"What the Spanish civil war can reveal about Syria" Topic

"As the battle for Aleppo continues unabated, this intense episode in the Syrian civil war harkens back to a vicious battle for another Mediterranean city, Barcelona, during the Spanish civil war.

July 2016 marked the 80-year anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict in Spain, lasting from 1936 to 1939. In July 1936, General Francisco Franco led a rebellion among the Spanish military and his allies, collectively referred to as the Nationalists, against the recently elected left leaning Republican Government.

The Republican government rallied its military forces to its defence, in addition to anarchist and communist militia, and a civil war ensued…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Of my mom's many brothers, I had two uncles that fought with Franco and three uncles that fought against him. It made for some interesting family reunions. :)

I hope Syrian families can reunite without too much conflict after they find each other again in peace time.

Dan

Totally different situation….Franco was almost a necessity to save his people subjected to terrorism by the illegally ruling Republican Marxist Gvt having as main aim to sell Spain to Soviet Comintern…while in case of Syria Assad protect his people (including Christian)From external terrorism (ISIS) and indifference if not hostility From those that should support him except Russia which is the only good boy on the scene….

Really the Spanish civil war was a totally different conflict. Both sides had foreign troops joining in, as is the case in Syria.
But both sides had; aircraft, tanks and artillery. In this case Assad has the advantage there. So perhaps something more akin to the Russian war in Afghanistan, with technology opposed by morale.

Hey guys, let's not stray into Blue Fez territory here.

Jim

The similarities are superficial, as the author himself recognizes in the subtext of the article. In Spain both sides fielded regular armies, which fought according to a set of ideas about how war should be fought.

Also, in the SCW there were two clearly defined sides: Republicans and Nationalists. Even if the former had factions that not always acted in harmony, the fact is that from November 1936 onwards the Republican side fought in concert, as a single entity, as its enemies did.

In Syria there are four factions, at the least: Assad's, ISIS, Kurds and a loose alliance of anti-Assad militias. You can also include the Turks, Iranians, Saudis and Iraquis into the equation, with the odd Israeli low-profile intervention.

Third, the USSR supported the Republicans in exchange of hard cash. It wasn't just a fight by proxy. Actually, the paranoia of Stalinist Soviet Union didn't allow for such a thing as a coherent strategy regarding the war in Spain. Soviet support was even more unreliable than that of USA to Syrian rebels.

Fourth, the ideological divide that existed in Spain isn't comparable to the sectarian divide in Syria.

Fifth, the Spanish Civil War didn't involve the fought for "two major urban centres". Only one saw any fight: Madrid. Barcelona fell without combat in the city. The only combat that Barcelona saw during the war was in 18 July and in the spring of 1937 when the POUM was disarmed. Actually, the Spanish Civil War didn't see too much urban combat. Except in Madrid at the beginning of the war, and in Belchite, urban warfare was relatively uncommon. Nationalists didn't feel comfortable fighting in cities, where the Republican comparative lack of training was compensated by the urban environment. After the failed attack in November 1936 against Madrid, Franco avoided war in cities as much as he could. He preferred to isolate them and force their surrender; his logic was that once the field army was defeated and the city isolated its surrender was a matter of time. And he was -mostly- right.

Good points Antonio…

By the way… have you visit the Wargaming de Lengua Espaņola Forum?…

TMP link

I would love to read you there!… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Spanish civil war was also a testing ground for new weapons. Russians certainly testing the performance of their weapons in Syria – it is funded out of the Russian training budget.
I think you could make a case for the different ideologies being comparable (lots of different groups fighting in Syria with different ideologies in loose alliances).
Assad tried fighting in cities with armoured forces. That did not work out well, so blockades/sieges are the order of the day. The anti-Assad forces prefer to fight in cities, where their forces fight best but have taken some Assad bases as well. With again prolonged sieges in some cases.