The Spanish Civil War (102 page)

The tanks made available by Russia to Spain probably numbered 900, the pieces of artillery 1,550, the armoured cars 300, the machine-guns 15,000, automatic rifles 30,000, mortars 15,000, rifles 500,000, lorries 8,000, along with 4 million of artillery projectiles, 1,000 million cartridges and 1,500 tons of gunpowder.
³
The Russian tanks were mostly T-26s, some TB-5s, both being much heavier, better armed, faster and more formidable though less manoeuvrable than the German or Italian tanks available to the nationalists. But they benefited the republic less than they should have done.

The International Brigades

The total number of foreigners who fought for the Spanish republic was probably about 35,000, about 32,000 being in the International Brigades, which
probably never exceeded 20,000 at any one time.
¹
There could hardly have been less than another 10,000 doctors, nurses, engineers, and others from abroad in addition. The largest national group of volunteers were the 9,000 or so French, of whom 1,000 were killed.
²
Germany and Austria together contributed perhaps 3,000, of whom 2,000 died.
³
The number of Poles, including Ukrainians in what after 1945 became part of Russia, may also have been about 3,000.
⁴
Italy sent 3,350.
⁵
The United States contributed about 2,400. Of these, about 900 were killed.
⁶
There were about 2,000 British volunteers, of
whom about 500 were killed and 1,200 wounded—a high percentage;
¹
about 1,000 Canadian volunteers, 1,500 Yugoslavs,
²
1,000 Hungarians, 1,500 Czechs, and 1,000 Scandinavians, of whom 500 were Swedes.
³
Seventy-six Swiss were killed.
⁴
The other volunteers came from what was claimed to be fifty-three nations.
⁵
Ninety Mexicans probably fought in Spain.
⁶
As to Russians in Spain, the maximum at one time was 700, the total number being probably between 2,000 and 3,000.
⁷
Perhaps 1,000 Russian pilots flew in Spain.
⁸

One should also not ignore the 47 million roubles’ worth of ‘gifts’ from Russian workers in August 1936 and a fund reaching some $10 million from private and other organizations abroad. If one is to be pedantic, one should also remember that such services as the International Brigades and the voluntary medical missions presented no expenses to speak of in respect of foreign exchange. Over two million dollars’ worth of aid was collected by American relief bodies.

Mexico sent 20,000 rifles, 28 million cartridges and 8 batteries with some lorries and aircraft. This was not a gift, however: it was paid for even though much of this equipment was second-rate.

Probable figures for foreign intervention in the civil war.

(i)
Letter about Guernica from the British Consul, R. C. Stevenson, addressed to the British Ambassador, Sir Henry Chilton, at Hendaye.

British Consulate,
Bilbao,                 
28th April 1937.  

Dear Sir Henry,

On landing at Bermeo yesterday I was told about the destruction of Guernica. I went at once to have a look at the place and to my amazement found that the township normally of some five thousand inhabitants, since the September influx of refugees about ten thousand, was almost completely destroyed. Nine houses in ten are beyond reconstruction. Many were still burning and fresh fires were breaking out here and there, the result of incendiary bombs which owing to some fault had not exploded on impact the day before and were doing so, at the time of my visit, under falling beams and masonry. The casualties cannot be ascertained and probably never will, accurately. Some estimates put the figure at one thousand, others at over three thousand. An inhabitant who went through it all, told me that at about 4
P.M
. three machines appeared overhead and dropped H.E. and incendiary bombs. They disappeared and ten minutes later a fresh lot of five or six machines came and so on for several hours, until after seven. All told he estimates the number of planes at fifty. After two or three visits panic seized the population. Men, women and children poured out of Guernica and ran up the bare hillsides. There they were mercilessly machine gunned, though with little effect. They spent the night in the open gazing at their burning city. I saw many men and women erring through the streets searching in the wreckage of their houses for the bodies of their dear ones.

