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The Spanish Republican Air Force was the air arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. Initially divided into two branches: Military Aeronautics (Aeronáutica Militar) and Naval Aeronautics (Aeronáutica Naval), the Republican Air Force became the Air Forces of the Spanish Republic (Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (FARE)), also known as Arma de Aviación,[note 1] after it was reorganized following the restructuring of the Republican Armed Forces in September 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.[5] This defunct Air Force is largely known for the intense action it saw during the Civil War, from July 1936 till its disbandment in 1939.
The Spanish Republican Air Force was popularly known as "La Gloriosa" (The Glorious One). But, according to some historians, the command structure of the Spanish loyalist forces was marred by ineptitude and lack of decision-making throughout the Civil War.[6] Starting from the crucial first weeks of the conflict in July 1936, the rebel side was able to undertake a massive airlift of troops from Spanish Morocco using mostly the slow Ju 52, without any Spanish Republican interference. This was the world's first long-range combat airlift and the military planes on the Spanish Republican side failed to check it.[7]
The Battle of Guadalajara and the defence of the skies over Madrid against Nationalist bombing raids during the capital's long siege would be the only scenarios where the loyalist air force took part in an effective manner. In other important republican military actions, such as the Segovia Offensive, the Battle of Teruel and the decisive Battle of the Ebro, where the Aviación Nacional was relentlessly strafing the loyalist positions with accurate low-level attacks,[8] the republican military airplanes were practically absent from the skies. Moreover, when they appeared and attacked, they did so in an unorganized and inadequate manner that mostly failed to achieve positive effects.[6] Most of the Spanish Republican planes that survived the conflict were repainted with the markings of the Aviación Nacional after the defeat of the Spanish Republic in the Iberian battlefields.[9]
- ^ BLOCH 200/210 Archived 19 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Breguet Br.413
- ^ "Br.460 B4". Archived from the original on 8 January 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ^ "Spanish Civil War Aircraft". Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
- ^ Memoria Republicana - SBHAC
- ^ a b Antony Beevor (2006) [1982]. The Battle for Spain. Orion. ISBN 978-0-7538-2165-7.
- ^ Per photograph caption pg.146 and also text pg.201, Air Power, Budiansky, Stephen, Penguin Group, London England 2005
- ^ Chris Goss et al. Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers Over Britain: The German Air Force's Tip and Run Campaign, 1942-43, Stackpole, ISBN 978-0-8117-0691-9, p. 26
- ^ "Aircraft that took part in the Spanish Civil War". Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
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