The Pete Quiñones Show - Pete Reads 'The Last Crusade' by Warren H Carroll Part 9

Episode Date: July 20, 2024

45 MinutesPG-13Pete continues a reading of Warren H. Carroll's 1996 book, "The Last Crusade: 1936." In this episode, he reads the October chapter; the Fall 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.

Those people who love going out shopping for Black Friday deals, they're mad, aren't they? Like, proper mad. Brenda wants a television and she's prepared to fight for it, if you ask me. It's the fastest way to a meltdown. Me, I just prepare the fastest way to get stuff, and it doesn't get faster than Appliancesdelivered.e. Top brand appliances, top brand electricals, and if it's online, it's in stock. With next day delivery in Greater Dublin. Appliances delivered.e, part of expert electrical.

See it, buy it, get it tomorrow. Or, you know, fight Brenda. Pst, did you know? Those Black Friday deals everyone's talking about? They're right here at Beacon South Quarter. That designer's sofa you've been wanting? It's in Seoul, Boe Concept and Rocheburoix. The Dream Kitchen?

Check out at Cube Kitchens. Beacon South Quarter Dublin, where the smart shoppers go. Two hours free parking, just off the M50, exit 13. It's a Black Friday secret. Keep it to yourself. Ready for huge savings? We'll mark your calendars from November. 28 to 30th because the Liddle Newbridge Warehouse Sale is back.

We're talking thousands of your favorite Liddle items all reduced to clear. From home essentials to seasonal must-habs, when the doors open, the deals go fast. Come see for yourself. The Lidl Newbridge Warehouse Sale, 28th to 30th of November. Lidl, more to value. I want to welcome everyone back to part nine of my reading of Warren Carroll's The Last Crusade. A reminder about Thomas and I doing movie reviews, watching movies, and commenting on them. This evening, we'll be doing our fourth.

So that'll be coming out later today or tomorrow. And if you go to Freemann Beyond the Wall.com forward slash movies, you get links there to them. And also my partnership with Antelope Hill Press, order anything from Anelope Hill Press, put in Pete Q, all lowercase at checkout, get 5% off your order. All right. We got the October chapter here, and as long as I'm feeling okay, which feel pretty good today,

should be able to finish this one in one episode. So let's go. October. On the first day of October in Burgos, General Franco was formally invested with the Office of Chief of State of National Spain. His speech of acceptance was calmly uncompromising. My hand will be firm, my pulse will not tremble,

and I will raise Spain to a place befitting its history and its past standing. Our government will be for the people, for the middle class, and for the poorer classes. We will establish social justice, if necessary with an iron hand. The man who has no beliefs, who has no spirituality, who does not love his family, is not a man, not a Spaniard. He is nothing. He established at once a cabinet and a civil administration, including Carless Secretaries of Education, the posts they had originally demanded of Mola and Sanjuro without success and commerce.

The new government under Franco's direction at once began asserting control over trials, court-martials, and executions, where there had been numerous abuses, especially in Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. At first, not successfully in this endeavor due to the fierce past, unleashed by the atrocities in the Republic, Franco's government nevertheless attained full control of judicial procedure in most areas by early in the new year. In the Basque provinces, for example, after Cardinal Goma had vigorously protested the execution of Basque priests, who had supported the Republic because of its endorsement of Basque nationalism, Franco ordered these executions ended, October 26th, and his order was obeyed. In a report to the Pope at this,

time, Cardinal Goma described a great upsurge of faith and piety in Spain in response to the destruction of the churches, the profanation of devotional objects, and above all, the slaughter of priests and religious. Historian Stanley Payne confirms the truth of Cardinal Goma's observations and the cultural and educational changes resulting from the religious renewal, despite evident personal reservations about their decision. Quoting, by the autumn of 1936, the nationalist zone not only had a new government, but was undergoing a cultural revolution of

unprecedented proportions for any Western country in the 20th century. Religious revivalism was in full swing, at least on the public level, and nationalism was held to require the restoration of traditional values and attitudes on a remarkable scale. Schools and libraries were purged not only of radical, but of nearly all liberal influences, and Spanish tradition was upholded. is the indispensable guide to a nation that had lost its path by following the principles of the French Revolution and liberalism. I think immediately, because of where we grew up, because of what we were taught in school, we look and we see, oh, they purged the libraries. They burned books. They said liberal influence will not. Yeah. Look what it's done. Look what it did there.

