Chapter 1631 German Air Force Participation
After all, Spanish Morocco has now been effectively cut off from other rebel forces on the mainland, and the Strait of Gibraltar is controlled by a navy loyal to the Republican government in Madrid.
This gave Franco the opportunity to integrate the rebels in Spanish Morocco.
In the next few days, Franco successfully took over the command of the "African Legion", and then used his personal prestige and military experience to unify the scattered rebel units and become the "local emperor" of Spanish Morocco.
Franco gathered together the Spanish troops and Moroccan armed forces in places including Ceuta and Melilla.
While everything was going very smoothly for Franco in Morocco, the war situation in Spain was not as smooth as the rebel leaders had imagined.
The rebels in mainland Spain were also mainly led by professional officers, and the soldiers were mostly volunteers or experienced mercenaries, with generally high training and discipline.
In addition, the uprising was sudden and its goal was clear, catching the Madrid Republican government off guard.
However, the rebels only received the support of half of the officers and one-third of the soldiers. Most of the soldiers and officers of the Spanish army remained loyal to the Republican government. Their troops were scattered and did not have an overall advantage, making it impossible for them to completely overwhelm the government forces on the vast front.
However, the rebels' advantage was mainly in the north and west, Spain's agricultural regions, and they failed to control key industrial and economic centers.
Industrial areas, financial and political centers such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia are all in the hands of the government, and the Republic controls most of the military factories, heavy industries and fiscal revenues.
At the same time, these areas controlled by the government are also where the Spanish population is concentrated, which means that the Republican government can mobilize more troops.
However, the weaknesses of the republican government were also very obvious. One was internal chaos, numerous factions, and the government's indecision, which led to slow response.
Secondly, the government-controlled army and militia lack military literacy and have loose discipline, which prevents their military potential from being stimulated.
As a result of these factors, the local rebels made some progress inland and in the north, but were unable to capture core areas such as Madrid or Catalonia. Although the Republican government was rich in resources, it was in chaos in the early stages and was unable to quickly put down the rebellion, and the war fell into a stalemate.
…
Madrid.
After the rebellion broke out, a new round of purges immediately broke out within the Spanish Republican government, with the first to bear the brunt of the current government's Prime Minister and Defense Minister Quiroga.
"Prime Minister Kiroga, the rebellion that has now occurred fully proves that you made a mistake in your previous judgment. These right-wing dangerous elements and nationalists had planned this all along."
A Republican MP bluntly held the leader of the current Republican government accountable.
In a republican government, the nominal head of state is the president, but this position, like the British throne, is not the actual leader of the country. The actual leader of the Spanish republican government is the prime minister.
The current Prime Minister of the Republican government is Quiroga. Naturally, Quiroga bears the main responsibility for the current rebellion in Spain.
Prime Minister Quiroga was also very depressed in the face of the MPs' attack. He said gloomily: "The responsibility for this rebellion is indeed caused by my indecision. I underestimated the harm caused by right-wing elements and did not completely eliminate them beforehand, which ultimately led to the rebellion."
Kiroga did not shirk responsibility. To a large extent, the reason for the rise of the rebels was that the government he led was not decisive enough.
Of course, this is not entirely Quiroga's fault. In fact, his predecessor and current President of the Republican Government, Azaña, also had illusions about the National Party.
Azaña also tried to stabilize the country and ease the conflict between the two factions, but during his tenure, Spain had become deeply polarized and street violence was frequent, so he was forced to resign.
The person who took over is Kiroga. It has not been more than three months since Kiroga took office.
"Prime Minister Kiroga, it's too late to hold anyone accountable now. We warned you many times before that the Nationalists might launch a rebellion. We even obtained intelligence on some of their plots, but you chose to turn a blind eye to these issues, ultimately leading to a catastrophe."
The Nationalists' conspiracy had actually been leaked long ago. After all, although the Nationalists were more united than the Republicans, there were also mixed people within them. So no matter how secretive they were, someone would leak the news.
However, Quiroga never took the news seriously, or rather, he was hesitant and undecided about taking action against the Nationalists.
