The Assault Guard doing training drills

The concern of the governments of the first biennium to maintain order with the least possible loss of life led to a new, bloodless style of police action. In May 1931, the Vanguard and Assault Section comprising eighty police officers was created. This was the embryo of the Spain’s first riot police unit. Under the command of military officers, this unit had motorized vehicles and was equipped with non-lethal weapons such as tear gas and water cannon. They did carry pistols, but these were to be used only in extreme situations and at the orders of their superiors.

This photograph accompanied a story written by journalist Josefina Carabias for the magazine Estampa in July 1932. Carabias documented the Assault Guards’ demanding physical training and the drills they carried out to control and dissolve protests without shedding blood. The most typical tactic was the truncheon charge. Following orders transmitted by whistle, they would jump from their vans, running towards the crowd brandishing their truncheons and charge in a solid line with the sole goal of getting them to disperse.

The growth of the Assault Guard meant that after 1932, in addition to its anti-riot functions, it also undertook missions more appropriate to a combat force, for which it was equipped with rifles, mortars, and machine guns. The government had decided to add this militarized function as a way to avoid calling in the army when there was an armed uprising. The risks of this approach became clear in early 1933 when Assault Guards executed a number of residents of the town of Casas Viejas.

During the second biennium, this bloodless approach gave way to the doctrine of armed dissuasion, which rested on a greater use of firearms. The participation of the Security and Assault Corps in repressing the insurrection of October 1934 led to a more militarized approach which, in Asturias, was not very different from a formal military conflict.

The actions of the Civil Guard, with their military methods and weapons, generally produced more bloodshed. Their operational doctrine was inspired by the tactical manuals of the infantry, and their basic equipment were Mausers and sabres.  Civil Guards tried to reduce the danger by applying unwritten practices such as striking with the flat side of their sabres or the barrels of their guns and shooting in the air, but the deadliness of their weapons combined with their military culture meant that their interventions would easily escalate and too frequently end with civilian casualties.

SVM