The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1135: An Overview of the Spanish Civil War - Part 2 - W/ Karl Dahl

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

72 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl and Pete conclude a brief series that provides a summary of the events leading up to, during, and following the Spanish Civil War.Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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head on over to freeman Beyond the Wall.com forward slash support. I want to explain something right now if you support me through Substack or Patreon. You have access to an RSS feed that you can plug into any podcatcher, including Apple, and you'll be able to listen to the episodes through there. If you support me through Subscrib Star, Gumroad, or on my website directly, I will send you a link where you can download the file and you can listen to it any way you wish.

I really appreciate the support everyone gives me. It keeps the show going. It allows me to basically put out an episode every day now, and I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to accelerate. I think sometimes you see that I'm putting out two, even three a day. And, yeah, can't do it without you.

So thank you for the support. Head on over to freeman beyond the wall.com forward slash support and do it there. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone back to the Pekingueno show, part two of the Spanish Civil War with Carl. What's going on, Carl? Hey, Pete. Happy Monday.

Happy Monday, man. Let's do this. It's going to release us tomorrow, so this will be nice and fresh for people. Awesome. Not like we're going to sit on it for a while. So, yeah, let's pick up right where we left off. And the bullet points came to, we just talked about Portugal. And now, let's just pick right up where we left off.

The North Falls, 1937. Madrid and its northeastern flank in Guadalajara, hold against relentless assault. Franco's strategic focus, the capture of Madrid, leads to a grinding struggle over several months which sees no improvement in the nationalist situation. After failed nationalist offenses in Yarrama and Guadalajara cause heavy Spanish and Italian casualties, successes elsewhere, such as the taking Amalaga, and a large swath of territory in southern Spain, encouraged national.

forces to look elsewhere for more vulnerable threats. The nationalist strategy shifts mostly away from fixation upon prestige targets and toward attrition warfare. And I'll point out one thing there, Pete. This is often with an asterisk, like, to the great frustration of his allies and commentators, because you'll see the reference. In Guadalajara, there were heavy Spanish and Italian casualties across those two battles. The Italians and the Germans wanted to smash this pass at Guadalajara.

And Franco, after initial struggles, didn't think it was going to pan out. And the Italians kind of went for it anyway, dictating what the strategy would be. I should say the Italians and the Germans who were. supporting in the air. And this really pissed off Franco. And he, there's debates on whether he had committed to provide forces and didn't, or if he originally said, I don't think there's an operation there. And they expected to come save them. And it was more of a, he brought enough of a force so that they could have a controlled retreat. And the Italians took heavy casualties. that so not only was it a change in their strategy but it was one of the times that it was one of the first visible instances where his foreign allies tried to push strategic and operational moves that Franco didn't agree with and he reined them in and he very successfully reined them in pretty much for the rest of the war it's a sore spot with the folks that look

at the Spanish Civil War from a non-Spanish focus if their orientation is towards these allies and you know all out of caveat that we should you know and do respect their sacrifices it's still

a Spanish war being run by the Spanish so that was a very interesting thing that is a big sticking point in pretty much all of the histories that you'll read and it's pretty clear that it was Franco asserting himself there. It wasn't, the strategy wasn't working. And so he changed his,

his strategy accordingly, which was highly successful after long periods of trying to do what they were kind of telling him to do and it not really working. Okay. All right. The war in the north, Republican forces in Basque country cut off by land with little resupply and reinforcement, coming by sea due to blockade are slowly whittled down by Rickete militias, the Navarre Brigade, and later nationalist army columns and Italian troops in the West. Entire units of Catholic Basque conscript surrender to then join their cousins in the nationalist Ricketts. Yeah, small point there is that the kind of the kind of retrospective, retrospective Basque nationalist position is that, you know, oh, they were so put upon by Franco.

And actually, uh, the early recetes were largely Basque and they made quick converts because you could be in a labor battalion or prison camp or dead or you could hang out with your fellow traditionalist Catholics. And the, and the Basque were, uh, the, the, kind of Basque nationalist piece up in Basque country was very divided between these kind of traditionalists and the socialists who were part of the real Republican orientation. That was a big division between the two. And so it was an easy move to move over and away from the kind of, there weren't as many indignities and atrocities in the north by the Republic because they were tempered by this kind of traditionalist Catholic Basque,

you know, the bulk of the population, but they still weren't big fans of those people. And especially, as you pointed out the last time we talked, Pete, like they would just tell you what they thought, right? like nobody was mincing words. And so the Catholics very quickly saw the light and came over to the, the recetes and the Navarre Brigade, because it was a much better deal for them than persisting in the delusion that they could,

that they could win. All right. Combined arms operations, coordination between ground troops, armor and aviation are born, enabled by improvements in and availability of mobile radios. One of the Republic's greatest errors in the North is reliance upon press-ganged monarchist engineers in the development of defensive fortifications around Basque Country. Captain Pablo Murga is executed November 19, 1936, for providing plans of the fortifications to an Austrian consul Wilhelm de Wokanig, who is himself arrested and executed by the Republic.

On February 27, 1937, Captain Alejandro Goiko Eheia, goykoihea. Good job. Yeah, well, you put the pronunciation there. You have to. Who only wants to work on trains, crosses to front with a group of Carlos' sympathy. and a prearranged surrender of the Fourth Brigade of Navarre. He delivers detailed plans on the fortifications around Bilbao, known alternately as the iron belts in Spanish,

the iron ring in English, and the iron French offense in Basque. Iron belt hits hardest, sorry, guys, including the locations of vulnerabilities he deliberately engineered into its construction. Yeah, so it's, it's, this is a story that, like, you'll just get this little brief thing that he went over in your kind of English language summary histories, but the Spanish material that Goico Aheia was like a big wheel in Spain for decades and a major player in transportation and the like. His innovations are everywhere today and a lot of them are becoming fulfilled as technology and metallurgy and stuff advances. I have a fun little article

about him on my substack for anyone who's interested, but he literally just wanted to work on trains and they wouldn't let him. He would say this like up to his death, total autist. And all anyone wants to talk about in interview, the rare interview with him in Spanish television in the 60s and 70s is about this period in history and all he wants to talk about is trains. He's so delightful. You catch them in the corner of your eye. Distinctive by design. They move you.