I mean, this, it would be hard to compare the violence of the French Revolution and the violence of the Spanish Revolution Civil War and say which one was worse. But, you know, after you read about this, you realize these people were animals, just monsters. something had to be done. And historically, when you have something like that, when you have that kind of violence, that kind of, basically it almost seems like demon possession, then something, there's going to be a big swing in the opposite direction

to stop it. And, I mean, if you have a problem with that, you just, you don't have a problem with things continuing as the status quo. Every day, the blood of martyrs continued to teach the necessity of the renewal of Spain's traditional Catholic commitment that was so rapidly developing in the nationalist-held areas. On October 1st, the same day the Franco formally took power in National Spain, world-famous Jesuit historian Zakarias Garcia-Viada, whose great historical library had been burned earlier, was killed by militia.

in Madrid. Many hundreds of pages have been written about the killing of the poet Garcia Lorca by the nationalist, a heinous crime to be sure, but the equally heinous killing of the great Catholic historian is rarely mentioned in histories of the Spanish Civil War, even in passing, or in footnote. That's because leftists write the books, college professors, academics, journalists. Let's talk, I mean, tell me about the right-wing academics and journalists. I mean, you got Stanley Payne down here.

Notice how the only way you would know his name is by being in the right circles. But almost everyone knows about Garcia Lorca. No one knows about Zacharias Viada. Even if you, it's really interesting that people say, those who win get to write the history books. Not in this case. I mean, there was a lot of them were written in Spanish, so I mean, we don't have them, and they're not going to translate them into English and give them to us.

So on the next day, October 2nd, 50 more prisoners were killed in Bilboa and Bilbao, held by the Basque nationalist for the Republic, including 14 priests and a marist brother. 12 secular priests, five Franciscans, and two Carmelites were mowed down in the city cemetery of Castellon-Castione de la Plana in North Valencia province, and three nuns of the convent of Santa Clara de Monsoon were slain at Peralta after refusing to deny their faith. In Segorbe, on October 4th, Martina Vasquez, a sister of charity, well known for her holiness and care for the poor, after being taken from the hospital where she worked, was picked up by militia at night, despite an illness that left her barely able to walk.

As she entered their bus, she asked them, Are you going to kill me? Assured, with a merciless hatred that lashes across these intervening 60 years like a scorpion sting, that they were indeed going to kill her, she promptly blessed them with some holy water that she was carrying in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. They killed her by the roadside.

Her murderers were caught and executed in June. 1939. That's after the war. You will hear stories of Franco was still Franco was still killing people, was executing people after the war. Uh-huh. Yeah, and in Barcelona on October 8th, 44 Marist novices and their provincial, whom French members of their order had attempted to bring out of Republican Spain to safety in France, were shot at Moncada Cemetery, shouting Viva Christo re. Sixty-two others scheduled for death were saved at the last moment by the Catalan government, which was at the last beginning to assert some control over the rampant anarchists of that province.

If I can get anything out of this, whenever, I want you to hear the word anarchist, and I want you to cringe. You get anything out of this reading. I want you to hear the term anarchist, which I called myself at one time. And I want you to cringe, because I cringe thinking about it. Right-wingers don't get to take it. It will always be associated with this. Let's make that so.

62 others scheduled for death were saved at the very, at the last moment by the Catalan government, which was at last beginning to assert some control over the rampant anarchists of that province, decreeing on October 9th, the dissolution of all local committees, then exercising political and judicial power in Catalonia. Ready for huge savings? We'll mark your calendars from November 28 to 30th, because the Liddle Newbridge Warehouse Sale is back. We're talking thousands of your favorite Liddle items, all reduced to clear.

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Keep it to yourself. Those people who love going out shopping for Black Friday deals, they're mad, aren't they? Like, proper mad. Brenda wants a television and she's prepared to fight for it. If you ask me, it's the fastest way to a meltdown. Me, I just prepare the fastest way to get stuff and it doesn't get faster than Appliances Delivered.aE.

Top brand appliances, top brand electricals, and if it's online, it's in stock. With next day delivery in Greater Dublin. Appliances delivered.org.org. Part of expert electrical. See it, buy it, get it tomorrow. Or, you know, fight Brenda. This was followed on the 16th by an order of the Largo Caballero government integrating the militia with the regular army throughout the Spanish Republic. This decree took a long time to enforce but was necessary because of the proven inability of the often anarchist-dominated militia to fight effectively against trained soldiers.

