In 1936 the Spanish Army
had two distinct forces: The Peninsular
Army and the Army of Africa. The Peninsular Army had 8,851 officers
and 112,228 men. It was considered to be poorly trained force and
on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
over 40,000 men were on leave. It is estimated that 4,660 officers
and 19,000 men joined the Nationalist forces in the struggle with
the Republicans. Of the remaining 4,191 officers, around 2,000 supported
the Popular Front government.
The Army of Africa was
considered to be superior to the Peninsular
Army. It consisted of those Spanish Army units based in Morocco.
In 1936 the force numbered 34,047 men and was composed of regular
Spanish Army units and the Spanish Foreign Legion.
On 19th July, 1936, General
Francisco
Franco assumed
command of this force and organized its airlift to Spain.
During the first two months of the war, around 10,500 men were flown
across the Straits of Gibraltar by aircraft owned by the Luftwaffe.
Others followed and the Army of Africa played an important role in
gaining Nationalist control of South-Western Spain.
Organized into five vanguard
columns, the Army of Africa took part in the conquest of Andalusiaand
Estremadura and the siege of Madrid. By 1937 over 63,000 soldiers
in the Army of Africa were fighting in the Spanish
Civil War.
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Last updated: 10th April, 2002
(1)
Tom
Murray,
Voices From the Spanish Civil War (1986)
The Moors got terribly
slaughtered, of course. You see the Fascists were sending them in
in impossible situations, just grinding them down because they were
Moors and press ganged more or less or intrigued in as mercenaries.
Up on Hill 481, I think it was, there was this attack by us and there
were thirty five dead Moors lying scattered around more or less in
a heap. We took their blankets off them. I don't know who buried them.
I had nothing to do with burying these people. I don't know who buried
them but they must have been buried somehow. But there were thirty
five of them, we counted
thirty five dead bodies. These Moors had been killed in the fighting.
They weren't killed as prisoners. Oh no, we didn't shoot anybody,
oh no. The Fascists did, though. But these dead Moors were just a
heap of humanity thrown into a war that they certainly didn't understand
the slightest thing about.
We didn't handle prisoners
of war at all, especially in my case, I was a machine gun man. The
other four companies, they handled prisoners. And the like of this
Moor that I referred to, he was captured - he had his leg all shot
off. We captured numbers of them, you see, surrounded them and captured
them. But of course they were just taken to the rear and put in concentration.
Some of them of course were innocents abroad, a few Spaniards that
were in Franco's forces. But we saw very few Spaniards at all, it
was mostly Italians. And the Germans of course were mostly in the
artillery and the air force. The Italians were the people who were
mostly in the infantry.
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