2023-09-15 04:18:27
“Hemingway and company were not here.” Luis A. Ruiz Casero He breaks the stillness of the morning with a joke while pointing out the remains of a line of trenches that time has not been able to overcome. The heat presses on the vertex saw, a forgotten hill that dominates Alcarria, in the province of Guadalajara; nothing to do with the winter of 1938, when the rain mixed with blood. “The First Flag of the Legion, the elite of Francisco Franco’s army, attempted a coup from that plain,” continues the doctor in History. Everything seemed lost for the 33rd Division of the People’s Armynew and little effort, but a cocktail of errors by the attackers allowed the offensive to be rejected.
The outcome surprised the rebels to such an extent that they ordered the republican defenses to be crushed by saturation. “Here, where we stepped, 6,000 projectiles fell, a much greater amount than in other battles such as Pingarrón, in Jarama,” explains Ruiz. However, the Sierra apex offensive has tiptoed through the history books; the same as many others on the Guadalajara and Toledo fronts. And not because they did not shake the self-proclaimed National side, but because Franco put all his efforts into covering them with the dark mantle of forgetfulness. The truth is that he did very well; maybe too much. But every action entails a reaction, and our guide’s reaction was to illuminate the essay ‘Without luster, without glory’ (Desperta Ferro).
painful defeat
The morning starts hard: evoking the rattle of bullets. But we still have many battles to tell. As we descend from the Sierra vertex, towards the car that will take us to the next enclave, Ruiz goes back to the germ of everything; That is why Franco pointed out the region as the enemy to defeat. In March 1937, 35,000 fascists sent by Mussolini and 15,000 Francoists from the Soria Division crashed into the republican defenses of Guadalajara. The Italians longed to take Madrid through their undefeatedquick war‘, the movement at full speed of soldiers in vehicles, but they were stopped short. The ridicule was international, as was the ridicule: “Fewer trucks and more balls!”
The humiliation did not end there. Between the end of March 1937 and the first stages of 1939, an infinite number of offensives took place in Alcarria, the key to the capital. This is confirmed by the doctor in History as we drive through a sea of oaks: «In the book I focus on all of them. They occurred on the flanks of the Madrid front: Guadalajara and Toledo. “They absorbed a large number of troops and resources.” There are dozens of examples, although he only has time to remember a couple: «In the Alto Tajuña offensive, the counterattack of the Republic in 1938, there were more casualties than the previous autumn. And in Seseña, on the Cuesta de la Reina, there was fighting throughout the war. Franco’s defeats prevailed in all of them.
Cursed and forgotten
The conversation remains halfway. Out of nowhere, one of those colossal constructions of which the dictatorship was proud springs up in front of us: the reservoir of the Tajera. On paper, it was built in the Tajuña Valley nature reserve to take advantage of the terrain’s orography. Ruiz does not agree at all. Already leaning on the railing, and taking a furtive look at a sparse bottom of water, he reveals that these infrastructures were used to “expel the municipalities that supported the guerrillas from the area” and punish the towns that had fought for the Second World War. Republic.
Today, therefore, a large part of the battlefield is submerged under water. “There are no papers to corroborate it because they weren’t going to make it official, but it’s enough to put two and two together,” he says.
The author poses with his work in the reservoir while pointing to the Sierra ABC vertex
The generalissimo did not stop at that point. From the top of the reservoir, Ruiz points out the Sierra vertex; His case is even more painful. «The dictatorship altered the toponymy. Although the promontory had been called that way since the mid-19th century, they changed its name because it was related to the victory of the army of the Republic,” he explains. When the map was updated, it was renamed Cerro Alto.
And that, not to mention that in the Alto Tajo area they put an end to the exploitation of pine forests, a common activity among the surrounding towns. «The gancheros were prohibited from working. This can be understood as a punishment because they had been unionized in the 1930s and were very progressive. In fact, they had several guerrillas in their ranks,” he asserts. The majority left the region and went to the big cities.
Figure dance
We return to the car, an essential tool to explore the immensity of Alcarria, and begin the last part of the ‘tournée’. On the left we leave Brihuega, where the Italian ‘Corpo Truppe Volontarie’ was bled; to the right, the umpteenth valley that caused the rebuffs of the tankers of the famous Dmitri Pavlov, sent by the Republic in 1937 to reinforce the front. “His T-26s wreaked havoc among Mussolini’s vehicles,” adds Ruiz. We entered and left tiny, beautiful towns that served as bases for both armies; silent witnesses of death. And finally, we come to Abánades. The municipality, which hosted a battle to the death for a bridgehead, today has fifty registered inhabitants.
Construction of trenches on the Guadalajara ABC front
Abánades remembers the ‘forgotten battle’, as historians know it, with a small museum. Inside, where the town teacher taught classes decades ago, lie dozens of souvenirs found by parishioners, farmers and archaeologists: helmets, projectiles, bayonets… Even a piece of artillery acquired from a scrap dealer who had it stored without knowing exactly its importance. A few years ago, says Ruiz, they even unearthed the remains of several soldiers from both sides who, shortly after, were buried with honors.
Like them, thousands of others left their lives in the region. «I start from a very large documentary effort. For the first time, I have counted all the casualties that there were on these two secondary fronts », he explains.
The author says goodbye to the trip with a slap on the wrist in this sense: «Classical historians minimized the casualties of the rebels here and multiplied the republican ones. “The one I have seen the most holes in has been Martínez Bande.” The case of Toledo is representative: “My count increases the casualties by 40%.” For this reason, Ruiz launches a challenge at the end of this ‘road movie’: «We must do the same in all sectors of Spain; “We rely on figures without a documentary basis.” Whoever wants, should pick up the gauntlet.
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