The Pete Quiñones Show - Pete Reads 'The Last Crusade' by Warren H Carroll Part 5

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

53 MinutesPG-13Pete begins a reading of Warren H. Carroll's 1996 book, "The Last Crusade: 1936." In this episode, he finishes the July chapter and begins the August chapter; the Summer of 1936.Antelope Hill - Promo code "peteq" for 5% off - https://antelopehillpublishing.com/FoxnSons Coffee - Promo code "peter" for 18% off - https://www.foxnsons.com/The Last CrusadePete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'VIP Summit 3-Truth To Freedom - Autonomy w/ Richard GroveSupport Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete'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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I want to welcome everyone back to part five of my reading of The Last Crusade by Warren Carroll. Before I get into it, that reminder of, Thomas and I doing movie reviews, watch and review parties, free man down the wall.com forward slash movies. All the links are there. And Antelope Hill Press. If you got Anelope Hill Press, place an order. Put in Pete Q, all lowercase at checkout, and you get 5% off your order.

All right. Let's jump in. We're still in July. A little bit of July left, and then we might jump into August here to depending on what the time's looking like. Might break it up a little bit and start a new month. All right. And here we go.

On Friday, July 4th, three Descalcid Carmelite sisters, the order founded by St. Teresa of Avala were recognized by militia in a Madrid street near the apartment where they had been hiding. Nuns, shoot them. One of the militia men cried. They opened fire at once on the helpless women, killing one instantly and severely wounding another who fell to the pavement and agony, crying, My God, my God.

Several assault guards appeared, stopped the shooting, and directed that the wounded nun be taken to a hospital, hailing a passing bus for that purpose. Told that the victim was a nun, the bus driver cried, Give her here, and I'll finish her off. Another bus was hailed, and this one took her to the hospital, where she died, saying with Christ, My God, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The third nun escaped for the moment, wandered distracted through the streets, and was eventually accosted by a man who pretended to want to help her, but turned her over to another group of militia who shot her also before the day was done. On the next day, the 25th, the great feast of Santiago,

father Dionysio Pamplona, and 24 others taken from prison were shot on the Plaza Mayor in the heart of Madrid in full view of a large number of people. It was also on that day that militia from Madrid occupied Sigenza about 70 miles to the northeast. The bishop of Sigenza, Yustakio Nieto, 72 years old, had held his Episcopal office for 19 years. Five years before, when the Republic was established in Spain and the burning of churches began, he had said in a letter to his flock. If unfortunately, there is unleashed against us, a furious persecution instigated by the hatred of hell. We will remain firm at our posts, fulfilling our priestly duties, never abandoning our sheep, confessing Christ always in the face of the world as the martyrs, the virgins, and the confessors

him, who gave their blood and their lives to exalt and defend the sacred name of Jesus. Exactly, that is what to do. Early in the afternoon of the Feast of Santiago, the prefect had the minor seminary in Sigenza, Father Jose Ruizcano, gathered his students, boys 11 to 15, to tell them that the school would have to close for a few days. He exhorted them. God is everywhere. He sees our thoughts and our affections. We should prefer to give our blood rather than to sear our souls with the stain of sin. Then he prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mother, if you want a victim, here I am. Choose me, but do not allow anything to happen to these innocent souls who have never harmed anyone.

He divided the boys into two groups. The older. one reached a nationalist zone safely. The younger group, which he kept with him, was caught two days later. Father Ruiz Cano's body was found riddled with bullets. On the day he was killed, July 7th, Bishop Nietzzo of Sigenza, seized and judged by a street mob, was shot at the kilometer four marker on the highway from Sigenza to Estriagana as he cried Viva Christore. His body was burn and thrown into a gully, where nationalist troops later found and recognized it by its pectoral cross. Also on the feast of Santiago, 14 seminarians who had attempted to flee with one of their teachers, Father Manuel Jove were captured in the open country by militiamen from Lerida

in Catalonia. The militiamen tried to force Father Jove to trample on a crucifix when he refused. They forced it into his mouth until it gushed blood. They tried to make one of the seminarians swallow a rosary, horribly beaten and abused. Every one of these young martyrs stood firm for his faith, saying he wished to die for God. All of them were shot at the cemetery of Lareda at noon the next day. In Madrid, several priests had taken refuge in an apartment at 22 Cayet de Belasquez, where they improvised a chapel for the celebration of the Feast of Santiago. On the next day, militia burst into the apartment. On seeing the chapel, they exploded into an orgy of destruction, bashing and destroying all its contents, storing images, candelabras, religious books,

and clerical vestments out the window, and burning the remnants on the street. The priest they found there, Father Miguel Levar and Garay, and two servants, one of a woman, were taken away and shot at once. An almost identical scene was enacted July 28th in the Madrid suburb of Grignon, where militia broke into the residence of the brothers of the Christian school, seized the Ten Brothers present and made a ferocious assault on their crucifixes. One man ripped a crucifix off the wall, the dining area flung it to the floor, and when it did not break, hammered it to bits with his rifle butt. Another threw a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary

on the flagstones with all his strength, breaking off its head. The Ten Brothers were then shot in front of their chapel. In all, 124 priests were killed in Madrid during the last 10 days of July. After July 25th, no mass was publicly celebrated again anywhere in Republican Spain, the sole exception of the Basque provinces until the end of the Civil War. Churches not burned or sacked were closed and locked. Even the Communists in the Soviet Union did not go quite this far. The only historical parallel is Paris at the height of the reign of terror in the French Revolution. In Barcelona, the devastation of the church was almost complete.

