General Franco’s Moroccan soldiers

Spain last week marked the anniversary of the deadly war of the last century, the Spanish Civil War. For three years, the Nationalists, supporters of the July 1936 coup, fought the Republicans, supporters of the Second Spanish Republic. In Morocco, it was above all an opportunity to remember the “Regulares”, also known in Spain as “Moros” since the Rif War. These Moroccan soldiers from the Rif fought alongside General Francisco Franco. They were recruited in Chefchaouen, Al Hoceima, Tetouan, Nador and numbered between 62,000 and 80,000 Moroccans, some of whom are still buried on Spanish soil.

The Rif War, a prelude to enlistment

In 1921, Abdelkrim Al Khattabi, the symbolic figure of the fight against the Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco, had just crushed the colonial army at the Battle of Anouar. Nearly 14,000 Spanish soldiers died, a thousand were captured and imprisoned. A victory for the classical troops, defeating European armies that outnumbered them both in numbers and arsenals. It was then, says the professor of history and geography, that Abdelkrim proclaimed the “Republic of the Rif” in February 1923. Mehdi Benchabane In his book Emir Abdelkader in the Face of the French Conquest of Algeria (1832-1847) (Editions Ediivre, 2014).

However, France, which already had a presence in Algeria and had recently established a colonial power in Morocco, saw this statement as a real threat. In 1924, the resident general Hubert Lyautey decided to help Spain fight the rebels in the Rif region. The union of the armies of the two colonial powers would lead to the defeat of the Rif leaders and their army. Spain took control of the entire Rif region and bombed several areas, especially using the famous mustard gas, to put an end to all resistance forever.

What history forgets to mention is that the fatal blow to the Rif Republic allowed Franco to become a general, high commissioner to Morocco in 1934 and chief of staff of the army in 1935. A few months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in April 1936, he was even appointed military governor of the Canary Islands. On July 17, he left this post and went to the Rif province under Spanish control to participate in the coup and command the troops. In addition, he would pass through Casablanca, where he would leave his wife and daughter. He thus announced the coup to the Spanish troops stationed in Morocco. In July 1936, the first Rif soldiers landed on Spanish soil. On July 20, 1936, the coup failed and Spain, divided in two, fell into a violent war that lasted three years.

The “Moroccan” troops parade before Franco, the victor of the Spanish Civil War, in Madrid, May 1939. /Ph. Berliner Verlag – Dpa-Zentralbild

“Moros”, a “psychological weapon” against the Republicans

Lacking the manpower and means to seize power, General Franco traveled to the Spanish-occupied Rif region to recruit young Rifians. French TV information An article was dedicated to the memory of those soldiers who came from the Rif and fought in Franco’s army. “The personnel supervised by Spanish officers will be sent to Spanish territory from July 1936, thanks in particular to the air assets provided by Hitler and Mussolini.” For the French media, “Historians agree that if Franco had not received valuable help from the ‘Moros’ to suppress the ‘Reds’ and other republicans, he would never have succeeded in establishing a dictatorship. French television news then quoted the testimony of Mohamed Rahkar, the grandson of one of these men.

In his book Los Moros que trajo Franco (RBA Barcelona, ​​2006), Eric Storm and Ali Al Tuma cite “European Colonial Soldiers 1914-1945: “Aliens in Uniform” in Wartime Society» (Routledge edition, 2015), Maria Rosa de Madariaga explains how these tens of thousands of Moroccan soldiers fought alongside Francisco Franco’s nationalists. It particularly recalls the suffering and poverty of the Rif region after the war between the rebels and the Spanish army. “The reasons for enlistment were first and foremost economic: to earn a salary and escape poverty. Despite this, there were sometimes signs of reluctance or even resistance to recruitment,” she writes.

To encourage these soldiers, “a series of services and facilities were set up specifically for these Moroccans: cemeteries and places for their entertainment and distraction.” Maria Rosa de Madariaga even cites “dancers brought from Morocco” and even “brothels with Moroccan women.” Franco even selected a Moorish guard who was “dressed solemnly and was responsible for her own security and various honorary duties.”

A cemetery in Madrid where the bodies of Franco’s Moorish soldiers are buried. / The Independent

But Franco will sell them a dream

Franco even promised them: “You will return to your village with golden slippers!”, French TV news continued.

During the war, Moroccans were “the vanguard of the nationalist army” and “the symbol of the brutality committed by Franco’s troops against the Republicans”. French television news quoted in this regard that their presence “is immortalized in the song symbol of the civil war, Hi Carmela“, but also in “Some cemeteries (Shelter) the anonymous bodies of some 20,000 Franco-Moors who fell on Spanish soil.

The media specifically mentioned the fact that Franco would sell dreams to these Moroccan soldiers. French media quoted Driss Delbach, the Spanish director of the film Los Perdedores, as saying: “After the civil war, the soldiers from Morocco must return to their regions with a pension of ‘5 euros a month’.” About these fighters.

It was not until 1965 that a Spanish law recognized their existence: “Spain cannot forget the outstanding service of (Moroccan personnel) in the African campaign and the war of liberation…” We therefore study how to definitively resolve the situation of these employees, who are now citizens of friendly countries. ” The text provided for some kind of compensation for these fighters. It remained meager and limited.