Spanish Republican Air Force
The Spanish Republican Air Force was the air arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. Initially divided into two branches: Military Aeronautics and Naval Aeronautics, the Republican Air Force became the Air Forces of the Spanish Republic, also known as Arma de Aviación, after it was reorganized following the restructuring of the Republican Armed Forces in September 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
This defunct Air Force is largely known for the intense action it saw during the Civil War, from July 1936 till its disbandment in 1939.
The Spanish Republican Air Force was popularly known as "La Gloriosa". But, according to some historians, the command structure of the Spanish loyalist forces was marred by ineptitude and lack of decision-making throughout the Civil War. Starting from the crucial first weeks of the conflict in July 1936, the rebel side was able to undertake a massive airlift of troops from Spanish Morocco using mostly the slow Ju 52, without any Spanish Republican interference. This was the world's first long-range combat airlift and the military planes on the Spanish Republican side failed to check it.
The Battle of Guadalajara and the defence of the skies over Madrid against Nationalist bombing raids during the capital's long siege would be the only scenarios where the loyalist air force took part in an effective manner. In other important republican military actions, such as the Segovia Offensive, the Battle of Teruel and the decisive Battle of the Ebro, where the Aviación Nacional was relentlessly strafing the loyalist positions with accurate low-level attacks, the republican military airplanes were practically absent from the skies. Moreover, when they appeared and attacked, they did so in an unorganized and inadequate manner that mostly failed to achieve positive effects. Most of the Spanish Republican planes that survived the conflict were repainted with the markings of the Aviación Nacional after the defeat of the Spanish Republic in the Iberian battlefields.
History
Like all the branches of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, the Spanish Republican Air Force went through two clear phases during its existence:- The pre-Civil War phase, before the coup of July 1936 that would fracture the Spanish military institution
- The Civil War reorganization of the forces that remained loyal to the established republican government dictated by the pressing needs of the moment.
First years
Aviation was developing in those years in Spain; in 1931 Captain Cipriano Rodríguez Díaz and Lieutenant Carlos de Haya González flew non-stop to Equatorial Guinea, then a Spanish colonial outpost.
In 1933, under Capitan Warlela, systematic cadastral surveys of Spain were carried out using modern methods of aerial photography. The following year Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva took off and landed on seaplane carrier Dédalo with his autogyro C-30P. In 1934 Commander Eduardo Sáenz de Buruaga became new chief-commander of the air force. On the same year a major restructuring of the Spanish military air wing took place.
Following a Government decree dated 2 October 1935, the Dirección General de Aeronáutica was placed under the authority of the War Ministry, Ministerio de la Guerra, instead of under the prime minister of Spain, following which in 1936 the Air Force regional units became restructured. Accordingly, the Spanish Navy-based Escuadra model was replaced by Región Militar divisions which are still operative today in the Spanish Air Force.
Five years after the proclamation of the Spanish republic, a section of the Republican Army in Spanish Morocco rebelled under the orders of General Francisco Franco. The rebellion succeeded only in fractioning Spain and Franco went ahead and began a bloody war of attrition, the Spanish Civil War.
During the Civil War the Air Force of the Spanish republican government would have to fight against the better equipped Aviación Nacional, created by the fraction of the army in revolt and their powerful Italian Fascist and Third Reich supporters.