From July 19th to the end of the month, 220 churches and public chapels were destroyed in the city alone, mostly in the first two days after the fall of the Atteransus barracks, and 197 priests were killed, along with unspeakable violations of the bodies of the dead. American reporter Edward Knoblock gives an eyewitness account of the detritus of this Holocaust. Only the blackened walls remained of this historic religious building. The statues and paintings had been destroyed or removed. The altars ripped out. The stained glass windows broken.

The burial vaults in the floor of some of the churches have been forced open, and the century-old mummified bodies of nuns and priests have been removed from their moldy resting places. On the steps of the Carmelite Church were arrayed a dozen or more of the skeletons of nuns in standing and reclining positions. You can find those pictures on the internet if you look for them if you want to. From Barcelona in the last days of July, anarchist columns fanned out in all directions to wreak havoc in every city and town they could reach. The most famous was Derrudi's column of 3,000 anarchists. It's announced objective was, as a Daragossa, but that city was now strongly held by a garrison which included the Maria della

Niavese Terccio of the Riquete. So Durruti stopped short, contenting himself and his men with seizing and ravaging Barbastro in Aragon, threatening to kill all prisoners there, including numerous clergy and religious. Less than 200 miles from Barcelona in Pamplona, the capital of Navarra. The feast of Santiago was celebrated in an utterly different matter. No one will ever understand the history and meaning of the Spanish Civil War who does not appreciate the magnitude of the contrast between what happened in those two cities on that same great feast day. In the central square of Honplona, a Solomon splendid mass was offered to beseech the most high for the triumph of the forces which fight for the salvation of Spain.

General Miguel Kabannaas, a late and uncertain recruits to the rising, attended wearing a carless-relius. Red Beret. The Crusaders were already marking their mark on the officers who had joined the undertaking for less exalted and more worldly motives. Not far distant in the city of L'Gronio, which the Riquetes had occupied on the first day of the Carlos Rising, the Riketis celebrated the mass of the great national fiesta in the field. Juan Ura Lusaretta, whose unit attended daily mass at a parish in Legronio, dedicated to Santiago, served at the altar. After Mass, he spoke to the men about their crusading mission. They heard him with enthusiasm and many shouts of Viva Christore. A day or two later, Navarre's carless leader, Joaquin Balestena, issued a formal order that no Carlis was to carry out

acts of violence against civilians and was to make every effort to prevent such acts from being committed in his presence. It was already clear that the unprecedented horror is taking place in Republican Spain would generate an enormous demand for indiscriminate revenge. The soldiers of Christ and the traditionalist communion should remember that God said vengeance is mine. About the end of July, Manuel Falcande received a letter written on the Feast of Santiago from Alfonso Carlos in Vienna, who had never in his 87 years laid down the crusading banner. Quoting, above all, we must save religion, country, and fatherland. I am grateful in my soul for you and our heroic work hits us, united with the soldiers of Spain to hammer communism,

and I give you infinite thanks, dear Fowl, for having following my guidance, provided, you know, there are people, and I experienced us today on Twitter. Communism and fascism or right-wingism, they're both the same. In the 1930s, it was, it was, you had a choice of communism or fascism. Really? Really? have you fucking studied the Spanish Civil War? I swear. It's just just authoritarian's fighting over power and powers immoral.

Children. Children. Just the thoughts of children. I am grateful in my soul for you and our heroic Ricketts, united with the soldiers of Spain to hammer communism, and I give you infinite thanks, dear Fowl, for having, following my guidance, provided in the decisive moment that our Ricketts should support the saving movement. In times like these, we ought not be concerned with personal and partisan questions, but seek to save all joined together for religion and fatherland. I am sure that today the great saint will fight at the head of this army of crusaders,

legend told the many apparitions of St. James the Apostle leading Spanish Christians into battles against the Moors during the long crusade of the reconquest, crying Viva, Spania. Our country was always the leader. of the Catholic religion and of generous ideas and has just shown once more its vitality and its great tradition arising so admirably against the enemies of God in Spain who wish to subjugate her now. I congratulate our Carlos provinces, our traditionalist Carlos Communion, and our heroic ricketus, and recognize the great sacrifices that are making, they are making of their blood and their lives for God and our Fatherland, and I ask you to make known my profound satisfaction

