tanks saved Madrid in November 1936. Britain
and France, ostensibly with German, Soviet and
Italian agreement, set up a Non-Intervention
Committee whose undertaking not to send
weapons to either side was honoured only by the
two Western democracies. The Germans sent
tanks and experts and the notorious Condor
Legion, which, with a hundred planes, played an
important role and horrified the democracies by
bombing defenceless towns. The wanton destruc-
tion of Guernica (26 April 1937) symbolised the
terror of war on civilians. The lesson was not lost
on the British who week after week saw on their
cinema screens the horrible effects of those air
raids. Not surprisingly it strengthened the desire
of the British people to keep out of war and to
support those politicians who were trying to do
so, though the committed did go to fight in
Spain. Mussolini sent over 70,000 volunteer
troops. The Russians, from headquarters in Paris,
organised the volunteer International Brigades
and sent tanks and planes. All this foreign aid suc-
ceeded in staving off defeat for either side for a
time, but it was not sufficient to ensure a victory.
1
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR AND EUROPE, 1936–9 219
PORTUGAL
SPAIN
FRANCE
GALICIA
ASTURIAS
LEÓN
OLD CASTILLE
Burgos
Gijón Santander
Bilbao
BASQUE
NAVARRE
Toulouse
Barcelona
Zaragoza CATALONIA
ARAGON
Guadalajara
Valencia
NEW MAJORCA
CASTILE
Madrid
Toledo
Córdoba
Seville
Málaga
Gibraltar (British)
Tangier Ceuta
Controlled by
Nationalists in 1936
Cádiz
Granada
Oran
0
0
200 miles
200 km
Lisbon
Salamanca
R.T
agus
Teruel
Palma
Cartagena
ALERIA
(French)
SPAN
ISHMORO
CCO
Strait of Gibraltar
R. Ebro
The Spanish Civil War,
