Siege of Madrid
| date | October 1936–28. March 1939 |
|---|---|
| place | Madrid , Spain |
| output | Nationalist victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
José Miaja |
Francisco Franco |
| Troop strength | |
| 42,000 soldiers 50 tanks 70 cannons |
20,000 soldiers 30 tanks 120 aircraft |
| losses | |
|
~ 5,000 |
~ 5,000 |
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
Gijón - Oviedo - Alcázar of Toledo - Mérida - Badajoz - Guipúzcoa - Mallorca - Sierra Guadalupe - Talavera de la Reina - Madrid - Road to Coruña - Málaga - Jarama - Guadalajara - War in the north ( Durango , Guernica , Santander ) - Brunete - Belchite - Teruel - Cabo de Palos - Aragon - Ebro - Catalonia
The siege of Madrid took place during the Spanish Civil War and lasted from October 1936 to March 28, 1939. Madrid was held by troops loyal to the government of the Second Spanish Republic . The besiegers consisted of nationalist troops under Francisco Franco . The Battle of Madrid took place in November 1936 when the nationalist forces tried by all means to take the city.
The uprising - July 1936
After the military revolt began on July 18, 1936, the Republican government was determined to put down the uprising. In Madrid, however, they were not sure whether the troops present could be trusted, but they were also reluctant to arm the union members of the CNT and the UGT . The same day the government sent units of the Guardia Civil to Seville to put down the uprising there. However, when the Guardia Civil troops reached the city, they immediately went over to the insurgents. On July 19, the elected Prime Minister Santiago Casares Quiroga was replaced by Diego Martínez Barrio . He tried to negotiate with the rebel general Emilio Mola by phone. However, Mola declined the offer made to him and Martinez Barrio was replaced as Prime Minister by José Giral . Giral gave orders to arm the unionists and 60,000 rifles were delivered to CNT and UGT headquarters.
Madrid remains in republican hands: July 19 to July 20, 1936
At the same time, General Fanjul, stationed in the Montaña barracks, was planning the military uprising in the city. However, when he tried to leave the barracks with his 2,500 soldiers for Madrid, he and his soldiers were pushed back into the barracks by an angry crowd of civilians and armed union members.
On July 20, the barracks were stormed by around 10,000 workers and members of the Guardia de Asalto . The fighting was utterly chaotic and some of the soldiers who tried to surrender were shot. The decision was made when the Asaltos deployed a 75mm field gun and began bombarding the complex. A sergeant who sympathized with the attackers then opened the main gate of the barracks. He was shot dead by an officer, but the open gate allowed Republicans to enter the site. Many soldiers who surrendered were killed by the crowd.
By storming the Montaña barracks, Madrid remained in republican hands. However, there were still large numbers of nationalist sympathizers in the city. Over 20,000 Falange supporters sought protection in foreign embassies. Several Falangist murders by Republicans broke out in the city over the next few weeks . On August 23, 70 prisoners in the Model prison in Madrid were murdered. It is speculative whether this was in revenge for the nationalist massacre of 1,500 republicans after the Battle of Badajoz .
The March on Madrid - August to October 1936
The military's initial plan was to take all power in the country with the coup . The resistance of the republican side now forced Franco to conquer the country militarily. Franco landed in Algeciras together with Moroccan troops from the North Africa Army . General Emilio Mola , the commander of the colonial troops, the Spanish Foreign Legion and the Carlist and Falangist militias , raised troops in the north. Together they planned the “March on Madrid” to conquer the capital. In August, Franco captured Badajoz and from there advanced towards Madrid. Mola began its advance from Burgos . Franco's veterans of the colonial troops under General Juan Yagüe and the air support of the Condor Legion quickly collapsed the republican resistance. Yague wanted to advance quickly towards Madrid, but Franco insisted that the nationalist soldiers trapped in Toledo should be helped first ( siege of the Alcázar of Toledo ). This gave the Republican side time to prepare the city's defense.
