Like many people, when I first studied the Spanish Civil War; it was one of my A Level topics, the focus was on the political aspects, rather than the military.

When questioned, I have found  that most people see the preeminent feature of the war being the intervention by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, their supplying of Franco with arms, troops, equipment and financial support; this is influenced perhaps by the notoriety of the Luftwaffe attack on Guernica. Few people mention the non-intervention policy, some have even falsely proclaimed that the role of the British Government in the Spanish Civil War should be seen positively, citing the Aid to Spain campaign as a successful intervention by the UK government, which was never the case. As with the later Kindertransport, the authorities put up obstacles in the way of groups and individuals, and notably in both cases the child refugees had to be sponsored so that they would not be a burden on public funds.

There is little doubt that the UK’s non-intervention policy was decisive, that the enforcement of this policy was a major, if not the major, factor in the defeat of the Spanish Government. The blockade of Republican Spain prevented  the government getting much needed food, resources, and most notably weapons of war. The latter being the most documented as it can be contrasted with the fascist forces.

Firearms

The Republican government entered the war short of rifles, and thus encountered difficulty in arming it’s own soldiers. This forced them to turn to foreign aid, primarily from international arms dealers and the politically sympathetic Soviet Union. The providers of this aid saw the war primarily as an opportunity to offload old and obsolete rifles at exorbitant prices. On the other hand, the Nationalist rebellion had plentiful supply of Spanish military rifles, and also had the backing of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, who were able to provide thousands of their own rifles to Franco’s army. (Appendix I, The People’s Army in the Spanish Civil War – Alex Clifford)

I have reviewed Alex’s The People’s Army in the Spanish Civil War here finding it very useful, especially when looking at the military aspects. Appendix I, written by Alex’s brother Freddie, is especially useful, giving a great overview of the numerous firearms used in the conflict. Speaking to Freddie he says:

In the Appendix I have set out to give an accessible overview of the various small arms used in the Spanish Civil War, by both the Republican government and their Nationalist adversaries. This includes descriptions of the rifles, machine-guns, and pistols that were used in Spain, how they ended up in the country, and brief evaluations of their reliability and effectiveness. The guns used in this war are of particular historical interest due to the many different types that were used, imported from all over the world, and the political ties that came associated with them. From 19th century relics to the latest rifles and sub-machine guns, the Spanish Civil War saw one of the widest varieties of different small arms in any 20th century conflict.

He also supplied me with three interesting sites which provide more detail:

http://firearms.96.lt/

https://augfc.tumblr.com/

https://clever-geek.github.io/articles/4074849/index.html

Reading memoirs we find two predominant threads: almost ever man mentions the poor quality of the weapons and the special attachment the men had to their firearms. George Orwell, who joined a Spanish militia unit makes a substantial amount of political capital from the poor equipment, however even the well equipped, by the standards of the Republican army, International Brigaders mention the very poor quality firearms. James Brown, quoted in Richard Baxell’s Unlikely Warriors is one example, I could give many more along similar lines:

They were worn out. Sometimes they jammed, they jammed so often. And the early rifles were so small they could explode, causing a lot of damage to the user. They weren’t of much value, but they were better than nothing. (Pg 116)

Despite this, the men developed a special relationship with their weapon, taking pride in it’s maintenance and use, it was after all what defined them as a soldier. George Wheeler in To make the people smile again gives us a typical response:

I had my own rifle now, and considered it my most valuable possession. It was a Mexicanski rifle with a long three -cornered bayonet that tapered down to a screwdriver point. I could strip and replace the bolt in rapid time and was developing a feel and affection for the weapon that only a soldier can know.

There are a lot of references to Mexicanski rifles, these were M1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles, made by Remington in the USA for the Tsarist army. After the Russian Civil War The Soviet Union sold large quantities of these rifles to Mexico who subsequently shipped them to the Spanish Government. They were used predominantly by the International Brigades due mainly to the lack of interchangeability of their cartridge.

Most famously the Republic was even sold 19th Century single shot Polish rifles. The most numerous rifle of the conflict was the M1895 Mauser, a shortened version of the M1893. The Soviets, much like the Nazis, used Spain as a testing ground for many arms and equipment; for example a small number of the AVS36 Simonov Self Loading Rifles were shipped to Spain by the Soviets prior to mass production in 1938.

The Spanish Civil War was one of the first conflicts to see submachine guns used on a large scale. The Republican Army’s primary machine gun was the The Mle 1914 Hotchkiss machine gun, which can be seen in the image right.

Spain had been one of the world’s leading pistol producers prior to the Spanish Civil War. A Mauser C96 copy was manufactured by Astra-Unceta, who were based close to the Basque town of Guernica, the Astra900 was widespread in Spain.

John Sadler of The TimeBandits Living History group has  done some work in this area. and once again (see previous post: An Interview with Athelstan) provided me with a great video clip as illustration. Click on the image to see the video.

 

Thanks must go to Alex and Freddie Clifford, and John Sadler for supplying me with the information and the inspiration