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They want you dead. Or they'll... I don't even know if they'll settle for your submission at this time. That was end quote. Also on that same action-packed feast of Santiago, General Rechilme left the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo, where one lucky cannon shot by the besiegers that day blew a hole in the wall near the north entrance, big enough to drive an armored car through, only to have defenders plug it with a massive pillowcases stuffed with dirt,

and went to Lyons Peak in the Guadamas to launch an attack on Arequettes, Colonel Ceradores, defenders of the pass with a full brigade. On the high rocky saddle against the sky, the heavily outnumbered crusaders fought the revolutionaries hand-to-hand with the bayonet all that day and the next. Colonel Serador was wounded and many of his officers were killed. The attackers also severed suffered heavily. Captain Condez's leader of the group that had killed Calvo Satello was among the dead. But by nightfall, the 26th, the situation of the defenders was desperate. They had to have help. Let Cedador himself tell the story of how it came, as he remembered it when later presenting a unit citation to the Tertio, which reached him in the nick of time. You were the guardians of the, quoting, you were the guardians of the faith and the holy tradition of Spain,

preservers of the purity of our customs, the serenity of our government, and the austerity of its administration. I will never forget when during the night of the 26th to July in 1936, which was the most difficult and critical in the defense of the lion's peak, they told me that the next day, 500 Ricketts would arrive as reinforcements. And I said with joy, if these Ricketts do honor to their forebearers, there is no one who can throw us off these cliffs. You arrived at dawn of the 27th, and I received you. You came without orders, without formations, even without organization, but you didn't disappoint me. You are Ricketts. And then the day. And the time. You were Ricketts. And the time. And the time. You were Ricketts. And the. And the time. And you came without orders. And that was enough. End quote. For the second time in less than a week, General Rikalmei withdrew frustrated before the unwavering fortitude of the champions of the last crusade. The wearers of the Red Beret still hold, held Lions Peak Pass. Far to the north in the Galician naval base of Elferol, Captain Salvador Moreno Fernandez had retaken the cruiser, Almerante Cerveira, not beer, said, Vera, seized by its crew on the day of the rising. Though the loyal sailors he found to man it were

less than half its normal complement, he took it along the coast of the Bay of Biscay to the Asturian Port of Guillaon, where he heard that the Samankas barracks under Colonel Piniya were still holding out for the nationalist cause. Like the defenders of the Alzacar of Toledo, they refused to think of surrender, though their position was far less defensible. Faced with artillery bombardment and flaming gasoline cans hurled into their enclosure, they counterattack driving the attackers back. They had no source of light whatever at night, whose hours crawled by in a pit of total blackness. But they had battery-operated radios, and from them learned with joy the arrival of the Almerante-Cevera on July 29.

The barracks was in easy range for the cruiser's heavy guns, which immediately began to bombard its besiegers. On July 26, the meeting of the international communist leaders was held in Prague to organize massive aid for the Revolutionary Republic. French communist railway union leader Gaston Mon Musso, presided. It was decided to commit one billion francs to aid the republic, administered and distributed by the committee, including Spanish Communist Party leader, Jose Diaz, and chief propagandist, Dolores I. Ibaruri, La Pascenaria, Largo Caballero, French Communist Party leader Maurice Moris Torres, and Italian communist leader Palmyro Togliati. The bulk of the money was to come from the Soviet Union. The rest from left-wing fundraising in Europe and America, left-wing fundraising in Europe and America,

common-in-turn leaders, including Vittorio Cotevio of Argentina, long active in Spain, Togliati stepping off of Bulgaria and Erno Degero of Hungary moved immediately to tighten their control over the leadership and organization of the Spanish Communist Party. You see what they're doing, right? Spain isn't going to be for, if the communists win, it's going to be an international. The Soviet Union is going to control the bottom of the European Peninsula. but this is just two totalitarians fighting over power, right? The popular front government of France was also at this time prepared to help the Republic, though soon afterward it drew back.

At the end of July, the first French aircraft, Potez Bombers and Du Boitin, that I'm so off on that one, fighters, left for Spain from airports in southern France. On July 29, the first German aircraft, Juncker 52s, used, usable for transporter bombing, arrived in Morocco to augment the airlift of Franco's troops across the Strait of Gibraltar. The next day, nine Savoya bombers came to Morocco from Italy for the same purpose, though their relative value compared to the German plains was already suggested by the fact that three of them crashed on the way.

I'm not going to make any Italian jokes. On July 24th, the Nationalists had established what purported to be their first organized government, a junta council, at Burgos, under the 9th. nominal presidency of General Cabaneus, who was the senior general in the north, though Mola was actually an overall command of the nationalist troops, mostly Ricketts and Falangists, in that part of the country. The other members of the Hunzo were relatively insignificant. Neither Franco nor Guillao deiano were yet included in it. Mola and Cabaneas did not fully trust each other, and the Carlis and Falongists did not fully trust them or each other. The two generals,

impressed by the crusading fervor of the Ricketts were gradually being won over to a better appreciation of the Carliss, but still did not feel them to be sufficiently under their control. The result was that this Burgos junta never became a real government,

nor exercised any authority whatsoever outside the area of northern Spain from the Guadanamas Mountains to Nevada, which their forces had rested from the Republic. At this point, the only substantial part of Southern Spain under nationalist control was Andalusia, except for the port of Malaga and the coastal area near it, still held for the

