During the period of Francoism, the Spanish Armed Forces were in charge of the national defence and public order of the Spanish territory during the historical period when the Kingdom of Spain was under the control of General Francisco Franco. Its history goes from the beginning of the Civil War, through the military dictatorship, until 1978 and the first years of the transition to democracy.
During the Civil War and the dictatorship, they called themselves the National Army or simply Spanish Army. Due to their loyalty and obedience to Franco, they are also known as the Francoist Army. In fact, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco it became one of the levers and main supports of Franco's power, and as such it remained until after his death in 1975 and the reinstatement of democracy during the period of the transition.
It had its origins in the forces that rose up in 1936 against the Republican government, starting the Civil War that would last almost three years. When this ended with the victory of Franco as absolute dictator of the country, its organisation changed and its internal structure became bureaucratised. The historian Gabriel Cardona highlights in his works the chronic shortage of material resources, as well as the corruption and enchufismo, which did not contribute to improving the Spanish Armed Forces. Franco's army was more of a police force and an element of pressure for the regime, but incapable of fulfilling the function of a modern army that it was supposed to have been entrusted with.
Introduction Basis of Franco's power During the civil war, the Army became the central nerve of the new totalitarian state, headed by generalissimo Franco, a situation that was confirmed with the final victory in the conflict.Tamames, Ramón (1974); p. 360 In fact, the new uprising state was practically articulated by a military society,Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 808 The Army had invaded all social and cultural spheres: For example, the newspaper of the Falange, Arriba, had become a mere information organ of the Armed Forces.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 809 As an element of power and support for Francoism, the armed forces also played an active part in repression, especially during the early years of the dictatorship. At the beginning of the civil war, the authorisation of death sentences only required the signature or a simple "concurrence" of the military commander on duty.Preston, Paul (2008); p.86 As supreme commander, Franco reserved for himself the final decision on death sentences or pardons. Just as he gave the go-ahead for an execution, he was fully aware of the excesses committed by his subordinates, something he openly tolerated.Preston, Paul (2008); p. 89
From that moment on, the Armed Forces were in a homogeneous relationship with the Franco dictatorship, insofar as they participated in power: their power was manifested both in the direction of the country and through their influence in the government or in the state administration.Tamames, Ramón (1974); p. 372 The Army controlled the Security Forces (whose officers came from the Army), while it was also very present in the cadres of the public administration as civilian governors (in addition to military governors), or state representatives on boards of directors or companies of the National Institute of Industry (INI).
Oversized officer's scale
In 1968 the Ministry of the Army spent 17,400 million pesetas on personnel salaries, 82.2% of the Ministry's total expenditure, while only 1,400 million pesetas (6.5% of the total) were spent on investments (material, technology).Tamames, Ramón (1974); p. 367 By comparison, the Ministry of the Navy spent 3.9 billion pesetas on personnel salaries (57.5% of its total ministry), while the Ministry of Air Force spent 4.3 billion pesetas (47.5%). In addition to personnel salaries, salaries for the security forces amounted to around 90,000 personnel and were distributed as follows: 8,200 General Police Corps officers 20,000 Armed Police Corps 60,000 Civil Guard officersTamames, Ramón (1974); p. 371 By then, military expenditure represented up to 17% of the general state budget, or between 19% and 22% if the budgets of the security forces were included.
By 1970 the macrocephaly of officers continued: out of 289,000 members of the armed forces (not counting those of the security forces), 824 were general and flag officers and of these only 216 were in active posts. Still in the 1970s, many officers of the Armed Forces still received very low salaries, so they continued to moonlight in both the public administration and private companies.
