La Guerra Infinita - Nationalist Spain in the Axis, 1936

[quetzilla]

La Guerra Infinita
Nationalist Spain in the Axis - 1936​

Disclaimer

I don't condone or endorse anything that happened in Spain during the Spanish Civil War or afterwards. I say this explcitly because events of that period are often forgotten or overlooked compared to what followed in Nazi Germany. There is one important difference, however: the Allies eventually stopped Germany, no one stopped Franco. In some ways that is even more horrifying.

About the Game Setup

To play as Nationalist Spain in 1936, I modded the Spanish Civil War event to fire a few months earlier on average, then played hands off as Liberia until it triggered, then switched to Nationalist Spain. Upon doing so I discovered that the history files don't actually assign Nationalist Spain any technologies or theory whatsoever until 1938! So I had to go back and mod the file to give them the same techs that the Republicans had, otherwise it would have been a terribly slow game. In the 1938 scenario they have the mostly same techs as the Republicans had in 1936, so I assume it was just an oversight by Paradox Interactive in maybe not expecting players to try to play as Nationalist Spain before then.

The game is played in a partially modded 1.2. The main mod I'm using is the latest version of the AI Improvement Pack, with some small tweaks by me, as well as minor changes to multiple events, and even some new ones I made up! (to follow historical regime changes that don't normally occur in the game). I've also made some minor changes to some gameplay settings, as well as various fixes to buggy provinces and giving some countries cores on provinces they historically had claim to. I'll try to include notes about these where they pop up.

Table of Contents

1936

• Intro, 1 - A Nation Divided, 2 - Consolidating Control
• 3 - War By Land, War By Sea, War By Air
• 4 - The Mathematics of Victory

 

[quetzilla]

Intro - Echoes of What Might Have Been

La Guerra Ha Terminado, by Paco Ibera

In our world, this portrait of Francisco Franco, "The War Has Finished", was painted after the end of the Spanish Civil War, a bloody, three-year engagement that ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of lives, followed by many more years of brutality and repression. On April 1, 1939, when the last Republican forces had surrendered, Franco placed his sword on a church altar and vowed that he would never again take up the sword unless Spain itself was threatened with invasion. And in our history, he never did.

1 - A Nation Divided

But in another world, things transpired differently. War came to Spain in the first days of February, 1936.

Nationalist and Republican forces at the outbreak of war.

War had come as the result of a military coup by the Nationalists that had gone awry. Though they had intended to quickly seize control of the country in the face of the growing Communist threat, the Nationalists had failed to take Madrid, as well as many of the major industrial centers, and so the country lay divided, with the Nationalists in east and the west, and the Republicans primarily in the south.

Franco was not yet in command of the Nationalist forces, much less the entire country, but from the reports he received at his post in the Canary Islands he could tell that the roll of the die was not in question. Whether by fate or chance, Nationalists had ended up with the better half of Spain's military forces, and it did not take a military genius to see that the days of the Second Spanish Republic were clearly limited.

2 - Consolidating Control

Though José Sanjurjo was the figurehead of the Nationalist 'rebellion', military planning largely fell to his second in command, Emilio Zola. Zola's first task was to consolidate the territories under Nationalist control.

Securing Catalonia

The advance in Catalonia, largely unopposed, was spearheaded by Tella, whose later exploits would become nearly legendary.

Securing Galicia, Skirmishes on the Portuguese Border

In the Northwest, the highest priority was securing the port of La Coruña, without which there would be no means to supply the isolated forces in Cádiz and Cartagena. A second battle raged near the Portuguese border, as a Republican Cavalry division faced off against Nationalist Cavalry supported by a single light tank brigade. Further east, a single infantry division was dispatched to dislodge the Republicans from their hold on Bilbao, with the nearby battle for Burgos ongoing.

Reclaiming Sevilla, Stranding of the Spanish Army of Africa

Control of the Atlantic port of Cádiz was still contested, which Zola took advantage of to secure the city of Sevilla, a major industrial and research center. In northern Morocco, the soldiers of the Spanish Army of Africa who had sided with the Nationalists were isolated and outnumbered, though efforts were being made to secure their retreat. Further east, an isolated corps HQ moved to regroup with its single remaining division at the Mediterranean port of Cartagena.

 

[Myth]

This looks promising! I'll keep an eye on it however I can during my busy times here at uni.

 

[quetzilla]

Thanks! I got a little bogged own after the first post but I hope to have more updates soon... I have to figure out how to get to the really good parts as fast as possible without skipping over anything vital.

 

[General War]

Looking good!

I had a great game with Rep Spain (1938), which came to a point when I considered abandoning the game because of my imminent defeat. Then things started to change in my favor and I won the war.

 

[quetzilla]

That happened to me the first time I played Republican Spain in 36. I was still very new at the game and lost a bunch of divisions to an encirclement. None of the civil war part of my Spain games from either side have been as exciting since .

 

[unmerged(178313)]

Good start. I've always found Spain interesting to play. At some point I'm sure I will get around to playing them in HOI3. :rofl:

 

[Mozla]

Great! Can't wait for a update.