The tight discipline was to be introduced, both military and political, in imitation of the Red Army and the Soviet Union. Despite these moderate improvements, substantial numbers, numbers of martyrdoms continue to occur in Catalonia and elsewhere in Republican Spain. On October 14th, three priests, sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, after successfully hiding from the persecution for nearly three months, were shot in a eucalyptus, eucalyptus grove in Santéda, Santander on the north coast. On October 17th in the heart of Madrid, Franciscan father perfecto caracosa was shot at the cemetery after being tortured to make him blasphemed the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he steadfastly refused to do.

and on October 25th, five cloistered Capuchin nuns were shot by militia in Valencia. Well might Manuel Falcande, the Carlist Secretary General, just confirmed in his office by the new Carlist royal claimant, Javier, say in a speech at Yeres de la Frontera in southern Andalusia, quoting, this is a religious war and a war of reconquest, for in Spain, everything was conquered under the protection of the cross and was preserved by the cross. Therefore, this war of reconstruction will end as so great an enterprise as ours must end, with the triumph of a glorious and sovereign institution, the Catholic Church, the model and prototype of all things Spanish. A few days earlier, a dramatic scene was played out in Nationalist City of Salamanca in Western Spain, which illustrated as vividly as any in the whole Spanish Civil War, the truth of what Falcande's

said and the consequences for anyone who could not or would not fully face and accept it, even if on the nationalist side. The city was the site of the oldest and most famous of all Spanish universities established at the height of medieval Christendom in the 13th century, the University of Salamanca. Its rector was the well-known and highly regarded Spanish intellectual Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher, poet, and novelists. Seventy three years, old in 1936, Umanumo Unamuno

had been sharply critical of the Spanish monarchy and the military government of Primo de Rivera in the 1920s, and it supported the Republic when it was established in 1931,

only to be shocked by the anarchic excesses and crimes, which came from the Popular Front government elected in February 1936. Really?

You're shocked, huh? Consequently, he had supported the nationalist rising in July. But by October, he was having second thoughts. The ferocity of the war frightened him, and its shedding of so much Spanish blood saddened him.

He was sensitive to a general hostility to intellectuals among some nationalist officers and spokesmen, resulting from the strong left-wing tendency of many intellectuals. The arrival of one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed general Jose Milan Astray, founder and commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion for the celebration of Salamanca of the Day of Race, October 12th, on which Spanish-speaking people commemorated Columbus's Discovery of America, produced an extraordinary confrontation of Milan-Astray with Unamuno. Frequently described in books on the Spanish Civil War, this confrontation is almost always presented as Robert Payne describes in his anthology of Spanish Civil War documents and reports,

the completely civilized man confronting the pure nihilist. The vivid account of the confrontation by Luis Portillo, included in Payne's anthology, is often quoted. Portillo's report is superbly written, but one needs only to read the first four paragraphs to know where his sympathies lie. That is not surprising, nor even reprehensible. It is, in fact, characteristic of nearly all eyewitness accounts coming from the Spanish Civil War. but the assumption that Unamuno was unquestionably right cannot stand for anyone who understands that for millions of Catholics in Spain and elsewhere, the war was a crusade.

Jose Milan Estre was not a gentleman, and he had already lost many of the legionnaires he had trained to the death he had taught them, when necessary to court. He knew the enemy, as Miguel de Unamuno, watching from his distance, safe in his ivory tower, would never know, would never know him. Milan Estre was no philosopher, novelist, or poet. He was a warrior, pure and simple, but he knew what he fought for. Milan Estre sensed that Unamuno did not know that he did not really believe anything worth fighting for to the death. Milan Estre had not been on the October 12 program to speak. He was no orator. He did not know how to organized his thoughts and words to develop an argument in speech. The speech he gave lacked logic

and at times was almost incoherent. Spaniards who continues to support the bloody republic, he cried, were guilty of rebellion and treason. They deserve death. Viva la Muerte. The audience roared out its response, led by the phalanists, Arriva, Espania, Franco, Franco, Franco. in Portillo's striking description of Unamuno and his response, quoting, Between the fine curve of his nose and this silver of his Quixote-like beard, his mouth was twisted in a bitter grimace of undisguised contempt. People began to grow uneasy. At last, Don Miguel rose slowly.

