Death in the Hills

Charles Alan Green

Description

1937 dawned over the golden sun kissed lands of Spain, upon a divided country and a vicious and bloody Civil War. The war had, originally, begun as a simple military coup, back in mid-July of the previous year. At first it looked as though it would carry the day, but due to the early up-rising in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, the timing of the revolt on the mainland was thrown into disarray, and due to this certain areas didn’t commence their planned revolts at the designated time. In particular, the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid were both critically effected by the timing of these events, and the whole of the 18th July was spent in inactivity. It was this delay, to the originally planned timetable, that enabled the republican government, but more importantly, especially in Barcelona, the unions and other forces on the left, to organise some sort of resistance. It was this fact, which meant that they were able to defeat the rebellion in these, and several other vital towns and cities. By the end of the 20th July, after the first two days of the rebellion, and bitter fighting throughout the length and breadth of the country, the battle lines had been drawn, and Spain was a nation split into two basic zones. The areas that remained loyal, under the control of the government, and the rest of Spain, which was now under the command of the rebel’s or nationalist’s as they were to become known.

Sujets

• Historical
• Totalitarianism
• Spain
• Fascism
• Spain (groupe)
• Civil War
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 29 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798823082976
• Langue: English

Extrait

B OOKS
No
Title
Cover
1
Blood On The Streets
 
2
Death In The Hills
 
3
Murder By The River
 
4
Slaughter On The Beaches ( 1940)
 
5
Fire From The Skies
 
6
Hotel Massacre
 
7
Ambush In The Hills
 
8
Final Assault
 
 
Death in the Hills
 
 
 
 
 
Charles Alan Green
 
 
 
 
AuthorHouse™ UK
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Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)
UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Charles Alan Green. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 06/08/2023
 
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8296-9 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8297-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910762
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Cover Picture - : Republican T26 tank
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
“BRIGADISTA”
Tirade of the Bri gade
 
The First Stand Against Fas cism
DEDICATED TO
The Brave and Gallant men and women who left their home lands to fight for liberty and freedom in S pain.
Also to my wondrous Daughter and Granddaughter who are the light of my life.
 
Hotel Voramar - Benic ásim
Commandeered for the
International Brigades Hosp ital
 
MAP OF SPAIN NOVEMBER 1937.
Nationalist Controlled Areas =
Republican Controlled Areas =
 
