\nThe Basque region and the government argued over who had command over their armed forces, the former assumed command and because of the distance from Madrid, it was difficult for the government to overturn this. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\n The Republican bureaucracy was incompetent, divided by politics and impeded by indiscipline and distrust. (Alpert)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n5. International Brigade<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThis group may have had a lot of media coverage at the time but they were too small to have any real impact on the war. They were also inexperienced and sometimes ill-trained. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n6. Strategy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTheir navy did not restrict the Nationalist supply lines, they were fearful of antagonising powers such as Britain and France if their blockade had an impact on international trade. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\n Republican aircraft were unable to prevent the Nationalist airlift <\/strong>from Morocco to the mainland. Both German (especially Heinkel-51 fighters) and Italian (Savoia Marchetti-81 bombers) were important in the airlift. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\nBoth sides had commanders who had read about the advancements in armoured warfare<\/strong> (e.g. blitzkrieg<\/strong>) but it was the Nationalists who used them more. One example was when they attacked a defensive ring around Bilbao in 1937. It was attacked on a narrow front at a weak point, with both artillery and air power bombarding it before ground troops moving through. These may demonstrate the German influence<\/strong> on the Nationalist strategy and tactics. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\nHowever, the Nationalists did not always succeed. One example was the Battle of Guadalajara in 1937, four Italian mechanised divisions were defeated as they had moved without air or artillery cover<\/strong>. Yet this was a pyrrhic victory as Franco learned the value of support, winning at Santander (1937), Aragon (1938) and Catalonia (1938-39) as a result. (Alpert)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhy did the Nationalists win?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy did the Nationalists win?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to <\/span>Helen Graham<\/a>, albeit looking back on the war, it can be argued that it was inevitable that the Nationalists would win the war. They had the support of Italy, Germany and Portugal and had the guarantee that Britain and France would not help the Republicans. the only surprise was that the Left were able to sustain the war for so long.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nSpanish Army<\/mark><\/span>\n\nThe bulk of the Spanish Army was on the side of the Nationalists.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\nAfricanistas<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\nWith regards to the armies, Franco’s forces were more disciplined and professional<\/strong>, perhaps because of their experience in Morocco, than their Republican counterparts. Alpert adds that other reasons could be that the latter were influenced by the French military doctrine of positional defence whereas the Nationalists were more aggressive and open to movement…a German influence? (Alpert)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\nForeign Powers<\/mark>\n\nGermany wanted to assist a nationalist cause in a short war, experimenting with its weaponry at the same time. Its aerial assistance was instrumental in achieving air superiority<\/strong> over the Republicans during the war. They provided the M-109 fighter aircraft and the Italians supplied the Fiat CR-32. The Soviet aircraft were very good but they did not send as many as Franco’s allies. This shortage was particularly felt in 1938<\/strong> and their hope that Britain and France would offer assistance was shattered when the Munich Conference demonstrated their reluctance to adopt an aggressive foreign policy with Germany. (Alpert) <\/li>\n\n\n\nFurthermore, the Soviets did have the ability to send more aircraft but only chose to in 1939, this was too late <\/strong>to have an impact on the war. (Alpert) <\/li>\n\n\n\nFranco’s air force was also helped by the professional training<\/strong> of the German pilots. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\nArtillery<\/strong>, particularly the German 88-mm anti-aircraft guns, was decisive in many battles, especially when used in combination with air power. <\/li>\n\n\n\nPaul Preston argues that Italy and Germany entered into the war to weaken Britain and France<\/strong>. In this, they were successful.<\/li>\n\n\n\nGermany threatened the Republic to abandon their naval blockade, which they did owing to a lack of support from Britain and other countries. Alpert argues that it appears through Republican memoirs that their use of aerial and naval power was indecisive and confusing<\/strong>. Consequently, Franco’s imports were never really interfered with. Moreover, Franco’s naval forces bombed enemy merchant ships and consequently limited their supplies. The situation was worsened because Franco was able to acquire his war material on credit whereas the Republic was forced to pay with gold (from the USSR) and was further restricted in purchasing arms because of the Non-Intervention Pact of 1936. (Alpert)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\nStrategy<\/mark>\n\nTheir air power and harassment of infantry from the air was effective. They also were far more successful with their strategy of carpet bombing (Alpert). The image below shows you an example of the US airforce carpet bombing<\/a> in 1944, aimed at destroying a large area. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\nA good example of carpet bombing was at Guernica in 1937. The Condor Legion bombed the town and caused lots of casualties which are still disputed today. Importantly, this attack had a significant impact on Republican morale<\/strong>. The Italian airforce also heavily bombed Barcelona in 1938. <\/li>\n\n\n\nTheir concentrated artillery played a decisive role. (Alpert)<\/li>\n\n\n\n The leadership was centralised, demonstrating that an efficient dictatorship is more effective in managing a war. Franco’s Nationalists were authoritarian with all aspects of life being military controlled. (Alpert)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat role did foreign interventionist support for the Nationalists play in determining the outcome of the Spanish Civil War?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nForeign Powers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSee Foreign Powers in the previous sections too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communism and the USSR<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nby Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe USSR was seen as a safe haven<\/strong> for Spanish communists to leave their children so they could fight the war, Rivera Sanchez was one such mother who did this.<\/li>\n\n\n\nThere were clandestine (secret) training schools <\/strong>for international revolutionaries in Moscow. These would provide recruits for the International Brigade<\/strong>, aimed at spreading the ideology of communism and to understand the world with Soviet eyes. The most prestigious was the Lenin School. The Bolsheviks wanted to remake the world and communism was the ideology to do this. Comintern (Communist International) was the organisation in charge of this operation \u2013 it had sixty-five parties across six continents by 1935.<\/li>\n\n\n\nThe 1936 coup d\u2019etat could have been defeated<\/strong> in its infancy if it did not receive support from Hitler and Mussolini \u2013 fourteen thousand Spanish and Moroccan troops were transported (initially trapped there) across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain by Italian and German aircraft.<\/li>\n\n\n\nThese troops used similar tactics to those used in Morocco and were aided by up to seventy thousand Italian soldiers, hundreds of artillery pieces, tanks, and aircraft. In particular, the Condor Legion, bombers from Wehrmacht, gave air support and bombed targets such as Guernica to aid the Nationalists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n During the war, the USSR was seen to be the saviour of democracy<\/strong> (Soviet propaganda therefore effective), standing up to the fascists. This helped attract support for the International Brigade.<\/li>\n\n\n\nRepublicans accepted Soviet aid reluctantly<\/strong>, they knew the West would not approve and be less likely to offer support themselves.<\/li>\n\n\n\nArguably, the USSR did not want to prevent the Nationalists taking control of Spain, but instead wanted a communist country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nPaul Preston in ‘Spanish Civil War, Reaction, Revolution and Revenge’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHuman and Economic Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nAs stated earlier, the USSR gave the Republicans military aid. This was generally weaponry but there were also military personnel too. However, the weapons varied in quality, from a small number of excellent tanks to virtually obsolete rifles<\/strong> from the Russo-Japanese and First World wars. As there were so many different types of weaponry, acquiring the correct ammunition was far from easy and this limited their use.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nIdeology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe Left was generally disunited during the war whereas the Right were not. For example, the Left comprised the anarchists, communists, socialists and the independence movements. The anarchists followed the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Mikhail-Bakunin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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