The silence was an enormous void. Into this void, Don Miguel began to pour the stream of his speech, as though savoring each measured word. this is the essence of what he said. All of you are hanging on my words. You all know me and are aware that I am unable to remain silent. I have not learned to do so in 73 years of my life, and now I do not wish to learn it anymore.

At times, to be silent is to lie, for silence can be interpreted as an acquiescence. It pains me to think that General Milan Estre should dictate the pattern of mass psychology. That would be appalling, a cripple who lacks the spiritual greatness, of Servantes, a man, not a Superman, virile and complete, in spite of his mutilations, a cripple, I said, who lacks that loftiness of mind, is want to seek ominous relief in

seeing mutilation around him. General Milan Estre would like to create Spain anew, a negative creation, in his own image and likeness, and for that reason he wishes to see Spain crippled, as he unwittingly made clear. This may sound splendid to those who disliked the nationalist in their cause, but what does it really mean? Clearly that General Milana Stray wanted his own young men, whom he had trained and loved, to be killed or crippled as he had been, not as unavoidable necessity, not as loyal service and sacrifice in a crusade, but simply to inflict his own suffering upon them. Far from noble rhetoric, this was a despicable insinuation about a man who believed utterly in his cause

and had lost a leg and an arm and an eye in the service of his country. Milan Estray may not have fully understood what Unamuno was charging him with, but he sensed enough of it to respond in a white-hot fury, Mura la intelligentsia, death to intelligence. It was an inappropriate, if understandable response to a vicious attack, and Jose Maria Pemann, one of the few genuine nationalist intellectuals, responded at once with, no, long-lived intelligence, death to bad intellectuals. Names of various bad intellectuals were immediately shattered out.

The audience was now seething with anger, some supporting Unamuno, more denouncing him. Unamuno was still standing before them, coldly hostile, then his voice rang out again. This is the temple of intellect, and I am its high priest. It is you who are profaning its sacred precincts. I have always, whatever the proverb may say, say, been a prophet in my own land. You will win, but you will not convince. You will win because you possess more than enough brute force, but you will not convince because to convince means to persuade. And in order to persuade, you would need what you lack, reason and right in the struggle. I consider a feudal to exhort you to think of Spain. I have finished. So Miguel de Unamuno

was both priests and prophet. The Spanish crusaders had neither reason nor right in their struggle. and they thought nothing of Spain. They had his word for it. Did the example of the defenders of the Alcazar of Teleto really lack the power to persuade? Did only brute force bring them victory? Unamuno was fortunate to escape unharmed. In his audience were men who would have no part in playing intellectual word games at such a moment in the history of their country and of Christendom.

They had seen sites like this described by Irish soldier Cyril Garrity as he entered the town of Guarenia this month, just a few minutes after Franco's army, advancing forward Madrid, had expelled the defenders of the Republic from it. Quoting, the floor was swimming with blood, and everything in the house was wrecked.

Lying by the bed was the body of an old lady of 76, her head half chopped off, and her poor broken arms lying unnaturally as if trying to reach the bodies of her son and grandson, who were lying beaten to death beside her. I could find no trace of a gunshot wound on either of them, but they were both terribly disfigured by the blows, which had rained on them from heads of foot.

In the half-light of the shuttered room, I could hurriedly keep my feet on the bloody floor as I grew up my way back to the open air. Those people who love going out shopping for Black Friday deals, they're mad, aren't they? Like, proper mad. Brenda wants a television, and she's prepared to fight for it. if you ask me, it's the fastest way to a meltdown.

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Two hours free parking, just off the M50, exit 13. It's a Black Friday secret. Keep it to yourself. Ready for huge savings? We'll mark your calendars from November 28 to 30th because the Liddle Newbridge Warehouse sale is back. We're talking thousands of your favourite Liddle items, all reduced to clear.

From home essentials to seasonal must-habs, When the doors open, the deals go fast. Come see for yourself. The Lidl Newbridge Warehouse Sale, 28th to 30th of November. Lidl, more to value. Milan Estre's bodyguard was pointing a submachine gun at Unamuno. Cries of anger filled the air. But Jose Milanastray was no anarchist killer.

