During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Barcelona was heavily bombed by the Italian Royal Air Force. The most serious raids took place on March 16, 17, and 18, 1938, resulting in over a thousand deaths and the destruction of dozens of buildings.
The action was ordered personally by Mussolini, then head of the Italian government and who enjoyed the king's trust, without informing the coup-plotting Junta of Burgos.The Italian Royal Air Force had intervened in Spain from the first days of the conflict, on the direct orders of Mussolini, who had sent 12 SM 81 bombers with their crews and specialists to enable the deployment of Moroccan troops under the command of the rebel generals. To avoid international complications, the identifying symbols were removed and the pilots were provided with false documents. Once they arrived in Spanish Morocco, the crews were enrolled in the Tercio de etranjeros, the Spanish Foreign Legion, and formed the nucleus of what would later be known as the Legionary Aviation.
The planes that bombed Barcelona and Valencia came from bases in the Balearic Islands. Following the uprising of fascist generals against the Republic (July 19, 1936), the generals achieved success in the Balearic Islands, overwhelming the popular forces. Soon, from Barcelona, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Anti-Fascist Militias, expeditions were organized that led to the liberation of Ibiza and Menorca, and to landings in Mallorca itself (August 16, 1936), where the fascist forces were about to be overwhelmed. To prevent the Balearics from returning to Republican control, Fascist Italy sent the militia consul Arconovaldo Bonacorsi to the archipelago (August 26, 1936), leading a squadron of bombers and fighters, which quickly defeated the militia (September 19, 1936).
Bonacorsi imposed his personal dictatorship on the Balearics and carried out massive massacres among supporters of the Republic, who according to some sources numbered as many as three thousand people. The massacres committed by the Italians and the Falangists prompted the reactionary French writer Georges Bernanos to condemn Francoism in his book "The Great Cemeteries Under the Moon."
The Fascist government aimed to annex the archipelago, as Camillo Berneri revealed in 1937, based on documents found in the Italian consulate in Barcelona, following the defeat of the Fascist rebellion in that city. Moreover, the islands had been adorned with fascist symbols such as Roman eagles; the main street of Palma de Mallorca was renamed "Via Roma." The Italian government established its main military base in Spain on Mallorca. The Balearic Islands were placed under the jurisdiction of the Italian Ministry of the Navy.
By the end of October 1936, the Italian military presence on the island numbered 12,100, and Italian flags flew over the island.
The fascist government employed more than seven hundred aircraft against Republican forces in Spain from 1936 to 1939.
The Italian Navy was also deployed alongside the Air Force: the purpose was to ensure the safety of convoys, such as those transporting the African Army to the metropolitan area, and to supply the Nationalist zone. Beginning in the summer of 1937, the blockade of Republican ports was implemented, using unmarked submarines, resulting in the sinking of several ships carrying aid to Republican Spain.
Once again, France and Great Britain staged a charade of an international conference for the safety of navigation in the Mediterranean, which concluded with the establishment of naval patrols. Italy and Germany, the states responsible for the sinkings, would also participate, excluding the Soviet Union, the main victim.
From December 15, 1936, the ground intervention also began. From that date, the M.M.I.S. (Italian Military Mission in Spain) became operational, composed of instructors tasked with training two Mixed Italian-Spanish Brigades as well as providing materials and weapons. Under this name, an initial contingent of 3,000 soldiers was sent to Cadiz by airlift.
On February 17, 1937, the M.M.I.S. became the C.T.V. (Corpo Truppe Volontarie), composed mostly of volunteers from the Royal Army and the Milizia Volontaria Sicurezza Nazionale, the squadristi organization. Overall, the Corpo Truppe Volontarie would grow to 70,000 members. The importance of this contribution is immediately clear when one considers that the coup-plotting generals, in the aftermath of the coup, had 80,000 regular troops at their disposal.
In February 1937, the "God Wills" Blackshirt Division took part in Franco's offensive on Malaga. Italian support was decisive in the Republican defeat: in addition to the Blackshirts, the Legionary Air Force and the Navy carried out bombings. After the conquest of Malaga, a mass of 250,000 people fled the city and headed for Alméria, in Republican territory, pursued by the Blackshirts and the Air Force. The Italian fascists carried out a massacre, murdering between 5,000 and 15,000 people. It was the worst crime against civilians of the entire Spanish Civil War.
In March 1937, approximately 35,000 Italian troops were deployed in the Battle of Guadalajara, with which General Franco hoped to conquer Madrid. The intention of the fascist leaders was clear: on the eve of the attack, General Mario Roatta, commanding the C.T.V., issued a circular ordering the execution of all Italian fighters in the ranks of the Republic after capture. The general dutifully informed his Roman superiors of the execution of this order in a telegram dated March 12, 1937. Consistently, on the eve of Guadalajara, Roatta had urged his troops not to fear the vaunted "internationals," since they were merely "the same ones our squadristi had soundly beaten on the streets of Italy." Despite these resounding declarations, the Italians suffered a heavy defeat, losing 3,800 fighters, including dead, wounded, and prisoners. The C.T.V. also left behind a large quantity of weapons and materiel: 65 cannons, 13 mortars, 10 tanks, 500 machine guns, and 3,000 rifles. At Guadalajara, Mussolini was defeated by "those same men" Roatta spoke of: Cipriano Mera's anarcho-syndicalists and Lister's communists.
After the defeat at Guadalajara, the troops sent by the Italian fascist government began operating in mixed Spanish and Italian units.
The Corpo Truppe Volontarie participated in the Battle of Santander (August-September 1937) and was subsequently transferred to the Aragonese front, where it took part in the Race to the Sea that would split the republican territory in two in 1938.
In 1939, the C.T.V. participated in the conquest of Barcelona and all of Catalonia. Upon hearing that many Italians, anarchists, and communists had also been captured, Mussolini ordered them all shot, adding: "The dead do not tell the story."
The Italian government's intervention in Spain was decisive for General Franco's victory, and it was encouraged and supported by the other imperialist powers, who foresaw the danger facing revolutionary Spain. It was marked by a long trail of blood, of civilian massacres, for which no one paid the price. While Francisco Franco was in power, the generalissimo had every interest in concealing the mountain of deaths caused by his Cruzada; once Franco died and Francoism fell, the new regime preferred to join the European Economic Community and maintain good relations with Italy.
A Catalan anti-fascist website explains what Italian intervention in Spain still means today: genocide. The archive of massacres doesn't just include Marzabotto or Sant'Anna di Stazzema: it also includes Amba Aradam, Barcelona, Mallorca, Malaga, and so on. What sense does it make for the Italian state to seek reparations from Germany for the war crimes of 1944-1945 if it fails to compensate the victims of the aggression against Spain in 1936-1939? If it fails to account for the blockade of the Mediterranean coast to prevent maritime traffic to and from the Republic; the carpet bombing of cities to spread terror among the civilian population; the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure along the entire Catalan and Valencian coasts; and the occupation of Majorca, with the massacres of its opponents?
At the end of World War II, at the Paris Conference in February 1947, Italy was required to pay financial compensation to Yugoslavia, Greece, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and Albania. Egypt and Libya would later receive compensation. Reparations are still enforceable through diplomatic and judicial means, but the Iberian victims are the only ones who have not received any reparations from the Italian governments that succeeded Mussolini's fascist regime. Evidently, massacring a people truly capable of fighting against fascism is still considered meritorious today.
Tiziano Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/fu-strage-e-genocidio-litalia-fascista-al-fianco-di-franco-contro-il-popolo-iberico/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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