Spanish Civil War Anniversary
A special exhibition and a series of events are being held at the Rhondda Heritage Park in October to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, an event which saw large numbers of Welshmen travel to the continent to fight for what they believed was a battle for freedom.
Entitled “Wise and Foolish Dreamers”, the project was co-ordinated by Phil Cope and is part of a major Heritage Lottery Funded project.
The Spanish Civil War started after an attempted coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of the Second Spanish Republic. The war devastated Spain from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939, ending with the victory of the rebels and the founding of a dictatorship led by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco for the next 36 years.
DICTATOR: General Francisco Franco
General Franco saw his actions as a crusade to place the church, the military and the nobility at the centre of Spanish life. It was these elements that the Republican government and its supporters were campaigning against.
Meanwhile in Wales the recession of the 1920s and 30s and the slump in the coal trade, led to mass unemployment, industrial conflict and social upheaval in the valleys.
Alongside all these tensions the savage crushing of democratic Germany and the emergence of the Nazis in 1933 had a shocking impact in the Welsh valleys. Fascism seemed to be gaining a foothold in the country as Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists argued that their ideals suited the Welsh character.
It is no wonder why Welsh miners identified with the lives of oppressed workers in other countries, sharing their fears of the dangerous attractions of fascism. The Welsh and Spanish had much in common – both with a history of poverty and persecution while the Welsh supported the Basque and Catalan independence movements which had long called for the political recognition of their cultural identities and who had suffered from the suppression of their own languages.
The Spanish Republic was established in April 1931, and the government attempted to drag the Spain of the 16th century into the present day with radical reforms. But their changes were far too much for the supporters of a vision of Spain fixed in the past and controlled by the aristocracy, the army and clergy.
Through terror, sabotage and corruption, the Republic fell by 1933. Peasants were driven off their land and the crops destroyed as the old privileges were restored.
PROPAGANDA: One of the many posters designed during the War
Uprisings were common and by 1934 some 5,000 revolutionaries were killed and 30,000 imprisoned or tortured. By 1936 the parties of the Popular Front opposed to military rule won back power in the ballot, continuing with their original reform programme. This was a period of rising tensions.
Radicals became more aggressive, while conservatives turned to paramilitary and vigilante actions. According to official sources, 330 people were assassinated and 1,511 were wounded in politically-related violence; records show 213 failed assassination attempts, 113 general strikes, and the destruction of 160 religious buildings
But on July 17 1936, the military led by Franco rose in revolt. Executions without trial were common and 200,000 were dead within two weeks. Meanwhile in Britain a Non-Intervention Agreement was signed, which forbade people from Britain fighting alongside the rebels making it illegal for those volunteers from Wales from going to Spain to fight the cause.
REPUBLIC: International Brigaders in Spain
But Welsh mining communities were quick to pledge their support for the fight against Franco, collecting food, clothing, medical aid and money. In Pontypridd 1,200lb of food was donated, while Neath and Treorchy saw huge packages of tea, corned beef, cocoa, peas and bars of soap transported in an old cockleshell steamer from Swansea – avoiding torpedo fire on the way.
In an effort to quash the uprising, Franco, in league with Hitler, ordered Luftwaffe warplanes to hit the market town of Guernica in the Basque Country – the heartland of independence - in April 1937 causing widespread devastation. The rising death toll resulted in waves of public sympathy throughout Europe.
HELPING HAND: A collection made in Aberdare for the victims of the War
It is uncertain just how many Welsh people went to Spain to fight, with numbers varying between 170 and 200. Some claim only 21 were killed, others increase the figure to 40. As volunteering was illegal they often travelled in small groups to London and on to Paris, making the excuse they were visiting a football match. But those wounded in Spain still received free treatment for their injuries and convalescence at the Talygarn Miners Rest Home near Pontyclun.
Local volunteers included Bob Condon from Aberaman, Goff Price of Bedwas, F.Owen of Maerdy, Ramon Rodriquez of Merthyr Tydfil, Tom Evans of Ogmore, Tom Hooper of Rhondda, R. Jones of Merthyr, Dai Jones of Maerdy, D. Griffiths of Pontypridd, Mr Cox of Pontypridd, Mr Llewellyn of Ogmore, Jack Roberts of Tonypandy, Alwyn Skinner of Neath, Emrys Jones from Rhondda, George Murray of Maesteg, George Jenkins of Merthyr, Fred Morris of Maerdy, Harold Lloyd of Abertillery, Leo Price of Caerphilly, D.R. Llewellyn of Blaengarw and Will Paynter of Cymmer, Porth.