Salamanca was under his protection and that of his fellow officers. He wanted no harm to come to this man who had slandered him. His one good eye swept the room with a commanding glanding gland. He sought instantly the way out. Unamuno, he directed, without honorifics, as though addressing some recalcitrant private in the Legion. Take the arm of the head of the state's wife. Take the arm of the head of state's wife.

Donya Carmen de Polo Franco, with firm mouth and large dark eyes, the devoutly Catholic spouse of the Generalissimo, responded at once, in the words of a student and her escort who was there. Franco's wife stood up with an aloofness and elegance, which I doubt she could repeat. With one hand, she gestured to the legionary to deflect his submachine gun, and with the other, she took Don Miguel by the arm. Unamuno looked on the point of collapse. His head was sunk in his shoulders.

With her other hand, she made a gesture which we understand to mean she was summoning her guard. We formed up around the couple. Our lieutenant, perhaps on Donia's. Doniart Carmen's instructions took up a position on Unamuno's other side and placed an arm around his shoulder. We had to use our rifle butts to control the spectators who pressed forward. There were shouts and cries of Rojo Cabron, red bastard. Franco's wife opened the door of her official car and told the lieutenant to take Unamuno home. Few recent historians describing this confrontation seemed to have noticed that it was Milan Astray himself who brought Carmen Franco to Unamuno.

from the threatening crowd, hardly the act of a bloodthirsty nihilist. On the last day of the year, 1936, Miguel de Unamuno died, a good man who yet could find no place for himself in a fight to the death for Santa Fe, the Holy Faith, who was in fact not a prophet in his own land or elsewhere, who by the end of his intellectually illustrious career had lost sight of the fundamental truth that God had made foolish to wisdom of the world, and who apparently no longer understood that there is only one true priesthood and one true high priest, who entered once and for all into the temple and made the sacrifice on Calvary that opened the gates of heaven to the human race. In the early days of October, the Largo Caballioto government fulfilled earlier

promises by the Republic to provide self-government autonomy for the two major areas of Spain whose popular speech was not Spanish, the Basque provinces in the north, and Catalonia in the northeast. The experiment lasted less than a year, during which the Basque provinces were occupied by the nationalists, and Catalonia was brought back under the full control of the central government, though with promises to restore its autonomy after a Republican victory. Nevertheless, this short-lived autonomy had substantial effects on the course of the war. In the Basque province, it dulled the edge of the crusade, and Catalonia it sharpened that edge. The Basque people of Spain from whom both St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier had come, had long been staunchly Catholic, as they continued to be under the most difficult conditions of the Spanish Republic in 1936. Of all territories which flew the flag of the Republic, only the two Basque provinces of Escaia and Guipuscoa kept their churches open and allowed the unrestricted practice of the Catholic faith.

Apparently oblivious to the condition of the faith elsewhere in the Republic, its Basque supporters satisfied their consciences by largely preventing attacks upon the church in their own territory. A Basque Assembly meeting at the traditional spot of such gatherings under an ancient oak tree outside the town of Guernica, elected Jose Antonio Aguirre, a practicing Catholic president, and swore him in with his cabinet, including four Basque nationalists, three socialists, one communist, and two Republicans. anarchists were not included. A mass was said for the assembly and the cabinet was in the cabinet by a traditional priest who had secretly made his way to Gwarnaca, with communion hosts smuggled out of Madrid. So long as a predominantly Catholic government in the two Basque provinces continued to fight for the regime in Madrid, the republic could not be said to be totally anti-Catholic, though the nationalist naturally considered the Republican Basques to be traitors. The presence of Basque Catholics on the Republican side was, to principal reason Pope Pius D. 11 did not recognize Franco's regime as a legitimate government of Spain until the Basque provinces had been overrun and incorporated into national Spain in 1936. 37, sorry. As for Catalonia, though the establishment of an autonomous provincial government there did not reduce the number of indiscriminate killings by its militia, the anarchists remained influential with both the government and the people, and the savagery of their rhetoric was unchanged.

an article in the anarchist paper worker, in the anarchist paper, Worker Solidarity on October 18th, contained this passage. Quote, not a single church has been left standing in Barcelona, and it may be assumed that they will not be restored, and that pickaxe and hammer will complete demolition

of what the fire began by purifying. But what about the villages? Not only must not a single one of the Cossack Black Beatles be left, but we must eradicate any journey. terms, which they may have incubated. Destruction, then. Not a moment's hesitation. Blood and fire. On October, I want to say it, but I don't want to be divisive. On October 24th, the Catalan government generally thought took over all factories

employing more than 100 workers and smaller businesses if the owners were nationalists or 75% of the workers requested the takeover. These factories were to be administered by workers' councils with a government representative on each council and 50% of any profits to go to the government, while the rest was to be kept and spent locally. However, in practice, as in socialized factories everywhere, there were no profits, only endless shortfalls and losses. Though the most solidly revolutionary of any part of Spain, Catalonia remained an economic drain upon the government and a source of political instability in strife for the republic throughout the rest of the Spanish Civil War.

