Chapter 182: Who Are the Rebels?
Spain, Galicia region.
El Ferrol Command Center.
As Franco's hometown and old sphere of influence, the loyalty of the soldiers stationed here was beyond doubt.
The moment José landed, Colonel Cayato arrived with Brigadier General Siroka, commander of the nearby La Coruña naval port, and Brigadier General Emilio Mola, overall commander of Spain's entire northwestern army.
The three men reported in person.
They swore allegiance to the Spanish Forward Party and expressed their support for José as the overall wartime commander.
José, in turn, was not stingy with rewards.
He immediately appointed Mola as the overall commander of the Northern Front. Then, through telegram, he appointed Lieutenant General Hilario Carao, a former monarchist who had maintained a decent relationship with Franco, as the overall commander of the Southern Front.
At the same time, troops from Morocco and the Ronda region began mobilizing.
After establishing the grand strategy of flanking Madrid and sweeping through Spain's central core, the right wing politicians of the Spanish Forward Party began building momentum with all their strength.
One week later, the news of Franco's death spread through the streets.
As retaliation against the Spanish Communist Party, mayors of small towns around Madrid who had long supported the communists were dragged into public processions. Their chests were stripped bare, and large characters were painted across their skin, proclaiming the expulsion of the "blood plague."
However, the central core region was, after all, the base of the Spanish Communist Party.
Conflicts soon broke out between demonstrators and communist members.
By the end of the unrest, dozens of bodies lay in the streets.
After this large scale demonstration, the Spanish Communist Party directly branded the demonstrators as rebels. It delivered a nationwide radio speech declaring a state of emergency, placed the Spanish Forward Party on the list of dangerous political organizations under surveillance, and revoked its political legitimacy.
The hunt for social moderates followed immediately.
In Madrid, this compromise faction, which had been established less than three months earlier, was wiped out completely. Its senior members were secretly executed.
The faction that had surrendered first became the first to be devoured.
In the north, José delivered a speech from the capital of the Navarre region.
He claimed that the Spanish Communist Party was distorting facts, usurping state power, and openly trampling democracy. He repeatedly declared that ignoring the election results was the same as ignoring the will of the people.
The absurd spectacle of both sides accusing each other of rebellion did not last long.
At José's command, Hilario Carao ignored the Spanish Communist Party's warnings and led the twenty thousand strong Southern First Army across the Strait of Gibraltar with the assistance of the Ronda Army, the navy, and Cardolan Shipping Company.
The Spanish Communist Party's resistance in Ronda delayed the advance for only one week.
Then they abandoned Ronda and retreated to Seville.
At the same time, Mola led the Northern First Infantry Division in a siege of Bilbao. Amid continuous artillery fire, he completely consolidated the northwestern region.
However, not every right wing faction chose to stand with the Spanish Forward Party.
Some right wing officers with strong nationalist sentiments were unwilling to let Germans dictate Spain's future. They broke away from the Spanish Forward Party and instead placed their faith in Italy's extreme nationalism.
Using Catalonia, which had only recently completed its independence and whose military defenses were relatively weak, as their fulcrum, they moved a force of fewer than eight thousand men into the capital, Andorra.
There, they began frequent skirmishes with Spanish Communist Party defenders inside the city.
By the end of Christmas, January 1933 had arrived.
After nearly two months of frantic organization, the Spanish Communist Party finally established a somewhat decent defense line and managed to stabilize the situation slightly.
On the southern front, they fixed the battle line around Toledo.
In the north, they relied on Salamanca to resist the Northern Forward Army's advance.
In the east, they even recaptured several cities previously occupied by the Falange.
By February, the front lines had fully stabilized.
Both sides entered a brief lull.
Britain and France simultaneously issued declarations of non intervention while secretly selling arms.
In Milan Square, Benito of Italy delivered a declaration of aid to the Falange. Twenty thousand volunteers began assembling, and large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and several CR.30 fighter aircraft were loaded onto cargo ships.
As for Germany, it had always been one step ahead.
The aircraft carrier Hindenburg, which had been under preparation since 1926, made its first appearance in the Atlantic under the banner of escorting transport ships and preventing outside involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
For this highly symbolic aircraft carrier, Raeder had nearly risked his life fighting for steel allocations. He had practically stationed himself at the German Logistics Management Department, willing to claw out even one extra ton of steel if it meant his great ship could be completed.