In the afternoon I saw Monzón who appeared stunned by the catastrophe. He asked me what could be done for the women and children of Bilbao. I told him that evacuation on the scale suggested, he mentioned a quarter of a million, was beyond the task of man where so little comprehension was shown abroad, and where there was no organization extant for tackling and carrying
out such a scheme. I told him what was felt in France over the refugee problem. I mentioned Russians, Poles, Italians, Germans and Jews all of whom had inundated France in hundreds of thousands during the past two decades. Moreover, the scheme depended on Salamanca which commanded the seas and Salamanca had not yet replied to the suggestion put to it by you that the liner
Havana
and the yacht
Goiseko Izarra
should be left unmolested on their proposed voyages between Bilbao and French ports.
¹
He saw the reason of it all, but nevertheless asked me if I could not think of some solution. To this I replied that I had sought one during several hours, but that I could only suggest surrender. This he said was impossible. I conjured before his eyes a picture of Bilbao destroyed in the same way with no earthly chance for more than a fraction of the population, today about half a million, escaping destruction. No, and again no. I told him I sympathized with him, that his judgment was dimmed by passion, that resistance against overwhelming odds was useless, that I would put the members of the Government, senior officials and leaders of the Basque Nationalist Party on a destroyer. But of no avail. He said surrender was impossible whatever the consequences. Today I covered the whole ground again with the President, but found there the same resistance to the idea of surrender. The President asked me whether I thought there was a possibility of the British and French Governments intervening. I said that if there were intervention I could not conceive it on any basis other than surrender. You will have read his appeal to the civilized world in the press.

I feel I have gone far enough in this regard. I can obviously not persuade them to surrender, at least not at present. I dare say, human nature being what it is, my suggestion will find an echo some time, if only then it is not too late. How in the event of an evacuation I shall proceed, I have not thought out yet. With bombers overhead, with extremist elements on the war path, with thousands of men, women and children running amok, all wanting passage, with the impossibility of keeping secret the plans for such an evacuation, I cannot see how it is to be carried out successfully …

The official denials of Salamanca respecting the bombardment of Guernica lend colour to the belief that whatever the physical courage of the rebels they will not have the moral courage to carry out their threat to raze Bilbao. Many people build fresh hopes on this slender chance. It is also argued that a Bilbao, destroyed, will bring Franco no nearer victory as he then will be without the industrial plants he so much needs …

Yours sincerely,              
(Signed)
R.C. STEVENSON                 

The following lists books, articles and other matter referred to in the footnotes, apart from newspapers and periodicals; and also some other books consulted which are of use. The criterion for inclusion at all is often the significance of the volume or pamphlet as typical of its sort; thus the historical value of
The Bishop of Chelmsford Refuted
is not great; but it and other pamphlets are interesting in themselves.

ABAD DE SANTILLÁN, DIEGO
,
Por qué perdimos la guerra
(Buenos Aires, 1940);
La revolución la guerra en España
(Buenos Aires, 1937).

ABELLA, RAFAEL
,
La España nacional
(Barcelona, 1973).

ABERRIGOYEN, IÑAKI DE (IGNACIO DE AZPIAZU
),
Sept mois et sept jours dans l’Espagne de Franco
(Paris, 1938).

ABSHAGEN, KARL
,
Canaris
(London, 1956).

ACEDO COLUNGA, FELIPE
,
José Calvo Sotelo
(Barcelona, 1959).

ACIER, MARCEL
(ed.),
From Spanish Trenches
(New York, 1937).

AGUIRRE Y LECUBE, JOSÉ ANTONIO DE
,
De Guernica a Nueva York pasando por Berlín
(Buenos Aires, 1944).

ALBA, VÍCTOR (PEDRO PAGÉS ELÍAS
),
Histoire des républiques espagnoles
(Vincennes, 1948).

ALCALÁ GALIANO, ALVARO
,
The Fall of a Throne
(London, 1933).

ALCÁZAR DE VELASCO, ANGEL
,
Serrano Súñer en la Falange
(Madrid, 1940).