On October 7th, the Nationalist March on Madrid resumed. Colonel Jaguay resumed active duty with the 10,000-man column from Morocco, though General Varela continued to command it. Another column of equal size consisting of regular soldiers, Rigettis, and Falungas, under the command of General Valdez Cabaneas, who reported to Mola, was marching south to join Varela's column at Madrid. By the middle of the month, the southern column had taken Naval Canero just 20 miles southwest of Madrid, and the northern column had taken

Siginsa, about 70 miles northeast of it. In view of the fact that Toledo, just 40 miles from Madrid had been relieved nearly three weeks before, this was slow movement by the nationalists, which surely had more to do with the subsequent defeat before Madrid than the brief detour to relieve the Al-Qa-Zar of Tullo, which only required about a week yet is usually blamed for the delay. Yeah, that's, you will hear people saying that there's no way they should have went to the Al-Qazar in T'lado. They should have just marched straight to Madrid, maybe. But there are some things, some places, there are some symbols.

a narrative needs to be built. And by going to the Al-Qasar and doing everything that they could to save it, that was narrative building and that brought people together. That gave people hope. Somebody said, more than one person has said, after hearing about the standoff at the Al-Qa-Zar,

that a movie needs to be made about that. If you're listening, and you have the money. During this first half of October occurred epic defensive struggle by the, occurred another epic defensive struggle by the Nationalists in the Northern Province of Asturias, where the heroic defense of the Samankas Barracks in Guillaun had ended in August. On October 4th, Revolutionary Militia in some Spanish Republican Army units attacked Colonel Antonio Aranda in the Asturian capital of Oviedo, where he had first pretended to be a supporter of the Republic,

then proclaimed his support for the officers rising in July. He held Oviedo with a garrison of about 3,000 men, one-third of whom were civilian volunteers, the rest being civil guards, assault guards, and some units of the Falunge. The attackers had about five times that number, finally concentrating their large force against the city after the fall of the Samankas barracks,

though only after numerous delays. The battle raged furiously for the next two weeks. The revolutionary secured the outskirts of the city and pressed on into the city center which the nationalist defended with a relentless determination matching that of their compatriots at the sieges of the Samankas barracks and the Alcazar of Toledo. On one major street in Oviedo, San Lazaro Street,

for days the nationalist controlled one side of it and the revolutionaries the other. Colonel Aranda called for the city to be defended to the last man. An officer of the garrison, Jesus Evarastio, Cesareegro, declared later. We were prepared to burn the city to create barricades of fire between us and the enemy. We were fighting street to street, house by house, story by story, room by room. We weren't prepared to surrender under any conditions. Win or die.

There was no other choice. The attackers confirmed the tenacity of the garrison's resistance and the tremendous losses they inflicted. More than half the attacking force was killed or wounded. By October 15th, Colonel Arunda's ammunition, food, and drinkable water were all raining out. He sent a message to General Mola saying, The only thing left for us is to die like Spaniards. But the Nationalists were able to send the column from Galicia to the west to relieve him. On October 17th, the relieving force reached the embatt.

reached the embattled and devastated city, mostly reduced to rubble. About half of Arndas' garrison was dead or wounded, but they had prevailed. On October 16th, as a nationalist drew ever closer to Madrid, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union sent a telegram to Spanish Communist Party chief Jose Diaz, which for the first time gave his full unqualified support to the Spanish Revolution. Quoting, The workers of the USSR only fulfill their duty in rendering all possible help to the revolutionary masses in Spain.