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That's really cool. Someone who knows what his strength is just like, and just, this is my lane. I'm staying in it. He called himself an enemy of war. And so the fact that they tried to make him participate in a war that he opposed, he just swore eternal hostility to them. But he also just set it out of his mind. Now freed from distraction, Goeko Ihea is set loose to work on transportation infrastructure projects for the nascent nationalist government.

He goes on to revolutionize rail transportation with his Talgo trains and his innovations still see fruition as technology catches up to his brilliant mind. Guicoixo was given a great deal of leeway by Francisco Franco, who saw him and his inventions as exemplars of Spanish science and industry. While aerial bombings of urban areas are carried out by both the nationalist and Republican forces throughout Spain, atrocity propaganda reaches its 20th century pinnacle when military targets in the historic vast city of Guernica. Is it pronounced Guernica? Yeah. Hornica? Yeah. Are bombed by German and Italian aircraft.

In addition to Republican soldiers, many civilians are killed and much of the town destroyed. Red journalist George Stier passes on in his reporting from the scene, the inflated figure of 1654 killed and 889 wounded. Although current consensus driven by thorough post-Franco investigators is a mere 153 deaths. Nationalist press liaisons reveal their ineptitude by first blowing off the claims of having bombed the city at all, blaming the destruction entirely upon retreating Republican forces, the standard tactic of demolishing corridors as both a delaying tactic and a temper tantrum, when in fact the Luftwaffe documented their bombing operation in great detail. Yeah, it's a, this is one of the most complicated, um,

of the war overall. And so I, and it's really unfortunate that the nationalists like just completely denied it. Or I should say the nationalist press, uh, liaisons completely denied it. But, um, it did happen. But again, a lot of it was very clearly, uh, Republican, a lot of the damage was Republican, um, behavior as well. It was, it was their MO. Oh, right.

Side note, Pablo Picasso's now famous painting, Guernica, said to have shook up the world that the 1937 Paris's World Fair as a protest against the senseless bombings of the historic Basque city for no reason by evil mustache man had actually been a flop disdained by the global public, the Spanish, and the Basque. A heavy propaganda campaign persisted with the peace touring Great Britain in 1938's a little fanfare, a 1939 tour of the United States with the Spanish relief campaign saw critics continue to dismiss it. Only during a wildly successful touring show of a large Picasso collection begun in New York in November 1939 as war-raged in Europe,

that the propaganda campaign finally succeed in elevating this piece to its now historically relevant position. It is alleged in older pieces that Guernica was originally inspired by the Peninsular War as a general commentary on war and repurposed by Spanish repurposed by Spanish Republican propagandists after the bombing. And I'm trying to find exactly where I've seen that. I've seen it in multiple places. I know Kemp makes a reference to it.

I've seen it in other written records, but I'm having trouble finding it right now, which is the joy of having read so many pieces. So that's something I'm going to correct. And once I find it, I think I'll have an article on my substack about all these kind of controversies and arguments about Guernica

and just the fact that the propaganda campaign finally succeeded once World War II was kicking off. But that was hugely due to just, like, media promotion of it, because they tried and tried and tried, as you've explained. And it finally took when World War II had already started. And a typically courageous and honorable move, Rickettsia forces from the Terseo of Begonia first to capture one. and the warnika two days after the bombing and circled the historic tree of Guernica and protected from phalanists from other parts of Spain who wished to fell the symbol of basque nationalism under which the lords of biscay swore their oaths to the foeros for 500 years yeah so it's actually a fun story in a true story that came out of written records from veterans of the navarre brigades uh that this happened and a nice little fist fight between officers ensued. So, yeah, it's one of these very interesting sore spots where the kind of the respect for the various expressions of locality

as long as they didn't actually undermine the collective nationalism were kind of settled during the war. The Decretto, April 19, 1937. The Falange and Carlos Ricketts are formally unified into the Falange Espanola traditionalista and the desolate and las junta's offensive nationaliz national national syndicalista. Yeah, it's a brutal mouthful, but it's literally just they take the the traditionalist group and then smush around it, like envelop the traditionalist party name with Falun Gay. And then it was the Falun Gay de las Yons, right?

And so they just crammed everything together. And it's everyone like laughs about it. But the real point of it is what follows. One party, one army, one, State. Falungest and carless units still fight under the command of their own officers and are allowed to use their own symbols through the end of the war, but the militias are fully incorporated into the nationalist armies command and logistic structure. And post-war, they're able to use those symbols as well. And then from then on, so the veterans' organizations can, you know, wear those colors. But after the war, the Spanish military is standardized, where, it's strictly the symbols that the leadership selects. So it was a tip of the hat to how they got there.