Republic. Andalusia was administered in default of anyone else by Kieppo de Yano and his friends. In assessing responsibility for the nationalist atrocities that did occur in August and September, it is essential to remember that during those two apocalyptic months, there were no overall national government with genuine authority. None of the nationalist generals have the capability to overrule any other, not under their command, and even to learn much about what was going on in other command areas. The same, of course, was true of the government of the Republic, if by that the government has meant President Azanya and Prime Minister Giral. No one has ever thought that Azanya and Giral controlled or authorized the looting murder and massacre, which swept Republican

territories during this terrible summer. But the implication or even the outright accusation is still heard that Franco and Mola had such knowledge and responsibility for the rarer atrocities afflicted by nationalists. Only academics cut off from human reality by the walls of their study, invincible, naivete, or prejudice could expect the crimes that crimes of that type already described here would not arouse, at least in some men, anger so ferocious as to override all moral considerations, or that other men would not use these horrors as an excuse for moves to to gain personal advantage or personal vengeance. Men are not angels. No cause purifies everyone who fights in its name. To a degree, perhaps not surprising, in an age which has so largely abandoned

reason as well as faith, men have forgotten that the justice of a war is not determined by acts committed by any individuals during it. It is determined at the outset by the right or wrong of taking up arms and the prospects for success with them. The planners of the Spanish military rising of July 1936 believe they could win quickly, with little bloodshed, and save Spain from the fate of Russia, which so much evidence indicated it was about to share. With better planning and better fortune, they might well have done so. It was a risk worth taking. The alternative was what actually happened, a devastating war that took more than 250,000 lives. But even that was preferable to what happened to Russia and its conquered provinces in the Soviet Union, where the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union enslaves all the people for 74 years, killing more than 20 million of them, and ruining their economy for at least a generation more. That was the price of victory by the revolution. The one alternative of these men of Spain absolutely rejected was to allow the revolution to win without a fight. Many others in Europe during the first half of the 20th century lacked their transcendent courage. Their bones and the bones of those who were lost because of their hesitation and uncertainty molder in forgotten graves from the Katin forest in Belarus to the Kulmia Kulima River in far northeastern Siberia. There are times when a man must stand or die. Spain in July 1936 was one of them. All right. Let's move into August, see how much we can knock out.

In the late afternoon of August 2nd, the first nationalist striking column of the Army being airlifted across the Straits of Gibraltar, consisting of 550 legionnaires, and 350 Moroccans left Sevilla, heading north. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Asencio, had orders from Franco to march into harsh, dry Estremador to take its key city of Barajos on the Portuguese border, then link up with Mola's northern forces, if possible, and march on Madrid, another column lost to via the following day. On August 5th, Colonel Ascensio encountered the first significant resistance from militia dug in in a little town of Almenaraleo just south of Marita. The next day, he was bombed from the air. He was ordered to wait for reinforcements. He did not have to wait long.

On August 5th, a full 3,000 soldiers again, mostly legionnaires and Moroccans, were brought across the straits in 11 aircraft and several merchant ships escorted by nationalist gunboats with mostly German and Italian fighters providing air cover. The warships controlled by the Republic of Cartagena and Malaga made no attempt to stop them. Franco flew to Spain from Morocco the next day and assembled his recently transported soldiers into a column of 8,000, led by Colonel Jagler, which set out at once on a forced march. Nothing could have better demonstrated the physical toughness and combat readiness of these men than this initial march. In just five days, they covered the 130 miles of marita under the blazing sun of an

astrode, an Andalusian August, which no one who has been there during that season will ever forget. That meant marching more than 25 miles a day. There's so much rugby on sports extra from Sky, they've asked me to read the whole lot at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter's Sports Extra is jampacked with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup and much more. thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

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made in propaganda by the republic still echoed by many historians today about the incongruity or worse of Christian rebels using moors from Morocco and a reconquest in reverse after their co-religionists had been so completely defeated in the original reconquest. The point is specious and the analogy does not hold. No nationalist proposed for a moment to give Moroccans any role in the government of Spain. They were simply troops whose loyalty could be counted on. Every European power with overseas colonial territories in those days used colonial troops. There is credible evidence of atrocities on their part, as happened in every war, and has certainly happened in a grand scale in the armies and militia of the Republic. But there is also credible evidence of a

convergence of motivation and purpose between these Muslims and the Spanish Crusaders, also shown at other points in the fascinating history of the interaction of Christianity and Islam. When Christian and Muslim face each other, they are usually hostile and often violently so. But when they jointly face an external atheist enemy, they become strong allies. The most recent example of this is the magnificent struggle of the Mujah Hadin or freedom fighters of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union and aid, both personal and material, provided them from the West. Ah, it's a pretty, um, oh, well, okay, yeah, could have found a better example. The fervently Catholic Rickete chaplain Juan Ura Lusareta has this to say about his Muslim comrades in arms.

In the land of Spain, quoting, in the land of Spain, some renegades rejected the faith, profaned the churches, and killed the priests. By contrast, some simple Muslims adored God and commended themselves to him. It is not difficult to say, see that these men who wore Gilles and other country clothing were people of simple and great religious

conviction who came to help us. As good Spaniards, we had to be grateful to them. Their cooperation was very valuable and their conduct, despite the false rumors and calumny of the Reds, was disciplined and correct, despite some isolated cases, more of robbery than of anything else.

