Time Slip Reiwa Japan

046 - Spanish Civil War - 2

The Spanish Civil War was not going well, despite the participation of volunteer troops from other countries. A year had passed since the outbreak of the civil war, Germany was the only country actively supporting the war.

Italy, which had dispatched volunteer troops alongside Germany, withdrew under the guise of improving relations with Japan and the G4 and for the sake of international cooperation, and the other countries were mainly engaged in humanitarian activities such as testing new weapons and socializing.

Initially, the Soviet Union also moved to support the government advocating socialism, but the damage caused by the Siberian War of Independence was so great that there was no room for foreign support. In the first place, it was politically difficult to provide support to the government side, which was in conflict with Germany, one of the Soviet Union's allies. The fact that the Republicans stood for socialism and the Nationalists stood for fascism was another reason why the G4 and other powers were not proactive in their support.

Socialism and fascism.

In a sense, this was a natural outcome, since the international community, which advocates democracy and capitalism, had difficulty supporting either side. Although the mass media, which depend on iron fires for their livelihood, entered Spain on a large scale to report the events, the general public did not pay much attention to it because the scale of the conflict was small compared to the Siberian War of Independence that was being fought recently.

Another factor that could not be overlooked was the small economic impact. Spain is not an important producer of natural resources and agricultural products, and has little economic ties with powers such as Britain, France, and Italy, so European citizens whose livelihoods were not affected by the war did not feel that their governments should intervene in the Spanish Civil War by spending huge amounts of tax money.

A few political parties appealed for intervention on the grounds of human rights and national prestige, but they failed to gain support. Of course, there were those who voiced outrage over the horrific tragedies of war, but it never grew into a public outcry that called for national action. There were many tragedies and comedies, both big and small, but for the most part, the world watched the Spanish Civil War with a cool head.

. . .

The War

Neither the Republicans nor the Nationalists were able to create enough gap in strength to deal a decisive blow to their opponents, and for the past year the situation had been one of back and forth. This situation changed after the German reinforcements to the volunteer army. Germany began to actively use the Spanish battlefield as a place to advertise the weapons it was selling to China and South America. They brought in the newly developed Panzer III Ausf D, Panzer IV, and even fighter planes to make their appeal. These would overwhelm the Republican troops who only had old equipment. The victory of the revolutionaries was imminent.

Just when the world thought so, Britain dispatched a volunteer army consisting of a fighter squadron and a supporting ground force. Overcoming the opposition of the government, the volunteers participated in the war—that's how it was done. *1 The battle between the British and German fighter squadrons proceeded in favor of the British. There was not much difference in the performance of the fighters themselves, and the Germans had the advantage in numbers, but in terms of operations, the Brits, who had adopted the lessons of the Siberian War of Independence and Japan's systematic operational methods, had the upper hand. With air superiority, Britain and the government succeeded in stopping the advance of the Nationalists and Germany.

A small number of Bank Mobile Artillery Vehicles were also used in the land battle. Because of the rugged and mountainous terrain, there were many close-range battles, there were many opportunities to shoot through the armor of the Panzer III Ausf D with the Bank MAV's 6lb guns. In a battle that lasted more than two months, half of the Panzer III Ausf D tanks that Germany had brought to Spain would be destroyed. In contrast to the British tank units, the German tank corps was severely criticized by Hitler.