Real Dictators - Franco Part 2: Murder in Africa

Episode Date: May 18, 2021

In 1917, Franco is posted to northern Spain. He courts a local schoolgirl named Carmen. But soon, a charismatic army superior convinces Franco to return to Africa. In Morocco, he brutalises the local population. Climbing the military ranks, Franco becomes something of a celebrity. Meanwhile, Spain itself spirals towards civil war. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. It's 1917. Francisco Franco is just 24 years old. But already this young officer has reached the rank of Major in the Spanish Army. Franco's years of service in North Africa have turbocharged his progression through the military. Fighting as part of the Spanish forces in Morocco is highly dangerous. One year ago, Franco nearly died after taking a bullet to the stomach, but he survived.

And having made it through this turmoil, Franco will soon rise up the chain of command all the way to the very top. My name is Paul McGann, and in this episode we return to early 20th century Spain. This is part two of the Francisco Franco story. And this is Real Dictators. Freshly promoted to major, Francisco Franco is forced into a relocation.

There are no positions at his rank available in Morocco. His only option is to head home, to mainland Spain Franco is posted to the northern city of Oviedo where he takes command of a battalion But despite his new elevated position Franco soon finds he does not receive the same respect at home as he did in North Africa A rift has formed within the Spanish army he does not receive the same respect at home as he did in North Africa. A rift has formed within the Spanish army between two rival groups.

On one hand, the Africanistas. Having served overseas, they believe they are the only soldiers truly dedicated to the future of the Spanish Empire. On the other hand, the Peninsulares, those stationed in mainland Spain on the Iberian Peninsula. The peninsulares view their rival faction as opportunists. They resent how quickly Africanistas are allowed to rise through the ranks. In Oviedo, the 24-year-old Franco suddenly finds himself in command of men much older than himself. The 24-year-old Franco suddenly finds himself in command of men much older than himself.

There are soldiers twice his age who have only just reached the level of major or captain. In Morocco, Franco was respected and even feared. In Oviedo, his meticulously crafted hard-man persona disappears, and he's once again the subject of ridicule. For his diminutive stature and high-pitched voice, his fellow soldiers call him El Comandantin, the Little Major. Franco is struggling to adapt to his new military role. At the same time, beyond the bubble of the army,

Spain at large is in turmoil. Members of the rising Socialist Party begin taking aim at what they call the criminal war in Morocco. There is a growing sense of resentment towards this enormously expensive overseas conflict. Spain has remained neutral in World War I, thus avoiding many of the devastating consequences of total warfare, but the country's economic and supply chains are still impacted by the conflict, wreaking havoc across the globe. Spain faces shortages of commodities. Many civilians see the continued military presence in Morocco as wasteful. Distrust of the central government and of the army is growing.

Separatist movements spring up throughout Spain. This is a country with extremely strong regional identities. Many parts of the country want to become countries in their own right. Returning home from Africa, Franco finds a land that is extremely uneven and unequal. While many regions see their economies struggle, some parts of the country are booming. The coal mining region of Asturias is growing extremely wealthy. Shipbuilding in the northern Basque region is riding high, as is the textile industry in Catalonia.

The elites in the capital Madrid want in on this growth. They push to increase taxation on these burgeoning sectors. This in turn fuels the separatist movements. For now the tension simmers, but before long it will come to the boil. Franco is unhappy in northern Spain. He misses Africa and longs to return. But then, in the late summer of 1917, he attends a local fair. It's here that he meets a slender, dark-eyed girl.