At Almendralejo was fought the first battle of this vital campaign upon which the victory of the crusade ultimately depended, for the nationalist had to establish a substantial area of control from the south to the north of Spain for their cause to be viable through a long war. A wild-haired anarchist Vidalgo named Anita Lopez commanded the defense. Reckless fury and murderous hate could not make up for a lack of military experience in that situation. In close quarters defending a great city like Madrid, the revolutionaries in arms were to prove themselves formidable upon

even for professional soldiers, but in the open they were always outmaneuvered. Jaguay took Marita on the 10th, held it against a counterattack on the 11th, and then moved west to Babahos. Other nationalist troops opened a corridor of communication and supplied Amola in the north, sending him the ammunition he desperately needed after the prolonged battles for the Guadarama Pass. Badahos, an old stone city with narrow streets, was held by 8,000 defenders, as many men as Yagos, had in a place that gave the attackers no room to maneuver. Artillery was brought up and bombarded the city all during the morning of the 14th. But stone cities take a very long time to batter down, while the rubble of smashed stone buildings often serves a defense as well or better than the original structure.

Yagway had to make a frontal attack. He sent the 16 company of the 4th Bandera of the Legion to lead it. They advanced on Trinidad Gate, singing that their regimental son, about how death was their bride. Only 16 of the company's 200 men survived, but they broke through the gate. Other units rushed in. Many of the combatants were literally too close to shoot. Bayonets and long knives flashed and glittered. The revolutionaries resisted frantically. Hand-to-hand fighting continued until sundown, most fiercely in the Plaza de Republica at the center of the city in the shadow of its cathedral. Officers on both sides lost control of their men, fighting raged even

inside the cathedral. Legionnaires struck down Republican militiamen on the very steps of the altar. Yagway had no place to put prisoners and no men to spare to guard them. Many of those fighting against him wore no uniforms. He allowed his men to kill anyone they found with a weapon in his hands or who bore the mark of a rifle's recoil upon his shoulder. About two, that's really smart. That's really smart to look for the shoulder. broods from a rifle. I mean, these guys aren't firing AR-15s. I don't even know what, I have to look up and see exactly what they're firing, but they're firing things that have, I mean, if they have Mosins, if, yeah, if they have Mosins from Russia, I mean, they could be,

their shoulder could be beat up pretty well. That's actually really smart. About 2,000 of the defenders died. How many during the battle and how many immediately after no man can say. It was called the massacre, wildly exaggerated. by foreign correspondence and Republican propaganda at the time and by many historians ever since. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound familiar when, you know, somebody is, when all the atrocities are being committed by one side and you're just fighting back and then, well, you have the press on your side?

Sounds awfully familiar. But a massacre is a slaughter of helpless men, women, or children who have no arms. and cannot escape. There were many of these to come, mostly inflicted by the revolutionaries. All through history, the storming of heavily defended city has led to scenes like those enacted at Badaos, August 14, 1936. They are part of the generic horror of war, but no one at a safe distance, writing at a safe desk, is in a position to judge men fighting in such a place against such enemies, and so savage a struggle. Let him who has met death face to face across the blade of a revolutionaries' knife cast the first stone. Blood is thicker than ink. On the 1st of August, Republican General

Rikamme returned to the Alcazar of Toledo to begin a massive artillery bombardment of its buildings. On that day alone, 140 shells were fired at it from 105 millimeter cannon. The Piccadito building was completely destroyed, and the whole of the Al-Zoccar was completely enveloped in rolling clouds of black smoke. The bombardment continued daily. On the fourth, 170 shells were fired. It was now clear to anyone that the siege of the Alcazar would probably go on for a long time, and the question of food became critical. There was plenty of water in three full cisterns in the swimming pool and plenty of ammunition

thanks to Muscardo's foresight and bringing in eight truckloads of it from the arms factory in Toledo. Moscardo's original idea of replenishing the food supplies of the garrison from the city had proved impracticable due to the number and aggressiveness of the besie. siegers. On July 27th, the last flour in the fortress had been baked into bread and distributed. Only a little wheat and some beans remained, but there were 97 horses and 27 mules in the Alcazar, enough to provide a small serving of meat for everyone if one animal was killed daily. Fast from the slaughtered horses and mules could also be used to fuel dim lamps to provide some light during the night. But without bread, the garrison could not long keep up its fighting strength.

on July 29th, Isidore Clamagirot, a French woman who had owned a bakery in Toledo, told the officers in Yal Khazar that he had heard of a French man. I'm sorry. A French man who had owned a bakery in Toledo told the officers in the Al-Zar, Al-Qazar, sorry, that he had heard of a warehouse filled with wheat, collected by the bank of Bilba. Bilbao as part payment on its loans located close to the fortress. At first, he was not believed. The rumors seemed too good to be true, and a bank collecting payments and wheat too peculiar. But Clamagito Girod persisted and cudgled his memory until he recalled where he had heard the wheat was kept,

in a warehouse under a terrace accessible from the ruins of the Picadero. In the night of August 3rd, 20 men crawled out on the terrace, and made a hole through it in the roof of the building below. A soldier named Perez Malero was lowered down by rope, struck a match, and found himself surrounded by hundreds of sacks of full wheat. 23 sacks were brought up that night. Muscadero went immediately to the chapel to give thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary for hearing and answering their prayers to her for help.

