"No Pasarán!" 80 years later

80 years ago today, the Battle for Madrid had reached its climax. Nationalists troops had taken Casa de Campo, crossed the Manzanares river and were fighting in Ciudad Universitaria looking to reach the center of the capital city. On this same day, the first units of the International Brigades paraded through the Madrid streets (the photo above illustrating this blog entry), moving right straight into the front line.

Despite 2016 marking the 80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, no major public or privately sponsored events have been scheduled and the memories of those years continue fading away in the collective consciousness of the Spanish society. I just wanted to make a small reminder that our grandparents were kiling each other in a cold November morning like today, not so long ago...

For those with the ability to read Spanish, I recommend this issue of the Desperta Ferro ediciones magazine on the Battle of Madrid. Otherwise you can follow the campaign we played in 2014 with Chain of Command; the full campaign details are also available in the TooFatLardies 2014 Christmas Special.

Seseña 29 October 1936 - A (Big) Chain of Command España Scenario

The following is not a battle report but a full Spanish Civil War scenario to play with Big Chain of Command. The Battle of Seseña is a pretty obscure episode of the war, a failed Republican attempt to stop the Nationalists offensive over Madrid in late october 1936. However it was a most remarkable action, the first involving a fairly large armoured column since the First World War and also the first tank-vs-tank battle of the Spanish Civil War.

The scenario has been designed by my ganing chum Alfredo Vitaller, also the author of the Bloody November-Madrid 1936 Campaign reported in this blog and also published as an independent article in the TooFatlardies Christmas 2014 Special.

The photos included in this article were shot at the game played at Club Dragón just before the Christmas period. Most of the minis and vehicles were painted by Kate War Painting

Facultad de Medicina - Bloody November Campaign Grand Finale

Fascists! Surrender or  be annihilated!!

The Bloody November 1936 campaign in the Spanish Civil War for Chain of Command concluded today with a major game depicting the assault of the Medicine Faculty at Ciudad Universitaria. In fact, the campaign concluded a few weeks ago, with the victory of the Republican arms when the Nationalists players failed for the second consecutive game to cross the Manzanares; but nevertheless we wanted to play this grand finale of the last scenario, involving 5 infantry platoons with supports between both sides (3 Nationalists and 2 Republican).

Unfortunately, I had to leave this morning in a rush the game sometime after the start, as I was called and informed that a very close friend's mother unexpectedly passed away in the early hours of Monday. This battle report includes my initial photos and another  batch taken by the other players, as well as the information emailed by the contenders.

Carlista Jump-Off Point

A Battlefield Walk at Ciudad Universitaria

Graffitti in the Ciudad Universitaria - The fight continues 80 years later?

I attended on Sunday last week a guided battlefield walk organised by GEFREMA (a non-profit organisation fighting hard to keep the last remaining sites of the Spanish Civil War in Madrid) focused on the Ciudad Universitaria. It would not have been more timely after finishing our recent Chain of Command campaign Bloody November and the incoming publication of a related article in the TooFatLardies Christmas Special in December.

The visit was intrinsically interesting, but also provided a good feel of the battle terrain and a great understanding of the very deep changes operated in the landscape since the mid 30s. As a matter of fact, the site today has almost no resemblance with the topography of the war period as I will explain later.

I will support the narrative and photos included in this post with the attached map, scanned from the book written by Col Martínez Bande in the early 70s (La Marcha sobre Madrid) part of the official military history of the Spanish Civil War published before General Franco passed away in 1975.

(Click to enlarge)

To put you in the historical picture, the Nationalist troops arrived to Madrid in the first week of November. The attacking plan was to enter Madrid through La Casa de Campo park, cross the river Manzanares and penetrate trough the Ciudad Universitaria.

Puente de Los Franceses - Bloody November Campaign Game 3

"Overcast... Good!" said sargento García, the young communist who have raised in a just a few months from clerk in a colmado (food store) of Tetuán to tank commander. "No bloody fascist planes". While he was brewing his ersatz coffee daily ration, a sudden rush of activity around indicated that something was going on, down the Parque del Oeste and probably across the Manzanares. The voice of the capitán shouting left no doubt: "¡A los tanques! ... ¡Arrancar los motores!" (to the tanks, turn on the engines)    

This is the battle report of the third game of our Bloody November-Madrid 1936 campaign for Chain of Command, set in the context of the Spanish Civil War. You can find all the necessary details to play in  a previous post of the blog.

