Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 In this highly important book, Javier Rodrigo examines the role of Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. Fascist Italy’s intervention in the Spanish Civil War to provide material, strategic, and diplomatic assistance led to Italy becoming a belligerent in the conflict. Following the unsuccessful military coup of July 1936 and the insurgents’ subsequent failure to take Madrid, the Corps of Voluntary Troops (CTV, Corpo Truppe Volontarie ) was created—in the words of an Italian fascist anthem—to ‘liberate Spain’, usher in a ‘new History’, ‘make the peoples oppressed by the Reds smile again’, and ‘build a fascist Europe’. Far from being insignificant or trivial, the intervention of Fascist Italy and Italian fascists on Spanish soil must be seen as one of the key aspects which contribute to the Spanish conflict’s status as an epitome of the twentieth century. Drawing on sources ranging from ministerial orders to soldiers’ diaries, this book reconstructs the evangelisation of fascism in Spain. This book is the first important study on Fascist Italy’s role in the conflict to appear in English in over 45 years. It examines Italian intervention from angles unfamiliar to English-speaking readers and will be useful to students of history and scholars interested in twentieth-century Europe, fascism, and the international dimension of the Spanish Civil War. Javier Rodrigo is ICREA-Acadèmia Researcher and Professor of History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and currently coordinates a H2020 European Project on forced displacements in Europe. Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain Edited by Paul Preston and Sebastian Balfour Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, London School of Economics , UK 24 Nineteenth Century Spain A New History Mark Lawrence 25 Falangist And National Catholic Women In the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) Angela Flynn 26 War in Spain Appeasement, Collective Insecurity, and the Failure of European Democracies Against Fascism David Jorge 27 Monarchy and Liberalism in Spain The Building of the Nation-State, 1780–1931 Edited by David San Narciso, Margarita Barral-Martínez and Carolina Armenteros 28 Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 Javier Rodrigo Also published in association with the Cañada Blanch Centre: Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century Edited by Sebastian Balfour and Paul Preston The Politics of Contemporary Spain Edited by Sebastian Balfour For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ RoutledgeCanada-Blanch-Studies-on-Contemporary-Spain/book-series/ PAULPRESTON Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 Javier Rodrigo First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Javier Rodrigo The right of Javier Rodrigo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rodrigo, Javier, 1977– author. Title: Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 / Javier Rodrigo. Other titles: Guerra Fascista. English Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: [Routledge/Cañada Blanch studies on contemporary Spain] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: LCSH: Spain—History—Civil War, 1936–1939—Participation, Italian. | Spain—Foreign relations—Italy. | Italy—Foreign relations— Spain. | Italians—Spain—History—20th century. | Spain. Ejé rcito Nacional. Cuerpo de Tropas Voluntarias—History. Classification: LCC DP269.47.I8 R6313 2021 (print) | LCC DP269.47.I8 (ebook) | DDC 946.081/345—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057729 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057730 ISBN: 978-0-367-69178-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-76237-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-16605-4 (ebk) Typeset in Garamond by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Acknowledgements vi List of abbreviations vii Introduction: Fascist Italy and the Spanish Civil War 1 1 Fascist intervention in the coup d’état of 1936 15 Blind faith 16 No turning back 37 2 Fascist Italy at war, 1937 59 From guerra celere to ‘Guadalahara’ 60 A war in the North 81 3 Italy, the CTV, and politics on the National side 102 Fascistisation 103 Evangelise by deed 120 4 Identity, combat, rearguard 133 He wrote, Viva il Duce! , and then he died 135 The clean and the dirty 149 5 A European war in Spain, 1938–1939 169 Without inhibitions 171 Sacred testament 186 Conclusion 202 Bibliography 215 Index 227 Acknowledgements This book exists, thanks to the financial support received since 2019 from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies ICREA-Acadèmia programme. I am