No less than 2,000 sacks of wheat were found in the warehouse. Their contents were ground into flour by the engine of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, hooked up to a small mill, which had been used to grind feed for the horses and mules. Now the Alcazar could not be starved out. On August 8th, a Republican plane dropped 16-100-pound bombs on the Al-Qazar, wounding many inside. Another plane later dropped three tear gas bombs, which were at first taken for poison gas when the defenders feared above all.

Which the defenders feared above all. But a druggist among them had planned for this and prepared, kindling for fires around the central court, which were lit, creating a draft of hot air pulling the gas out of the enclosed areas. They soon realized it was not lethal. The next day, there were more air attacks and exceptionally heavy artillery fire. Nine of the garrisons asserted through the Gombiano building, letting themselves down by ropes. Mascardo doubled the guard on the Gobierno and declared that henceforth, possession of a rope by any unauthorized individual would be punishable by death. The bombardment continued into the night, the besiegers illuminating their target with searchlights. In the words of Cecil Ebby, quoting,

Perhaps the most spectacular side of the war was the Alcazar under floodlights, immaculately white above the dim skyline of the darkened city, especially during a bombardment. Black puff spouted from luminous walls, gray debris, and dust dropped down, and a dry cackle reverberated in the gorge, end quote. And so, all through the first half of August, the Alcazar of Tledo, battered, air-bombed, fire-bombed, gas stood over the ancient city on its looming crag, like a pillar of cloud against the night, defiant of men and devils. Jose Mascardo had pledged on the life of his son that the Al-Qasar would never surrender, and it did not. 250 miles to the north, under even worse conditions, the Samankas barracks in Guillaund still held out under the the equal unbending Colonel Antonio Penae. He and his men beat off a night attack on August 3rd with

the help of gunfire from the cruiser Almerante Severa, still standing just offshore to support them. Two days later, they repelled another attack at dawn, again with the cruiser's fire behind them. On the 6th, their morale was raised by nationalist planes, which flew over the barracks and with remarkable accuracy, dropped both food and medicines into the narrow enclosure. On the 8th, the cruiser had to leave for a day, and an adjoining building held by Colonel Penae's men, the Zapodores Barracks, was almost taken in another attack. The defenders, it must be remembered, had no lights at all. They could only fight at night by aiming at the gun flashes of the enemy.

The cruiser returned on the 9th. On the 13th, some of the defenders of the more endangered Zabodotis barracks deserted, seeing no hope of rescuer or of prolonging the defense much longer. But 117 heroes remained there, along with 200 in the Samankos barracks. On the 14th, in the city of Guillaume, cursing and blaspheming revolutionary soldiers, took 116 prisoners, including 10 priests and two Capuchin brothers, out of the church of Santa Fe, where they had been holding them and shot them all at Hovey Cemetery. So that was...

116. They also fired on a statue of Christ, as happened on a number of other occasions during this period. On the 15th, the besiegers attempted to burn the barracks with flaming gasoline, but were once more driven back. In Aragon during August,

Buenos Ventura Duruti, the anarchist firebrand who had led the storming of the Atara Zanas barracks in Barcelona, was telling the world what he intended to do to his country and his people. He said to Canadian reporter Pierre von Paisan, we are not in the least afraid of ruins. We're going to inherit the earth. The bourgeoisie may blast and ruin their world before they leave the stage of history,

but we carry a new world in our hearts. Later in the month after boasting that he would soon lead a victorious attack on Zaragoza, he said to Russian journalist Mikhail Koltsov, we shall subordinate ourselves neither to Madrid nor Barcelona, neither to Azanas nor Companis. We shall show you Bolsheviks how to make religion. We shall show you Bolsheviks how to make revolution. Terrible slip. DeRida could hardly have failed to hear the story, quickly spread all over Spain, of how on August 3rd, Republican aircraft,

had dropped three bombs on the shrine of Our Lady of Pilar in Zaragoza, one of the most revered in the whole country, but not one of them exploded, while one, striking a pavement in front of the church, left the mark of a cross in the pavement. On August 8th, Derrude returned with his column to the small city of Barbostro in Republican-controlled Aragon

to announce his intention to eliminate dangerous persons, among them the bishop of Barbostera, Florentio Asencio. When Derrude spoke thus, everyone knew what he meant. That night, Bishop Ascensio finished a novena to the sacred heart of Jesus and said to his fellow prisoners, My sons, I wish to give you my last benediction. And afterward, like our Lord Jesus, I will celebrate my last supper with you.

At three o'clock in the morning, he was taken from prison, saying, what a beautiful night this is for me. I go to the house of the Lord. He was shot at kilometer three on the road from Barbastro to Saino Niena, Niena, and left for dead. He lived for two hours upon a pile of corpses, then delivered up his soul. Afterward, his body was mutilated. That same day, the 78-year-old bishop of Segorbe, Miguel Serra Securate, was shot. The day before, the Bishop of Quenca, Cruz La Plagna, Laguna, was killed at kilometer 5 on the road from Quenca to Villard de Olaya, saying triumphantly to his murderers, Do you not believe in heaven?

