Chapter 138: Barcelona

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History remembers many interesting things. For example, not all Germans supported Führer Akado, nor did all Germans side with Franco’s Nationalist army.

At least a hundred Germans stood with the Republican side. They joined the Republican army and fought bravely against the Spanish Nationalists supported by Führer Akado. Most of them were communists who had fled Germany after Akado officially began to suppress the Communist Party in 1933. These exiles, after many twists and turns, made their way to war-torn Spain and were incorporated into the 11th and 12th International Brigades.

These two brigades were composed of volunteers from 17 different countries, including communists from France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, who had come in the most direct way possible to support the Spanish people’s war to defend their freedom.

Many German volunteers were assigned to fight in the Thälmann Battalion. This battalion was named after the leader of the German Communist Party, Ernst Thälmann, who had been arrested on Akado’s orders after the Reichstag Fire and sent to an SS concentration camp south of Kiel, where he was murdered a few days later.

This battalion, composed mostly of Germans, participated in some of the most brutal battles of the Spanish Civil War. They broke out of the Cáceres encirclement, becoming one of the few besieged units to escape. They held off the German 8th Panzer Division at Salamanca for two days, covering the safe retreat of most of their friendly forces.

They had lost half their strength in the last major battle, but the battalion flag, with its hammer and sickle emblem, still flew over their positions. They defended the highway between Madrid and Valencia, holding firm against repeated fierce attacks from the Nationalists, ultimately winning honor and respect for themselves.

Now, this battalion was once again deployed in the most critical defensive sector of Madrid, tasked with resisting the fierce attacks of the German 2nd SS Panzer Division. They fought the Nationalists for every building, battled to the death for every room. By the time they finally lost the positions they held, those positions had long since been reduced to rubble.

“Boom!” A shell exploded not far away, and a cloud of dust fell in the Thälmann Battalion’s temporary command post. The battalion commander grabbed the incessantly ringing telephone, shook the dust off himself, and asked in a hoarse voice, “Hello? What’s the mission?”

“At 1:00 PM sharp! We will launch a full-scale counter-offensive to retake the lost districts of Madrid! Have your battalion prepare!”

“My God! We have 173 soldiers left! The Thälmann Battalion no longer exists, sir! Our request for withdrawal was submitted four days ago! And you’re telling me to counter-attack at a time like this? You must be joking,” the battalion commander replied, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

A droning sound came from the sky again. Three of the Spanish Nationalists’ German-made export model Do-217B medium bombers flew overhead, once again paying their respects to the main Republican defensive positions not far away.

This plane was a simplified version of the German domestic Do-217A bomber. Its flight speed and bombing accuracy had been reduced, but it still out-performed Italian bombers and had won an order from the Spanish Nationalists. However, the purchase quantity was somewhat disappointing for the German Dornier company; Spain only wanted 17 of these planes, which was hardly comparable to Germany’s own order for 300.

Because the Spanish Nationalist air force was itself small in number, these expensive Do-17 [sic] planes would fly high over the battlefield, drop a few bombs as a token gesture, and then leave in a hurry.

The bombs exploded in the distance, sending up thick plumes of smoke. The ground beneath their feet could be felt trembling, and the sound of collapsing buildings could be faintly heard, sending a chill down the spine. The war had entered a white-hot stage. Both sides had thrown in large numbers of troops, and all sorts of new weapons were emerging one after another. The price was that the losses on both sides were also getting larger and larger.

While fighting for the southern districts of Madrid, a tank commander from the German 2nd SS Panzer Division recalled an attack on a section of the Republican defensive line—a line of bunkers defended by Basque miners. “We didn’t detect any movement, but we all knew how brave and fearless those miners were. We had fought them countless times, and their tenacity and ferocity had left a deep impression on us.”

“We had to advance to within about 200 meters of their defensive positions to fire at the dark embrasures on the barricades. When the bullets hit, they would kick up a cloud of white smoke, obscuring the machine gun ports on the pillboxes for a few seconds.”

“There was a Wehrmacht captain of extraordinary courage who charged at the front. He would even open his tank’s hatch from time to time to stick his head out and confirm his direction of advance. It was hard to believe it was real in that hail of bullets. So I fired a few dozen rounds at his tank to remind him to be careful—we were used to communicating with each other this way; it was much more convenient than the intercom.”

In fact, the war was far crueler than this German tank commander, who was later awarded the Iron Cross, described. Republican soldiers threw hand grenades from behind parapets and often risked their lives to attack the tracks of German tanks with satchel charges. Some would carefully aim at the tanks’ vision slits and air grilles. Often after an attack, the Germans would find many bullets lodged in the gaps of their tanks.