ALCOFAR NASSAES, JOSÉ LUIS
,
CTV: los legionarios italianos en la guerra civil española
(Barcelona, 1972);
Los asesores soviéticos en la guerra civil española
(Barcelona, 1971);
Las fuerzas navales en la guerra civil española
(Barcelona, 1971).

ALCOLEA, RAYMOND
,
Le Christ chez Franco
(Paris, 1938).

ALLAN, TED
,
The Man Who Made Franco
(article) (Colliers, 1947).

ALLAN, TED
(and
GORDON, SYDNEY
),
The Scalpel, Not the Sword
(London, 1954) (Life of Doctor Norman Bethune).

ALONSO, BRUNO
,
La flota republicana y la guerra civil de España
(Mexico, 1944).

ALPERT, MICHAEL
,
A New International History of the Spanish Civil War
(London, 1994);
The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939
(Reading,
1973). (Published in Barcelona, 1977, as
El Ejercito republicano en la guerra civil.
)

ALVAREZ, RAMÓN
,
Eleuterio Quintanilla
(
vida y obra del maestro
) (Mexico, 1973).

ALVAREZ DEL VAYO, JULIO
,
Freedom’s Battle
(New York, 1940);
Give Me Combat
(New York, 1973);
The Last Optimist
(London, 1950).

AMBA, ACHMED
,
I Was Stalin’s Bodyguard
(London, 1952).

AMERY, JULIAN
,
Approach March
(London, 1973).

ANSALDO, JUAN ANTONIO
,
¿Para qué? … (De Alfonso XIII a Juan III
) (Buenos Aires, 1951).
Anuario Estadístico de España
(Madrid, 1931).

ARAQUISTAIN, LUIS
,
El comunismo y la guerra de España
(Carmaux, 1939).

ARENILLAS, JOSÉ MARÍA
,
The National Question and the Socialist Revolution in the Basque Country
(Leeds, 1972).

ARMILAS GARCÍA, LUIS
,
Rutas gloriosas
(Cádiz, 1939).

ARMIÑÁN, JOSÉ MANUEL DE
and
LUIS DE
,
Epistolario del dictador
(Madrid, 1930).

ARMIÑÁN, LUIS DE
,
Bajo el cielo de Levante
(Madrid, 1939).

ARNAL, MOSÉN JESÚS
,
Por qué fui secretario de Durruti
(Andorra, 1972).

AROCA SARDAGNA, JOSÉ MARÍA
,
Los republicanos que no se exilaron
(Barcelona, 1969).

ARRARÁS, JOAQUÍN
,
Franco
(Buenos Aires, 1937);
Historia de la segunda república española,
4 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1956–64).

ASENSIO TORRADO
, General,
El General Asensio: su lealtad a la república
(Barcelona, 1938).

ATHOLL, KATHARINE
, Duchess of,
Searchlight on Spain
(Harmondsworth, 1938).

ATTLEE, C
.
R
. (with
ELLEN WILKINSON, PHILIP NOEL BAKER, JOHN DUG-DALE
),
What We Saw in Spain
(London, 1937).

AUB, MAX
,
Campo cerrado
(Mexico, 1943).

AUCLAIR, MARCELLE
,
Enfance et mort de García Lorca
(Paris, 1968).

Authors Take Sides
(London, 1937).

AVILÉS, GABRIEL
,
Tribunales rojos
(Barcelona, 1939).

AYERRA, MARINO
,
No me avergoncé del Evangelio
(Buenos Aires, 1958).

AZAÑA, MANUEL
,
Obras completas,
4 vols. (Mexico, 1966–8);
Diarios 1932–1933
(Barcelona, 1997).

AZCÁRATE, PABLO DE
,
Memoirs
(unpublished).

AZNAR, MANUEL
,
Historia militar de la guerra de España
(
1936–1939
) (Madrid, 1940).

AZPILIKOETA
,——
DE
,
Le Problème basque vu par le cardinal Gomá et le président Aguirre
(Paris, 1938).

