"Would you fight in the Spanish Civil War?" Topic

If you were alive during the Spanish Civil War, would you have volunteered for either side? Which faction would you choose?
A. The Falange (ultra- nationalist Spanish Fascist Party)
B. The Requetes (right wing monarchist Catholic faction)
C. Nationalist Air Force (pilots and aircrew siding with the Francoists)
D. Nationalist Army (Franco's army defending the monarchy, the Catholic Church, and the military junta generals)
E. Non-combatant volunteer for the Nationalists
F. Italian Fascist volunteer (army, navy, or Air Force)
G. Condor Legion (Nazi volunteers for the Nationalist side with Luftwaffe, navy, Wehrmacht, or advisor positions)
H. Russian volunteers ( Soviet soldiers, airmen, tankers and advisors backed by Stalin)
I. Union Worker volunteer for the International Brigades ( various countries)
J. Socialist for the International Brigades (various countries)
K. Communist volunteers for the international Brigades (various countries)
L. Anarchist volunteers for the CNT and FAI organizations in Spain (from various countries)
M. Non-Stalinist communist volunteer for POUM (George Orwell volunteered with this organization)
N. Republican volunteer non-combatant role
O. I would not volunteer for this war
P. I don't know about the Spanish Civil War
Q. Other

Being not Spanish, I'd be a brigadier with anarchist/POUM sympathies.

That's of course assuming I wasn't an out of shape slob in this alternate reality.

Of course, we would all have to be young and fit people in the alternate universe of the Spanish Civil War. I would magically transform from my overweight, middle-aged, and unfit self, so I could volunteer as a non-combatant support personnel working for the CNT/FAI or POUM.

Nope. The Republican side was dominated by the Communists as the war progressed and executions of their own ranks were not uncommon.

Probably the Requested or Nationalist Army

Option B or D. I'd have to help defend against the commies.

O. Not being Spanish.

I forgot to add :
R. The Spanish Foreign Legion based in Morocco fighting for the right wing Francoist generals.
S. Carlist troops who were right wing traditionalist monarchists fighting for the junta Francoists.

O. Never volunteer.

J or M

Given the political leanings of my youth and my nationality,
J. Socialist for the International Brigades (various countries)

Now not so much.

If I was young and niave again, I'd go J. I am a Socialist.

There should be at least 2 more choices.The Carlists and the Requetes are the same. Ultra conservative Catholic backers of the Don Carlos pretenders to the throne.

T Alphonsine monarchists Backer of the abdicated Alfonso XIII
U Republican airmen Numerous foriegners, mainly French, fought in the Republics air arm.

B or D I suppose

O.

I take it this is assuming our ideology during the time we would be of an age-range for eligibility to fight?

Not being Spanish, I would not have volunteered. I would have seen it as someone else's problem a long ways from my own.

My sympathies lie with the freedom loving pro-democrats of the government side, but that isn't who would be in power if the republic won. A Stalinist puppet state in Spain during the Cold War would have been a disaster for democracy in Europe.

Without hindsight I'd probably have gone with the POUM who I'd describe as socialist rather than communist. With hindsight it would have to be D to avoid a Soviet puppet. In reality I'd probably not have volunteered at all.

O. Got no dog in that hunt.

As a young lad, POUM.

These days I know too much about it and who wants a 65 year old infantryman?

K, Abraham Lincoln Brigade

O – like the mad monkey, that dog won't hunt

I would rather sit in Paris, sip coffee, and watch from a distance.

I would probably serve in the same unit with Weasel, would go there to protect the Republic. And for the ladies, of course.

I once met some old timers from my home town who did go half way round the world and fight.

DB

O

Being Spanish my choices would be determined by where I was living at the time:

A. Compulsory recruitment in the Rebel army
B. Compulsory recruitment in the Loyal army
C. In the wrong end of a firing squad.

I or M…being Canadian…

I think a simple yes or no question would have sufficed. My answer is no. So I guess from the long list of choices would be "O".

I'd probably have sat at home shaking my head at it all.