Operational history Origins
The Spanish Army in 1936, just before the start of the Spanish Civil War, was divided into eleven territorial military regions. Eight of them were organic divisions, three others were military commands and the last corresponded to the Territory of Morocco. After the beginning of the conflict, this structure was fractured into two states and was completely altered.Rafael Casas de la Vega (1995); Franco, militar, p. 327
According to historian Francisco Alía Miranda, after the coup d'état in July 1936, the distribution of generals, chiefs, officers and cadets between the two sides was 8,929 in the Republican zone and 9,294 in the Nationalist zone. In the Republican zone, 116,501 troops remained vs 140,604 in the Nationalist zone, including the 47,127 soldiers who made up the Spanish Army of Africa, the most highly trained Spanish military unit, with the most combat experience. This made the balance of forces favourable to the Nationalists on this point. Another element in their favour was that while the generals and high commanders remained mostly loyal to the Republic, the chiefs and intermediate officers largely joined the uprising. Furthermore, the number of chiefs and officers on the Nationalist side grew until it reached 14,104 on 1 April 1939, while on the Republican side their numbers fell to 4,771; this was primarily due to the transfer of many commanders and officers to the opposing side during the course of the war. As the aforementioned historian has pointed out, most of the 18,000 officers in Spain in July 1936 applauded the coup, since a conservative, corporatist and militarist mentality predominated among them.Alía Miranda, 2018, p. 123-124. "Estos militares pertenecían a una generación acostumbrada a desempeñar un determinado papel político, no tanto desde el poder, escarmentados por la mala experiencia de la dictadura de Primo de Rivera, sino como garantes del mantenimiento del orden público e institucional. Culpaban a la República de su descrédito social y profesional, de la postración del Ejército y, en última instancia, de todas las desdichas de la nación española"
The plans drawn up by General Mola failed when it became clear in early August that the uprising had failed in three-fifths of the country, but by early September it appeared that the Nationalists were on their way to military victory in their fight against the Second Republic.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 448
On September 28, a meeting of the Junta de Defensa Nacional was held near the city of Salamanca where the main military leaders of the Bando Sublevado agreed to appoint General Francisco Franco as Generalissimo of the armies and head of state during the war period.Preston, Paul (1994), pp. 233–234. Although General Alfredo Kindelán's proposal envisaged that the appointment would be for the duration of the war period, the decree did not include such a limitation:Thomas, Hugh (1976), p. 458
On October 1, Franco installed himself in Burgos as the new undisputed leader of the Nationalists, confident that Madrid would fall in a matter of weeks, and more concerned with the political organisation of the new Nationalist state that was being forged at the time.Thomas, Hugh (1976), pp. 460–461 One of the first decrees of the new Boletín Oficial del Estado confirmed the existence of the Armies of the North () and the South (), which at the time were the largest and most important military units.Salas Larrazábal, Ramón; Salas Larrazábal, Jesús María; (1986); p. 107Thomas, Hugh (1976), p. 460 Major General Queipo de Llano was put in charge of the fronts of the II Organic Division and of the province of Badajoz, in what was constituted as the Army of the South. The Army of the North would be commanded by Brigadier General Emilio Mola Vidal, responsible for the entire northern zone of the Nationalists, including the Cantabrian Sea, and the ports of Somosierra and Guadarrama. General Orgaz was appointed Spanish High Commissioner in Morocco, while Lieutenant Colonel Juan Luis Beigbeder was appointed his deputy as Delegate for Indigenous Affairs.
In the same month of October, the High Court of Military Justice was created, which, with a new name, revived the High Council of War and the Navy, which had been abolished by Manuel Azaña in 1931. Colonel , Franco's personal advisor, became one of the organisers of the military tribunals and their legal organisation when carried out.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 550 General Francisco Gómez-Jordana Sousa was appointed president of the State Technical Board. Admiral Juan Cervera Valderrama was appointed head of the General Staff of the Spanish Navy and Captain Francisco Moreno was confirmed as Commander of the Fleet. (1976) Compared to other military men, Admiral Cervera was very active in securing supplies and new equipment for the Armada sublevada, as he was convinced that control of the sea would be decisive for the conflict.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 551 The general and veteran aviator Alfredo Kindelán was in charge of the direction and organisation of the new Nationalist air forces.
Spanish Civil War From April 1937, when it became clear that the conflict was going to be a long one, the organic divisions were renamed Army Corps, adjusting to sectors of the front. The territory corresponding to the V Organic Division became the Army Corps of Aragon, the VI Organic Division, the Army Corps of Navarre, the VII, the Army Corps of Castile, and the VIII was the Army Corps of Galicia. At the same time, the military regions were gradually recovered on the basis of the former organic divisions.
By March, the Nationalist forces had a force of around 300,000 men in arms.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 662 By the end of the year the national army had 500,000 enlisted men, a figure slightly lower than the number of troops in the Popular Republican Army. In fact, at this point eleven reservist replacements had been mobilised.Thomas, Hugh (1976); p. 817 Among the men who made up this army were not only deserters from the Republican zone but also soldiers who had been taken prisoner and forced to re-enlist in the Republican zone. And despite the many soldiers forcibly conscripted, there were possibly 100,000 Carlists and more than 200,000 Falangists enlisted. On the other hand, among these forces were 40,000 Moroccan troops belonging to the Spanish Army of Africa, which included the Spanish Legion and the dreaded Regulares; the African units were already distributed among Franco's army. By then, all these troops had been reorganised into divisions and were slowly losing the territorial significance of their former origin, or their original composition. In addition to these forces, the reserve comprised more than 200 battalions of infantry and 70 batteries of artillery, all of which were led by General Orgaz.