In late July Mola's troops suffered a shortage of ammunition (having only 26,000 rounds of ammunition). Then Francisco Franco sent him large supplies of ammunition and weapons from Italy and Germany via Portugal (600,000 rounds). On August 13, Mola met Franco in Seville and decided to capture San Sebastián and Irún in order to cut the Basques off from the French Border at the western end of the Pyrenees.[3][4]
The campaign
Advance on San Sebastian
The campaign was initially conceived by General Emilio Mola as an advance to Irún, to cut the northern provinces off from France, and to link up with the Nationalist garrison in San Sebastián that was to have seized that city. The campaign was diverted from the advance on Irún when the direct route to the town was blocked by the demolition of the bridge at Endarlatsa. When word came that the Nationalists in San Sebastián were besieged in the Cuartel de Loyola, Alfonso Beorlegui diverted all his forces westward toward that town in an attempt to relieve the Nationalist garrison. Two other Nationalist columns advanced on the city from points further west with the intent of cutting it off from Biscay. Nevertheless, on 27 July, the Nationalist garrison in San Sebastián surrendered.[5]
Advance on Irun
Following the failure to relieve the siege of the Nationalists in San Sebastian, the forces of Beorlegui resumed their advance on Irún to cut off the northern provinces of Gipuzkoa, Biscay, Santander and Asturias, from their source of arms and support in France by taking that city. On August 11 the Nationalists took Tolosa and Beorlegi seized Picoqueta, a key ridge commanding the approach to Irún. Telesforo Monzon, a Basque Nationalist, travelled to Barcelona to seek aid, but he only got 1,000 rifles, and the Basque nationalists confiscated the gold in the local branch of the Bank of Spain to buy weapons in France,[6] but on August 8 the French government closed the frontier.[7]
On August 17, the rebel battleship España, the cruiser Almirante Cervera and the destroyer Velasco arrived at San Sebastián and started to shell the city. After that, German Ju 52 bombers and other Italian planes bombarded on a daily basis the bordering towns of Hondarribia and Irun,[1] as well as San Sebastián. Furthermore, the Nationalists captured the republican commander in Gipuzkoa, Pérez Garmendia.
Fall of Irun and San Sebastián
Counterattack of the Republican forces in the surroundings of Irun, before its fall to the Nationalists
On August 26, Beorlegui began the assault on Irún. The poorly armed and untrained leftist and Basque nationalist militias fought bravely but could not fend off the rebel push, in no small part due to an inability to get ammunition to the defending forces.[8] After bloody combats, the resisting forces were overwhelmed on September 3, 1936: thousands of civilians and militia-men fled in panic, some across the French border.[1] The town was occupied by Nationalist forces that day. The victorious Beorlegui was wounded, dying a month later of gangrene, the general having refused treatment for his wounds.[9] Enraged by their lack of ammunition, retreating anarchists burned parts of the city.[1]
The Nationalists followed up the capture of Irun with the capture of San Sebastián, effectively surrounding and isolating the northern Republican zone from external support.[9] The fall of San Sebastián illustrated a fundamental difference in policy as well as strategy between the Basque and Anarchist leadership. Thanks to the Basque leadership, a sizeable number of the city's 80,000 inhabitants fled on an exodus towards Bilbao, in the Spanish province of Biscay.[9] British field-journalist George L. Steer sets the figure of the terrified population fleeing to Bilbao at 30,000.[10] Basque Nationalist Party officials arranged for the final orderly evacuation of the city before its fall, holding back anarchist efforts to repeat the burning of Irun by shooting several anarchist officials.[9] Small in number, the anarchists were planning to wreak havoc.[10]
Despite the evacuation of San Sebastián, hundreds of people were killed in the city as a result of pseudo-trials mounted by the conquering rebel troops in the aftermath of the city's occupation; during the first months of occupation approximately 600 were murdered in paseos (extrajudicial executions).[11][12] Among them, Steer cites the execution of seventeen priests of Basque nationalist sympathies.[13] The city mayor also faced summary execution.
The Nationalist rebels advanced further west. They were stopped by the Republicans at Buruntza for a few days, but continued their push until the outer fringes of Biscay (Intxorta). There, the resistance of the Basque pro-republican forces, backed up with 8,000 rifles smuggled in extremis by Lezo Urreiztieta to Santander on 24 September,[14] along with the exhaustion of the Nationalists, resulted in an end of the offensive until the War in the North began.[15]
Aftermath
In a few months in late 1936 the Nationalists conquered 1,000 square miles of terrain and many factories. Furthermore, they cut off the Basques from land-links with a sympathetic France.[16]Indalecio Prieto, the Republican minister of defense, sent the Republican fleet to the northern ports in order to prevent a rebel naval blockade.[17] On occupation during September, a Comisión Gestora or Management Commission was appointed by the rebel nationalists comprising the factions involved in the military insurrection, i.e. Carlists, Falangists, and others. The Junta Carlista, the Carlist high executive body in the province, was then chaired during the first months by the local Carlist leader Antonio Arrúe Zarauz up to early 1937.