Even more dramatically, some Republican soldiers would bravely leave their cover, shouting and gesturing to encourage their comrades to fire fiercely. At such close range, the German tank gunners only needed to aim slightly to turn them into sieves. Sometimes, the cone of fire from a tank’s coaxial machine gun could sweep down a large number of bravely charging Republican soldiers in a small area.

The war continued. The large-caliber howitzers Italy provided to Franco were the most welcome support weapon for the German armored forces. Although these somewhat cumbersome cannons were not as nimble as the new Krupp howitzers, they saved the trouble of transporting cannons from Germany, and their lack of mobility was not an unbearable drawback in a positional battle like the one in Madrid.

A new round of shelling began. The shells shrieked through the air and landed on the streets, throwing dirt and rubble dozens of meters into the sky. Buildings were blasted into ruins, and the streets were filled with rolling smoke and dust. The bodies scattered on the streets were ignored; people hovering on the edge of hell no longer had the heart to bury others.

Once, a unit of Franco’s He-51 fighters, purchased from Germany, went on a bombing mission (with the entry of the I-16 and Me-109, this old fighter could now only perform such auxiliary tasks). The bombing lasted only eight minutes, but upon their return, everyone found that almost every plane’s fuselage had bullet holes.

The Soviet Air Force bled for the skies over Madrid. Time and again, they scrambled to intercept the bombing He-51s and Do-217Bs. As a result, these pitiful I-16 fighters were slaughtered by the Me-109s hiding high above in the clouds. In just a few days, a full 29 Soviet planes were shot down over Madrid. Although most of the pilots bailed out and escaped, the losses were still heavy.

Having achieved local air superiority, the German and Italian air forces began to bomb Madrid fiercely. At first, they were careful to avoid civilian facilities, but after the prohibition was lifted, they began to attack any target they could hit. Due to poor bombing accuracy, countless civilian facilities were destroyed.

The German Air Force’s Do-217 bombers, in coordination with the Italian Air Force’s “Savoia-Marchetti” bombers, frequented Madrid. To reduce losses from the Republican forces’ ground fire, the bombings were generally carried out at night. These attacks destroyed hospitals and tall buildings, injuring countless civilians in Madrid.

To improve bombing accuracy, three new German aircraft were secretly sent to Spain for testing. This plane was called the Stuka, with the military designation Ju-87. It had an ugly but extremely practical gull-wing design, carried two improved 20mm cannons for continuous ground-attack support fire, and could carry 900 kilograms of bombs, including a large 550-pound bomb slung under its belly.

Führer Akado ordered that these dive bombers be fitted with eerie sirens, so that they would emit a piercing shriek during a high-speed dive. Accompanied by the massive explosion that followed, it could easily break the will of enemy troops to resist.

As soon as the three Stuka dive bombers entered the fray, they pushed the Battle of Barcelona, one of the most important battles of the Spanish Civil War, to a new climax. That very day, the German Wehrmacht’s 8th Panzer Division, under the cover of the Stukas, broke through the defensive lines on the outskirts of Barcelona. And the three Stukas lived up to expectations, destroying four large bunkers and cutting two highways outside Barcelona in one go.

After three days of fierce fighting, the German armored forces successfully captured the port of Barcelona. This successful assault shortened the shipping route for supplies from Germany and Italy to Spain by nearly half. Correspondingly, Soviet supplies previously sent to Barcelona had to be rerouted to Valencia, increasing transport time and distance.

The fall of Barcelona was salt in the wounds of the Republican defense of Madrid, which was already on the verge of collapse. In a short time, Gandesa fell, Vinaròs fell, Teruel fell, and even the port of Valencia, which should have been far in the rear, became precarious. The scales of victory in the Spanish Civil War had begun to tip in favor of Franco’s Legion.

And at this moment, another piece of good news arrived at the Führer’s Residence in the German capital of Berlin: Soviet Marshal Tukhachevsky had been arrested on charges of espionage and treason. The carefully laid plan to frame him had succeeded. The Soviets had eliminated their own military pillar themselves.

Upon learning that the Soviet Great Purge had fully erupted, Akado was in an excellent mood. That evening, he even invited Mercedes and her father to dinner. This celebrity-like “engaged couple” of Germany dined together in Berlin’s most luxurious hotel, while also calculating the overseas assets of the White Orchid Group that were being prepared for sale.