And rather than trying to suppress one or the other, it was a pretty small move to allow people to keep their symbols. Because keep in mind, Franco was non-ideological. These groups may have been ideological, although I would guess that most of the actual fighters weren't particularly ideological other than like the outcomes that they were trying to get. So it's just, it's a very big thing for us all to think about as we go into this new world. The May Days in Catalonia, fighting between the more libertarian anarchists, the communists, and the Benton, C&C, FAL. Is that FAAI, right? FAA. Yeah. Ends in Republican consolidation of power over Catalonia and a renewed focus upon

the collective fight against the nationalists. As this tradition, this translates into the communist forces forcing the less radical and libertarian elements to submit or die. The decree to unify the militias went out in 1936, but the rule became de facto during the course of 1937 with the Brigidas Mixeda mixed brigades combining militias and the remains of international brigades with regular army troops. The last of the holdouts are liquidated by commissars. And for the average person in one of these militias, like they're just going to get with the program, but it was the the commissars were going after the particularly the, the anarchists did not have commissars per se, but they had kind of natural leaders who would, you know, spit game as, as it were,

regarding what their ideology was. And those people were just eliminated if they didn't just shut up and get with the program. So you see the comparison where under the nationalists, you're allowed to keep your symbols and your, you know, your songs and you're talking. points as long as you're part of the operation, whereas with the Republicans, like, the ideology is the important thing. The symbols are the important thing. You catch them in the corner of your eye. Distinctive. By design. They move you. Even before you drive. The new Cooper plug-in hybrid range for Mentor, Leon, and Teramar. Now with flexible PCP finance and trade. in boosters of up to 2,000 euro.

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Search Trump-Ireland gift vouchers. Trump on Dunbiug, Kush Farage. Right. June 3rd, 1937, General Mola, commander of the armies of the North and champion of the Carlos traditionalists perishes in an airplane accident. June 19th, Bilbao, the capital of Baskaya, falls to the nationalist after months of heavy fighting. July 6th, in an attempt to seize nationalist territory and divert their forces in the north, the Republican Army launches an offensive west of Madrid, forced upon Brunette.

Republican forces are ultimately routed at a loss of 25,000 men. And this will become a pattern when the Republicans attempt an offensive. August 24th, to the eastern Aragon, Republican forces conceive of an offensive internationalist territory in the direction of Zaragoza, the province's capital. In a grinding battle against heavy resistance, the offensive stalls, for propaganda purposes, the Republic and their tame, gay, retard journalist Ernest Hemingway, dubbed the failed offensive, the Battle of Bilschite, yeah. Belchite, Belchite being the destroyed town that they finally capture on September 6th, despite the resistance of both nationalist and civilian defenders. The Republican price for a bit of strategically useless territory is nearly 9,000 casualties and a heavy loss in equipment. August 26th, the city of Santander falls to nationalist troops supported by a substantial force of Italians. 60,000 Republican soldiers are captured.

October 21st, Gihon, Asturias, the last toehold of the Republic in the North, falls to the Nationalists. The Nationalist Army, fresh from victory in the North, retools and reorganizes with new equipment and tactical capabilities. The Republican Army, fresh from getting wrecked, retools and reorganizes under its ideologically pure communist officers trained in Russia. So if you look at the timeline, just to kind of summarize what brought us here, when the war kicks off at the very beginning, the nationalists only hold the territory that they hold. There's that kind of band in the northern areas, not counting, you know, Basque country. And then little toeholds. And then towards the end of 1936 and 1937, it's consolidation of these holdings kind of in a westward flank and slowly, slowly whittling away and making gains. All the kind of militias had to do before the nationalist, you know, the bulk of nationalist forces coming from the Army of Africa is hold these.

territories. And then what do they do? They continue to hold them. The army continues to hold these territories. And then they just grind out the north. A lot of that, though, again, like I made reference to, as a lot of it is large Basque forces going over and basically, you know, continuing to wear the red beret just as recetes and nationalist troops.

So it's a big focus. The rest of the Republican forces are kind of just trying to hold on to what they have and consolidate into a single force. And just failing any time they try to do any kind of offensive operations. Terrell, December 37th, February through February 1938, the Republican, army, desperate for a successful battle and needing to secure the nationalist's most obvious gateways of the south, drove into the remote capital during heavy snowfall. Nationalist forces prudently withdraw into the most defensible part of town, but General Franco orders that it be retaken. No provincial capital can fall to the Republicans.

Due to the coldest winter in 20 years, the nationalist response stalls, and a relief force is not able to attack until December 29th. Worsetting weather, the temperature drops to zero degrees Fahrenheit minus 18 Celsius and four feet to 120 centimeters of snowfalls, keeps aviation largely grounded and prevents the Nationalist from retaken the city. The besieged nationalist defenders surrender on January 8th, which allows the civilian population to be evacuated through nationalist lines. The weather eases up and the nationalist now 100,000 strong in the immediate air. begin to capture territory around the city where Republican forces are weakest. On February 7th, one of the last mass cavalry charges in the history of warfare breaks the

Republican defenses to the north of the town and scatters them. The Nationalists take thousands of prisoners and massive stocks of weapons and equipment. They slowly encircle Teruel over the following weeks. When they take the city on February 22nd, they capture 14,500 men and some of the best weapons left in the Republican arsenal. While both sides take similarly heavy casualties from combat, illness, and the cold, the defeat breaks the back of the Republican Army while the Nationalists immediately launch a new offensive.

Yeah, the other thing here, too, focusing on the weapons and equipment that are captured, this is like armor. So the nationalists really enjoyed taking captured Soviet tanks. and armored cars and the like, guns, anti-tank guns, et cetera. They preferred them in a lot of cases because they were so simple and easy to train with, whereas like a lot of the German stuff, they'd have complicated optics that were more complicated than necessary from, you know, when you're talking about the ranges that are involved in an effective range for like an anti-tank gun, right?