She's the daughter of a wealthy local family. Her name is Carmen Polo. Franco is immediately drawn to Carmen, but several things stand in his way. She's a schoolgirl at a local convent, and as a minor aristocrat, Carmen is above Franco's social station. Her father, Felipe, disapproves of the match. On top of that, Carmen herself is hesitant to accept Francisco's advances because he's a soldier and can be re-stationed at any time. As usual, Franco refuses to take no for an answer. When Carmen returns to school in the autumn, he writes to her repeatedly. The nuns at her convent confiscate the letters,

but still Franco persists. He begins attending the convent's 7am mass. He passes Carmen notes hidden inside the hatband of a mutual friend. He arranges clandestine meetings at cafes, where he slips love letters into her jacket pockets. Eventually, Franco wins over both Carmen and her family. The two begin a courtship. But in September 1918, the affair is abruptly put on pause when Franco is sent away to take part in a mandatory marksmanship course that all army majors must attend.

It's on this course that Franco meets a man who will change his life. He is Major Jose Astray. Astray is 13 years Franco's senior. He's utterly dedicated to the armed forces. In the course of his career, Astray will lose an arm and an eye in battle. His chest bears the scars from multiple bullet wounds. He's a man who demands Franco's respect. As the two men become acquainted, Astray explains to Franco a grand idea that he's been keeping in his back pocket.

An idea he believes will give the Spanish army the cutting edge it needs to regain its former glory. Astray wants to create special units of volunteers for the Spanish campaigns in Africa, in the style of the French Foreign Legion. Dr. Peter Anderson explains. The Spanish Foreign Legion was founded by a man called José Milán Astray. Astray is another figure who was influenced by the loss of colonies, the desire to rebuild Spain through the armed forces, the desire to regenerate Spain.

He's also somebody who sees the army as superior to the civilian population and the army saving Spain from its decadence, if you like. He becomes interested in Japanese military culture, and particularly samurai warriors. And the reason why Astray became interested in this Japanese warrior cult was that he'd looked on the example of Japan, which had been, until the 1860s really, a minor Asiatic power, had built up its armed forces quite quickly through the late 19th

century. This seems to people like Astray as a model for Spain, that Spain somehow now seems like a second-rate power as Japan had done. But through creating an elite military group with the values of warriors, comradeship, being prepared to die for the country, they believed that they could make Spain great again. In June 1920, Astray comes through with a tantalizing job offer. He offers Francisco Franco the position of second-in-command of the brand-new Spanish Foreign Legion.

But first, Franco hesitates. His relationship with Carmen Polo is blossoming. To take up this post would mean returning to Morocco. But the call to potential glory is simply too strong, and eventually he accepts. Franco is about to return to the place he made his name. In October 1920, Franco boards the ferry to North Africa. With him are 200 mercenaries. They are a ragtag group of misfits and outcasts. Many of them are grizzled criminals who care more about escaping prosecution than furthering

the interests of the once mighty Spanish Empire. Franco, a softly spoken 27-year-old, hardly seems the man to turn these desperados into elite soldiers. But both Franco and the Stry believe that these men can redeem themselves through bloodshed. With checkered pasts, these troops have nothing to lose and everything to gain. But to turn these mercenaries into proper soldiers, Franco feels he must first break their spirits through extreme discipline. As the contingent arrives in Africa, Franco lays down the law to his troops,

in no uncertain terms. Men are shot for desertion, and even minor infractions. At one point, a soldier refuses to eat the food given to him at the mess hall and throws it in an officer's face. Franco immediately has the young man killed. He then has every other soldier in the battalion parade past the corpse to remind them of the price for insubordination. Franco's treatment of his own men is harsh, but his actions against the local Moroccan

population are utterly criminally brutal. In 1921, the Riff War begins. This conflict between the Spanish army and Berber tribesmen will last for five blood-soaked years. Franco responds to the enemy's advances with merciless cruelty. Legionnaires under his command decapitate prisoners and exhibit their heads as trophies. Franco and his officers take pride in their sadistic reputation. They are feared, and after a time their reputation alone is enough to keep the

local population at bay. Franco may punish his men for disrespecting army protocol, but he turns a blind eye to their horrendous treatment of civilians. The soldiers are allowed to rob and rape virtually at will as they pass through village after village. This is a major lesson for Franco regarding the power of terror. It's a lesson he will remember during the Spanish Civil War, when he will turn similar tactics onto his own people. For now, the Spanish population back home does not get to see this proudly sadistic side of Franco.