Puente de los Franceses
This third game is based on the Scenario 3-Attack & Defend of the Chain of Command main rules book. To win this scenario, one side must force the other to leave the table, either voluntarily or due to a reduction in its force moral.

In the past two games, the Nationalists had fought their way across the Casa de Campo and arrived to the wall separating this major natural space west of Madrid from the city. The only obstacle now is the Manzanares a so-called "river", much despised by the madrileños due to its short width and hardly more dangerous than a children's swimming pool.

¡El Manzanares! - Bloody November Campaign Game 2

It was late at night on Novemeber 15th, but a light still could be seen in the building of the Junta de Defensa de Madrid. Colonel Rojo was leaning on the maps extended over the table in the operations room. Asensio's columns have made important inroads in la Casa de Campo during the day and now there was no doubt that the river Manzanares crossing at Puente de Los Franceses and Puente Nuevo was a  key objective. 

He put his finger on the map line representing the wall of La Casa de Campo and said to himself: "Ni un paso atrás, el tiempo del sacrificio ha llegado" (not a step back, this is the time for sacrifice). He picked up the telephone and asked for Comandante Romero...

This is the battle report of the second game in our Bloody November-Madrid 1936 campaign for Chain of Command, set in the context of the Spanish Civil War.  You can find all the necessary details to play in  a previous post of the blog.

No Time for Picnic at Casa de Campo - Bloody November Campaign Game 1

The first dim lights of this mid-November morning showed the green and damp carpet of grass from the top of the hill where the milicianos squad took positions the night before. The early morning fog traces moving along the trees created phantomly figures of all shapes which the scared men took for the "moros", those apparently invencible men brought by the rebels from North Africa..  

 A strange quietness surrounded the men behind the stonewall,  not even the sound of a bird that probably had left by now for the warmer southern regions of Spain... and when the men thoughts were probably turning to the  past idle summer evenings spent picnicing in that same Casa de Campo, a cry from the advanced outposts was like a force landing jump into the grim realities of a battle  about to start ... "¡Cuidado, ahí vienen!"



This is the battle report of the first game in our Bloody November-Madrid 1936 campaign for Chain of Command, set in the context of the Spanish Civil War.  You can find all the necessary details to play in  a previous post of the blog.

Republican Patrol markers and Communist Dice

¡Viva la República! - Heavy Weapons reinforcements

I spent Saturday morning finishing some  heavy weapons additions to reinforce my Repuiblican forces. Very handy considering the hard times coming defending Madrd form the fascist agression in our Spanish Civil War campaign.

I painted a Maxim HMG with a crew of 3...

... A Hotchkiss MMG with 2 crew...

... and a heavy 81mm mortar.

The latter are unlikely to see a lot use on the table (heavy mortars are considered off-board assets in Chain of Command) ... but who could resist buying such a beauty!!

All models are from the Empress Miniatures SCW series

Bloody November - Madrid 1936: Reading and Information Sources

Following the publication yesterday of the introductory post to our Spanish Civil War campaign for Chain of Command, I have received several communications requesting recommendations on information sources for the Battle of Madrid in 1936.

I may have to disappoint my English-speaking readers, but unfortunately I haven't been ablo to find any good reliable source in the language of Shakespeare, so what follows are references to bibliography in Spain.

Another warning: I’m not intending neither to be exhaustive in my suggestions, nor pretending that I’ve read every single book published on the topic. I consider myself a serious history aficionado (in fact for me is the other side to enjoy wargaming as a hobby) but I try to balance deep studying a period and using that information for my game.

In no particular order of preference, but these are most of the books/publications that I did use to get to know the period and on which I have some opinion:

1#  Desperta Ferro Contemporánea 4: Madrid 1936
This is the 4^th issue published by Desperta Ferro in its new series of magazines focused on modern (XX and XXI century) conflicts. I really like this magazine and its approach to combine popular military history with wargaming, providing an excellent background when undertaken a new period or a specific event within a period of your interest.