So it's really interesting because the nationalists immediately put these weapons to use. They have fuel and they have people to operate them, whereas the Republic, you know, is, you know, they have to get things delivered by sea or coming over the border from France. And, you know, the Soviets are pretty stingy after their initial deliveries of armor and a lot of more modern stuff. So it just becomes this grind where this this becomes the repeated pattern that you just continue to see for the rest of the year. Let me ask you a question. Back in the middle of the paragraph, it says the besieged nationalist defenders surrender on January 8th, which allows the civilian populations be evacuated through the nationalist lines.

What do you mean by surrender there? Okay. So they gave up the last of their toehold in the city. So what they did is they held a position, they held positions and allowed the population to retreat because they had a connection to their own lines. By having, because remember, they secured all this territory around the outskirts of the city. So they just pulled out of the city, you know, these just completely annihilated remnants of the town. you can see images of it online. And then the last of them that ended up being trapped farther into and encircled within the town.

They surrendered. And then the retaking of the town happened. Because what would take place is that the Republicans were so focused on, we have to take the town. Whereas the nationalists had this more long-term strategic view of what do we actually get? So they did have a lot of holdouts that were captured or killed. They wanted the population to be able to get out through channels that they had established with the contact that the nationalists had made with them. They didn't have enough forces to Russia and it wasn't worth it to try to hold more of the town or fight when they could withdraw and then isolate those people. It's interesting.

There's great Wikipedia articles on it with good maps. Oh, cool. All right. In February 1939, one of the last official acts of the Republican government is the execution of the commander of the nationalist defenders of Teruel, Ray Dark Court, along with the Bishop of Teruel, and 41 other heroic prisoners who held out for so long. Man. Yeah. they just

they fucking love killing people they're that's all they are yeah so you you hold out and so what do they do they hold them they hold them as prisoners for a while and then and it was literally

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12 month minimum terms, standard pricing thereafter. TV and broadband sold separately. Terms apply for more infoosies sky.a slash speeds. You know, our democracy. Yeah. Yeah. When it comes down to it,

these are the... These are the people that, um, the spiritual brothers and sisters of the ones that won World War II. Yeah. And, um, yeah, we, um, been so fucking brainwashed into, well, you know, Hitler was worse than them. So, you know, it's a good thing they didn't. It's a good thing.

You know, we have to choose, we have to choose one, apparently. So let's take, you know, let's take the ones that, um, brought us trans kids and, you know, all the fucking shit that we put up with now. Yeah, exactly. These are the spiritual forefathers of everything that we're dealing with now. But hey, hey, you know, Germany had a problem with one group. It gets worse. The shift of focus into Aragon underscores Franco's intent to ignore Madrid for the time being

and instead smashed a Spanish Republican army through attrition rather than attempt a knockout blow, which frustrates his German and Italian allies, though it better serves Franco's goal of cleansing Spain. Because you need a lasting victory. You need a lasting victory. Yeah. You know, what's funny is I was listening to John Harris on the Conversations at Matter podcast, Christian podcast. He was interviewing Paul Gottfried today. And you understand why Paul Gottfried is ignored, I mean, hated by the left, but also ignored by the right. When he starts talking about solutions. Yeah.

And he says, you know, the only way forward is the left in this country has to be utterly defeated. Yeah. There can't be a trace of them left. There can't be a trace of whatever it is that they're pushing and they believe left. And on the right, can't hear that. There's an interesting thing that takes place nowadays when you talk about the Spanish Civil War is there's people that are upset that Franco didn't just like murder all of them, which he wasn't going to do anyway because of his religious convictions.

This is as close as you're going to get. I remember you and I were talking, oh gosh, some time ago, and you made a reference to a quote that had been attributed to Franco where he said something like he was willing to shoot like 20% of the country or have 20% of the country shot, something like that. And what it was a reference to is the percentile of hardcore revolutionaries that were in the country. And so when you see what happened with the war, when they turned it into, oh, well, you know, we can resolve this through. combat operations, it's this great heat sink where all the zealots are going to be fighting. The people who are, you know, just kind of along because that's the, you know, the thing, or because they get drafted or, you know, they're told that it's the norm. You know, they're not really going to be a problem in the future and can just be dealt with.

They can, they'll get back to work and so on and so forth. but those real enemies were the ones that were annihilated, you know, through combat. And so, you know, the main thing with Spain is that it's, you know, no man is an island, no country is completely isolated. You know, the external world moved on, you know, the United States State Department sure whittled away on the Franco government and the like. So it's one of those criticisms where they did pretty much the best that. they could. There was no scenario where you get a great cleansing that the same people will also

accurately state did not happen in Germany, but somehow will wish that they had done it or as a critique, right, of Spain. And it's like there was no scenario where that was going to happen. The outside world wouldn't have allowed it either, particularly the British. On March 7th, the Nationalists launched the Aragon Offensive and Steamroll South 3. Aragon, eastern Valencia, province, and western Catalonia, and no small part due to strong support from German, Italian, and Spanish ground attack aircraft. The beleaguered Republicans are slowly mopped up and the nationalist reached the Mediterranean Sea on April 14th. By April 19th, they control 37 miles, 60 kilometers of coastland, and Catalonia has been isolated from the rest

of the republic. And I made that reference to combined arms operation. before and they were born before, but they really become polished in the Oregon offensive. There's really very interesting write-ups from the German perspective on how they kind of established the doctrine that we saw a lot of in World War II by the Germans. It was just, it was really impressive, and it comes down to having more portable radios and communications between forward air controller aircraft. I mean, the United States uses the same doctrine today. I mean, not exactly the same, but you know what I mean. France's government reopens the Spanish frontier March 17th and sends 18,000 tons of war

material into Catalonia. With a new round of conscription for males aged 16 and up, and retreating forces consolidated, Catalonia's remaining manpower is organized into the Ebro army. May, the Republican government defended in Valencia behind the impressive XYZ or Matayana line. Fortifications ringing the city and surrounding Iberian system mountain range sues for peace. General Franco declines and demands unconditional surrender. So they were very impressive defensive fortifications. And they sued for peace because they knew what a, you know, what a nightmare. it would be for the Nationalists to try to grind through it. And they were trying. They were trying.