With keen instincts for PR, he's able to ensure that those back on the mainland see him as a hero, not as a war criminal. So the Spanish army had its own newspapers, the Spanish army in Morocco had its own newspapers. He becomes the editor at one point, producing a lot of issues talking about the great exploits of the army in Morocco, sometimes criticizing civilian politicians. He also writes his own diary and has it published in the 1920s. He was also quite interested in new media techniques. He also had his own camera, film camera, and filmed various episodes in the conflict in Morocco, really with the precise aim of promoting himself and promoting his own army. As we know, he was

promoted very rapidly on the battlefield for his bravery. So there's a whole sense in which Franco is both developing his own cult of personality and in which other groups, if you like, particularly newspapers and right-wing figures, are interested in promoting him because they see him as being the poster boy, if you like, for the colonial adventure. All this positive press launches Franco to military stardom. He ties the knot with Carmen Polo in 1923.

The wedding is a highly publicised event. Newspaper cameras are dispersed throughout the crowd. Franco even manages to get King Alfonso XIII to be his best man, albeit the monarch is represented by proxy. The marriage is depicted as something out of a fairy tale. But behind closed doors, there are rumours of trouble. Sir Paul Preston. By the time they married, he'd had a serious wound in the lower abdomen

and there is very serious and plausible speculation that that left him impotent. Now, obviously, I don't know, nobody knows, but there is a lot of speculation that actually his daughter, on whom he doted, was not actually his biological daughter, but that she had been adopted, and that actually she was the daughter of his philandering brother, Ramon. If Franco is struggling in his relationship, he hides it well.

On the outside, he's all smiles and bravado. In any case, he does have ample reason to be happy. In early June of 1923, Franco receives yet another stroke of luck. His senior officer in the Foreign Legion dies in battle. Franco is given command of the Legion During Franco's years at the helm, the Legion will prove decisive in the Rift War In 1925, a series of key Spanish victories effectively ends the conflict For his triumphant role, Franco becomes a national hero in Spain For his triumphant role, Franco becomes a national hero in Spain. In 1926, at the age of just 33, he is promoted to Brigadier General, the youngest man to

hold this rank in the whole armed forces. Most military men would see this as the crowning achievement of their lifetime. But still, Franco wants more. He returns to Spain from Morocco in 1926, to much fanfare. The boy from El Farol, who was bullied as a youngster, is finally the military hero he always dreamt of becoming. Franco is now very much in the good graces of Spain's current leader, a man called Miguel Primo de Rivera. Primo de Rivera is himself a dictator,

albeit one who will ultimately be overshadowed by Franco. He's an aristocrat and a fierce right-winger. Primo believes in country, religion and monarchy. With the support of King Alfonso, he recently overthrew Spain's parliamentary government. Right-wing uprisings are in the air in Europe in the early 1920s. The Spanish coup took place in the aftermath of Benito Mussolini's seizure of power in Italy, and barely two months before Adolf Hitler's Munich Putsch.

Primo and Franco have a lot in common. They're both right-wing authoritarians. They both claim to loathe civilian politicians. They're careful to ally themselves with the king. But they've also had their differences. Primo de Rivera had wanted to withdraw from North Africa, seeing the Spanish campaign there as a failed enterprise. But now, in the mid-1920s, the victory in Morocco has given a boost to Spanish morale.

As the poster boy of the triumph, Franco finds himself back on side with Primo's regime. Dr. Cazorla Sanchez. When Franco comes back from Morocco, he's a satisfied man. He's a general. He's a happy man. He mixes with the big political bosses of the system. He starts playing golf. He's happy. In 1928, Franco is appointed as the head of the General Military Academy.