Bloody November: A Chain of of Command España Campaign in Madrid 1936

Introduction

After the failed previous July coup, Franco’s colonial troops in North Africa had reached the outskirts of Spain’s capital city by early November 1936, in an unstoppable drive, overcoming without contempt all armed opposition found on their way up from Sevilla.

The Republican Government has shamelessly left to Valencia with the enemy at the gates, escaping at night and without notice. But just before leaving, it appointed the dull and grey General Miaja commander of the garrison defending the city.

However the orders left to him in a closed envelope at the War Ministry office, opened during the early hours of November 6^th, made it clear that the Government lacked any hope of the city surviving the Nationalist steamroller, suggesting instead to put a token resistance at best and then to pull back with the garrison remnants towards a new defensive line on the road leading to Valencia.

Original Italian CTV 1937 Map of Madrid Area

But miracles exist, and against all odds the city resisted the attacks of the rebel columns. The milicianos surprisingly (and unexpectedly) put up a fierce fight in the southern suburbs of Madrid.

In the left flank, a Nationalist column was expected to take La Casa de Campo, a popular natural park west of Madrid and across the Manzanares, used by the madrileños to shelter from the hot summer afternoons and to picnic on the bank of its famous artificial lagoon during weekends. 

The attack was launched in the early hours of November 8^th but quickly petered out, although not before conquering a dominant hill within the park called Cerro Garabitas. This elevation will allow the Nationalists observers to direct the guns and to merciless pound the central area of Madrid over the next years.

 However, the failure to enter Madrid in this first push also represented for the Republicans a much needed infusion of moral and the cry of ¡No pasarán!  now reverberated across the city and Miaja unexpectedly became the people’s hero and the symbol of the resistance like Petain in Verdun during the Great War. 

Defending La República, Winter 1936

The following days saw renewed Nationalists efforts and much hand-to-hand fighting among the trees of Casa de Campo woods until on November 13th they finally reached the river Manzanares. 

They now were in control of a 500 meters strip along the river's west bank, extending from El Puente (bridge) de los Franceses and Puente Nuevo on the right, to the crossing overlooking La Ciudad Universitaria (the University District) on the extreme left.

On the 15th General Varela ordered Asensio to take these bridges and to move into Madrid, allocating a squad of Pz Is, also called negrillos due to its dark grey panzer colour, to provide more weight to the attack. 

Visiting El Alto del León: The Republican Fortifications

This a long due post from a second visit in August to El Alto del León, this time to see the Republican lines  (see here the post commenting the first visit to the Nationalists line in the same area). In the opening photo of this post you can see the communist symbol (hammer and sickle) followed by the incription "1937" that we found carved in stone next to a major resting area of the Republican line located at Peña del Cuervo.

The map above shows the the battle-front lines, the Nationalists in blue and the Republicans in red; the black ellipse covers the focus of our visit. The map and many more interesting materials can be found in Domingo Pliego's blog, a veteran mountain trekker who has explored in detailed all the Guadarrama area.

Ejército Popular de la República - The Reinforcements are Here

This is my second (and brief) post-holiday blog entry. I spent most of my painting time preparing the core nucleus of my Republican Army platoon for Chain of Command España. You have above the HQ section with an officer (Superior Junior Leader), a runner (with a flag) and a NCO (Sargeant).

The platoon has three sections:

• A mortar section with 2 squads (that usually doubled as a pure rifle section due to the scarcity of these weapons in the Republican side)
• Two rifle-grenadier sections each made of 3 squads (at 5 men each squad)

I managed to paint the 2 full rifle sections (a total of 30 models))...

together with a couple of supports: an LMG team...

... and a Russian-supplied 45mm AT Gun with crew

All figures are from the excellent albeit somewaht short in references, Empress Miniatures models (currently the only active supplier of 28mm models for this conflict).

On the painting desk still lie two light and one heavy mortar squads, one heavy machine gun and a few LMGs. I hope to make some progress on this through September, ready for the November campaign that we are planning. Note that I also have (for a later stage) a T 26, a Bilbao armoured car and a UNL wheeled armoured vehicle waiting in line.