They recognize that the liberation of Spain from the yoke of the fascist reactionaries is not the private concern of Spaniards alone, but the common cause of all progressive humanity. Can I read that again? The workers of the USSR only fulfill their duty in rendering all possible help to the revolutionary masses in Spain. They recognize that the liberation of Spain from the yoke of the fascist reactionaries is not the private concern of Spaniards alone,

but the common cause of all progressive humanity. Okay. So this wasn't about Marxism. This wasn't about Bolshevism. This wasn't about the Soviet Union. Can we put this to bed once and for all the fascist reactionaries? So if you oppose communism, you're a fascist, you're a fascist, you're a racist, you're reactionary. Those who want to say, no, no, the fascists and the communists are the same thing.

Fuck you. Go fuck yourselves. Fucking fence-sitters. Just want to stand there and point the finger and be like, I'm right. I'm above all of this. Fuck you. Fuck you. On the following day, when the road junction of Iliscus, midway between Toledo and Madrid, was taken by advancing now. Nationalist troops, a training base for the Communist International Brigades was set up at Albucete in a thinly populated region of East Central Spain in the old province of Morcia. The Common Turn had finalized its decision to create these international brigades and established the headquarters of the Communist Fifth Regiment at Alba Sete early in October. The first communist international volunteers intended to make up the new brigades arrived at

the Republican port of Alicante on October 13th, and reached Albesete by train the following day. They consisted of 500 men, mostly Frenchmen from Paris. There was nothing yet to show how quickly international communism could move in such an undertaking, and the small group still seemed insignificant compared to the 20,000 men, mostly trained veterans, now being deployed by the nationalist before Madrid. The disparated and perhaps conscience-stricken Manuel Zanjani, suddenly fled the capital. On October 19th, he left Madrid

from Barcelona without telling anyone that he was going. 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 U.S.C. 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. That is a lot of rugby.

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live entertainment, great memories and the gravity bar. My goodness is Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at ginnestorehouse.com. Get the facts, be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.com. 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

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after a fierce struggle in the militia's favorite killing ground, a cemetery. The next day, the Republic's General Asencio, still capable and determined, launched a much larger counterattack, the largest of the war to date at Alescas, bringing 15,000 troops down from Madrid in double-decker buses. But the nationalists held fast. The battle ended in a draw, and three days later, the nationalist advance from Eliscus resumed. Largo Caballiotto blamed Asencio for not winning a victory, removed him from command, and kicked him upstairs to the post of Undersecretary of War. His replacement was a regular army officer from a strongly monarchist family, General Sebastian Paulsuss.

At the same time, overall command of the defense of Madrid was given to another regular army officer who had been previously suspected of nationalist leanings, General Jose Miyaha. When coupled with the growing pessimism of the government about its ability to hold Madrid. These appointments suggest that Largo Caballero intended two officers as cannon fodder in a battle he expected to lose. Meanwhile, on October 22nd, Largo Caballero had formally and publicly agreed to the formation and use of the communist international brigades in the war in Spain. Earlier in September, he and his finance minister, Juan Negren, without consulting President Azanya or any other minister, had promised to send the entire national

gold reserve of Spain to the Soviet Union as financial security for present and future shipments of arms and strategic materials to the republic. I mean, the whole trope about how Marxists just aren't good with money. On this same day, October 22nd, the loading of 7,900 gold and gets worth about $800 million in 1936, at least $6 billion worth. today, and that's back in the 90s, imagine what it is now, began on four Russian ships at the port of Cartagena under the supervision of Alexander Olav of the Soviet secret police, then called the NKVD. The ship sailed October 25th and delivered their golden cargo at the Soviet Black Sea Port of Odessa on November 6th, on November 6. Stalin was delighted with this ascension to his

treasury and held one of his famous vodka sloshing parties to celebrate it. Quote, the Spaniards will never see their gold again, just as one cannot see one's own ears. The former bank robber of the Caucasus declared jubilantly, and indeed, they did not. So that's what Franco had to deal with when they won the war. No gold reserves. Yeah, because, yeah. On October 28th, the Southern nationalist column commanded by General Varella, and now consisting of about 9,000 men had spread out to form a broad semicircle,

about 15 miles southwest of Madrid, from the Harama River around to the town of Brunette, due west of Madrid. Soviet aircraft and tanks were now available in some quantity. Largo Caballiotto boasted that they would destroy the forces about to assault the capital. At dawn on the 29th, Russian bombers struck nationalist airfields, while 15 Russian tanks led an attack, which knocked out many Italian tanks, but was insufficiently followed up by infantry, not trained in working with armored vehicles. The Nationalist destroyed two of the tanks with bottles of flaming gasoline, and a third broke down and had to be abandoned to them.