But that wasn't going to happen. It was not going to be a split country. The Battle of the Ebro, the fall of the Republic. The Nationalist focused upon Valencia, hold the Catalonian front along the Ebro River with a light complement of units and little fortification. Condor Legion reconnaissance flights and Spanish Legion scouts on the ground alert Nationalist forces to a Republican troop build-up along the Ebro River. The standard English-language historians take as the warning went unheeded, but some military analysts and Spanish sources claim that the resulting assault was permitted. The night of July 4th, the night of July 24th through 25th, while the moon is down, the Ebro Army consisting of the 5th and 15th Army Corps, crosses the

Ebro River at low points or via assault boats, pontoon bridges, and some established crossings along the river's eastern bulge, where Aragon and Catalonia meet, a natural border defined by the river and surrounding mountains. At Amposta, to the south, near the sea where the river is wider and swifter, a secondary assault by the 14th International Brigade fails after 18 hours of combat. By July 26, the northern assault advances three miles west, and at the Great Eastward bulge, 21 miles northwest, deep into mountainous territory. Nationalist reinforcements sweep in with eight divisions and more than 240 aircraft to encircle and hold the oncoming Republican troops, driving them off the navigable roads and destroying their vehicles. Republican infantry and tanks arrive via the northern route on the outskirts of their target, the town of Gundessa, a great crossroads by which they hope to break through the narrow nationalist salient

and reach Republican territory to the west. Their ultimate delusion, you comment, delusional goal is to either secure concessions by forcing the surrender of trap nationalist forces along the coastline or to reinforce Madrid and hold that for international support. Yeah, completely delusional. They were cut off from the Valencia. Valencia was not quite encircled, but the eastern and northern areas were very heavily fortified, not fortified, but surrounded by nationalist troops who were attacking.

The breakout was very ill-conceived, And so looking at a map, there's essentially this bulge that I describe where you could see at the farthest westernmost point. They made it about three miles. And then going up, if you count going up through the bulge, 21 miles northwest. So again, they're trapped in the mountains in this little tiny point with hundreds of thousands of men there. And it's just a horrifically idiotic attempt, last attempt for an event. assault. Yeah, people should understand books have been written just about this. Yeah. The action in my novel, like one of the most pivotal points, takes place during this operation,

just because it's so incredibly interesting and it's very scenic and beautiful too down there. Air Grid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area. and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i.4 slash northwest.

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The deluge takes a Republican pontoon boats out of action for four days, and the bridge of supply lines and truck depots along the river are bombed and strafed by nationalist aviation. While trucks make it across the bridges, towing artillery and transporting troops, they are not able to establish supply lines back across the river and are destroyed in great numbers, as are the supporting gun batteries and supply depots on the eastern side of the river. Only 22 tanks and a small number of artillery pieces had crossed the ebro, and nearly 80,000 Republican troops, now trapped west of the river, have only the supplies they can carry to survive in the heat of the Spanish summer. Republican engineers focus upon restoring their pontoon bridges every night, only for them to be destroyed the next day and within a few days. Republican forces are completely trapped within the pocket and cut off from their supply lines across the river, not that they would have been permitted to retreat. To the communist leadership desperate for the propaganda value of a decisive victory, only attack was permitted. And you put LOL. Well, I mean, it's insane, but they were basically like, do not come back or we'll shoot at you.

There were several points where that was made. they relaxed that later on after they got spanked so badly, but it's really just insane and shows who you're talking about. There was no strategic value or chance of this succeeding, just completely delusional. And that's where the argument about the attack probably being somewhat allowed to happen, you know, versus it being such a big support.

prize because, I mean, it's one of those things that people will debate forever, you know, but it just seems so such an obviously stupid operation. But they, you know, thanks to, you know, aviation surveillance and the like, you know, plenty knew that it was going to happen. Republican forces never break through into Gendessa and suffer heavy casualties as its outskirts and hills, immediately overlooking the town thanks to the season nationalist military's combined arms attack. By August, most of the Republic's aircraft are swept from the sky, and the Nationalist achieved total air superiority. The first nationalist counteroffensive is launched against the small northernmost pocket near Fayon, which drives entrenched Republicans across

the river at a loss of 900 men and 200 precious brand-new machine guns. The next day, August 11th, the nationalist drive into the Pandolz mountain range and capture much of the high ground. The Ebro dams are opened again, destroying the remaining pontoon bridges, and six nationalist divisions sweep into the heights of Geita over five days of fighting. At this point, Franco's ally Mussolini, fingers clenched no doubt in a rude gesture, states to Franco does not know how to make war and doesn't want to. Unlike Mussolini, and you put too soon, Franco's strategy secures peace in his country for nearly 40 years as the enemies of Spain are blasted a machine gun to the mountains over the next three months.

On September 21st, the International Brigades of those who are still alive, throw their hands up and formally withdraw from Spain, having sustained 25% fatalities in their two years in Spain. Is that S for spit? Yes, yes. Okay. Yeah, that was the operation. the international brigades were always used as shock troops. If you'll recall in the very first like two days of one of their units getting to Madrid, they had something like 25% fatalities or casualties in two days.

