The Spanish Civil War

Ken Kay (Lunesdale Rotary) was our speaker on Thursday,18th January. He gave an interesting account about the Spanish Civil War fought between Republicans and Nationalists from 1936 to 1939. Ken illustrated his talk with with photos and maps. He described how the war resulted in Spaniard killing Spaniard. There were many factors leading to unrest, including landowners  who did nothing to support their itinerant labourers, political and religious controls, communism and fascism. 'Peasants' revolted and 6 million invaded the landowners' estates across Spain. General Franco had well trained Moroccan troops and they attacked Madrid and were defeated. Republicans killed many people including communist and union leaders. The Republicans were supported by an International Brigade made up of men from many countries including Canada, France, Russia, UK and USA. Franco's Nationalist forces received support in the form of munitions and air support from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Guernica massacre, portrayed by Picasso, killed many Republicans who had fled there. They were killed by bombing carried out by German airforces and machine gunning by Italian airforces. Catro's forces took Madrid and in July 1939 Catro led a victory parade.