 
TOM WINTRING HAM –
BRITISH COMMANDER AT THE JA RAMA
CONTENTS
Preface
Chapter 1The Barrack Block
Chapter 2Mola
Chapter 3The International Brigade
Chapter 4El Caudillo
Chapter 5On The move Again
Chapter 6The Destination
Chapter 7Allies
Chapter 8Recuperation
Chapter 9The Jarama Valley
Chapter 10The Fight for Malaga
Chapter 11Command
Chapter 12The Advance
Chapter 13The Legionnaire
Chapter 14Defend Those Bloody Hills
Chapter 15Just Run Like Hell
Chapter 16A Nervous Night
Chapter 17AWOL
Chapter 18One More Night
Chapter 19Tank Attack
Chapter 20Jimmy
Chapter 21Scapegoat
Chapter 22The Great Skedaddle
Chapter 23Leave
Chapter 24Court Martial
Chapter 25“BANG! ‘n’ he’s Gone”
Chapter 26Benicàssim
Chapter 27Barcelona Burning
Chapter 28Rocquea
Chapter 29One More Night
Chapter 30The Hero Returns
Chapter 31To Fly Is To Die
Chapter 32Brunette
Chapter 33Atrocities
Chapter 34The Love Affair
Epilogue
History
PREFACE
1937 dawned over the golden sun kissed lands of Spain, upon a divided country and a vicious and bloody Civil War. The war had, originally, begun as a simple military coup, back in mid-July of the previous year. At first it looked as though it would carry the day, but due to the early up-rising in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, the timing of the revolt on the mainland was thrown into disarray, and due to this certain areas didn’t commence their planned revolts at the designated time. In particular, the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid were both critically effected by the timing of these events, and the whole of the 18 th July was spent in inactivity. It was this delay, to the originally planned timetable, that enabled the republican government, but more importantly, especially in Barcelona, the unions and other forces on the left, to organise some sort of resistance. It was this fact, which meant that they were able to defeat the rebellion in these, and several other vital towns and cities. By the end of the 20 th July, after the first two days of the rebellion, and bitter fighting throughout the length and breadth of the country, the battle lines had been drawn, and Spain was a nation split into two basic zones. The areas that remained loyal, under the control of the government, and the rest of Spain, which was now under the command of the rebel’s or nationalist’s as they were to become known.
The three major cities of Spain, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia had all stayed loyal, and in government hands, whilst Seville and Zaragoza had been captured by the Nationalists. Catalonia, the Basque Country, and most of the eastern seaboard had remained republican, whilst all of Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, with the exception of the eastern coastal strip, and most of the agricultural areas of the central and northern Spain had been captured or had come over to the nationalist cause.
One of the major problems, which the nationalists had faced in the summer of 1936, had been how they were to bring the army of Morocco over the Straits of Gibraltar, to Spain. It was imperative to get these troops over to the mainland, to assist in the conquering of the areas, which had remained in government hands. The army in Africa was by far the most experienced and best equipped unit in the whole of the Spanish armed forces, and was commanded by a certain general Francisco Franco, who was destined to become the leader of the nationalist cause. The reason that getting the army across the straight’s was such a cause for concern, for the forces of the right, was simple. Despite the fact that the officers of the fleet had come out in favour of the rebellion, on the morning of the 17 th , the crews had other ideas and had mutinied, overthrown their officers, and in certain cases they had actually thrown their officers overboard, and taken over command of the vessels of the fleet,. After gaining control of their ships, and in some cases murdering their commanding officers, the sailors had then proceeded to blockade the Straits of Gibraltar, which, in turn, made it virtually impossible for Franco to get his forces over to the mainland by sea. The only units of the fleet, that the nationalist’s had managed to capture where in Galicia on the northwest coast of Spain, which was miles away from where they were most needed, and furthermore most of these vessels were in no fit state to sail for weeks, if not months. So the only way to get the army across the water was by an airlift.
Almost immediately another problem became apparent, they only had a few aircraft at their disposal, most of which weren’t fit for transporting masses of troops. At best, they found that they were only able to ferry a couple of hundred, or so, of their troops over every day. This, state of affairs simply couldn’t be allowed to carry on, the rate they were going at that moment it would mean that it was likely take months to ferry anywhere near sufficient numbers of men over to the mainland, and of course they wouldn’t be able to carry any of the larger, or major items of equipment. This situation was something that the leaders of the rebellion, soon realised, they could simply not allow. If they weren’t able to get their troops across the straights quickly, and unimpeded, the rising would, in all likelihood, be doomed to failure. This particular sticky problem was solved by the intervention of the Italian and German governments, who supplied Franco with all the aircraft necessary to make it possible, for the first major airlift of troops in the history of warfare to be carried out. Once the airlift had started in earnest, the Italian SM-79 bombers, with the help of two German battle cruisers, which had been rushed to the area by the Kriegsmarine, had scoured the straights of the Republican fleet, which had beat a hasty retreat back to the port of Cartagena, further up the Mediterranean coast.
The help and assistance of these two right winged, fascist style, governments went further than just simply supplying transport aircraft, or sending part of their navies to the area. They both went on to supply the nationalists with arms, tanks, guns, trucks, bombers and fighters, all with the munitions and back up units that they needed to be effective. These weapons enabled the army under Franco to race up from the South of Spain right up to the very outskirts of the city of Madrid.
The amount of aid, that Franco received, was staggering. In all the Italians supplied a total of 130 aircraft, 2,500 tons of bombs, 500 cannons, 700 mortars, 12,000 machine-guns, 50 whippet (CV3-33) tankettes, and 3,800 motor vehicles. In December of ‘36 Benito Mussolini , the Italian dictator, began sending large numbers of his Black Shirts , (the Italian Fascist Militia), over to Spain. By the end of the year there were over 3,000 members of these Black Shirted battalions serving in Spain . Some of thes