Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Aircraft of the Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a testing ground for some of the aircraft that would go on to participate in World War II. From the earliest stages of the war NAZI Germany and fascist Italy supplied aircraft to the insurgents. Indeed, with a large part of the Spanish navy taken over from their officers by crews loyal to the Republic, the aircraft supplied by Italy and Germany allowed the insurgents to move the veteran Army of Africa across the straits of Gibraltar from Spanish Morocco. These troops would bee crucial to the success of the insurgents. Spain also witnessed the first aerial bombing of open cities, including the infamous destruction of Guernica by the German Condor Legion. Soviet planes also took part in the war, with the first aircraft arriving during the siege of Madrid. There is an excellent website (http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/model/spain/index.html) created by David Nash that provides a wealth of information on this subject.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Posters

I've always found the propaganda posters of the civil war interesting. Generally featuring bold colors and images, they are very much of their time, both artistically and ideologically. All of the factions in the war used posters as a means for mass propaganda and many examples can be found online today. One of the best collections I've come across is the one at the Spanish Ministry of Culture. They have a very extensive digital collection online. Another good place to look is UC San Diego's Visual Front Site. This site has a good digital collection in an exhibit format with informative notes, in English, on each poster.

Repurcussions of the war

There have been some interesting articles on the BBC in the past year or so about the efforts to find the bodies of those executed during the civil war. Many of those executed by the Nationalists were left in unmarked mass graves and only recently have their relatives felt able to publicly look for their remains. Among the victims was the poet Federico Garcia Lorca. One of the more famous victims of the Falangist execution squads, his body was not found.
Here is the article about exhumations
This article is about the dig for Lorca
And here is the article about the failure to find Lorca

There is also an interesting book out by Giles Tremlett, entitled Ghosts of Spain: Travels through Spain and its silent past (ISBN-13 978-0802716743) that was inspired by the phenomenon of the mass graves and the pact of silence that kept them hidden for so long.

Upcoming new releases in books

Several new books on the Spanish Civil War are scheduled for release this year, here is a sample of what will be available:
  • Spanish Civil War Tanks: The Proving Ground for Blitzkrieg by Steven Zaloga and Tony Bryan (ISBN-13 978-1846035128)

  • The Real Band of Brothers: First-hand Testimonies from the Last Survivors of the Spanish Civil War by Max Arthur (ISBN-13 978-0007330805)

  • Kiwi Companeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War by Mark Derby (ISBN-13 978-1877257711)
Additionally, Spanish Maquis: Spanish Civil War, Nazi Germany, Vichy France, World War II edited by Lambert M. Surhone, Miriam T. Timpledon and Susan F. Marseken is already available. (ISBN-13 978-6130456450)

Looks like 2010 will be adding some interesting new material to the wealth of literature already available on the Spanish Civil War. Good reading everyone!