Battle of Monte Pelado

Last updated
Battle of Monte Pelado
Part of the Spanish Civil War
Date28 August 1936
Location
Monte Pelado, near Huesca, Aragon, Spain
42°05′42.78″N0°30′14.78″W / 42.0952167°N 0.5041056°W / 42.0952167; -0.5041056
Result Republican victory
Belligerents
Flag of Spain (1931-1939).svg Spanish Republic Bandera del bando nacional 1936-1938.svg Nationalists
Commanders and leaders
Mario Angeloni  Carlos Sanez
Strength
? 500 regulars

The Battle of Monte Pelado ("Bald Mountain") was an engagement of the Spanish Civil War fought on 28 August 1936. It was notable as the first major engagement of the Italian Republican volunteers of the Matteotti Battalion. [1]

Contents

Monte Pelado, in Aragon, between Huesca and Almudévar, was the site of a Francoist gun emplacement and a concentration of around five hundred Nationalist troops. In bitter fighting from five until nine in the morning, Italians and the Spanish anarchists of the Francisco Ascaso column seized the Nationalist position while suffering heavy losses.

Amongst those Italian volunteers killed were republican Mario Angeloni, commander of the Column, the anarchist Michele Centrone, the "giellista" Giuseppe Zuddas, the anarchist Fosco Falaschi, the Communist Attilio Papparotto and the anarchist Vincenzo Perrone.

Among those Italians who survived were socialist Carlo Rosselli, anarchists Camillo Berneri, Maria Zazzi, and Leonida Mastrodicasa.

See also

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References

  1. Alexander, Robert (1999). The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress). London: Janus. pp. 1135–1136. ISBN   1-85756-400-6. OCLC   43717219.