Embarkation of troops from Morocco

Starting on 19 July 1936, the rebels carried out some of the first ever transport of soldiers by air, although the planes that were used: small Fokker trimotors, hydroplanes, and post office bimotors, had very limited capacity.  

This changed with the arrival of much larger German planes on 27 July. More frequent flights, each carryng more soldiers, greatly speeded up the transport of rebel troops.  Men from the Regulares and the Spanish Legion were the core of the first combat units sent to the península. The photograph shows Moroccan soldiers of the Regulares boarding a Junker JU52 transport, probably at the Sania Ramel air base in Tetuán, headed for Tablada, in the province of Sevilla.   

Much of the rebels’ combat effectiveness was due to these troops from the Protectorate of Morocco and the ongoing recruitment of mercenaries during the first two and a half years of the war at more than 350 centres throughout the north of Morocco and Sidi Ifni. This was facilitated by the role of a number of Spanish officers whose years of service in Morocco had given them considerable cultural knowledge and contacts with local authorities and leaders.  

The outstanding example was probably Colonel Juan Bautista Beigbeder Atienza, who was able to take advantage of his relationship with leaders of the government of Morocco. One was Visir Ahmed Ben Hach Abd el Krim Ganmia, who would be made a Knight of the Order of San Fernando for his role in preventing Republican bombardments of Tetuan from generating an uprising. Another was Khalif Hassan Ben el Mehdi, the supreme authority of the Protectorate, who declared a jihad against the Republicans before Cardinal Gomá proclaimed the rebel cause a crusade. 

Beigbeder was also able to win the friendship of leaders sympathetic to the Republic and anti-colonial nationalism like Abdel Khalek Torres. After saving him from Mola;s order that all Republican sympathizers be shot, he got him a position in the government of Morocco and promised to make him the future khalif. With such manoeuvres, the rebels crafted an intelligent plan that would win them the support of local elites who wielded influence over a subordinate people who were willing to fight the “godless” Spaniards and die by thousands in return for a wage of 180 pesetas per month and an advance of four kilos of sugar, a tin of oil, and as many loaves of bread as the children they had.