded to all Italian members of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie. A prerequisite for the award was a period of at least three months on the part of the Spanish nationalists as well as for military bravery in front of the enemy, wounding and merit in the troop leadership.
Commemoration
The church of St. Antonio de Padua in Saragossa was inaugurated as the central grave monument for the 2,889 Italian members of the Corpo Volontarie who had died. It is the largest mausoleum for Italian soldiers in Spain. In the cemetery in Palma de Mallorca, a massive tomb commemorates around 30 dead of the “Aviazione Legionaria”.
literature
- Alberto Rovighi, Filippo Stefani: La partecipazione italiana alla guarra civile spagnola (1936–1939) . Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito-USSME, Rome, USSME, 1992
- Thomas Hugh: Storia della Guerra Civile Spagnola . Giulio Einaudi Editore, Turin, 1963
- Angelo Emiliani, Giuseppe F. Ghergo, Achille Vigna: Spagna 1936–39: L'Aviazione Legionaria . Intergest, Milan, 1976 (2nd edition)
Web links
- Consequences of Italian Involvement, B. Sullivan, Nat. Defense University, in "El Miliciano" (Spanish) ( Memento from May 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 129 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Italy in the Spanish Civil War. Denis Werner
- ^ Ottfried Neubecker : The Italian order system . In: Uniformen-Markt , ZDB -ID 331317-7 , year 1940, p. 56.