the big lie behind the biggest disaster of the Spanish Army in the 20th century

by time news

“The military of any kind should not claim for distinguished service the regular performance of their obligation, because if so many believe they have behaved so hard, then the consummation of the catastrophe in the conditions that the facts relate is not understood.” This is the criticism expressed by Juan Picasso in the famous file that he had to carry out to purge the responsibilities of the Annual disaster. The general needed nine months of intense research and compilation of all kinds of documentary and oral sources, in which he uncovered several false heroes in search of undeserved recognition.

That was one of the aspects that most caught the attention of General Picasso when he began his investigations: the large number of decorations and promotions that were requested for war merits, despite the fact that few historians today doubt that what happened in that corner of Morocco was a real catastrophe plagued by bad decisions. It was the worst military defeat of Spain in the 20th and 21st centuries or, as Alfonso Iglesias assures in his article ‘The Picasso file: The memory of an unusual exercise of memory’: «the greatest debacle ever suffered by a European colonial army in territory African”.

In the more than 2,000 pages of the file, the Army does not fare very well: «We have been, as usual, victims of our lack of preparation, of our desire to improvise everything and of our overconfidence […]. A homeland does not need an Army that sacrifices itself, but an Army that triumphs. That was what most of our soldiers did, sacrifice themselves: 13,000 dead Spaniards, according to the figures given by Sebastian Balfour, which vary depending on the source consulted.

With his investigation, however, Picasso caused a large number of promotions and decorations to be denied, avoiding the patronage and picaresque of many members of the Army and uncovering nonsense, disloyalty and some acts of cowardice that were disguised as heroic by the press and that never happened. Despite this, some even passed this filter, as is the case of six soldiers who invented a feat, the defense of the Tistutin well, in which they were placed as protagonists after the massacre. Their names: corporals Jesús Arenzana and Rafael Lillo and soldiers Virgilio Rodríguez, Rafael Sordo, Emilio Muniesa and Jesús Martínez.

Picasso interviews

The fraud was conceived in the interviews that Picasso conducted with the first of the corporals, in which he described in detail how they disabled and hid their own weapons so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy, how they deceived the Rif people so that they would not attack them while there was water and how they slipped away to the French zone, dodging all kinds of dangers, until they were discovered by two Rif people whom our protagonist killed. The press echoed the feat. ‘Unbelievable heroism of two corporals and four soldiers’, titled ‘The Political Year’. The story provided by this publication was as follows:

«The Prosecutor exposes the brilliant defense of well number two of Tistutin, in which six men reached heroism defending the fort, in which they placed an improvised flag with a handkerchief in the national colors. From July 28 to August 6 they resisted implausibly and, having reached the last extreme, the six defenders met with their leader, disabled the weapons and the engine of the well and entered the French zone after having passed great dangers and penalties».

In February 1922, the ‘Mundo Grafico’ published a portrait of Arenzana with the news that she had been proposed for the Laureate Cross of San Fernando for her “heroic defense”. The newspaper ‘El Sol’ recounted what happened in an extensive article: «On the night of the 29th to the 30th, the well was rudely attacked by more than 70 Moors, whom they resisted and chased away, seeing in the morning 38 corpses of men and 20 of horses. On the morning of the 30th they attacked them again and asked them three times to hand over the fort and weapons, but they refused». And he added: “Arenzana, disguised as a Moor, went to Tistutin, which the natives plundered, and stocked up on some provisions, returning to the fort without incident.”

Mass celebrated next to the tombstone placed on Monte Arruit, after the Annual disaster, in 1922

ABC

‘The epic shines’

ABC also echoed the lie, including a photo of Arenzana and referring to the praise received in the Picasso file. In other editions, however, he spoke of “a number of enemies that the corporal could not pinpoint in the dark”, but the headline (‘The epic shines in the darkness of disaster’) and the story were just as epic: “They resisted implausibly and, having reached the far end, the six defenders rejoined their leader. Then they relieved him of all responsibility, disabled the well’s weapons and motor, and entered the French zone. All this after having passed great dangers and hardships.

Aranzana’s companions confirmed his testimony during Picasso’s interrogations and the general did not hesitate to highlight the supposed feat as one of the most commendable displays of courage in the Annual disaster. In fact, he proposed the two corporals and the four privates for promotion. As Paloma Aguilar Fernández pointed out in her book ‘Politics of memory and memories of politics’ (Alianza, 2008), the fact that “many people assume something that never happened to be true does not make it more real, but it may remain forever in the collective memory.

At the end of 1922, however, the truth finally came to light: Arenzana Lillo and his men surrendered without resisting when they were attacked by Abd el-Krim’s men and were even paid 100 pesetas to take them to the French zone. safe and sound. At no time had they risked their lives. The curious thing about this episode is that our “hero” was the one who confessed that everything he had told was pure fiction, apparently pushed by his bad conscience in the face of the innumerable compliments he was receiving from his superiors and from the press.

Collection of corpses, after the Annual disaster, in 1921

ABC

The truth, without recurrence

Aranzana asked to testify again with the robed prosecutor of the Supreme Council, who reconstructed the truth. According to the book ‘Historia secreta de Annual’ (Temas de Hoy, 1999), by Juan Pando, the final statement was this: «On August 28, finding themselves alone and abandoned, seeing that defense was impossible, they decided to make the best of it possible with the enemy, leaving the Rif people with the well and the Spaniards prisoners of these. They had to hand over the weapons to chief Hammú, according to the confession of the corporal himself».

As expected, the fact that the lie came to light had much less repercussion in public opinion than the fictitious story. The Government did not consider it opportune to air this new humiliation of the Army, after a few medals had already been publicly put on to try to cover up the massacre. He did not want the truth to lead citizens, already very angry with the State for having led their children into a suicidal war, to think that many of the other exploits were also lies.

Still, some brief news took care of the matter. Like ‘La Libertad’, which on January 23, 1924, published the news with the following headline: ‘The council of war against those who abandoned well number 2’. The article later recounted: «The trial has been held against Jesús Arenzana and Rafael Líllo, who, when the events of the 21st arose, were in charge of defending well number Tistutin after General Navarro had retired to Monte Arruit, abandoned his post and They went to the French zone. The prosecutor asks for six months in prison for the two defendants, while the defender requests acquittal, on the grounds that his defendants exhausted all their resources before evacuating the post.

The next day, ABC pointed out that “the version made by the defendants turned out to be false.” Even today there are books and web pages specialized in history that relate this feat as if it had really happened.

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