That same day, the Nationalist retaliated with limited bombings of Madrid, aiming chiefly at its airfields and other military targets, with six to nine planes making two sorties a day. The next day, the 30th, one of the nationalist bombs went astray and hit a school, killing 60 children, of which the revolutionary propaganda made much, but such accidents will always happen in aerial bombings near any city, and if unattended and sporadic, are not sufficient grounds for condemnation under the Catholic moral doctrine of double effect.

On the 31st, the French government decided to permit the recruiting of volunteers to fight for the Spanish Republic, and Hitler decided to send a hundred more German planes to support the Nationalists in Spain. The greatest battle of the war to date was impending. The battle for Madrid, both sides regarded it as decisive. Franco and the Nationalists were confident of victory. The evidence suggested Largo Caballetto had many doubts, and President Azania had obviously given up.

But the communist intervention was to have a much greater impact than anyone in Spain suspected at the end of October. The common turn, despite its absolute control by Stalin's agents, was still seen by many in the West, as an independent, idealistic organization fighting, at least in Spain, for a good cause. That's why you need to control the narrative. That's why you need to control the press. That's why you cannot have your enemy controlling the press.

Men and women of the left all over the Western world, including not only communists and their consistent sympathizers, but also many who would not follow Stalin or the common turn, but believe profoundly in the righteousness, in the right, in the right, in the right, in the rightness of the cause of the Spanish Republic, as so many, including historians still due to this day, were ready, willing, and eager to help the Republic. They were encouraged in misperception of the war and its issues because the Republic was not only communist and Largo Caballetto, though communist by belief, a fact not widely known outside of Spain, was not a member of the Communist Party. It was possible for leftists and many at the political center to believe that the elected popular front still

actually governs Spain. These excuses for ignorance of the true situation in Spain and for support of the revolutionary government of Largo Caballetto do not, however, apply to the religious persecution. It was far too extensive and its victims far too numerous to be hidden. By October in 1936, the whole world knew about it. It was this far-flung and ghastly persecution described as some length in these pages that caused faithful practice in Catholics to become the one substantial element in Western countries, other than the totality. Italian, German, and Italian governments who had reasons of their own for military intervention in Spain to support the Spanish nationalists. The religious persecution was impossible to defend or justify then or later, though some

feeble attempts were made to do so. Consequently, reporters, writers, and historians of the left talked about the persecution and the martyrdoms as little as possible, then and later. Remember that famously Walter Durante of the New York Times went to the Soviet Union knew what happened in Ukraine and still went back and reported

that, you know, knew about the Holodomor and still said, oh, everything, the Soviet Union is a paradise and won the Pulitzer Prize. That's what prizes don't mean anything to me. This dim out, if not blackout in the standard communications media, a practice with which we have become only too familiar

since 1936, dimmed and eventually eclipsed public perception and memory of the religious persecution. Almost no one outside the Catholic Church now knows about the nearly 7,000 priests and religious martyr during the Spanish Civil War. The crusade in Spain in 1936 is the only one of all the Crusades in the history of Christendom, whose very existence as a crusade, was and remained unknown to most of the West. It might almost be called the Hidden Crusade. The world knew it was being fought, but mostly did not know what it was being fought for. Consequence was that, while the military equipment mainly aircraft and tanks, shipped to the two contenders from their respective foreign supporters, the Soviet Union for a Republic, Germany and Italy for the

nationalists generally counterbalanced each other. The great majority of foreign volunteers went to the Republic, and the tightly organized and disciplined communist international brigades by far the most effective of them. In the Battle of November 1936, they held Madrid, keeping in a revolutionary hands for two and a half long, terrible years. But the Catholic nationalist persevered to the end, and in the end they won. Many Crusades in the history of Christendom were lost, but both the First Crusade and the last triumphed. All right. Next chapter gets into November and December.

And, yeah. Yeah. You'll notice there were ads during this. If you want to get the episodes early and ad-free, head over to freeman beyond the wall.com forward slash support. Five ways you can support there on my website. Patreon, subscribe, star, gumroo. substack.

And yeah, that's it. Until episode 10. Take care. Thanks for tuned in. 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 U.S. and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months.

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Who will you? Wonderlights with. For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.com. 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 ginnestorehouse.com. Get the facts. Be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.com.