Spanish Civil War
After 18 July 1936 coup d'état, the Republican government lost the military planes that were in aerodromes under rebel control. The loyalist areas of Spain retained, however, a great part of the 60 Breguet XIX, 27 Vickers Vildebeest and 56 Hispano-Nieuport Ni-52 planes that the Spanish Air Force had before the hostilities, for the Republic had the control of the majority of the territory. Nevertheless, confronted with a war of attrition in the same month, the Spanish Republican government bought in France 14 Dewoitine D.371, 10 Dewoitine D.373 and 49 Potez 540, among other military aircraft, for the value of 12 million francs. All these planes were largely obsolete at the time, so that in the first four months after the start of the hostilities, the only aircraft of the Republican government that could be considered modern were three Douglas DC-2s that had been purchased recently for LAPE, the Republican airline in March 1935. These were requisitioned by the Spanish Republican Air Force and used as military transports.Within the month of his military coup, the help received by Francisco Franco from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy gave the rebels the upper hand in airpower over Spain. The first German and Italian bombers arrived to increase the size of the rebel air force already in July 1936 and Fiat CR.32 and Heinkel He 51 fighter planes began operating in August. These planes helped the rebel army side to gain full control of the air, as did the Italian Aviazione Legionaria and the German Condor Legion.
In September 1936 the Navy and Air Ministry and the Air Undersecretariat,, both part of the National Defence Ministry were established under the command of Indalecio Prieto as minister. For identification purposes the Republican tricolor roundel was replaced by red bands, an insignia that had previously been used on Aeronáutica Naval aircraft during the monarchy in the 1920s, before the time of the Republic. In the same month the first serious air combat took place over Madrid when Italian bombers attacked the city in a massive bombing operation.
The western democracies, like France, the United Kingdom and the United States, did not help the young Spanish Republic. Afraid of the "Communist threat" Neville Chamberlain and Léon Blum were ready to sacrifice Spain, as they later sacrificed Czechoslovakia, in the belief that Hitler could be appeased. In the void thus created, only the Soviet Union helped the Spanish government effectively. At the end of October, four months after the rebels had been supplied with German and Italian aircraft by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the first Tupolev SB bombers arrived from Russia. They were nicknamed "Katiuska". One month later the first Soviet fighter planes arrived to alleviate the lack of operational planes in the loyalist side, the Polikarpov I-15, nicknamed "Chato" and the Polikarpov I-16, nicknamed "Mosca" by the loyalists and "Rata" by the rebels. The Polikarpov R-5 and the R-Z reconnaissance bombers were known as "Natacha" in the Spanish Republican Air Force.
The Republican air arm was restructured again in May 1937. The new structure included two branches, the Arma de Aviación and the Subsecretaría de Aviación, but unified the Aeronáutica Militar and Aeronáutica Naval. Some sources give this date as the date of the creation of the Spanish Republican Air Force, although it had been previously operative as an air force already. The Republican Air Force would keep this structure until this disbandment two years later. Many planes belonging to the fleet of the Spanish Republican Airline LAPE were requisitioned by the Spanish Republican Air Force and used as military transports.
Innovative, and often lethal, aeronautical bombing techniques were tested by Condor Legion German expeditionary forces against loyalist areas on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco. The pilots of the Spanish Republican Air Force were unable to check these modern-warfare attacks. Their planes were mostly obsolete and often in a bad state of disrepair. The ungainly French Potez 540, a highly vulnerable plane that proved itself a failure in Spanish skies during the Civil War, was labelled as 'Flying Coffin' by loyalist pilots.
The rebel side, however, claimed that both air forces were almost equal, since the Soviet Union was helping the loyalist air force, but the fact was that:
The Spanish Republican Air Force was unable to counteract the deadly low-level attacks and close support of the infantry tactics developed by Wolfram von Richthofen during the Civil War. As an air force it became practically ineffective after the Battle of the Ebro in 1938, when the spine of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces was broken. Finally the Spanish Republican Air Force was completely disbanded after the decisive rebel victory on 1 April 1939.
The last Republican military airport in Catalonia was in Vilajuiga, from where on 6 February 1939 Commander Andrés García La Calle led a great part of the planes of the Spanish Republican Air Force to France. The orders had been given in haste by the beleaguered authorities of the doomed Republican Government who wanted to prevent the aircraft from falling into the enemy's hands. The planes landed in Francazal near Toulouse, where the French authorities impounded them, arrested the Spanish Republican pilots, and swiftly interned them in concentration camps.