BAHAMONDE, ÁNGEL
(with
CERVERA, JAIME
),
Así terminó la guerra de España
(Madrid, 1999).

BAHAMONDE Y SÁNCHEZ DE CASTRO, ANTONIO
,
Memoirs of a Spanish Nationalist
(London, 1939).

BAILEY, GEOFFREY
,
The Conspirators
(London, 1961).

Bajo la bandera de la España republicana
(Moscow, 1970?).

BAKER, CARLOS
,
Hemingway: The Writer as an Artist
(Princeton, 1952).

BALBONTÍN, JOSÉ ANTONIO
,
La España de mi experiencia
(Mexico, 1952).

BALCELLS, ALBERTO
,
Crisis económica y agitación social en Cataluña
(
1930–1936
) (Barcelona, 1971).

BALK, THEODORE
,
La Quatorzième
(Madrid, 1937).

BALLESTEROS, ANTONIO
,
Historia de España,
8 vols. (Barcelona, 1919–36).

BARÁIBAR, CARLOS DE
,
La guerra de España en el plano internacional
(Barcelona, 1938).

BARCIA TRELLES, AUGUSTO
,
La política de no-intervención
(Buenos Aires, 1942).

BARCO TERUEL, ENRIQUE
,
Valle del Jarama
(
Brigada Internacional
) (Barcelona, 1969).

BARDOUX, JACQUES
,
Chaos in Spain
(London, 1937).

BAREA, ARTURO
,
The Forging of a Rebel
(New York, 1946).

BARMINE, ALEXANDER
,
One Who Survived
(London, 1945).

BAROJA Y NESSI, PÍO
,
Ayer y hoy
(Santiago de Chile, 1939).

BARRIOBERO, EDUARDO
,
Un tribunal revolucionario
(Barcelona, 1937).

BARTLETT, V
.,
I Accuse
(London, 1937).

BASALDÚA, PEDRO DE
,
El dolor de Euzkadi
(Barcelona, 1937);
En España sale el sol
(Buenos Aires, 1946).

BAUER, EDDY
,
Rouge et or
(Neuchâtel, 1939).

BAYLE, FR CONSTANTINO
,
¿Qué pasa en España?
(Salamanca, 1937).

BEAUFRE
, General
ANDRÉ
,
The Fall of France, 1940
(London, 1965).

BÉCARUD, JEAN
(and
LAPOUGE, GILLES
),
Anarchistes en Espagne
(Paris, 1969).

BELFORTE, FRANCESCO
,
La guerra civile in Spagna
(Milan, 1938).

BELL, QUENTIN
(ed.),
Julian Bell; Essays, Poems and Letters
(London, 1938).

BEN-AMI, S
.,
The Origins of the Second Republic
(Oxford thesis, 1974).

BENAVIDES, MANUEL
,
El último pirata del Mediterráneo
(Madrid, 1933);
Guerra y revolución en Cataluña
(Mexico, 1946);
La escuadra la mandan los cabos
(Mexico, 1944).

BENDINER, ROBERT
,
The Riddle of the State Department
(New York, 1962).

BERJÓN, ANTONIO
,
La Prière des exilés espagnols à la Vierge du Pilier
(Liège, 1938).

BERNANOS, GEORGES
,
Les Grands cimetières sous la lune
(Paris, 1938).

BERNERI, CAMILLO
,
Mussolini à la comquête des Baléares
(Paris, 1937);
Guerre de classe en Espagne
(Paris, 1938).

BERNERI, GIOVANNA
,
Lezione sull’antifascismo
(Bari, 1962).

‘
BERRYER
’,——,
Red Justice
(London, 1937).

BERTRÁN GÜELL, FELIPE
,
Preparación y desarrollo del alzamiento nacional
(Valladolid, 1939).

BERTRÁN Y MUSITU, JOSÉ
,
Experiencias de los servicios de información del nordeste de España (SIFNE) durante la guerra
(Madrid, 1940).

BESSIE, ALVAH CECIL
,
Men in Battle
(New York, 1939).

