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Bloody November: A Chain of of Command España Campaign in Madrid 1936



Introduction
After the failed previous July coup, Franco’s colonial troops in North Africa had reached the outskirts of Spain’s capital city by early November 1936, in an unstoppable drive, overcoming without contempt all armed opposition found on their way up from Sevilla.

The Republican Government has shamelessly left to Valencia with the enemy at the gates, escaping at night and without notice. But just before leaving, it appointed the dull and grey General Miaja commander of the garrison defending the city.

However the orders left to him in a closed envelope at the War Ministry office, opened during the early hours of November 6th, made it clear that the Government lacked any hope of the city surviving the Nationalist steamroller, suggesting instead to put a token resistance at best and then to pull back with the garrison remnants towards a new defensive line on the road leading to Valencia.
Original Italian CTV 1937 Map of Madrid Area

But miracles exist, and against all odds the city resisted the attacks of the rebel columns. The milicianos surprisingly (and unexpectedly) put up a fierce fight in the southern suburbs of Madrid.
In the left flank, a Nationalist column was expected to take La Casa de Campo, a popular natural park west of Madrid and across the Manzanares, used by the madrileños to shelter from the hot summer afternoons and to picnic on the bank of its famous artificial lagoon during weekends.
The attack was launched in the early hours of November 8th but quickly petered out, although not before conquering a dominant hill within the park called Cerro Garabitas. This elevation will allow the Nationalists observers to direct the guns and to merciless pound the central area of Madrid over the next years.
However, the failure to enter Madrid in this first push also represented for the Republicans a much needed infusion of moral and the cry of ¡No pasarán! now reverberated across the city and Miaja unexpectedly became the people’s hero and the symbol of the resistance like Petain in Verdun during the Great War.
Defending La República, Winter 1936
The following days saw renewed Nationalists efforts and much hand-to-hand fighting among the trees of Casa de Campo woods until on November 13th they finally reached the river Manzanares.
They now were in control of a 500 meters strip along the river's west bank, extending from El Puente (bridge) de los Franceses and Puente Nuevo on the right, to the crossing overlooking La Ciudad Universitaria (the University District) on the extreme left.
On the 15th General Varela ordered Asensio to take these bridges and to move into Madrid, allocating a squad of Pz Is, also called negrillos due to its dark grey panzer colour, to provide more weight to the attack.
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