Battle of Badajoz (1936)
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 Battle of Badajoz was one of the first major victories for Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War . The battle took place on August 14, 1936.
Starting position
In the summer of 1936, German and Italian aircraft and the Spanish fleet transported around 10,000 soldiers from the Spanish Army of Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar to southern Spain, which were initially stationed in Seville . On August 1st, General Franco ordered the advance north to join General Emilio Mola's troops .
Under the orders of Colonel Carlos Asensio Cabanillas and Major Antonio Castejón Espinosa , the army, divided into motorized units, advanced north. The border towns on the way and resisting on the Portuguese border were captured. On August 10th, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Yagüe arrived near Mérida and took command. So far, the nationalists had conquered 300 km of the Portuguese-Spanish border. Mérida fell after heavy fighting on the banks of the Guadiana River . Thus, on the border with Portugal, only the city of Badajoz remained in the hands of the republican army. Yagüe set out with 2,250 legionaries, 750 Moroccan colonial soldiers and five field guns in the direction of Badajoz. Major Heli Rolando de Tella y Cantos stayed in Mérida to secure the city.
In the fortified town of Badajoz, Colonel Ildefonso Puigdendolas commanded around 6,000 Republican militiamen. When the nationalist army approached the city, the unit of the Guardia Civil revolted there and tried to defeat the nationalist side. Puigdendolas was able to put down the revolt.
The battle
On the afternoon of August 14, nationalist forces attacked the city after the bombardment. A unit of the Spanish Foreign Legion stormed the Puerta de la Trinidad singing . But the determined defenders fended off several waves of attackers with machine gun fire. The legionaries took no account of their losses and continued their attacks. An attack supported by an armored vehicle ultimately led to the breakthrough. A hand-to-hand fight ensued and the legionaries killed all defenders of the republican position. However, the losses were very high. The 16th company alone lost 80 men. All officers and non-commissioned officers of this company except one lieutenant and a corporal fell.
On the south side, the nationalists managed to storm the fortress walls with fewer losses. The volunteers from the city of Tetuán stormed the Puerta de Los Carros , and the legionaries and colonial soldiers drove the Republicans from the barracks . Once inside the city, the nationalist troops drove the defenders towards the city center. House fighting raged in the streets until nightfall.
In the meantime, Puigdendolas managed to flee the city and cross the border into Portugal to safety.
consequences
The fall of Badajoz led to the fall of all of northern Extremadura . This area became the nucleus of the nationalist state. The amalgamation of the areas held by the nationalists in the north and south did not succeed until September 8th. After the battle, Yagüe moved northwest towards Madrid and reached the Tagus River . Here the battle in the Sierra Guadalupe broke out over the next few weeks .
The Battle of Badajoz was the beginning of a process that was the same throughout the summer of 1936. Republican militias occupied the medieval fortresses in Castile , but could not hold them against Franco's professional soldiers for long, nor could they slow down the advance of the nationalists. The professional nationalist soldiers managed to capture the well-fortified Republican positions, but the losses were substantial. At the end of the year almost all of the legionnaires on the way from Seville to Madrid had died.
The massacre
After the fall of the city, there was a day-long massacre of Republican defenders and civilians in the city. A mass shooting was carried out in the bullring and there were numerous rapes. Yagües failure to intervene earned him the nickname "Butcher of Badajoz". One explanation for these war crimes is that there had been systematic reprisals against civilians during the Spanish colonial wars in Morocco and the colonial soldiers simply used this type of terror in Spain. Franco is said to have intervened to stop the castration practiced by the Moroccans on the dead bodies of fallen enemies.
Foreign journalists reported between 1,800 and 4,000 civilians killed, each influenced by their political attitudes.
literature
- Hugh Thomas : The Spanish Civil War. Revised and updated edition. Modern Library, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-375-75515-2 .