There may be two reasons for this. One is that Prime Minister Quiroga does not want a civil war to break out. After all, Spain is in such a mess now. If another civil war breaks out, it is very likely to lead to the further decline of Spain.
Spain has already fallen into the status of a second-rate country, and its status is still declining. If a civil war breaks out, industrial and agricultural production will inevitably be greatly affected, and many people will die, making Spain's problems even worse and turning it into a complete third-rate country.
Another reason may be that Prime Minister Kiroga underestimated the strength of the rebels. He did not expect that once the Nationalists launched the rebellion, they would involve more than one-third of the country's troops and nearly half of the officers.
This directly led to the scale of the Spanish rebellion exceeding the psychological expectations of most Republicans. The rebellion now covers almost most areas of Spain and overseas in Morocco.
But if you think about it, it makes sense that the Republican government's underestimation of the enemy gave the Nationalists an opportunity. For example, Franco was previously exiled to the Canary Islands, which gave the main leader of the Nationalists the opportunity to fly to Morocco and take over the Moroccan African Legion.
In addition, there were other rebel leaders, and the Spanish government must have taken some measures before, but these measures did not play a key role, allowing them to successfully connect and launch a rebellion.
Prime Minister Quiroga said: "I do not want to shirk responsibility for the outcome of the rebellion in Spain, but the situation has far exceeded my expectations, and no viable suppression plan has been put forward. Therefore, I am no longer fit to sit in this position, and I hope the government will accept my resignation."
After Kiroga said he would resign voluntarily, he breathed a sigh of relief. In the past few days, he had been under too much psychological pressure. Every day, he received all kinds of negative news, which made him exhausted. Today, since he encountered attacks from dissatisfied people in the government, he simply went with the flow and gave up the position of prime minister.
Quiroga's move caught everyone off guard. After all, they were just dissatisfied with Quiroga, but they didn't really want him to resign.
Now that the rebellion has occurred, the Republican government needs someone who can stand on his own to continue to lead the suppression of the rebellion.
President Azaña then spoke up, "Kiroga, are you really going to resign? Now that the rebellion has broken out, your actions are no different from deserting the battlefield. Changing commanders in the middle of a battle is a taboo. As the Prime Minister of the Republic, you should lead by example and take on the responsibility, not evade the problem."
There is no doubt that President Azaña is optimistic about Quiroga, otherwise he would not have given him the position of prime minister before.
In response to President Asanya's reminder, Quiroga shook his head weakly and said, "Ever since the rebellion broke out, I've been under tremendous pressure. Now, I clearly realize that I'm no longer fit to be Prime Minister. So, I hope Mr. President will stop trying to persuade me. You should now elect a new Prime Minister to lead the government to victory and suppress the rebellion."
Asanya made it clear that he did not want to serve as prime minister anymore. No matter how others tried to persuade him, he made this attitude clear. This left everyone with no choice but to re-elect the government leader.
After several hours of heated discussions, the centrist Barrio became the new prime minister.
However, a strange situation happened again. These new prime ministers were forced to resign just a few hours after taking office because of their political ideas.
Barrio tried to form an "emergency government," even including some moderate right-wing parties, and attempted to negotiate by phone with rebel leaders such as General Mora.
He also proposed that conservative General Sanjurjo lead the new government in exchange for the rebels laying down their arms.
Putting aside the fact that Barrio intended to negotiate with the rebels, which was a sign of weakness, the fact that he appointed Sanjurjo as prime minister was unacceptable to most people within the Republican government.
Sanjurjo had mentioned before that he was one of the main leaders of the Nationalists, like Mola and Franco.
Now that Barrio has appointed Sanjurjo as prime minister, this is equivalent to handing the government directly to the Nationalists. Naturally, other Republicans cannot accept this.
The Republican government then had no choice but to choose a new prime minister, and ultimately chose the left-wing republican Hilal.
Hilal was undoubtedly a fighter. As soon as he became prime minister, he immediately ordered the distribution of weapons to workers' organizations and trade unions to fight the rebels to the end.
However, even if Hilal becomes prime minister, he will be subject to many constraints. There are too many factions within the Republican government, including his own Republican faction, where he has many opponents, not to mention other factions.