They were always the ones thrown into the assault because they were basically under command of Soviet fanatics, communist commissars and officers. who saw them as completely disposable. It was international Bolshevism, you know, just taking, taking their lives and throwing them into this fight. The very end of them was the Battle of the Ebro,

and they just, the leadership, they were completely broken by this. There was no way that they could get more people to volunteer. They couldn't get people to go back. They were, if you read any of the records written and the memoirs written by those people who I do not speak of in high esteem, they were just completely shattered by this. It was stupid and they just got annihilated.

By November 16th, the last Republican forces on the right bank of the Ebro escape at Flix. Both sides suffer massive casualties in the Battle of Ebro, although the figures are difficult to estimate, it's likely that Republican casualties number 75,000 with 30,000 dead. Additionally, the majority of the military relevant arms in Catalonia are lost in the battle. The Nationalists to take approximately 60,000 casualties, though almost certainly fewer than 10,000 dead. But among them are their very best frontline officers, and their armor and trucks are severely worn out from the tempo of mountain maneuver and combat. Yeah, that can't be understated just because, again, these are hardened veterans that had mastered these combined arms operations, rapid response. They were just worn out.

So things get quiet for a while, while everyone kind of retools. The Condor Legion withdraws most of its ground forces from the field and shifts a significant portion of their air crews to Germany due to tensions in Czechoslovakia. There we go. Yep. German aid is paused in mid-September as Germany and Spain negotiate compensation. They settle upon granting Germany an interest in the output of Spanish mines. New aircraft, BF109, E's, H.E.11E's, and J's, and H.S.126A's, reinforce the Legion, and enable it to close out the war in a primary aviation role, and the older equipment is sold,

to Spain during the Legion, before the Legion returns to Germany in May 1939. Yeah, so all of the most modern German equipment is being proven in combat, but is then handed off to the Spanish, sold to the Spanish, because again, like, there's more coming out of German factories and the latest and greatest is always coming, and they're iterating based on their operational observations in Spain. After rest, repair, and restructuring, fresh troops are brought in for the invasion of Catalonia in late December. 1939.

Catalonia was captured against hardly any resistance by early February. Hundreds of thousands of Spanish refugees crowd the camps in southern France. February 27, the UK and France formally recognized the Francoe government. March 5th, the Republican Army rises against the Prime Minister Negren and forms the National Defense Council to negotiate peace with Franco. Communist troops in Madrid attempt to continue the war or squashed in street fighting by their former allies. March 26th, the Nationalists advance from all sides towards Madrid. March 28th, Madrid surrenders almost bloodlessly. March 31st, the Nationalist Control All Spanish Territory.

April 1st, Franco proclaims, The Gera is al final. The war is at its end after accepting the surrender of the last Republican forces. The cost. Combat dead. Figures vary, but range between 150 and 200,000 killed in action on both sides. Both sides. Ramon Salas Laranzabal's authoritative 1977 study calculates 165,367 total combat dead.

Yeah, Laranzabal is very interesting. There's several websites online with his records and methodology in them, his sources for everything. He used every source that he could find and went through Spanish records just in exhausting minutia. And he also compared it to pre-war and post-war numbers where he wasn't like 100% sure. So when you talk about the cost of the war, it's a big topic. And so he's pretty much the best source that I've seen. And what keeps happening, and I think we talked about this a little bit. it last time is that during this truth and reconciliation regime that's taking place in Spain,

they'll say, oh, well, we think that these are, you know, we're going to lean on what the Republican numbers were. And then as they actually go through and reconcile it, it just squares up with the numbers that Laurentzapal put together, you know, almost 50 years ago. So. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area, and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November.

Have your say, online or in person. So together, we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.com. Employers, did you know you can now reward you and your staff with up to 1500 euro in gift cards annually completely tax-free. And even better, you can spread it over five different occasions. Now is the perfect time to try Options Card. Options Card is Ireland's brand new multi-choice employee gift card packed with unique features that your staff will love. It's simple to buy, easy to manage, and best of all, there are no extra fees or hidden catches.

Visit OptionsCart.com.com. Today. This Black Friday, game stream and go full speed with one gig, Sky broadband. And watch unmissable shows like all her fault on Sky. These nice people killing each other. And Ballad of a Small Player starring Colin Farrell on Netflix. I've made some mistakes. Right, who hasn't?

Get one gig Sky Broadband, Essential TV and Netflix, all for just 44 euro a month for 12 months. Our lowest ever price. Availability subject location, new customers only, 12-month minimum terms, standard pricing thereafter, TV and broadband sold separately. Terms apply for more infoosies sky.a slash speeds. I think most people would be,

if you look at that number, 165,000 in just a civil war in Spain, in Europe, in Europe, in the 20th century, that's, I mean, World War II, obviously, we don't, could be 40 million, could be 20 million.

Yeah, yeah. It's impossible to tell. But this warm up, I mean, this is basically, you know, what I like to refer to as World War I and a half is just absolute insanity. And the total population from zero to 100, right, of Spain at the time was about 25 million. Executions and murders. Salas Lorenzabal calculates that from 1936 to 1939, there were 72,3,34,000, non-combat executions and murders in Republican territory. In Nationalist Spain from 1936 to 1950, the figure was 57,662,

with 16,763 judicially governed executions in the first two years of the war, and 5,878 more over the next 10 years. Non-historical academics such as bevore used these figures. Yeah. It's very important because, like, you notice I made a distinction. The Nationalists, there were just, like, executions and murders, you know, with no judicial procedure. And then there were pretty severe judicial procedure numbers that followed. But, again, these are being carried out against the people that largely committed these atrocities.

on the other side. So it's like if you find someone that murdered 10 people and you shoot him after a fair trial, that's a number that's here, but like good, right? Yeah. Yeah. Additional civilian dead. Again, per Salas Lorenzabal. Taking into account demographic comparisons over long stretches of time to exclude projected deaths due to natural causes, accidents, typical law.

