Dr Halliday Sutherland visited the Alcázar, Toledo in 1946 as the guest of the Spanish government. Dr Sutherland wrote about the epic siege that took place there during the Spanish Civil War in “Spanish Journey”. This is part one.

From Madrid we made a one-day excursion to Toledo. Dona Beatriz stayed at home but Don Alberto asked if he might bring his nephew, a boy of 14 who was at a boarding-school for the sons of Army officers. This boy, from his manners and bearing, would have been a credit to any public school in England. He had always wanted to be a soldier like his father, who was killed in one of the battles of the Civil War. The boy had confided to his uncle the hate he had for the unknown man who fired the fatal bullet. Such hate is one of the dreadful legacies of a Civil War.

Toledo, 69 k. south by west of Madrid, is built on seven hills in a bend of the Tagus, which encircles it except to the northeast. In this old Roman-Moorish-Spanish city is the Alcázar, whose defence in the Civil War won the admiration of the world. From newspaper reports I had visualised it as a Moorish fortress, whereas the original palace fortress of the Moors was destroyed in the War of Succession which followed the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700. It was rebuilt by Cardinal Lorenzana as an almshouse. When the French invaded Spain at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Soult used the almshouse as a barracks, and his troops burnt it before leaving the city. Later the Military Academy was built. This square three-storeyed building with a central patio covered the entire site of the original fortress. The frontage was Buruquete, and at the four corners were square towers with pyramidal pinnacles. The large central patio had double Moorish arches decorated with mosaics. Portions of the outer walls and a few of the double arches remain. The rest is rubble. The Alcázar was on the highest hill in the city, but was commanded by other hills to the east and west, and by the Madrid road on the crest of a hill in the north. From these positions it was shelled by artillery.

On the evening of July 18, 1936, the day of the military rising in Africa, the communist deputy “La Pasionaria” on the Madrid radio called on the masses to march under arms in the streets. At Toledo the communists went to the Plaza de Zocodover, where they began shooting at Civil Guards standing in doorways. The shots were heard in the Alcázar, and Colonel Moscardo with a number of armed officers went down to the Plaza and routed the mob, of whom two were killed and several wounded. The communists then attacked the headquarters of Acción Popular, where a number of Falangists had gathered. Colonel Moscardo and his officers followed the crowd and liberated the Falangists, all of whom were taken to the Alcázar. To defend Toledo, the Civil Guards from outlying districts were recalled, and arrived in lorries with their families and household goods. For three days they preserved order in the city; but on July 22, at the approach of Militia from Madrid, Colonel Moscardo withdrew all his forces into the Alcázar. Many of the officers’ wives and families remained at their houses in the city. On the night of July 22 there were in the Alcázar:

The women and children were the wives and families of officers, Civil Guards, and civilians. Altogether about 2,000 people were in the Alcázar. In armaments there were:

The cannon and machine-guns were those used for instruction, and the cartridges were from a neighbouring arms factory. The chemistry students made 25 gas masks, each of a different pattern, and all quite useless. Fortunately they were not required. Owing to the small number of cadets in the time of the Republic, the stocks of food were so low that Colonel Moscardo gave orders that beans, peas, rice, olive oil, salt, sugar, coffee, tinned anchovies, asparagus, mussels, and good bottles of wine were only to be used after excessive work or in cases of illness.

The stock of bread would provide a plateful at each meal for five days. The only stock of wheat was grub-infected. It had been bought for the animals. Fortunately, someone remembered that down in the valley to the east of the Alcázar was a building where 2,000 sacks, each with 90 kilogrammes of excellent wheat, had been stored by a bank. Under cover of night this wheat was brought to the Alcázar. The next problem was to convert the wheat into flour. In the Museum was a small corn-mill with a handle. The handle was removed, a grooved wheel fitted, and the mill was driven by a leather belt from the rim on the back wheel of a motor cycle. Both are there to this day.

Owing to the small size of the field-ovens and the large number to be fed, each person got a daily loaf of less than 180 grammes. Meat was also rationed, and at the end of the siege, which lasted 70 days, only 1 horse and 5 mules were alive, representing meat for another six days at most. Although water was rationed, the amount in the cisterns caused no anxiety.