It's a highly respected role. His job is to bring through the next generation of Spanish soldiers. of the General Military Academy. It's a highly respected role. His job is to bring through the next generation of Spanish soldiers. This gives Franco a prominent platform in public life. Cadets at the Academy are taught conservative nationalist values. They're versed in the glories of the Spanish Empire and of its military.

And they're taught the ferocious combat techniques of Franco's African army. And that're taught the ferocious combat techniques of Franco's African homie. And that's where he creates the officer corps that will fight the civil war. Basically, the education in the military academy in Zaragoza, it's about forming a very right-wing officer corps who believe in his ideas, the idea that the army has the right to dictate domestic politics, that its job is to rebuild the empire, that its job is to eradicate Freemasonry, the Jews. In the end, around 95% of the cadets that fall under Franco's purview will go on to support him during the Spanish Civil War.

Franco teaches them that those on the left are a nefarious force, detrimental to the Spanish way of life. It's a mentality that will be used to justify countless mass executions during the years to come. Franco has carved out a comfortable place within Prima de Rivera's regime. But there's trouble on the horizon. For all his uncompromising rhetoric and brutal policies, Primo is a somewhat incompetent dictator. Economic mismanagement contributes to rising inflation.

The king and the army soon withdraw their support from the government. The Spanish people have tired of Primo de Rivera's rule. He steps down from office in 1930 and dies in Paris shortly thereafter. What happens between 1926 and 1931 is the dictatorship gradually loses support. This is in the context of economic depression, rising political conflict.

Primo de Rivera is unable to retain power. He goes into exile. Some groups of the army had reason or were fearful about a new regime coming into power that might question the army's role and position in society. It's not just the army who find themselves under pressure. The king himself is suffering a significant dip in popularity. With Spain in a tight spot economically, Alfonso seems unnecessarily opulent, an outdated vestige of the past.

Francisco Franco is loyal to the monarchy. The changing public mood presents a major problem. The problem is that the dictatorship at the time, Primo de Rivero dictatorship, and the monarchy itself are in trouble. And this happy, satisfied man suddenly finds himself in 1931 with a republic. The cozy days in which the royal palace, conservative politicians, patrons in the army are over. In 1931, municipal elections are held across Spain. The results are decisive.

The left-leaning Republican Socialist Alliance wins landslide victories in all the large cities. The king follows Prima de Rivera's example and leaves the country in exile. The nation has swung from right to left. The Second Spanish Republic begins. Right from the beginning, Franco despises the Second Republic. As a progressive democracy, it represents everything Franco wants Spain to avoid. Right from the beginning, Franco despises the Second Republic. As a progressive democracy, it represents everything Franco wants Spain to avoid. His ire only grows when the new regime sets its sights on reforming Franco's beloved army.

The new republican government is committed to all kinds of measures that some of the groups in the army are completely opposed to. So one of the things they wanted to do was reduce the total number of generals and commanding officers. They wanted to create a different type of army. They wanted an army that would be subject to civilian control. The new government or the new political system was set on quite a deep-rooted reform, both of the army command structure and the role of the army in civil society. They also wanted to turn the army into an institution that looked after foreign defense and didn't take control of public order issues within Spain. Franco had always believed and always did believe that the army was superior

to civil society. What the Republic represents is an attempt to subordinate the army to civil society and to make it a democratic institution. The leaders of the Second Republic announced that the General Military Academy is to be closed. Franco is the head of this organization. Now he's going to be out of a job. After the military, the next institution to come into the regime's crosshairs is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in Spain for many years had enjoyed privileged position. Catholicism almost had a monopoly on the faith, so other faiths like Protestantism and so on found it very difficult to practice. The church had a very strong role in education, controlled many schools, and the church received great financial help from the

state in all kinds of ways. In a radical new development, the Republic announces the official separation of church and state. So the new Republican government was much more committed to a secular society in which education, for example, would be based on rational scientific procedures rather than religious dogmatism or suspicion. They wanted to limit the role of the church in education. They wanted to limit the role of some of the religious orders. They wanted to reconfigure the relationship between the state and the church. Some Spaniards are horrified by the diminished influence of the church in public life.