losses from disease, et cetera, and verified against documented wartime records, he arrives at an excess loss of 300,000 civilian lives due to disease, hunger, lack of medicine, etc., which would have been avoidable in peacetime. Interestingly, 1935 under the Republic, had significantly elevated death due to hunger and disease in southern Spain, likely related to the disruption caused by land reform and resulting poor harvests. Interestingly, Salas Lorenzabal notes that the otherwise expected 557,185 children calculated to not having been born during the war years hurt Spanish demographics far worse than the losses from all other causes. And so if you think about what that means when you talk about unjust, like look at our situation demographically and

America right now. You have elevated crime and murder, right? You have massive suicide, drug overdoses, deaths related to that, deaths of despair, right? Think of all the people that are that are not having children right now because of the hell that a certain

group of people are pushing on us and what that does to us and our strength. So when you get revenge, theoretically, lawfully, legally. Keep that in mind as well. We should have double the numbers that we have. Refugees. Excluding those who fled Spain at their own accord before or during the war, about 500,000 Spanish became refugees in the final days of the war,

with 450,000 fleeing Catalonia for France in February 1939. The French separated military age men from the civilians and established open. open-air internment camps. Over time, refugees were redistributed to different facilities. About 300,000 refugees returned to Spain within a few months, where they were sorted by the Franco regime between innocent civilians and those destined for internment camps, labor battalions, or prisons. These returnees were handled according to their role in the war, with those who committed atrocities executed while mere participants in the war, draftees and generic leftists saw their sentences quickly commuted. About 30,000 the refugees who remained in France soon emigrated to Latin America,

with most going to Mexico, 160 to 180,000 remained in France and labor battalions. Thousands of communists and anarchist militants enjoyed the hospitality of the concentration camps of the Vichy and German governments. The Soviet Union accepted a few thousand prominent Republican communists, but not the Hoy-Polloy. Yeah. So I remember you were talking about Mexico last time. Yep, that's that Mexican government brought in quite a few of these refugees. And most of the anarchists from Catalonia ended up in Mexico. I mean, take that with a grain of salt. But of the ones who wrote memoirs, an awful lot of them ended up coming back. to France after World War II or just stayed in Mexico, but huge numbers of those kind of apparatchiks and members of the government and talking heads who could not go back to Spain under Franco ended up in Mexico. Yeah. I wonder how many of them went and said hello to Mr. Trotsky. Probably an awful lot of them.

14th, Pope Pius the 12th addresses a Spanish faithful with immense joy. With great joy, we address you, most dear children of Catholic Spain, to address to you our fatherly congratulations for the gift of peace and a victory with which God is deemed worthy to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, tried in so many and so generous sufferings. Our predecessor, a venerable memory, expected with longing and trust this providential peace, which is undoubtedly the fruit of that copious blessing which he sent in the very beginning of the struggle, to all those who have devoted themselves to the difficult and dangerous task

of defending and restoring the rights and honor of God and religion, and we do not doubt that this space shall be the one that he himself foretold since then the sign of a future of tranquility and order and of honor in prosperity. The designs of Providence's most beloved children have once again dawned over heroic Spain. The nation chosen by God as the main instrument of the evangelization of the new world, and as an impregnable fortress of the Catholic faith, has just shown to the apostles of materialistic atheism of our century the greatest evidence that the eternal values of religion and of the spirits stand above all things.

The tenacious propaganda and the constant efforts of the enemies of Jesus Christ seem to have desired to try in Spain a supreme experiment of the dissolving forces which they have at their disposal throughout the world. And even though it is true that the Almighty has for now not allowed them to achieve their goal, he has at least tolerated some of their terrible effects, so that the world could see how religious persecution undermining the very basis of justice and charity, which are love for God and respect for his holy law, may drag modern society's unthinkable abysses of evil destruction and passionate discord. To convince of this truth, the sane Spanish people with the two marks characteristic

of their most noble spirit, which are generosity and frankness, rose up determinedly in defense of the ideals of Christian faith and civilization, deeply rooted in the Spanish soil, and aided by God, who does not abandon those who hope in him. Could resist the push as Judah 13 and 17. Sorry, Protestants. could resist a push for those who deceived by what they believe to be a humanitarian ideal of the exultation of the meek, truly fought only for atheism. Yes. The primordial meaning of your victory makes us dwell in the most promising hopes that God and His mercy will Dane lead Spain from the safe path through the safe path of its traditional and Catholic grandeur, which will be the point that will guide all.

all Spaniards who love their religion and their fatherland in an effort to organize the life of the nation in perfect harmony with its most noble history of Catholic faith, piety, and civilization. We thus exhort the authorities and shepherds of Catholic Spain to enlighten the mind of those who were deceived, showing them lovingly the roots of materialism and secularism from which their errors and wrongful acts came forth, and from which they could spring forth again. proposed to them the principles of individual and social justice without which the peace and prosperity of nations, as mighty as they may be, cannot subsist in which are those contained in the holy gospel and the doctrine of the church. We do not doubt that it will happen thus,

and the basis for our firm hope, are the most noble and Christian sentiments of which the chief of state and so many gentlemen, his faithful collaborators, have given unequivocal, evidence with the legal protection which they have granted to the supreme religious and social interests according to the teachings of the apostolic see. The same hope is also founded upon the enlightened zeal and abnegation of your bishops and priests tempered by pain and also in the faith, piety, and spirit of sacrifice, of which, in terrible hours, all classes of Spanish society gave heroic proof. And now before the remembrance of the mounting ruins of the bloodiest civil, war recorded in the history of modern times, we, with priest regard, bow our head, above all,

