Spain and the 'white terror'

July 15 2006 12:11 AM

The Battle For Spain By Antony Beevor Weidenfeld & Nicolson £25

The Battle For Spain By Antony Beevor Weidenfeld & Nicolson £25

Kim Bielenberg The historian Antony Beevor has already built up a devoted following with his lucidly-written World War II narratives, Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall.

Now he has returned to a subject that preoccupied him earlier in his career: the Spanish Civil War. Harvesting recently-released documents from Soviet and other archives, he has completely revised an earlier history of the war.

Seventy years ago this month, soldiers began a military uprising that challenged the democratically-elected republican government of Spain.

The revolt by General Franco and his rightwing comrades tore Spain apart and consigned the country to nearly four decades of fascist dictatorship.

Beevor explains how the republican regime, a fractious coalition of liberal and leftwing political forces, was overwhelmed.

Although the short-lived republican government could command popular support across much of Spain as it attempted to quell the military uprising , it lacked cohesion, leadership and military prowess.

Vicious infighting between liberals, socialists, anarchists and Communists put the republican side at considerable disadvantage.

Crucially the republicans could command little support from democratic Europe - including Britain and France - and relied on the Soviets for assistance.

According to Beevor's account Britain's Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was more inclined towards the fascists during the war's early phases.

General Franco, on the other hand, was able to count on military support from Hitler and Mussolini, as well as help from American corporations such as Texaco and Ford.

Many accounts of the civil war have tended to glorify the republican side. But Beevor's dispassionate history details atrocities on both sides.

The fanatical anti-clericalism of republican elements ensured that Catholics abroad, including many of the Irish faithful, were more inclined towards Franco. Beevor says 4,184 priests, 2,365 other men from religious orders and 283 nuns were among the 38,000 killed by the republicans.

The suppression of opposition by Franco was if anything more ferocious and more prolonged. The total number of victims of his 'white terror' is estimated at 200,000.

In military terms, the conflict was a curtain raiser for World War II. For Hitler, the civil war became a test laboratory for military hardware. Madrid was the first major capital to suffer intense military bombardment.

Beevor's account of the war is a valuable work for anyone wishing to understand the complexities and contradictions of modern Spain.