In the meantime, the government in Madrid had reassembled. Under the leadership of Francisco Largo Caballero , the party leader of the PSOE , the government now consisted of 6 socialist ministers, 2 ministers from the PCE , 2 ministers from the Republican Left , a minister from the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya , a minister from the Eusko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco and a minister from the Unión Republicana .
Even if the communists were only a minority in the government, they exerted significant influence, as it was they who controlled the arms deliveries from the Soviet Union and the international brigades . Officially, the Spanish general José Miaja was commander-in-chief of the republican army. However, it is very likely that the Soviet military advisers had a decisive influence on the military decisions of the republican side during the civil war. General Vladimir Gorev was the commander of the military advisers. General Jakow Smuschkewitsch commanded the air force provided by the Soviet Union and General Dmitri Pavlov commanded the armored units. Aside from the Soviets, around 90% of Madrid's defenders were militia members who were evicted by various left-wing parties and unions and who chose their own leaders. In the early stages of the war, the Republican General Staff had little control over these units.
On the other hand, Germany and Italy are supporting Franco with aircraft and armored units. However, the Condor Legion was not under Franco's authority. The nationalists reached Madrid at the beginning of November 1936, coming from the north and west.
On October 29, the Republican side began a counterattack with the Fifth Regiment (Communists) led by Enrique Lister . This was rejected in Parla . On November 2nd, Brunete , Sevilla la Nueva and Pinto fell , on November 3rd Villaviciosa de Odón and Móstoles , on November 4th Toman Getafe and Alcorcón and Leganés fell . With the capture of Cerro de los Ángeles , Villaverde and Carabanchel Alto on November 5th and 6th, the nationalists reached the western suburbs of Madrid. On November 7th they reached the Casa de Campo park in Madrid and advanced on the Puente los Franceses railway bridge over the Manzanares .
Mola told a British journalist that he would conquer the city with its four columns from the outside and the " fifth column " - consisting of right-wing sympathizers - the city from within. The term "fifth column" became synonymous with treason and espionage on the Republican side and this paranoia led to the later massacre of Madrid prisoners. Believing that the city would soon fall, Caballero's government left Madrid on November 6th and moved the seat of government to Valencia . General Miaja and the political leaders who remained formed the Junta de Defensa de Madrid (Committee for the Defense of Madrid).
However, the attackers' attempt to take the city suffered several setbacks. This was mainly due to their numerical inferiority (the ratio was about 1: 2 in favor of the Republicans), but also to the inability to completely encircle the city and thus cut it off from the supply.
Battle for Madrid - November 1936
The topography also helped Republicans defend Madrid, as the Manzanares River separated the nationalists from the city center. General Mola planned to carry out the attack on November 8, 1936, and his troops were to enter the city through the Casa de Campo park on a front of only 1 km. He hoped to avoid losing street fights, as the park was open area and was opposite the city center. Mola first wanted to take the grounds of the Complutense University of Madrid north of the center in order to build a bridgehead over the Manzanares from there. To this end, he launched a diversionary attack on the workers' quarter of Carabanchel in the south-west . However, on November 7, the Republicans succeeded in capturing the attack plans from an incapacitated Italian tank. The fallen Captain Vidal-Quadras carried the attack plans with him, so that the Republicans massed their troops in the Casa de Campo park.
Mola attacked on November 8th with 20,000 men and with the support of Italian armored vehicles and German Panzerkampfwagen I under the command of the German officer Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma . The Republicans competed with 12,000 men in Carabanchel and 30,000 men in Casa de Campo. Although they were vastly outnumbered, the Republican troops were poorly equipped and often had only small-caliber weapons and little ammunition available. Furthermore, most of them had received no military training and no combat experience.
Despite all this, the Republicans managed to repel the attack on the Casa de Campo. On November 8th, the XI. International Brigade with the Dąbrowski Battalion , the Edgar-André-Battalion and the Commune-de-Paris-Battalion and a British machine gun company the front. The strength of the International Brigade was 1,900 men. Although not numerically significant, her arrival was a moral reinforcement for the defenders. Two days later, 4,000 republican reinforcements from Aragon , consisting of anarchist militias of the CNT, under Buenaventura Durruti, reached the city.