to the holy memory of the bishops, priests, religious of both sexes, and faithful of all ages and conditions, who, in such an elevated number, sealed with blood, their faith in Jesus Christ, and their love for the Catholic religion. Majorum Hachian, del, I haven't taken a life. Delechonum Nemo Habet. Delegionum Nemo Habet. greater love than this no man hath john 1513 we also acknowledge our debt of gratitude towards all those who sacrificed themselves even under heroism in defense of the

unalienable rights of god and of religion either in the battlefields or devoted to the sublime work of christian charity in prisons and hospitals we cannot hide the bitter sorrow that the remembrance of so many innocent children who having been ripped from their homes were taken a far-away lands, often in danger of apostasy and perversion, we desire nothing more ardently than to see them return to the bosom of their families, where they will once again find the warm and Christian tenderness of their own. And those others who, as prodigal sons, wish to return to the house of the father, we doubt not they will be welcomed with goodwill and love. It falls upon you, venerable brothers of the Episcopate, to advise all so that in their policy of

pacification, all will follow the principles taught by the church and proclaim with such nobility by the generalissimo of justice for crime and of lenient generosity for the mistaken. Our solicitude, also as a father, cannot forget these deceived ones, whom a deceitful and perverse propaganda succeeded in enticing with praise and promises. Your pastoral solicitude should be targeted at them with patience and meekness. pray for them, seek them, leave them again to the regenerative bosom of the church, into the warmth of the Fatherland, and lead them to the merciful Father who awaits them with open arms. Therefore, most dear children, since the rainbow of peace as return to brighten the

heavens of Spain, let us come together heartily in a fervent hymn of Thanksgiving to the God of peace and in a prayer of forgiveness and mercy for all those who perished, and in order that this peace be fruitful and long-lasting. We exhort you with all the fervor of our heart, to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, Ephesians 4 through 3. Thus united and obedient to your venerable episcopate, devote yourselves joyfully and with no delay to the urgent work of reconstruction which God and the Fatherland expect from you. As a pledge of the copious graces which the Immaculate Virgin and St. James the Apostle, patrons of Spain, shall obtain for you, and which the great Spanish saints have merited for you,

we bestow upon you, our dear children of Catholic Spain, upon the chief of state and his illustrious government, upon the zealous episcopate, and their selfless clergy, upon the heroic combatants, and upon all the faithful our apostolic blessing. Pius the 12th. Paxing Christe, Victoria, Eternna, amen. And I had to close it with that because after you look at all the numbers, after you hear about just brutal combat all over the whole country. Spain was a smoking hole in the ground. Spain wasn't in a position to do anything other than what they did,

which is to buckle down and dig their way out, you know, establish or continue relationships with countries that they had good relationships with. and, you know, do what they could. They weren't in a position to, you know, get involved in another war. Nor was there an appetite for it. There were volunteers, there were quite heroic volunteers for the Blue Division, but they were volunteers. They were permitted to go and they came home and lived safely and in peace

and many other veterans of the Waffen-SS and other groups were permitted to live peacefully in Spain by the Spanish government. But they stayed out of the next war because Franco removed his sword of victory from his belt and placed it on the altar on the vivor. on the victory celebration day and vowed never to pick it up again unless Spain was threatened and people can say well look at Spain now look at the West now yada yada

okay well Spain was in peace and governed under his dictates and the church flourished and still flourishes and Spain. And that was his primary duty. There's an argument out there that the logical conclusion of is that Germany lost the war because Spain wasn't on their side, which is a very strange thing to say. But that's kind of the logical conclusion of many of the things that are said

about, you know, what Spain did collectively as a nation after the war, which was to, you know, continue to send steel and other minerals to Germany and make some weapons for them. And other than that, you know, and allow certainly leeway with things, but also not go totally under the thumb of the British or anyone else and just kind of ride it out and enjoy some peace. So I just wanted to point out the stakes. And you can't, a fervent Catholic cannot go against the, you know, that heavy, that heavy blessing with a, with a, you know, now we know how to behave ourselves, don't we? According to the precepts of the religion that you follow. So hence the way I wanted that to wrap up.

Yeah. And remember, there were more than a few people who fought the war valiantly who would have faced the rope. And Franco brought them in and protected them and let them live out their lives in Spain. Yeah, absolutely. And it was a sticking point with the allies, but he didn't care because they didn't have, you know, the leverage to do anything about it. And it wasn't worth stirring up. And they're very nice blessings. It makes a,

uh, someone, a silly prod like myself, like look at our tradition, which is schism and, uh, people with a lot of goo in their hair and, and jeans with embroidery on the pockets and guitars,

apparently. Um, and then you hear that just head. heavy, like laid in with emotion, prayer slash congratulatory speech. It's just something else. Yeah. And calls for reconciliation, calls for forgiveness. Yeah. Mercy. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's, let's wrap this up. Please do your plugs. Tell people where they can find your stuff. And I'll make sure to include them in the show notes. Great. Thank you. Carl Dahl.com is where most of my writing is. I have many narrative essays and I have some of my fiction there. You can buy by book Faction with the Crusaders,

which is a story about a American who ends up volunteering for the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. You can get that on Amazon. There's links in my substack to that. There's a sample first chapter as well, which actually is in the drive to the south as part of the Oregon offensive. That's the first chapter and that story's in there. Lots of fun combined arms operations. And yeah, I'm on Twitter too, although I'm not a Twitter enthusiast, uh, Kaudillo, doll, you'll be able to find me. There's some numbers in there. It sucks, but you'll be able to,

you'll be able to find me under Carl Dahl, Caudio Dahl, on Twitter, or excuse me, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, stupidly renamed X. Thanks, Pete. All right, man, thank you. Have a good evening. Thanks, you too.