grateful to my wife Alessandra, my daughter Melania, and my son Carlos, for the last twenty, ten, and two years of my life. Some parts of this book, originally published in Spanish by Alianza Editorial, were read and improved by Francisco Morente, Ferran Gallego, Luca Baldissara, Miguel Ángel Ruiz Carnicer, Alan Kramer, David Alegre, Miguel Alonso, Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas, José Luis Ledesma, Javier Muñoz, and Maxi Fuentes. Robert Langham from Routledge and Valeria Ciompi from Alianza made this book possible. Thanks to Richard Carswell and Ariela House for their excel- lent work translating and revising the manuscript. Parts of this book have been discussed at the Centre for War Studies (University College, Dublin), Università Ca’ Foscari (Venice), University of Santiago de Compostela, Com- plutense University of Madrid, University of Strathclyde (Glasgow), Institute of History (University of Bern), University of Konstanz, the New School for Social Research (New York), Uppsala University, and the Colegio de México (Mexico City). Thanks to Robert Gerwarth, Laura Cerasi, Daniel Lanero, José María Faraldo, Gutmaro Gómez, Marco Maria Aterrano, Christian Ger- lach, Christian Büschges, Sven Reichardt, Federico Finchelstein, David Jorge, and Constantin Iordachi for their kind invitations to share my work. I am grateful for all the comments and criticism received. Above all, this book is the result of my friendship with Marco Carrubba and his generosity. I spent the early years of my life in the shadow of the Italian Military Sacrarium at Zaragoza, the tomb of the Italian fascists fallen in Spain. I like to think that my walks there, hand in hand with my parents, put the first inter- rogation point in the question I have tried to answer in these pages. A bbreviations AB Archivo de Burgos ACS Archivio Centrale dello Stato AGMAV Archivo General Militar de Ávila AMAE Archivo del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores AP Affari Politici ASMAE Archivio Storico Ministero degli Affari Esteri B Busta C Carpeta CAUR Comitati d’Azione per l’Universalità di Roma CIAUS Corso Italiani Adestramento Ufficiali Spagnoli CR Carteggio Riservato CTV Corpo Truppe Volontarie E Expediente EIAR Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche F Fascicolo GAB Gabinetto L Legajo MAS Motoscafo Armato Silurante MI Ministero degli Interni MinCulPop Ministero della Cultura Popolare MMIS Missione Militare Italiana in Spagna MNI Missione Navale Italiana MVSN Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale PNF Partito Nazionale Fascista PolPol Polizia Politica RSI Repubblica Sociale Italiana SIAI Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia SIM Servizio Informazioni Militare SPD Segreteria Particolare del Duce UC Ufficio de Collegamento US Ufficio Spagna USSME Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito Introduction Fascist Italy and the Spanish Civil War Fascists. And, what’s more, fighters, soldiers, volunteers, adventurers, legion- naires, ragazzi del ’36. But above all, first and foremost, and as Italians, fascists. They were the more than 78,000 men who, on Benito Mussolini’s decision, took part in the Spanish Civil War, the Anti-Bolshevik Crusade for National Liberation fought on Spanish soil between 1936 and 1939. They were fascists who embarked from Italy and took up arms in Spain not only for diverse reasons—surely each Aldo, Giovanni, Marco, Giuseppe, and Enrico had his own individual motive(s)—but also for ideas which they had in common, for shared desires, which were inevitably linked to the identity, both personal and collective, of being fascists. They believed in a cause which required the eradication of the enemy in order to unite the national com- munity. Naturally, they obeyed the Duce’s dictates, but, as men raised in the values of fascism, they also obeyed the call of a fascist faith, which grew by spreading beyond its geographical and identitarian frontiers to converge with other counter-revolutionary experiences in Europe. They fought in a foreign land against Bolshevism, Marxism, anarchy, against those without faith and fatherland, the Red horde, and communism. They believed, they obeyed, and they fought; at the end of the day, that was what it meant to be a fascist and that was what their motto said: Credere, Obbedire, Combattere (Believe, Obey, Fight). Of the different interlocking wars that made up what we know today as the Spanish Civil War, perhaps none has been the object of so much analysis as the international war.1 Italian Fascism’s participation is among the topics which have consumed the most tons of cellulose.

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