NOTE: the flag showed in the photos is not a regular EPR model, but belonga to a 5th Regiment battalion; lacking a proper one I could not resist putting it there. The flag is from the superb Adolfo Ramos models range.    

Non-stop to Madrid - A Chain of Command España Battle Report

I’m back after a short 10-day break. As you’ll see over the next days, I’ve been all except idle having used this time to make a second visit to El Puerto del León (this time visiting the Republican lines), painted an initial batch of Spanish Civil War forces and even played with Chain of Command España.

This is the first post with the battle report of a game we played last weekend. The setting is the summer of 1936, where a column of Requetés (Carlists) Nationalists is confronted by a group of local Republican militias at a key cross road in a rural area.

The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Just to bring your attention to this high-quality book review of Michael Alpert's classical must-read work at the IIWW Military Operations Research Group blog (one that I strongly endorsed and you should follow in any case).

This book has an interesting story in itself:

The first edition  was published in Spanish in the late 60's but not in Spain;  this was the type of topic obvioulsy disliked by the Franco's regime censorship office!!  The edition was undertaken by Ruedo Ibérico, a France-based editorial group run by a group of  Spanish Republicans exiled in the country after 1939. 

Incidentally, my father (who was not exactly a great Franco fan) used to "smuggle" books from this editorial any time he had the opportunity to travel abroad ... and I'm now a proud owner of a first edition copy :-)

A second and greatly updated edition, after the declasification of some of the Civil War archives, was released a few years ago... and yes this time it was publised in Spain. 

Nonetheless, I must say  that the English edition is surprisingly pricey (GBP 65!!), specially compared to the Spanish edition (€25) and I don't understand why the price differential; although the book is highly recommendable, think twice before commiting to such an investment.

 

Architecture in La Mancha: A Photo Report of Almagro

In early July I spent a weekend with a group of friends at Almagro a beautiful town near Ciudad Real in the La Mancha region and at about two hours by car from Madrid. Almagro is well known for his traditional architecture typical of central-southern Spain, its buildings and main square (Plaza Mayor) from the XVI-XVII century. Almagro was the main seat of the Knight Order of Calatrava, a powerful and important order of the late Reconquista period.

Almagro is also the site of one of the oldest theaters in Spain ("Corral de Comedias"), placed inside the patio of a tavern and famous for the plays performed of the golden age of Spanish literature (Siglo de Oro) major writers between the XVI and XVII centuries. After a long decay, the building was restored in the 50s and in July every year a major international theater festival takes place (which incidentally was the reason of our trip), with classical as well as modern plays are performed.

The town streets, residential houses façades and major buildings (palaces, monasteries, churches...) are in extremely good state and when you walk those streets is like travelling 500 years back. What follow is a selection of the photos I took in two different trips (this year and in 2010), aiming to serve a source of inspiration for those of you (specially from abroad) who like playing wargames in a Spanish context, appropriate for any period from the Napoleonic or Carlists Wars to the Spanish Civil War.

I hope you find it useful and may be inspirational of you are a scrtachbuilder aficionado... whatever the case, enjoy the photos.

Visiting El Alto del León Fortifications of the SCW (2)

(Continued from previous post)

We finished the visit to the La Sevillana position looking into some of the buildings that were used as accommodation to the Nationalists troops. The first two photos are from a building erected just behind the observation post bunker. The construction seems to have been of very good quality with a wide access door and a row of windows.

Given its size we calculated that it could shelter a probably a full section (around 20 men) or even more. 

Another smaller shelter stands nearby, an officer's or NCOs lodging place?

Visiting El Alto del León Fortifications of the SCW (1)

Saturday July 19^th marked the official launch of our new project to play a campaign in the Spanish Civil War with Chain of Command. And no better way to start the project than visiting one of the battlefields next to Madrid (El Alto del León) during the morning, followed by a nice lunch and a game in the afternoon with the first painted minis… and almost coinciding with the 78^th anniversary of the start of war (18^th July, 1936)!

