Bombing of La Garriga | |||||||
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Part of Spanish Civil War | |||||||
The present-day reconstructed station of La Garriga. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Spanish Republican Army | Nationalist Army Corpo Truppe Volontarie |
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The bombing of La Garriga was a series of Nationalist air raids which took place at La Garriga, Barcelona province in Catalonia between 28 and 29 January 1939 during the Spanish Civil War. At least 13 civilians were killed in the bombings.
On 26 January, the Nationalist troops occupied Barcelona and 28 January Granollers, but they halted their offensive briefly. The Republican civilians and soldiers fled to the north and the Nationalist air force, the Legion Condor and the Aviazione Legionaria bombed the roads and towns between Barcelona and the French Frontier. [1] [2]
La Garriga was a tiny town of 10,000 inhabitants (among them 7,000 refugees from Madrid and the Basque Country), without air defenses. On 28 January the retreating Lister's troops left the town and fled to the north and the following day ten Italian Savoia-Marchetti bombers, bombed the town. On 29 January, the Italian bombers, attacked the town again. There were 13 civilian deaths, among them five refugees and seven children. [3] [4]
The Nationalist troops occupied La Garriga on 1 February.
The Corps of Volunteer Troops was a Fascist Italian expeditionary force of military volunteers, which was sent to Spain to support the Nationalist forces under General Francisco Franco against the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39.
The Battle of the Ebro was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War and the greatest, in terms of manpower, logistics and material ever fought on Spanish soil. It took place between July and November 1938, with fighting mainly concentrated in two areas on the lower course of the Ebro River, the Terra Alta comarca of Catalonia, and the Auts area close to Fayón (Faió) in the lower Matarranya, Eastern Lower Aragon. These sparsely populated areas saw the largest array of armies in the war. The battle was disastrous for the Second Spanish Republic, with tens of thousands left dead or wounded and little effect on the advance of the Nationalists.
On 26 April 1937, the Basque town of Guernica was aerially bombed during the Spanish Civil War. It was carried out at the behest of Francisco Franco's rebel Nationalist faction by its allies, the Nazi German Luftwaffe's Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria, under the code name Operation Rügen. The town was being used as a communications centre by Republican forces just behind the front line, and the raid was intended to destroy bridges and roads. The operation opened the way to Franco's capture of Bilbao and his victory in northern Spain.
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The Battle of Menorca was a battle that took place in Menorca during the Spanish Civil War between 7 and 9 February 1939. It was one of the last battles of the war and the last confrontation in the Balearic Islands.
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The bombing of Sant Vicenç de Calders was an aerial bombing of the railway station of Sant Vicenç de Calders, Catalonia, during the Spanish Civil War. It was carried out on 8 October 1938 at the behest of Francisco Franco's nationalist regime by the Aviazione Legionaria of its fascist Italian allies.
The Italian military intervention in Spain took place during the Spanish Civil War in order to support the nationalist cause against the Second Spanish Republic. As the conquest of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War made Italy confident in its power, Benito Mussolini joined the war to expand the Fascist sphere of influence in the Mediterranean. Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, tankettes, the Aviazione Legionaria, and the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV) to the Nationalist cause. The Royal Italian Navy played a substantial role in the conflict and Italian warships took part in breaking the Republican navy's blockade of Nationalist-held Spanish Morocco and took part in naval bombardment of Republican-held Málaga, Valencia, and Barcelona.
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