Naval battle of the Spanish Civil War
The
Battle of Cape Spartel
(
Cabo Espartel
in Spanish) was a
naval battle
of the
Spanish Civil War
that broke the
Republican
naval blockade
of the
Strait of Gibraltar
, securing the maritime supply route to
Spanish Morocco
for the
Nationalists
early in the war. The action occurred on 29 September 1936 between two Nationalist
cruisers
and two Republican
destroyers
.
Background
[
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]
The rebels at
Ferrol
,
Galicia
, had been able to seize the city's
naval base
in July 1936, but at a large cost: over 30 mutinous
officers
had been shot dead by hundreds of sailors loyal to the Republic.
Their prize included the old
battleship
Espana
(formerly
Alfonso XIII
), the cruiser
Almirante Cervera
, the unfinished
Canarias
and
Baleares
, a cruiser undergoing repairs (
Navarra
), one
destroyer
, and a number of
torpedo boats
and
sloops
. In September, a small squadron, including
Almirante Cervera
and
Canarias
, steamed from Ferrol to engage the Republican navy.
At the start of the war, the
Spanish Republican Navy
had the battleship
Jaime I
, three light cruisers, 14 destroyers, plus five submarines. In addition to
Espana
, the two cruisers and one destroyer taken by the Nationalists, by the following year they had completed
Baleares
and
Canarias
. They also had purchased four destroyers and two submarines from
Fascist Italy
.
[1]
The Nationalists established a blockade of the Republican-held coastline for the entire duration of the war, but their paucity of ships limited the blockade's effectiveness.
The battle
[
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]
The Nationalists engaged a squadron of Republican destroyers stationed on the western end of the Straits shortly after 6:30 am. The destroyer
Gravina
was deployed near
Cape Spartel
, while her sister ship
Almirante Ferrandiz
was patrolling off
Ceuta
.
[2]
A fierce exchange of fire followed, during which the destroyer
Almirante Ferrandiz
was chased and eventually sunk by
Canarias
in the
Alboran Sea
after a 40-minute engagement, while
Gravina
was pursued and hit twice by
Almirante
Cervera
along the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The main guns of
Canarias
found their mark at a range of 11 nautical miles (20 km; 13 mi) with their second salvo, while those of
Almirante
Cervera
performed poorly. The surviving Republican destroyer retreated toward
Casablanca
.
Almirante Ferrandiz,
having been hit six times, blew up and sank 18 nautical miles (33 km; 21 mi) south of
Calaburras
. Thirty-one seamen from
Almirante Ferrandiz
were rescued by
Canarias
, while the French liner
Koutubia
picked up another 26, including her commander, Jose Luis Barbastro Jimenez. This action was decisive to open the Straits to the insurgents' shipping.
[3]
[4]
[5]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- Thomas, Hugh
(1979).
La guerra civil espanola
. Volume 6. Ediciones Urbion, p. 184.
ISBN
84-85266-54-4
.
(in Spanish)
- Cortada, James:
Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.
Greenwood Press, 1982.
ISBN
0-313-22054-9
External links
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]
36°14′47″N
4°38′30″W
/
36.24639°N 4.64167°W
/
36.24639; -4.64167
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