On November 9th, the nationalists increasingly directed their attack on the suburb of Carabanchel. But the construction of the quarter made it a difficult obstacle to overcome. The colonial troops from Morocco were embroiled in a heavy house-to-house war and there were significant losses because they had no experience in this type of warfare and the militias also had better knowledge of the terrain.
On the evening of November 9th, General Kléber began with the XI. International Brigade launched an attack on the positions of the nationalists in the Casa de Campo. The fighting lasted all night and until the next day. When the fighting subsided, the national troops had been pushed from their positions, the planned rapid conquest of Madrid had failed and the XI. International Brigade had lost a third of its soldiers. On November 9th, 10th and 17th there were counter-attacks by the Republicans across the whole of Madrid. The nationalists were pushed back in some places, but the Republicans suffered heavy losses.
On November 11, there was a massacre on the Republican side of 1,029 “national” prisoners who were transported from the Model prison and killed in the Jarama Valley by the V Republican Regiment. There is an unproven claim that the shootings were ordered by communist leader Santiago Carrillo . Another theory assumes that the order came from José Cazorla , Carrillo's deputy, or from the Soviet adviser Mikhail Koltsov . This war crime was convicted by the director of Melchor Rodriguez prison.
On November 12th, the recently arrived XII. International Brigade, with the Thälmann Battalion , the André Marty Battalion and the Garibaldi Battalion under General Mate "Lukacs" Zalka , an attack on the positions of the nationalists at the hill Cerro de los Ángeles , south of the city. The aim of the attack was to prevent the nationalists from occupying the road to Valencia. The attack failed due to the language problems and insufficient artillery support. However, the road remained open to Republicans anyway.
On November 19, the nationalists began their final frontal attack on the city. Supported by strong artillery fire, Moroccan colonial soldiers and Foreign Legionnaires penetrated the university district of Madrid. They began to build a beachhead over the Manzanares River and heavy street fighting began. The anarchist leader Durruti was killed by his own fire in these battles.
Although violent counter-attacks by the XI. International brigade and regular republican troops came, the nationalists managed to hold two-thirds of the university complex. Despite this success, Franco saw that the attack on Madrid had failed because of the unexpectedly strong resistance. He forbade further infantry attacks as he could not afford to lose any more of his best regular and legionary forces.
Franco now ordered the bombing of the residential areas of the city, with the exception of the Salamanca quarter, as many nationalist sympathizers lived in this. Franco is reported to have said: "I will destroy Madrid rather than leave it to the Marxists". German planes bombed the city from November 19-23. However, this approach proved counterproductive, as the population was not intimidated by the attacks and the bombing of civilians met with strong criticism in the world press. The losses on the civilian side seem to have been rather small, however. Some estimates put around 200 dead. This is not least due to the superiority of the Soviet fighter pilots over the Condor Legion. For their performance in the defense of Madrid, 17 Soviet fighter pilots were named Heroes of the Soviet Union on January 1, 1937 in Moscow .
In early December the fighting subsided as both sides were exhausted. The front stabilized across the Manzanares River, into the university town, across the Casa de Campo park and through the streets of Carabanchel. There were occasional artillery and air strikes and food supplies became scarce. The UGT union moved vital industries to the city's unused subway tunnels.
The number of victims was never recorded during the “Battle of Madrid”. The British historian Hugh Thomas assumes around 10,000 deaths (including civilians) on both sides. The American journalist John T. Whitaker, who was also at Franco's headquarters during the siege of Madrid, wanted to know from the wounded Colonel Castejón that the nationalists of originally 60,000 Moorish mercenaries had already lost 50,000 by the end of the fighting for Madrid.