FIRST AIDER: Alun Menai Williams of Gilfach Goch
Not all volunteers were miners either such as student Morien Morgan from Ynysybwl and Alun Menai Williams from Gilfach Goch who was a first aider. During the depression Alun Williams took part in the famous anti-fascist demonstration against Oswald Mosley in London where he was badly injured.
He was arrested in France on his way to Spain twice before finally reaching Barcelona after many of his comrades drowned in a torpedoed ship. He served as a paramedic in the battleground of every major battle. To escape Franco he swam the Ebro River under machine gun fire and survived. He died in 2006 aged 93.
Harry Dobson from Blaenclydach in the Rhondda was imprisoned for his part in a fracas during a fascist meeting in Tonypandy in 1935. He served with distinction in Spain and was wounded at the Ebro River on July 28 1938 with Morris Davies of Treharris.
Alun Williams of Gilfach was the paramedic and only had one stretcher, taking Morris to safety because he thought Harry was already dead. Harry was eventually evacuated to a cave hospital where he later died. His name is inscribed on the memorial in the Sierra Pandols which survived Franco’s erasure of most Republican records.
Will Paynter of Cymer worked in the Coedely pit from 1917 and in 1929 joined the Communist Party. In 1937 he was chosen by the South Wales Miners’ Federation to be a political commissar with the International Brigades. In later years he was the general secretary of the NUM.
Ramon Rodriguez of Dowlais was one of three Welsh-Spaniards who fought alongside the Welsh contingent in the International Brigades. All three were killed in Spain.
They all fought as part of the 35,000-strong International Brigades which came from 50 countries, set up to bolster the badly depleted Republican Army which was virtually destroyed by desertion to the Franco camp. He already had volunteers of his own from Morocco, Germany, Italy and Portugal numbering around 190,000.
Major battles ensued throughout 1937, most notably in Jarama with a ten-day battle for Madrid in which 43,000 people died. In Brunete there were 40,000 casualties and 300 Republican soldiers were captured and later found dead with their legs cut off.
At least nine Welshmen were killed there, including Frank Owen from Maerdy, William Davies of Tonypandy and Fred White of Ogmore Vale. At Belchire in September and Teruel in December the Republican Army was becoming depleted. Singer and activist Paul Robeson even visited them there to sing spirituals and help raise their spirits.
From July to November 1938 the Brigade crossed the Ebro and launched an attack on Franco’s army. This decisive battle claimed many Welsh lives, such as Alec Cummings of Tonypandy, Willie Durston of Aberaman, Sid James of Treherbert, Brazieil Thomas of Llanelli and Tom Howells of Aberdare. It also proved a massive defeat for the Republican Army.
The heavy losses, conflicts in leadership and general frustrations of war, combined with poor training, bad food, inadequate equipment and even homesickness began to have a detrimental effect on the Republican Army. In September 1938 the Spanish Republican government announced the withdrawal of the International Brigades.
The soldiers met in Barcelona on October 29th 1938 to be sent on their way by the Catalonians grateful for their sacrifice. Many were greeted by a huge emotional welcome at London’s Victoria Station when 26 Welshmen were part of the 300 British volunteers greeted by Clement Attlee MP.
The war ended in March 1939 after 32 months of conflict when Franco’s forces captured Madrid. The impact of the war was massive and the Spanish economy took decades to recover. The political and emotional repercussions of the war reverberated far beyond the boundaries of Spain and sparked passion among international intellectual and political communities, passions that are still present in Spanish politics today.
In Wales many volunteers attended memorial meetings and remembrance services, such as the Welsh National Memorial at Mountain Ash in December 1938 with 7,000 people present. Paul Robeson was the guest speaker and concluded by saying, “I am here because I know that these fellows fought not only for Spain but for me and the whole world. It is my duty to be here.”
The Spanish Civil War Exhibition runs at Rhondda Heritage Park from October 2 to November 4.
Cynnwys wedi’i awdurdodi gan: Marketing & Communications Team
Adolygwyd ar: 9/8/2007