Heaven is, my sons. Do you not believe in hell? Hell is, my sons. You can kill me, my body I'll leave behind, but my soul will rise to heaven. I pardon you, and in heaven I will pray for you. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed

I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time, we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra.

Jampacked with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Franken, Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy.

Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frank Heen Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you. On the many days of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee.

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Four days earlier on August 5th, Bishop Silvio Huykes of Lareda, after saying mass for his fellow prisoners early in the day, was taken to a cemetery. was taken to a cemetery for killing with 22 laymen. He asked to be the last of the group shot so that he might give absolution to each of the others before they were struck down. A week later, on August 12th, auxiliary bishop Manuel Boras of Tarragona was executed beside a highway, his body mutilated and then partially burned with gasoline. And on that day, the bishop of Jan in Andalusia, Manuel Basulto Jimenez, was taken from a prison train going to Madrid by a mob at a railway station on the way and killed at Vallecas,

with 200 other prisoners, including his sister, Teresa, who begged for her brother's life until she got cut down by a hideous freckled militia woman named Josefa Koso. Bishop Basulto Jimenez died on his knees, asking God to forgive his sins and his assassins. Within a single week, six Spanish bishops had been martyred. nothing like it had been seen since the ancient Roman persecution of Diocletian. Even the massacres of September 1792 and the French Revolution took the lives of only two bishops. On August 10th, the Vatican pointed out that the Spanish Republican government had made no real effort to stop the killing of priests and religious in Spain or the destruction of churches there, nor had it offered any public expression of regret for these atrocities, nor condemned their perpetrators. in the prison at Barbostro, an entire community of missionary sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as Clericians, for their founder, the 19th century Spanish Saint Antonio Maria Claret, awaiting Durudy's decision on their fate.

The community included nine priests, 12 lay brothers, and 39 seminarians. They had been seized on July 20th the day of the fall of the Al-Ateranzas barracks in Barcelona, when the anarchists and militant socialists gained full control of. of Catalonia and some adjoining parts of Aragon, including Barbastro. The prison was a small old building without sanitary facilities, severely overcrowded, with only 16 to 20 square yards per prisoner. 21 of the Claritians were confined to a small unfinished cell, ventilated only by a window 12 by 6 inches in the oppressive heat of a Spanish summer. Every day, some came to taunt them in their fellow prisoners and call for their killings,

soon. At 3.30 in the morning of August 12, four clerician priests and two deacons were taken from Barbastito prison for execution. They were the first martyrs of this community, all of whom were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994. The other Colericians were now being held together in a large room, formally used as an auditorium. There that day, they wrote their last message on a chocolate bar wrapper. August 12, 1936, Barbastro, six of our companions are now martyrs.

Soon we too shall join their ranks, but before we do, we want to state that we forgive all who take our lives. We offer our lives for the Christianization of the working men, for the reign of the Catholic Church, for our beloved congregation, and for our dear families. This is the last offering of its martyred sons to their congregation. Immediately after midnight of the 13th, the hour struck for their next martyrdom. The prisoners were assembled on the stage of the former auditorium. On the former auditorium. Mariano Abad, the grave-digger and militiamen known for his ferocity, write out the names of the 20 Cleressions.

As each young man's name was called, he leaped from the stage to the floor, in the words of one of them who escaped death because of his Argentine citizenship, their faces glowed with an indescribably supernatural air. They were bound with ropes stained by the blood of earlier martyrs, which they kissed fervently. One of their priests gave them general absolution. As they marched out under guard, they began to sing and continued singing all the way to the killing place, on a nearby highway overlooking a ravine. Most often they sang the hymn of the International Eucharist Congress, which had been held in Madrid. Let us sing to the love of loves. Let us sing to the Lord, for God is here.

Let us adore Christ to Redeemer. Glory to Christ Jesus. Heaven and earth, blessed the Lord. bless the Lord. We will love you always, God of love. At the last moment, they were offered their lives if they would join the revolutionary militia. Every one of them refused. They knelt on the ground, extending their arms in the form of a cross. In their posture, all of them were shot and buried in their Cossacks.

21 more Clarations had already been told they would die the same death the following night. During the day, one of them, Faustino Perez, managed to smuggle out a letter to a Claritian superiors reporting the martyrdom of 26 of their community already and the forthcoming martyrdom of 21 more, saying, we all die praying to God that the blood from our wounds may not be a vengeful blood, but that it may run red and full of life in your veins to stimulate your growth and development all over the world. Goodbye, dear congregation. Your sons, the martyrs of barbastro, salute you from prison and offer you our sorrow and anguish as a Holocaust to expiate

Our faults, our weaknesses, and as a testimony to our faithful, generous, and eternal love. The martyrs of tomorrow, the 14th, are mindful of the fact that they die on the eve of the assumption. What a remembrance that will be. We die for the right to wear the cassock, and we die on the very anniversary of the day in which we were clothed in it. End quote. On that same day, the 13th in the town of Severa, 30-year-old Claritian brother Fernando Saperas was martyred by militia after they attempted for 15 hours to induce or force him to violate his vow of chastity. On that one day, 104 priests were martyred throughout Spain.

