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, Beorlegi 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. After bloody combats, the resisting forces were overwhelmed: thousands of civilians and militia-men fled in panic across the French border on September 3, 1936.[1] The town was occupied that day. Beorlegui was wounded, and died a month later.
Enraged by their lack of ammunition, retreating anarchists burned parts the city.[1] The Nationalists followed this up with the capture of San Sebastián on September 13. The dying General Beorlegi could still preside over the parade of triumphant far-right rebel troops entering the city with no fighting.
A sizable number of the city's 80,000 inhabitants fled on an exodus towards Biscay. British field-journalist George L. Steer sets the figure of the terrified population fleeing to Bilbao at 30,000.[8] Basque Nationalist Party officials arranged for the final orderly evacuation of the city before its fall, holding back the anarchists, small in number, who were planning to wreak havoc.[8]
Despite their evacuation, 485 were killed at the city as a result of pseudo-trials mounted by the Spanish rebel troops in the aftermath of the city's occupation up to 1943, but during the first months of occupation approximately 600 were murdered in paseos (extrajudicial executions).[9][10] Among them, Steer cites the execution of seventeen priests of Basque nationalist sympathies.[11] 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,[12] and the exhaustion of the Nationalists resulted in an end of the offensive until the War in the North began.[13]
Aftermath
The Nationalists conquered 1,000 square miles of terrain and many factories. Furthermore, they cut off the Basques from sympathetic France.[14] Then, Indalecio Prieto, the Republican minister of defense sent the Republican fleet to the northern ports in order to prevent a rebel blockade.[15] On occupation during September, a Comisión Gestora or Management Commission was appointed by the rebels 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.[11] 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.[16] 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.[17] The occupiers also purged the Provincial Council (Diputación/Aldundia) resulting in the expulsion 1,051 civil servants and workforce, 123 of them railway operators.[18]
The hatred underlying the crackdown was evidenced by the assassination of José Ariztimuño 'Aitzol' (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.[17]
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 one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936 that started the Spanish Civil War.
José Sanjurjo y Sacanell was a Spanish general who was one of the military leaders who plotted the July 1936 coup d'état 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 the campaign of the Spanish Civil War in which the Nationalist forces defeated and occupied the parts of northern Spain that had remained loyal to the Republican government.
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.
José Solchaga Zala was a Spanish general who fought for the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.
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, and consisted of various socialist, communist, separatist, anarchist, and republican parties, some of which had opposed the government in the pre-war period. 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 had many facets and 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. According to Claude Bowers, U.S. ambassador to Spain during the war, it was the "dress rehearsal" for World War II. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.
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 July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona was a mutiny that occurred in Barcelona, the capital and largest city of Catalonia, in the Second Spanish Republic from 19 to 21 July 1936. It was one of the main events that marked the start of the Spanish Civil War.
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.
Camilo Alonso Vega was a Spanish military officer and minister.
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