By day there was almost incessant rifle and machine-gun fire from neighbouring heights. Also artillery fire from batteries of guns whose calibre ranged from 7 cm. to 15-5 cm. From the latter some 3,500 shells exploded in the Alcázar; and from the smaller guns came some 10,000 shells. These reduced the Military Academy to ruins, and the defenders were driven to the basement of the original Moorish fortress where there are large vaults, and a few low rooms with narrow windows in the thick basement wall overlooking the Tagus. In one of these rooms Colonel Moscardo had his headquarters. There were also dauly air attacks from a small number of planes. They dropped bombs of 12 to 50 Kilogrammes. These did little material damage. They also dropped cans of petrol which failed to set the place on fire. Finally from houses in the vicinity the enemy made three tunnels under the foundations. In each 3,000 kilogrammes of powder were exploded in an attempt to blow up the building.

On September 18 Corporal Cayetano Caridad, who as a youth had worked in the Rio TInto mines, heard sounds of tunnelling under the west wall. He evacuated everyone from the danger zone and remained to detect the exact position of the mine. Once that was ascertained, he began to excavate in order to make it harmless. The explosion buried him under tons of masonry. No one else was hurt. He had told the Colonel that he would willingly die in the mine if only he could save the lives of his companions.

On three occasions mines were exploded; and these explosions were followed by infantry attacks. In the attack of September 18 the enemy climbed the ruins of the North Facade on which they planted not the Republican but the red flag of the Toledo Communist Club. They also reached the first floor of the West Gallery. From there they could fire into the patio. The situation was saved by four officers who brought ladders from the gymnasium and climbed to the first floor. With revolvers they drove back the invaders, captured their flag, and in its place planted the flag of Spain. Both flags are preserved in the Alcazar.

At the beginning of the siege there was another outstanding act of bravery. On July 23 the Madrid Government announced that the Alcazar had surrendered, and handed to newspaper correspondents faked photographs showing the defenders coming out, hands above their heads. The enemy had cut off the electrical supply to the Alcazar, but with motor-car batteries radio receiving sets were working. When Colonel Moscardo heard the news he realised that if the Nationalist High Command believed it, they would abandon any attempt to raise the siege. The nearest Nationalist army was that of General Mola in the Guadarrama Mountains. There was no transmitter in the Alcazar, but at all costs a message must be sent to Mola. The Colonel was about to ask for a volunteer when Captain Luis Alba Navas offered to go. He was an instructor at the School of Gymnastics , and his recreations of fishing and shooting had given him first-hand knowledge of the surrounding country.

At midnight he put on a suit of workman’s blue overalls Under the blouse a revolver hung from his neck. He was given 100 pesetas and a Communist Party Card, taken from a hostage. The card did not state the occupation of its owner, and the word “fisherman” was now inserted. If caught her would be shot as a spy. He left by a side door, went down the hill, and swam the Tagus. Keeping to open country he reached Burijon, 40 k. from Toledo. The village was in the hands of the communists. He went to the Committee and asked for a car to take him to the province of Avila, whither he was bound on a secret mission. They granted his request. Just as he was getting into the car, one of the onlookers who had once been in his gymnastic class, exclaimed in astonishment, “What brings you here, Captain?” The man had no wish to betray but the deed was done. The communists suspected this “fisherman,” and with his hands handcuffed behind his back, Captain Navas was sent by car to Toledo. On the way the car met other cars taking communists to Madrid. These communists recognised him, and realised that he was so popular in Toledo that the People’s Tribunal might not sentence him to death. So they shot him at the roadside. His body was later paraded through the streets of Madrid. Where he is buried, no one knows. He was posthumously awarded the Lauriate Cross of San Fernando.

When the foreign press got tired of announcing the repeated surrenders of the Alcazar, the Madrid Government stated that they never really tried to capture the place. The women and children in the Alcazar were the wives and families of republicans. They had been kidnapped by the Nationalists, who used them as a screen against infantry attacks. That lie shows how communists would behave in like circumstances. During the Civil War the Spanish people learnt what the people of Britain and America are learning now – that the word of a communist is worthless.

To be continued …

PART 2

Photo credits:

Title picture. Toledo in 1887. Scan from the original work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7980896

Text picture: The Main Staircase of the Alcázar, 1901 By John L. Stoddard Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6331804

markhsutherland

Mark H Sutherland is a facilitator and executive coach who lives in Sydney.

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