At this moment, however, the carrier was not carrying Bf 19 carrier based fighters.
Instead, its deck and hangars were filled with the newly unveiled Bf 109 fighters from the previous year.
At the Spanish naval port of La Coruña, Siroka stood by the pier and stared at the massive vessel before him.
For the first time, he truly understood how formidable Germany's current strength had become.
His eyes swept repeatedly across the hull, filled with envy he could not completely conceal.
But only Captain Helka aboard the ship knew how much they had sacrificed for this great vessel, and how many cold glances they had endured along the way.
Back then, by acting as dogs for the Americans, they had obtained skilled workers in return.
Those skilled workers had, in turn, helped create the countless naval shipyards now standing in Wilhelmshaven.
Nothing had come without humiliation.
Nothing had come without a price.
Seeing an officer disembark, Siroka instinctively assumed the man was the captain and stepped forward.
"Captain, welcome to Spain."
After listening to the translator's whisper, Kesselring shook his head.
"I am not the captain."
He introduced himself in a firm tone.
"I am Kesselring, Chief of Staff of Germany, currently fully responsible for the air force affairs of the Spanish Forward Army. You should have received the telegram. Do you have any questions?"
Siroka quickly raised his hand in a military salute.
"Then may I ask who this gentleman is?"
Beside Kesselring stood another officer with a sharper gaze.
"Wolfram von Richthofen," the man answered. "Direct commander of the German Air Force combat units."
Richthofen looked past Siroka toward the port facilities, then asked bluntly, "If I may be direct, Mr. Siroka, how many men are available at your port?"
"Around two thousand," Siroka answered at once. "More, if emergency mobilization is required."
Richthofen glanced at the flight technicians and combat pilots disembarking behind him, then shook his head.
"Too few. These aircraft are only one part. The bombers are still on the way."
Siroka hesitated.
"With only these, I believe our transport capacity can still manage."
Richthofen looked at him.
"Who told you it was only these?"
Siroka froze.
Richthofen continued calmly, "One thousand crates of ammunition, tens of thousands of rifles, machine guns, and hundreds of crates of artillery shells are right behind us."
His tone remained composed, but every word struck like a hammer.
"You had better unload these goods tonight. Tomorrow morning, two more large cargo ships will arrive. They are carrying armored vehicles, trucks, artillery, and mortars."
Before he could finish speaking, a crisp whistle sounded from the sea.
Siroka turned and saw another cargo ship approaching the port.
Richthofen patted him on the shoulder.
"Hurry up, my Spanish friend."
With that, Richthofen placed a piece of Führer brand chocolate in his mouth and got into the waiting car.
In the back seat, Kesselring had already been waiting for some time.
"Do not forget our purpose," Kesselring said. "The Air Force Research Institute still has two prototype aircraft waiting for us to test."
He turned his head slightly.
"Do you know what evaluation the Führer gave us after the air to ground support drills and air land integration exercises before Christmas?"
Richthofen's expression stiffened.
The memory returned at once.
Jörg's stern profile on the reviewing stand.
His cold gaze.
His terrifyingly calm voice as he dismantled every illusion the air force had held about its own progress.
"Of course I know, sir," Richthofen replied.
Kesselring's voice became flat.
"The Führer said that compared with France and Italy, our performance might be considered advanced. But in his eyes, it could only be described as terrible."
Richthofen remained silent.
"The fighters could not even control specific combat zones. The high intensity confrontation showed no true high intensity at all. They could not adapt to rapid warfare or blitzkrieg."
Kesselring's expression darkened.
"In his words, they were less like black eagles over the battlefield and more like newly hatched chicks."
Richthofen's lips twitched.
Kesselring continued, "As for the bombers, they were even worse. Despite having the most advanced aircraft in Europe, perhaps even in the world, and despite aviation radar being adapted at the same time, they still managed to drop bombs on friendly troops."
He gave a humorless laugh.
"Technological superiority concealed the gap in actual capability."
Then his tone grew heavier.
"The victory against the Poles was not a true victory. If no progress is made in Spain, the Führer will throw you into the logistics department to raise horses."
Kesselring paused.
"And he will throw me into the Berlin chocolate factory."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]