Background

Around 60 km north of Madrid, El Alto del León (1,500 mts height) is a key mountain pass of the road linking Spain’s capital with some of the main cities of the former Old Castilla region in the north (Avila, Segovia, Salamanca or Valladolid) and leading into the north-western region of Galicia.

 

El Alto del León now and then

Today it is a secondary road, as between the early 60s and 70s two toll tunnels and a motorway were dig underneath, facilitating the road communications between the two halves of Spain. However in 1936, el Alto del León was one of the three key mountain passes to reach Madrid from the North (the other two being Navacerrada and Somosierra, the latter also a site of a famous battle in the Napoleonic wars).

Chain of Command España: A One-Stop Source

NEW UPDATES: Army lists have been revised, typos amended and updated with feedback from players. I recommend downloading again all materials. Links provided in this post will take you to the right lists.

As mentioned a few days ago, TooFatlardies started the publication of materials to play the Spanish Civil War with Chain of Command (CoC España), an herculean task undertaken by fellow Lardites ("Lardistas"?) Jim Hale and Rolf Grain.

Over the Christmas period TooFatLardies official blog "Lard Island" has been releasing new lists covering in high level of detail the different actors of this conflict. In this  post I want to make the compilation of all the available materials, aiming to become a one-stop point to any person interested in the period. This post will be republished and updated with the release of new materials.

In addition to the lists, each specific entry in the Lard Island blog has a very interesting introduction that provides useful background information, that I strongly recommend to read in conjunction with the lists.

Chain of Command España: A One-Stop Source

NEW UPDATES: Raggruppamento Repartí Specializzati (Italian armour and special units)

As mentioned a few days ago, TooFatlardies started the publication of materials to play the Spanish Civil War with Chain of Command (CoC España), an herculean task undertaken by fellow Lardites ("Lardistas"?) Jim Hale and Rolf Grain.

Over the Christmas period TooFatLardies official blog "Lard Island" has been releasing new lists covering in high level of detail the different actors of this conflict. In this  post I want to make the compilation of all the available materials, aiming to become a one-stop point to any person interested in the period. This post will be republished and updated with the release of new materials.

In addition to the lists, each specific entry in the Lard Island blog has a very interesting introduction that provides useful background information, that I strongly recommend to read in conjunction with the lists.

Rules and QRS
The specific rules applying to SCW can be downloaded here. In the same location you'll have access to a specific quick reference sheet to play your games

Pre-war Army Organisations

• Cavalry units here
• Infantry units here

Nationalist Forces

• Raggruppamento Repartí Specializzati  (Italian armoiur and special units) here
• Corpo Truppe Volontarie (the Italians) here
• Ejército Nacional here
• Requetés here
• Morroccan troops (Regulares) here
• Foreign Legion (Tercio de la Legión) here
• Security Services (Guardia Civil) here
• Milicias de Falange here

Forces of the Republic of Spain

• Ejército Popular de la República here
• Milicias del 5º Regimiento here
• Security Services (Asaltos, Carabineros) here
• Workers Militia (Milicias obreras) here 

Other information
The 2013 Christmas Special includes interesting articles on the historical background to the conflict, the Spanish army organisation before the July 1936 uprising, the use of armoured lorries ("Tiznaos") and the AFV's used in Spain (mainly Russian, Italian and German).

Jim Hale has an interesting blog  to follow about the Spanish Civil War  called "La Carretera de la Muerte"

I hope you find this guide to CoC España useful.

Chain of Command España: A One-Stop Source

IMPORTANT NOTICE: NEW UPDATED VERSION here

As mentioned a few days ago, TooFatlardies started the publication of materials to play the Spanish Civil War with Chain of Command (CoC España), an herculean task undertaken by fellow Lardites ("Lardistas"?) Jim Hale and Rolf Grain.

Over the Christmas period TooFatLardies official blog "Lard Island" has been releasing new lists covering in high level of detail the different actors of this conflict. In this  post I want to make the compilation of all the available materials, aiming to become a one-stop point to any person interested in the period. This post will be republished and updated with the release of new materials.

In addition to the lists, each specific entry in the Lard Island blog has a very interesting introduction that provides useful background information, that I strongly recommend to read in conjunction with the lists.