Posted on 03/22/2022 2:21:17 AM PDT by markomalley
The dangers of moral exhibitionism.
(8:15 Video at link)
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
(Agree or disagree, he encapsulates some good points brought up elsewhere in that unique, snarky PJW style)
Always enjoy PJW.
Its a good strategy, make your enemy run out of ammo and they cant continue to wage war against you.
You do know that Russia makes bullets, right?
When the “international brigades” showed up in Spain to fight for the communists, the government wanted to use them in the same way; the problem was that many were “war tourists” with no real military value. They were often persona non grata in their own countries, and briefly found a sense of purpose until the army showed up and quickly set the pace of the war: gradually pushing the leftists into smaller areas, almost never giving back any ground, while starving the leftists of food and supplies. Many were looking for the exit long before the war ended; they were simply a propaganda tool who lost their luster as the atrocities against civilians (especially Catholic clergy/religious) of the side they supported were exposed to the world.
Nah...FR is strictly a Chairforce.
No, the International brigades, though a mixed lot, were considered to be more effective units than the usual Republican army unit, or a union militia. They were explicitly communist units organized by national communist party organizations, with commissars and all. They were generally used as an assault or counterattack force, under Communist generals, at the bloodbaths of Madrid (Especially at the Casa del Campo and Ciudad Universitaria, I have walked the ground there), Jarama, Brunete, Belchite, the Ebro, etc. and etc. They were very busy, and casualties were so heavy that most of them eventually had mostly Spanish replacements.
The average age around here must be over 60.
They were used as cannon fodder (worth far less than Republican regulars), and they often had no military background - especially those from the US (some ageing European leftists had seen action in WWI). The leftist government was quite willing to send them home when it felt the Nationalists might do the same with their Italian troops (which they didn’t); they were paper tigers who took losses but were ineffective against Franco’s regulars. Their real contribution was as propaganda tools (to give the appearance of a real international effort), but their numbers were small and they were often from countries that didn’t want them anyway.
And they have a surplus after Biden cut off all that awesome cheap ammo to the US.
You got that right. Sadly.
There were no “Republican regulars”. The Spanish army was made up of conscripts with only a tiny “regular” cadre, other than the Army of Africa, Franco’s own creation, which really were experienced regulars. The Republican army in metropolitan Spain, after the coup, was a shambles. The officers were inexperienced and poorly trained, if they hadn’t deserted to the Nationalist side, there were few NCOs, many of the soldiers had deserted or joined militias, and morale was terrible. The International Brigades were seen as more reliable by far. Eventually the government integrated the army battalions with the militia.
The Republican government didn’t disband the International Brigades until after the Battle of the Ebro and the splitting of the front when the Nationalists cut off Catalunya. All hope was gone by then.
Most handy and very readable general history of the Spanish Civil War - “The Battle for Spain” (also published as “The Spanish Civil War”) by Anthony Beevor. The old classic by Hugh Thomas is more detailed than Beevor, lacking mainly a more inside look at post-Cold War Soviet information. I have about seven histories or pseudo histories of the war. But you should be fine with those two.
The Republican forces had next to no military background at all. The Spanish army was a bureaucratic mess and their conscript training was a shambles. Between the breakup of the cadre, as so many of the best turned nationalist, and the inability to mobilize conscripts, and leakage to all the militias... there was nothing, in spite of having the theoretical preponderance of weapons and manpower.
The Nationalists had almost all the real soldiers, between the Army of Africa and the metropolitan army units that stayed together as units, notably the cavalry under Monasterio. Even the Carlist militia had at least done something about getting organized and trained before the war broke out.
My fault...
;)
Love his Sheffield accent.
There absolutely were “Republican regulars”, as the army uprising wasn’t across the whole country but rather in the more conservative areas. Also, most of the Navy and Air Force sided with the government - and militias were integrated into the government-controlled army units rather than the other way around (especially after mid-1937, when the communists eliminated the leadership of the anarchists and forced their rank-and-file into government - rather than independent leftist - units). Many police and Assault Guard units supported the government, while much of the Civil Guard sided with the generals.
The government offered to disband the International Brigades earlier than the Ebro with the hopes that the Nationalists in turn would send the Italian units home; the Nationalists refused (as Italians provided real help - including tanks and planes - while the International Brigade was much less effective).
If you haven’t read “The Last Crusade”, I’d highly recommend it; it deals mostly with the events of 1936 in great detail.
The Republic did have military forces - part of the army, and most of the navy and air force. One problem was that some units had killed their officers, and the left by definition was undisciplined - so units (regular or militia) openly disobeyed orders as they saw fit (at least early on, before the communist minority took over the war effort due to its connections to the USSR - the primary supplier).
The Army of Africa was formidable at least in terms of a civil war (not so much in terms of a war on the scale of WWII), but it was small and lost many of its best men on the drive to Madrid early on. The Carlists were critical in the north because besides securing much of their own area (where General Mola was stationed, with far less troops than they fielded with their Requetes), they were quickly able to send their units out into other areas and actively take them from the government/leftists - they prevented the Basques from linking with Madrid/Barcelona throughout the war. As the mass murder of Catholic priests and nuns - and lay people - became public knowledge, and the Basques didn’t receive full independence, they lost their zeal for the fight and succumbed early on. This allowed Franco to use troops from conservative areas in the north (Galicia, for example) in other theaters, replacing his depleted African army with mainland Spaniards.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.