After taking over San Sebastián, speaking in the Basque language was frowned upon, and then forbidden by proclamation.[13] Occupation was followed by harsh repression against inconvenient figures and individuals. Among them, the Basque clergy were specifically targeted and exposed to torture and rapid execution for their family ties and/or proximity to Basque nationalist proponents and ideas.[18] In general, they were searched according to blacklists put together in Pamplona. Despite occasional internal protests within the ecclesiastic hierarchy, they did not go far. A widespread purge of the clergy in Gipuzkoa was decided in the high military and ecclesiastic circles.[19] The occupiers also purged the Provincial Council (Diputación/Aldundia) resulting in the expulsion of 1,051 civil servants and workers, 123 of them railway operators.[20]
The hatred underlying the crackdown was evidenced by the assassination of José Ariztimuño 'Aitzol', a priest and major personality of the Basque cultural renaissance during the previous years), tortured and shot on 18 October in the Hernani cemetery, along with other ecclesiastic and civilian victims found fleeing.[19]
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.
Emilio Mola y Vidal was a Spanish military officer who was one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936 that started the Spanish Civil War.
Irun is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain.
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out with a military uprising in Morocco on July 17, triggered by events in Madrid. Within days, Spain was divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic, and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco.
Antonio Ortega Gutiérrez was a Spanish Republican military officer and acting president of Madrid Football Club between 1937 and 1938 during the Spanish Civil War; directly involved in the defense of Madrid.
The War in the North was a theatre of the Spanish Civil War that occurred in northern Spain from 31 March to 21 October 1937.
The Battle of Bilbao, part of the War in the North in the Spanish Civil War, saw the Nationalist Army capture Bilbao and the rest of the Basque Country that was still being held by the Spanish Republic.
San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián, is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, 20 km from the France–Spain border. The capital city of the province of Gipuzkoa, the municipality's population is 188,102 as of 2021, with its metropolitan area reaching 436,500 in 2010. Locals call themselves donostiarra (singular), both in Basque and Spanish. It is also a part of Basque Eurocity Bayonne-San Sebastián.
Alfonso Beorlegui y Canet was a colonel of infantry in the Spanish Army. In the Spanish Civil War, he led the Nationalist forces in the Campaign of Gipuzkoa in August and September 1936.
The Battle of Irún was the critical battle of the Campaign of Gipuzkoa prior to the War in the North, during the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist Army, under Alfonso Beorlegui, captured the city of Irún cutting off the northern provinces of Gipuzkoa, Biscay, Santander, and Asturias from their source of arms and support in France.
Augusto Pérez Garmendia, was a Spanish military man. He was Chief of the Spanish Republican Army General Staff in San Sebastián at the time of the coup d'état of 1936 that gave rise to the Spanish Civil War, although his official post was at Oviedo.
The Spanish Civil War was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists led by a military junta among whom General Francisco Franco quickly achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, a religious struggle, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, and between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.
The Badajoz massacre occurred in the days after the Battle of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War. Between 500 and 4,000 civilian and military supporters of the Second Spanish Republic were murdered by the Nationalist forces after the seizure of the town of Badajoz on August 14, 1936.
The Nationalist faction or Rebel faction was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic and Republican faction and sought to depose Manuel Azaña, including the Falange, the CEDA, and two rival monarchist claimants: the Alfonsist Renovación Española and the Carlist Traditionalist Communion. In 1937, all the groups were merged into the FET y de las JONS. After the death of the faction's early leaders, General Francisco Franco, one of the members of the 1936 coup, headed the Nationalists throughout most of the war, and emerged as the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
The Spanish coup of July 1936 was a military uprising that was intended to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic but precipitated the Spanish Civil War; Nationalists fought against Republicans for control of Spain. The coup was organized for 18 July 1936, although it started the previous day in Spanish Morocco. Instead of resulting in a prompt transfer of power, the coup split control of the Spanish military and territory roughly in half. The resulting civil war ultimately led to the establishment of a nationalist regime under Francisco Franco, who became ruler of Spain as caudillo.
The Biscay Campaign was an offensive of the Spanish Civil War which lasted from 31 March to 1 July 1937. 50,000 men of the Eusko Gudarostea met 65,000 men of the insurgent forces. After heavy combats the Nationalist forces with a crushing material superiority managed to occupy the city of Bilbao and the Biscay province.
The siege of the Loyola barracks was a siege and uprising at the military barracks in the Loyola neighborhood of San Sebastián, Spain, on 21 July 1936. It was part of the Spanish coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic, which led to the start of the Spanish Civil War.
The bombing of Durango took place on 31 March 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. On 31 March 1937 the Nationalists started their offensive against the Republican held province of Biscay. As part of the offensive the Aviazione Legionaria and the Legion Condor bombed Durango, a town of 10,000 inhabitants that was also a key road and railway junction behind the frontline. Around 250 people are believed to have died in the bombing.
Jesus Larrañaga Churruca was a Basque communist union leader who became one of the military leaders during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). He went into exile after the fall of the Republic to the Francoist forces, but later returned to Portugal. He was arrested, handed over to the Spanish and executed by firing squad.
The Brigades of Navarre, also known as Navarrese Brigades, were six brigades composed mainly of Navarrese requeté that participated in the Spanish Civil War. They constituted the main nucleus of the Nationalist Army that carried out the Biscay Campaign, including the decisive battle of Bilbao. Once the brigades won the War in the North, they became divisions.
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