Fighting around Madrid from 1936 to 1937
In December 1936, Franco tried to cut the road to A Coruña in northeast Madrid in order to further encircle the city. The nationalist offensive began on December 3rd and intensified on December 13th. The attack culminated in the battle for the Coruña road and ended in a stalemate. After the Battle of Madrid, the Republican government tried to reform the armed forces and transform the various militias into a regular people's army . This was done by integrating the militias into the regular army units that had remained loyal to the republic. In practice, however, the communist party in particular gained more and more influence over the army, as the party was the source of foreign volunteers, Soviet weapons and advisers. The communists had a disproportionate influence on the appointment of commanders and on war policy in general.
In 1937 there were several major battles around Madrid. The Battle of Jarama took place in February , the Battle of Guadalajara in March and the Battle of Brunete in July .
In May 1937, republican forces tried unsuccessfully to break out of Madrid with the help of armored vehicles under the orders of the Polish communist officer Karol Świerczewski .
By the end of 1937, during the “ War in the North ” , the nationalists conquered almost all of northern Spain with the important industrial areas of the country, in which up until then many of the republican weapons had been produced. The Republican commander of the IV Corps, Cipriano Mera , intercepted Franco's plans to launch a new attack from Zaragoza towards Madrid. Thereupon General Vicente Rojo started a preventive attack with over 100,000 men on December 15th and captured the city of Teruel . Rojo's attack prevented a renewed attack by the nationalists on Madrid, but led to the bloody Battle of Teruel with over 100,000 victims on both sides.
Inner-Republican Struggles - 1939
In 1938 the siege ring around the city tightened and the civilian population suffered more and more from the food shortage and the cold. The republican army lacked more and more weapons and ammunition. However, Franco had finally rejected the idea of a new direct attack on the city and now pursued the plan to enclose the city more and more and to continue the air strikes.
After the collapse of the Republican forces on other sectors of the front, in the spring of 1939 the position of the defenders became hopeless. This created a split in the ranks of the Republicans. On one side there was Prime Minister Juan Negrín , some other ministers and the Communist Party, all of whom wanted to fight to the end. On the other side were General Segismundo Casado and others who wanted to negotiate the surrender of the city in order to prevent the worst. On March 5, Casado's men arrested and disempowered communist officers in Madrid. On March 7, the communist leaders, Soviet advisers and Prime Minister Negrin fled the city. Street fighting between communist and non-communist troops began the next day. The communists were quickly overwhelmed and their leader, Luis Barceló, shot. Casado began negotiating the terms of surrender with Franco, but Franco now demanded unconditional surrender.
The surrender March 28, 1939
On March 26th, Franco ordered his troops to launch a major attack on Madrid. On March 27, the Republican front collapsed completely. Most of the Republican troops surrendered or simply threw away their weapons and went home. On March 29, 1939, the last Republican positions were taken. Madrid was handed over to the Franquists by Melchor Rodríguez García , who was then appointed mayor of the city.
consequences
Contrary to General Casado's negotiating efforts, many of the Republican defenders were executed by the Franco regime between 1939 and 1943 .
literature
- Chris Bishop: Battles of the 20th Century. Military Press, New York NY 1989, ISBN 0-517-66221-3 .
- Antony Beevor : The Spanish Civil War. Cassell, London 1999, ISBN 0-304-35281-0 .
- Hugh Thomas : The Spanish Civil War. 4th edition. Penguin, London 2003, ISBN 0-14-101161-0 .
- Jorge M. Reverte: La batalla de Madrid (= Crítica. Booket. 3022). Crítica, Barcelona 2007, ISBN 978-84-8432-871-1 .
Web links
- Spartacus.net: Article about the siege (English)
- Brief Summary (English)
- Newspaper article ( Memento of September 13, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- Article about life during the siege ( Memento of June 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Chronology of the Siege of Madrid (Spanish)
- Madrid under attack. Collection of photographs in Flickr (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Antony Beevor: The Spanish Civil War (= Goldmann. 15492). Paperback edition, 2nd edition. Goldmann, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-15492-0 , p. 227.
- ↑ Abel Paz : Durruti. Life and death of the Spanish anarchist. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-89401-224-2 , p. 562.
- ↑ American Journalists War Correspondents in the War of Spain , p. 6.