The Spanish Foreign Legion

Download or read book The Spanish Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War, 1936 written by José E. Alvarez and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1936, the Spanish Foreign Legion was the most well equipped, thoroughly trained, and battle-tested unit in the Spanish Army, and with its fearsome reputation for brutality and savagery, the Legion was not only critical to the eventual victory of Franco and the Nationalists, but was also a powerful propaganda tool the Nationalists used to intimidate and terrorize its enemies. Drawing upon Spanish military archival sources, the Legion’s own diary of operations and relevant secondary sources, Alvarez recounts the pivotal role played by the Spanish Foreign Legion in the initial months of the Spanish Civil War, a war that was not only between Spaniards, but that pitted the political ideology of Communism and Socialism against that of Fascism and Nazism.