The remaining clericians at Barbastro were not, for unexplained reasons, killed as scheduled in the early morning hours of the 14th, but rather at that time on the 15th, the great feast of the assumption. They too sang all the way to their killing place, especially the Salviere Regina. Let us hear in conclusion, not again from them, but from one of their murderers, Verbe, Verbeigel of the Civil Guard, giving hell's own testimony to their constancy. Those goddamn fools, no one could shut them up. All the way they sang and praised Christ the king. One of them fell dead when we hit him with the butt of a gun, and this is no lie. But the more we hit them, the more they sang and shouted Viva Christoere. There's so much rope me on sports extra from Sky. They've asked me to

read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've been every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra.

Jam-packed with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen. If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as

new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frankine Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you. On the many days of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee, a visit filled with festivity. Experience a story of Ireland's most iconic beer in a stunning Christmas setting at the Guinness Storehouse.

Enjoy seven floors of interactive exhibitions and finish your visit with breathtaking views of Dublin City from the home of Guinness. Live entertainment, great memories and the gravity bar. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at Guinness Storehouse.com. Get the facts. Be drink aware. visit drinkaware.a.e. On that feast of the assumption,

the newspaper, Worker's Solidarity in Barcelona flaunted an enormous headline, down with the church. It's editorial read. The church must disappear forever. The wretched little Catholic holes no longer exist. The torches of the people have pulverized them. In their place, rises a free spirit

that has nothing in common with the masochism which incubates in the naves of the cathedrals. But it is necessary to tear up the church by the roots. For this we must take by force all its goods that rightly belong to the people. Religious orders must be dissolved. Bishops and cardinals must be shot. But as ever the blood of the martyrs was the seat of the church. In the word of Stanley Payne, one of the few historians of the Spanish Civil War, not largely or entirely blinded by anti-Catholic prejudice. Quoting, it was above all the outbreak of violent mass revolution in the Republican zone,

with its church burnings, economic appropriations, and many thousands of murders that quickly rallied the more conservative half of the Spanish populations of the nationalist cause. Almost equally important was the identification of the revolt with religion, which soon began to convert the revolt into an official crusade and provided its primal, cultural, emotional, and spiritual support. The Feast of the Assumption was a splendid opportunity to proclaim and confirm the crusade, in a great public ceremony at Sevilla, the Republican tricolor was lowered and the traditional Spanish golden red flag raised and hailed personally by Franco.

Jose Maria Pemann, the one outstanding Catholic champion among Spanish writers, called the war a new reconquista in defense of Christian civilization, a holy war, a crusade. General Mola speaking on radio that evening, pledged at the cross that was and remains the symbol of our religion and our faith would be raised above the over the new state. At his homily at the Assumption Day Mass in Pompulona, following a long and enthusiastic procession through the streets to honor the day, Bishop Aloshaea of Pamplona proclaimed, this is not a war, this is a crusade, and the church, while she asked God for peace and sparing of bloodshed among all her children, those who love her and fight to defend her, as well as those who hate her and want to destroy her,

cannot do less than put herself on the side of the Crusaders. I'll end it right there for now. We'll, might be able to finish up August in the, in the next episode. But yeah. Yeah, you know, it's, I usually get one theme out of these books. I have a tendency to really just concentrate on one thing. But one thing that really, really, pisses me off is people not understanding after the French Revolution, but especially

in 1917, especially the Bolshevik takeover of Russia and their destruction of everything there. To not understand that the only thing that could defeat that, that they saw that could defeat that at that time was to fight them, to just kill them, to not realize that everything, every movement was a response to that, to bullshitism. And it wasn't just two authoritarian groups fighting for power, man. You just get that out of your brain. I mean, that's simplistic. that's, I'm neither left nor right, which usually means that they're left wing. And that's people who are like, man, I can't take a side because I always have to be right.

At least of it is just be me morally right. That's all I hear. And it's just to be dismissed. You'd be dismissed. You had a ran. If you were Spanish, you would have ran. You would have left. Or you would have fought with the revolutionaries.

You would have fought with the anarchists. Yeah. There were ads during this. If you want to get the episodes early, an ad-free. For Mammyonthe-Wall.com, forward slash support, you can do it through the website right there, and do it through Subscrib Star, Patreon, Gumroad, substack, substack where I'm doing videos,

short little videos. My video this morning, I think, was five minutes long. It's also a little bit about what Boo Kelly's doing down there. But, yeah, just like many episodes. So, yeah. That's it. We'll be back for part six and try to finish up August in the next episode. And I'll have a guest, at least one guest for this reading later this week. We'll release that on the weekend. All right. Take care. Thank you. Bye.

There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole ad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam back with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live. from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam back with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months.

Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankenen Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry.

The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frank Heen Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you. On the many days of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee. A visit filled with festivity. Experience a story of Ireland's most iconic beer in a stunning Christmas setting at the Guinness Store. House. Enjoy seven floors of interactive exhibitions and finish your visit with brett-taking views

of Dublin City from the home of Guinness. Live entertainment, great memories and the gravity bar. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at ginnestorehouse.com. Get the facts. Be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.com.