However, in our alternate world, CNT for me. Down with all centralist statist authoritarians of the left and right.

The POUM were Trotskyists, not communists.

I. Union Worker volunteer for the International Brigades
OR
J. Socialist for the International Brigades

Either way would be with some real interesting people here on TMP…..

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if knowledge and attitudes were the same as at the time AND if I wasn't the snivelling coward I am in actuality than I would have volunteered to go and defend the legitimate government. So that would be I, J or K.

I, J then. Knowing what I know now, maybe better to work politically in Britain to encourage support of the legitimate government.

Nationalist Army. Viva Generalissimo Franco!

O!

I remember reading about a US General who, at the start of the ACW, quit his post in Texas and was traveling to Washington. He was "detained" by CSA authorities along the way, who inquired as to his intentions. He informed them he was planning to go to Europe as he had no intention to stay and participate in that madness. They let him go.

To paraphrase Mal Reynolds, that guy was my kinda stupid.

As it happened he didn't leave. He stayed on in DC and spent the war pushing papers.

If I was Spanish at that time I surmise circumstance would decide for me. Otherwise, not on your life. Certainly not on mine.

Not a chance. I can only see me getting involved if I'd been Spanish and couldn't avoid it. A very dirty little war, even by the standards of other European civil wars.

I certainly understand not wanting to go to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Most civil wars are very uncivil. The SCW was no exception to that rule. The Spanish authorities are still slowly digging up graves of the dead from that war.

You missed out the Basques on the Republican side.

Stay out of civil wars. O

You missed out the Basques on the Republican side.

Basque Nationalists and Socialists. Basque Carlists fought for the other side. That's a civil war for you, mister.

Both sides as bad each other…I would join Crow Bait in Paris!

"Basque Nationalists and Socialists. Basque Carlists fought for the other side. That's a civil war for you, mister."

Indeed, but the Requetes are already listed and so the Carlists are catered for. Not so the other Basques. That's reading comprehension for you a mhic.

O – if I fight it will be for my own country and no other. What little I have read of the SCW makes it doubly so I would not fight for either side in that one.

z- sell arms to both sides and get rich, move to Tahiti and hope not to get invaded by the Japanese…

As a teenager, the fascists.

In my twenties, the socialists.

Now, for no one.

Since I was career military, I would have flowed to either the Nationalist military (B,C) or stayed loyal to the government (Q)
I am surprised there was not an option for the Regulares that stayed with the Republic despite misgivings

O. And I cannot sufficiently stress just how much 'O' is involved here.

In fact, I'm not even going down to the docks to wave you Non-O's goodbye, in case a hilarious sequence of accidents result in the boat sailing with me on board.

SCW? F that S.

Good points from Jlundberg and Oh .
Jlundberg, I did forget to include the Regulares that sided with the Spanish Republic. Sorry, that was a large number of soldiers.
Oh , I also forgot to include the Basque Socialists, Nationalists and Requetes/Carlists.
I was thinking about the TMP members and whether they would join a side in the SCW from another country other than Spain.So, that was my reason for excluding the Basque factions and Regulares in the Spanish Republic from the list, although I did cover many other factions involved.

O for me as well.

Fascists and Communists are two sides of the same coin and have no place in my pocket.

Q

Also there were Catalans fighting in separatist units. Both Basque and Catalan separatists were, from 1937, either gone or assimilated in regular units.

Grandpa of mine was a Catalan separatist, he fought in an anarchist/communist*, then regular, unit. I guess I'd had done same, but would have gone abroad after '37. Then it was just communists and fascists, bad and worst.

CNT/FAI anarchists were responsible for much murdering and looting. The rebel side used terror and murder as a common policy. In fact today Spanish authorities generally try to sideline the mass graves. Trotskyists were in fact communists, not much of a bit better than Stalinists (gosh Trotsky publicited class terrorism).

I would go for lounging around drinking red wine and speaking is short declarative sentences about women with hair like wheat.

Otherwise, it was one of those wars where you wish that both sides could have lost.

R or a Basque Separatist.

Yeah, I know…