© Cor Faber en Ellen Bijma
Last update website march 2024
The weapontrade
First about the two parties…
On
the
one
hand,
there
was
the
republic
with
a
democratically
elected
government.
Not
the
best
government
by
the
way.
When
the
Spanish
Civil
War
came
out,
new
elections
had
already
been
held
four
times
because
people were constantly at odds with each other.
On
the
other
side
the
insurgents.
The
uprising
was
initiated
by
ex-General
Sanjuro
and
General
Mola.
It
was
not
until
September,
two
months
after
the outbreak of the uprising, that Franco was elected general commander.
From
that
moment
on,
the
insurgents
had
about
80
percent
of
all
weapons
in
their
hands.
Tanks,
aircraft,
artillery
and
the
small
arms
and
firearms.
The
government
therefore
had
a
dire
deficit.
It
so
happened
that
a
single
rifle
had
to
be
shared
between
as
many
as
twelve
soldiers.
There
was little improvement in the course of the civil war.
Commissioners
from
Spain
roamed
the
world,
especially
Europe,
in
search
of
military
resources.
But
not
only
from
Spain,
also
traders
who
first
occupied
themselves
with
other
products,
saw
bread
in
the
trade.
As
a result, you could encounter the strangest things and constructions.
Non-intervention pact
In
August
1936,
a
month
after
the
outbreak
of
the
uprising,
England
and
France
initiated
the
non-intervention
pact.
No
country
was
allowed
to
interfere
in
what
happened
in
Spain,
certainly
not
military
or
supplying
resources.
Some
28
countries
signed
the
pact,
including
Germany,
Italy
and
Russia.
Nevertheless,
those
countries
could
be
found
militarily
in
Spain.
Think
of
the
Condor
Legion
of
Germany:
a
contingent
of
bombers
and
fighter
planes
used,
among
other
things,
in
the
bombing
of
the
place
Guernica
in
1937.
Hitler
and
Mussolini
chose
the
side
of
Franco,
Stalin
the
side
of
the
republic. So they have actually been fighting each other in Spain already.
The trade
As mentioned, often strange situations. A few examples…
Guns
were
bought
for
which
there
was
no
ammunition
and
ammunition
bought for which there were no rifles. But hey, trade is trade.
Passenger
aircraft
were
sold
as
bombers.
“Then
we
just
take
the
chairs
out.”
Aircraft
were
sold
with
a
forged
logbook.
It
looked
as
if
such
an
aircraft
had
just
been
serviced
and
could
fly
again
for
2,000
hours.
That
five
planes
(illegally)
departed
from
France,
but
only
four
arrived,
was
of
course no surprise.
If
one
wanted
to
circumvent
the
non-intervention
pact,
planes
first
went
by
ship
to
the
USA.
From
there
to
Mexico,
which
was
not
part
of
the
pact.
From there it went back to Spain by ship.
It
also
happened
that
such
a
republican
commissioner
in
England
made
an
offer
for,
for
example,
airplanes.
It
would
be
considered
and
the
commissioner
had
to
come
back
the
next
day
for
the
results.
He
was
then
told
that
a
nationalist
commissioner
had
made
a
higher
offer.
The
Republican
went
over
that.
What
he
didn't
know
is
that
it
had
simply
been
a
colleague
of
his
own
party
or
there
had
been
no
one
at
all
with
a
higher
bid.
Many
weapons
that
were
traded
were
from
the
First
World
War,
such
as
the
Renault
FT-17,
but
of
course
everything
was
welcome.
It
even
seems
to
have
happened
that
old
front
loaders
from
the
time
of
Napoleon
were
sold.
Russia
has
also
supplied
weapons
to
the
Spanish
Republic.
He
was
paid
for
it
in
Spanish
gold.
According
to
reports,
less
than
a
fifth
of
weapons
have been delivered, but the gold is still somewhere in Moscow.
Germany
also
accepted
payment
for
aid
and
weapons
.
This
in
the
form
of,
among
other
things,
iron
ore,
something
that
Germany
did
not
have
much
of
itself,
but
which
was
useful
for
the
further
construction
of
Hitler's
war
machine.
Incidentally,
at
the
beginning
of
the
civil
war,
Germany
also
supplied weapons to the republic. After all, trade is trade.
Daniel Wolf
Special attention for this Dutchman...
Wolf
was
a
businessman
who
had
become
rich
in
the
1930s
by
selling
railway
sleepers
to
the
Dutch
railways.
By
the
way,
that
was
not
easy
because his competitors had made his life miserable.
The
wood
for
the
railway
sleepers
that
Wolf
supplied
came
from
the
former
Eastern
bloc,
countries
such
as
Czechoslovakia,
Poland,
Latvia
and
Lithuania.
Wolf
therefore
had
a
nice
organization
and
network
of
contacts
and
front
men
there.
So
when
he
got
wind
of
the
arms
trade,
he
decided
to
get
involved
in
that
as
well.
So
it
was
he
who
also
arranged
the
purchase
and
transport
of
32
Renault
FT-17
tanks
from
Poland,
my
grandfather's
journey.
Tanks
dating
from
the
First
World
War
and
from
which
a
Polish
general may have had a nice pocket money.
Wolf
died
critically
ill
in
New
York
where
he
had
fled
in
1941
because
he
was
Jewish.
His
family
would
follow
later,
but
he
never
saw
his
family
again.
Herman
Langeveld
and
Bram
Bouwens
wrote
a
biography
about
Daniel Wolf.
It
should
be
clear:
it
was
a
mess
and
chaos
on
all
fronts.
In
fact,
little
or
nothing
was
organized
centrally
from
the
republic
in
Spain.
Everyone
just
did
what
they
wanted
and
as
long
as
the
businessmen
made
good
money
from it, they didn't want anyone to get involved in Spain.
The Renault FT-17 tank. Located in the
National Military Museum in Soest