Others are delighted. Spain is a country increasingly polarised between right and left, between the religious and the secular. Now, if we remember Franco's childhood, we'll know that his mother was deeply pious and that Franco really modelled himself or took after his mother in many ways, to the point at which, when he had his first communion, he was in tears. So the church was very close to Franco's heart in that sense. So any attempt to reform that relationship or change that relationship

would be seen in quite diabolical ways by Franco. Franco knows which side he's on. But his own brother, Ramon, celebrates the shift towards secularism by joining a band of radicals setting fire to churches across the country. The political situation becomes yet more combustible as sympathy for communism spreads throughout Spain. Strikes become more and more prevalent as workers begin demanding fundamental reforms to society. It's a threat to public order with rising numbers of strikes, political unrest, particularly carried out by anarchist groups.

And groups on the right exploit and magnify some of that unrest to suggest that the Republican Socialist Coalition is unable to maintain public order and that you need a strong government to re-establish the firm rule of law. And that kind of discourse, ending strikes and rebellions, appeals very much to the mindset of somebody like Franco, who's always believed in discipline and control. Franco hates the Second Republic. But while others on the right plot against the government in plain sight He keeps his cards close to his chest

This allows him to retain his senior influence in the military While many of his colleagues are thrown out for insubordination and treason He's unhappy, but he's afraid He doesn't want to put his career at risk. Franco's caution proves to be a shrewd tactic. The situation is so polarized, so tempestuous, that in November 1933, Spain lurches once more across the political spectrum. After more elections, the right-wing conservative alliance,

SEDA for short, comes into government Once again, Franco finds himself in a favourable position The stakes are getting higher and higher The socialists begin openly praising communism and discussing a revolution of their own This frightens members of the middle and upper classes, Franco included. But for those on the left, the rising Seder group are frighteningly similar to Hitler and Mussolini. They're extreme nationalists who must be removed. On the surface, the CEDA, this data, said that it was merely trying to carry out reform from within the parliamentary system. But it also gave off the message that it didn't really like the republic, that it wanted to overthrow the republic and

replace the republic with a different type of political system. And you have to view this issue in the context of what's happening in wider Europe. We've obviously got the case of Italy, where Mussolini had come to power, and in Austria, right-wing groups were also coming to power and overthrowing political systems. So there was a suspicion that something similar could happen in Spain. In the coal mining region of Asturias, socialists and anarchists team up and orchestrate an enormous strike. The revolt sees 58 churches burned down. Businessmen are held hostage, 31 right-wing supporters and clergymen are murdered in barbaric fashion.

Franco bemoans this behavior, calling the strike the first step towards the implantation of communism in our nation. Groups of Republicans and socialists and other political factions planned a revolt for when this new government would come into power. It was rather ill-coordinated and badly executed, but one of the areas where it did take off was in the Asturian coal fields. It's rather hilly and mountainous, and the miners were able to take over those mountainous areas and defend them. For groups on the right, Asturias became the symbol of a revolution. And by revolution, they meant an attempt by far-left groups to overthrow the political system and install

some kind of Soviet communism. The government that was in power was largely a right-wing government. They decide that they're going to suppress the revolt. The government that was in power was largely a right-wing government. They decide that they're going to suppress the revolt. The question is, how do you suppress a revolt in this mountainous terrain with large numbers of quite well-armed miners? There's only one man for the job. Francisco Franco is charged with the military response. Now, the Minister of War at the time, instead of using his own staff, had been so impressed by Franco that he brings him to Madrid and he sets him up in an office next to his own in the Ministry of War and basically says to him, look, this is not my scene really, I don't know what to do. You draft the decrees, the instructions that you want me to put out, and I will do it. So basically, Franco, in the shadows, without any formal legal power, has totally dictatorial powers during the repression of

the uprising in Asturias. And Franco gets on-the-job training as a dictator. And that's another major step forward in this idea he has of his destiny to be in charge. Franco approaches the strike as he would a battle. He expects his men to treat the Asturian miners as if they were a foreign enemy. 20,000 troops are deployed. Many of these soldiers are selected from Franco's notorious African army.