BETHUNE, NORMAN
,
Le Crime de la route Málaga-Almería
(Publicaciones Iberia, no date).

BEUMELBURG, WERNER
,
Kampf um Spanien, die Geswchichte der Legion Condor
(Berlin, 1940).

BEURKO, SANCHO DE
,
Gudaris, recuerdos de guerra
(Buenos Aires, 1956).

BIHALJI-MERIN, OTO (MERIN, PETER
),
Spain between Death and Birth
(New York, 1938).

BILAINKIN, GEORGE
,
Tito
(London, 1952).
Bishop of Chelmsford Refuted, The
(London, 1938).

BLANKFORT, MICHAEL
,
The Brave and the Blind
(New York, 1940).

BLEY, WULF
,
Das Buch der Spanienflieger
(Leipzig, 1939).

BLOCH, JEAN RICHARD
,
España en armas
(Santiago de Chile, 1937).

BLYTHE, HENRY
,
Spain over Britain
(London, 1937).

BOLÍN, LUIS A
.,
Spain, the Vital Years
(London, 1967).

BOLLATI, AMBROGIO
,
La guerra di Spagna sino alla liberazione di Gijón
(Turin, 1937);
La guerra di Spagna dalla liberazione di Gijón alla vittoria
(Turin, 1939).

BOLLOTEN, BURNETT
,
The Grand Camouflage: The Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War
(London, 1961).

BONET, JOAQUÍN ALONSO
,
¡Simancas! Epopeya de los cuarteles de Gijón
(Gijón, 1939).

BONNET, GEORGES
,
De Washington au Quai d’Orsay
(Geneva, 1946).

BONOMI, RUGGERO
,
Viva la muerte, diario dell’ ‘Aviación de El Tercio’
(Rome, 1941).
Book of the XVth Brigade, The
(Madrid, 1938).

BORKENAU, FRANZ
,
The Spanish Cockpit
(London, 1937).

BORRÁS Y BERMEJO, TOMÁS
,
Checas de Madrid
(Barcelona, 1956).

BOTELLA PASTOR, V
.,
Así cayeron los dados
(Mexico, 1959);
Por qué callaron las campanas
(Mexico, 1953).

BOUTHELIER, ANTONIO
(with
MORA, JOSÉ LÓPEZ
),
Ocho días de la revuelta comunista
(Madrid, 1940).

BOWERS, CLAUDE
,
My Mission to Spain
(New York, 1954).

BRACHER, KARL
,
The German Dictatorship
(London, 1970).

BRADEMAS, JOHN
,
Anarcosindicalismo y revolución en España (1930–1937)
(Barcelona, 1974).

BRASILLACH, ROBERT
,
Histoire de la guerra d’Espagne
(Paris, 1939).

BRAVO, FRANCISCO
,
Historia de la Falange española de las JONS
(Madrid, 1940).

BRAVO MORATA, FEDERICO
,
Historia de Madrid,
vol. III (Madrid, 1968).

BRAY, ARTURO
,
La España del brazo en alto
(Buenos Aires, 1943).

BRECHT, BERTOLT
,
Die Gewehre der Frau Carrara,
in
Gesammelte Werke,
vol. 3 (Frankfurt, 1967).

BREDEL, W
.,
Rencontre sur l’Ebre
(Paris, 1950).

BRENAN, GERALD
,
Personal Record
(London, 1974);
South from Granada
(London, 1957);
The Spanish Labyrinth
(Cambridge, 1943).

BRERETON, GEOFFREY
,
Inside Spain
(London, 1938).

BRICALL, JOSEP MARÍA
,
Política económica de la Generalitat (1936–1939); Evolució i formes de la producció industrial
(Barcelona, 1970).

BRISSA, JOSÉ
,
La revolución de julio en Barcelona
(Barcelona, 1910).

BROCKWAY, FENNER
,
The Truth about Barcelona
(London, 1937).

BROME, VINCENT
,
The International Brigades, Spain, 1936–1939
(London, 1965).