The fact that the Republican government changed three prime ministers almost in one day also verifies the chaos in the current leadership of the Republican government.
…
The chaos of the Republican government directly made it lose the best time to suppress the rebels. However, the rebels were not much better than the Republican government. The war between the two sides completely entered a stalemate. During this period, Franco seemed a little relaxed.
Spanish Morocco, Tetouan.
Franco's subordinates were reporting to him: "General, now the vast majority of forces in Morocco have sworn allegiance to us, including the African Legion's garrisons, regular troops, police, and local administrative personnel."
Franco sat in a chair, studying a map of Spain, and without looking up, he said, "Very good. How is the army training going now?"
The subordinate replied: "The army's training is proceeding in an orderly manner, weapons and ammunition are in sufficient supply, and supplies from Italy and Germany are also being systematically gathered in Melilla and then sent to Ceuta, Tetouan and other places."
Melilla has now become the logistics base of the African Corps. Supplies from Germany and Italy will first arrive here and then be sent to other places by sea, land and air transportation to meet the training and living needs of the African Corps.
Melilla itself is highly secure and has airports, railways and ports, making it an ideal transit hub for Moroccan rebels.
On the other hand, Ceuta is too close to the Spanish mainland and may be threatened by the Spanish navy, so it is not suitable as a logistics base, while Tetouan serves more as a command center.
In this time and space, because Germany annexed the Austro-Hungarian Empire and gained access to the Adriatic Sea, Germany's supplies can also depart from the Port of Trieste and then be transported to the Port of Melilla via the Mediterranean Sea, which further enhances the importance of Melilla.
Franco said, "Very good. The supplies from East Africa will finally arrive in Melilla, so let the troops resume training. We now have plenty of weapons, ammunition, and food."
"The only thing we have to worry about now is how to break through the navy's blockade so that our troops can go to the mainland to participate in the war!"
Now Franco's army has made all preparations. The only problem is how to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to join the war.
Although the African Legion is the most elite force in Spain and its combat effectiveness far exceeds that of the mainland, if the African Legion wants to join the battlefield, it must return to the mainland. Otherwise, no matter how elite it is, it will be useless.
Franco's men also raised questions: "General, how we cross the sea is a key issue. The navy has blockaded Gibraltar and is loyal to the Republican government."
"And since we don't have a navy of our own, it's impossible for us to break through the navy's blockade of Gibraltar."
Faced with his subordinates' concerns, Franco was confident. He said: "Our African Corps is mainly composed of the army. It is indeed impossible to defeat the mainland navy by using the fleet to join the war."
"But we still have a way to leave here. Remember how we came to Tetouan from the Canary Islands?"
This made the subordinate's eyes light up, and he replied: "General, you mean that we should transport the African Corps back to the mainland by plane and cross the Strait of Gibraltar?"
Franco nodded and said, "That's right. As long as we have enough transport planes, we can transport soldiers and weapons and equipment to the mainland to join the battle. The war in Spain has reached a stalemate. If we can cross the Strait of Gibraltar and join the battle, the balance of victory will definitely tilt towards us, the Nationalists."
Franco proposed a solution, but his subordinate was not relieved. He asked, "General, the problem is that we don't have that many transport planes!"
In theory, transporting the African Corps back to the mainland is a very effective method, but Morocco currently does not have many aircraft to help Franco complete this plan.
However, Franco was not worried at all. He said to his subordinates: "We do not have enough planes, but Germany and Italy do. If things get worse, we can ask East Africa for help. I believe that Germany and Italy will definitely agree to our request for help."
"I plan to speak directly to German Chancellor Adolf and Italian Prime Minister Benito and ask the German Air Force and the Italian Air Force to help us complete the cross-sea combat mission."
Franco acted quickly. That night, he communicated with Adolf and Benito. As expected, both Germany and Italy planned to send their air forces directly to help Franco send the African Corps to mainland Spain.
To this end, the German Air Force directly dispatched more than 20 of the most advanced Ju52 transport aircraft to Morocco. One Ju52 could transport more than 20 fully armed soldiers to Spain, and more than 20 aircraft could transport a company of troops at a time.
(End of this chapter)
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