Meanwhile, the Spanish navy has authorized a bomb Asturias' main towns and cities. The revolutionaries commit their own atrocities. They kill people, but the law and order forces multiply those atrocities by a lot. So at the end of the day, 1,500 people are dead. And Franco and other officers who participated in this repression become idols of the right in the newspapers, etc. The revolutionary strikers finally surrender on October the 19th. But Franco isn't finished.

Thousands of trade union members are fired from their jobs and imprisoned. In jail, they're tortured, while those suspected of conspiracy are executed without trial. We know that about 30,000 people were imprisoned as a result of the repression that was carried out. Some of them were subjected to military tribunals. Military society believed it was superior and should control civil society. So the use of military trials is important in that regard. But it's also important because military trials have fewer legal protections and you might get in a civil prosecution are much more likely to hand down death sentences. This is also something that we're going to see repeated in the civil war. So I think it's an

important precedent that reveals much about Franco's thinking, how he wants to behave and how he's going to exercise power. The Asturias uprising and its bloody put-down are another step towards the total societal breakdown that is, by now, just around the corner. The middle classes move further to the right, fearing a communist revolution in Spain. Some members of SEDA become more extreme in their tone. They openly praise Hitler and Mussolini, claiming that only a totalitarian party can protect Spain from the left.

Meanwhile, on the left, the failure of the revolution convinces people that they must formally unite to form a vast electoral bloc. Only by doing this can they hope to win power at the ballot box and stave off civil war. A sweeping left-wing alliance is formed, called the Popular Front. It includes socialists, communists and republicans. In this incredibly fraught atmosphere, left and right must once again fight for control of the country in the elections of 1936.

In the end, the left-wing coalition is broad enough to win. The Popular Front emerges victorious. This sends the right into a paranoid spiral. In the end, the Popular Front wins a victory, claims power. This causes a crisis for groups on the right. What seems to have happened is that the whole policy of trying to control the state by winning control of Parliament seems to have failed. And quite a few groups on the right conclude that it's a strategy that won't work anymore. That's why over the spring of 1936, we see a lot of right-wing groups and individuals

who move from political parties that had supported a parliamentary approach towards supporting groups or organisations that were prepared to carry out an armed revolt. So most infamously or famously of all, young members of the CEDA start to defect to an organization known as the Falange, which was a kind of Spanish fascist looming party which is prepared to use armed violence.

We also have other groups like the Carlists, who were a group of traditionalists. Monarchists also preparing to use violence to overthrow the political system. For Francisco Franco, the election of the Popular Front is a bridge too far. He immediately becomes involved in planning a coup d'etat. In February 1936, when there are new elections and the left wins, he's trying to organise a military coup. He's very lucky not to be put in jail for life or to be shot for what he did. But again,

very slippery, very clever, he gets out of it. I mean, there are all kinds of legal subterfuges that he uses. There's a whole series of generals who, in the aftermath of the left-wing victory in the elections of February 1936, get together very soon after to start plotting for the civil war. Franco is now an obvious threat. Knowing he's a wildly popular figure on the right, the ministers in the left-wing government decide to send him as far away from Madrid as possible. The location they have in mind is a remote Spanish-administered archipelago on the North Atlantic Ocean, 70 miles off the northwest African coast. It's off to the Canary Islands for Francisco Franco. He's lucky that the government of the Republic treats him very gently.