 

[stnylan]

A nice start - Spain is reliably interesting.

 

[quetzilla]

3 - War by Land, War by Sea, War by Air

War raged across Spain, and yet to Franco, newly in command of the Nationalist ground army, it seemed like such a waste. The Republican army was in complete disarray, in most cases folding within mere hours or days in the face of Nationalist offensives. The only exception was in the Spanish holdings in North Africa, though an effort was underway to rescue the Nationalist troops there.

En route to rescue

Unfortunately the Republicans had sent their naval fleet to intercept the transport ships en route. The commanders of the two Battleships in the Spanish fleet had sided with the Republicans, and the Nationalists were lucky to survive the battle without any significant loss.

Naval engangement in the Western Alboran Sea

Rather than risk losing all the remaining transport ships in another encounter, the decision was made to divide break up the fleet and send on transport back east to retrieve the Nationalist forces on Mallorca. However, the Republican attack had delayed the transports long enough that by the time the remaining transport had arrived off of the coast of Casablanca, the Spanish Army of Africa HQ had been forced to surrender.

On the mainland, results were more positive.

Victory at Burgos

After several days fighting with Republican stalwarts in the Nationalist acting capital of Burgos, the Republicans finally surrendered. It would still be over a week before Castejon's lone division was in position to retake Bilbao from the single Republican infantry brigade guarding the city.

Second engagement near Africa

The decision to split up the transport ships proved prescient, as the Republicans sent another force to engage the transport off the coast of Casablanca, yet this time with only a single cruiser. The small Nationalist fleet proved victorious, and the order was given not to pursue the attackers as any ship sunk would be one less ship for Spain when the Republicans surrendered.

Progress in Galicia

In the north, Nationalist forces were finally in position to retake La Coruña. The Republicans also gave up the fight for the isolated province of A Gudiña. Franco had ordered that the Republican cavalry unit be kept intact, but most of the unit seemed to have deserted entirely -- Franco suspected that they had fled into neighboring Portugal, though the Portuguese diplomats repeatedly denied any reports of deserters in their territory.

The Bombing of Guernica

The Republican brigade guarding Bilbao could not hold on in face of Castejon's numerical superiority and were forced to retreat neighboring Guernica. While the Nationalists forced secured Bilbao and regrouped, Franco ordered Spanish tactical bombers to bomb the HQ in the province to further soften up the defenders in preparation for further battle.

(note: I didn't intentionally create the situation above, it just sort of happened as I was playing. I didn't even realize what province it was until I went to see the progress of the bombing itself. Kind of made me step back for a moment -- HOI3 tends to put a big mask over the real horrors of war, but sometimes it pokes through in cases like this)

 

[stnylan]

Sometimes gamelife imitates real-life, and yes, on occasion it can be a little spooky like that.

 

[Krogzar]

is this AAR dead? I'm intreged in it, wanna read it

 

[quetzilla]

I was debating as to whether to continue, but I guess I will! The style will probably change a bit... more screenshots and a bit less writing!

 

[unmerged(53301)]

I don't think you'll have much of a problem with the republicans. I'm curious to see where your plans will take Spain afterwards though.

 

[quetzilla]

4 - The Mathematics of Victory

The loss of the troops in North Africa, while not a serious blow to the Nationalist war effort in any way, caused something of a commotion in the high circles of the Nationalist leadership. While united in their aim to depose the Republican Government, the Nationalists were by no means a cohesive force -- but rather an at times tenuous alliance between the Monarchists, who supported the king, the fascist Falange organization, as well as the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, a Roman Catholic conservative political force. Franco, however, saw an opportunity. Through means covert and overt, just and unjust, he and his supporters seized control of not only the Nationalist armed forces, but the emerging Nationalist state as well. (note: I modded the government positions file so that I could replace Head of State/Head of Government for historical changes of power like this.)

Franco seizes power in Spain

Meanwhile, the Nationalist troops had the Republicans on the defensive. The Republicans had lost several divisions to an encirclement on the border of Catalonia. The month of March saw what few troops they had left scrambling in vain to find some way to defend what little territory they still held.

Nationalist progress during the second month of the war

Unwilling to see the conflict drag on without necessity, on the 31st of March, Franco ordered Yagüe Blanco, one of his most trusted and loyal commanders, to take their best troops and reclaim Madrid.

The Battle of Madrid

The battle lasted little more than a day, and by April 2nd, Spain was united once again.

One Spain under Franco

 

[unmerged(53301)]

Ahh I like how you saved Madrid for last. What are your plans from here?

 

[quetzilla]

Working on the next update as we speak, while I'm still in the writing mindframe . I actually had the pictures for the last one all set up from before, just didn't get around to writing it.

 

[Krogzar]

OLE!!!, it continue's and I suscribed

 

[loki100]

Working on the next update as we speak, while I'm still in the writing mindframe . I actually had the pictures for the last one all set up from before, just didn't get around to writing it.

Just to be rather greedy, in addition to this fascinating epic ... any chance of a peak at this Siam game you keep on mentioning over on the rest of the forums - sounds fascinating ... please

 

[quetzilla]

Eventually .