He's sent as military commander of the Canary Islands, which is a good job. But it's a way of putting him away, of giving him a position according to his rank, but where they think he could be less dangerous because they don't trust him any longer. They know that there are conspiracies out there. They know who more or less is behind that. From his new vantage point, far away in the Atlantic, Franco watches on as Spain edges closer to all-out civil war. But still, Franco has his doubts.

He believes that in order for any coup to succeed, the conspirators must have the Spanish Civil Guard, the National Police, on their side. Franco is slippery and cautious at all times. Because of his track record in the Moroccan army, the assumption is he will take control of the Moroccan army in the military coup that is to come. But as it gets near the time, he has doubts. He's had doubts all along because his experience made it clear to him

that no military coup could possibly succeed without the Civil Guard. And therefore, he's not prepared to commit himself without some conviction that the Civil Guard will be on board. And this leads to immense frustration on the part of the other generals who were involved. And so this is where the joke comes that they started to call him Miss Canary Islands 1936, because he was in the Canary Islands. And so the idea was that he was being flirtatious in the manner of a beauty queen. But despite his reticence, an event is about to occur which will force Franco out of the shadows.

On July 13th, 1936, the right-wing opposition leader, a man called José Calvo Sotelo, is murdered. The killing of such a prominent figure is shocking in itself. is murdered. The killing of such a prominent figure is shocking in itself. But what so enrages the right is that Calvo Sotelo's killers were policemen working in collaboration with socialist gunmen. Calvo Sotelo was an extreme authoritarian nationalist. To many he was a terrifying figure. Still, he was the constitutionally elected opposition leader, and his murder is a huge

escalation. Just days later, on July 17th 1936, the Spanish Civil War officially begins. Right-wing agitators in the military finally rise up and declare their coup. It will prove to be an apocalyptic showdown as the left-wing Republicans line up against the right-wing nationalists. Franco knows that it's then or never. If he doesn't join,

he's going to be sidelined by his own colleagues. But if he remains lawyer to the Republic, the Republic never is going to trust him. So it is very clear for him that the less dangerous course of action is to join the rebellion. And this is what he does. Any lingering doubts are dispelled. Francisco Franco is all in. He knows he needs to get back to Spain as soon as possible, to add his heft to the war effort.

But before heading home, he wants to make a detour to North Africa. The Spanish Foreign Legion is still stationed in Morocco. They're a huge force, just waiting for a leader to mobilize them and take them over the sea to Spain. The Republicans control most of Spain's ports and major cities. The Nationalists only control about one third of the country. To win the civil war, the Nationalists need reinforcements. They need the Army of Africa to arrive on the peninsula. If Franco can make it from the Canary Islands to Morocco,

he can once more assume command of the Foreign Legion. But it's easier said than done. The Republicans are watching Franco's every move. He cannot simply charter a plane or hire a boat. He must smuggle himself to Morocco, undetected. On the 19th of July 1936, he gets his chance. In the next episode of Real Dictators, In an upscale London restaurant, an MI6 intelligence agent and a Spanish journalist hatch a daring plan to assist Francisco Franco. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini lend their weight to the nationalist cause.

Back on Spanish soil, Franco begins the process of conquering his homeland, butchering his enemies as he goes. As he closes in on Madrid, the tyrant in waiting is already thinking of the future, as he lays the groundwork for a 40-year dictatorship. That's next time on Real Dictators. Real Dictators is presented by me, Paul McGann. The story of Francisco Franco was written and produced by Addison Nugent. The show was created by Pascal Hughes,

produced by Joel Doudal, editing and music by Oliver Baines, with strings recorded by Dory McCauley, sound design and mix by Tom Pink, with edit assembly by George Tapp. Follow Noiser Podcasts on Twitter for news about upcoming series. If you haven't already, follow us wherever you listen to your favorite shows

or check us out at realdictators.com. Tune in on Wednesdays for new episodes.