The Spanish Civil War
The Guadalahara Offensive

Gaming Guadalahara

by Pat Condray
photos by the author

This campaign has no little appeal for wargamers. True, the elements can be hard to bring together. Obviously if it is treated as a continuous series of air raids on truck bound ground elements racing unopposed down the road nobody would bother. But, as we have seen, there was a lot of ground combat, and the Republicans were hard pressed for several days. There was a scenario written for some publication whose name escapes me for Advanced Squad Leader pitting the XII Internationals against the Fiamme Nere. Curt Johnson’s SCENARIOS FOR WARGAMERS (10) also ran a Guadalajara scenario. Probably the most comprehensive gaming of the campaign was accomplished by a group of California gamers using HPC 20mm figures and COMMAND DECISION II rules. It was gamed competitively, but followed the general form of the historical campaign. Jack Radey, whose unpublished history of the campaign provided much material for this article was in it. His move to Oregon put an end to the campaign just as the Republican counterattack was picking up. Guadalajara lends itself well to a serious campaign game. But all such games tend to pose logistic and planning difficulties-even if nobody moves.

My own efforts have been centered on set piece convention games. To boil even a short campaign down to a simple and fast moving convention game requires much abstraction. Curiously, while my local geography was off, the distortion wasn’t as great as I had thought. The elements I looked for involved a numerically strong motorized force with tanks (such as they were) and organic artillery advancing on different roads against scattered opposition. The defending main line usually involved an International battalion, with scattered militia of various political hues, paramilitary forces (e.g. Asaltos and Carabineros) holding outposts. To compensate for distance reductions I would put Brihuega over the Tajuna, and Ibarra’s Palace nearer the Caraterra, with various secondary roads between the Caraterra and the Tajuna. One C.T.V. line of advance would be on Brihuega, which (contrary to history) would be garrisoned. The other on the Caraterra.

Most advice given to convention games masters stresses a few vital points. One of these is “Give everybody something to do from the beginning.” To do this I would place a vanguard element (sometimes Bersaglieri) at Ibarra’s Palace facing the Garibaldini in a wooded area (call it the Bosque de Brihuega.) Other Republican players would control scattered battalion sized outposts in buildings or woods between the vanguard C.T.V. element and its supports. A similar confrontation with delayed reserves would occur in Brihuega. This situation with respect to scattered Republican forces such as occurred at Almadrones is probably what delayed the actual advance of motor troops to foot speed.

The challenge for the C.T.V. players was to balance the risk of motor advance in territory not fully cleared of the enemy (which by hindsight I will term “remnants of the 12th Division) with the risk of allowing more Republican reinforcements (Pavlov and a brigade or so of infantry with various artillery formations) arriving to reinforce Brihuega and defend the Caraterra. At certain intervals, usually every 3 turns, the umpire (moi) would roll dice for each reserve battalion group of the Republicans. The I.B. and the 5th Regiment elements would arrive by truck on the Caraterra where the Brigade HQ with brigade weapons were dug in near the Garibaldini (who always got the honor of being first on the line.)

On occasion if the Republican player had the initiative to send back his trucks instead of parking them around the Brigade HQ I would allow an increased rate of reinforcement. The C.T.V. had almost enough trucks to move everyone at once if they dared. I allowed tanks and horse drawn artillery to reach the front only by the railroad, which I mistakenly placed through Brihuega. Actually it was all the way across the map. It was so far west, in fact, that the armored train sent by Maija was probably out of range of the nearest fighting with the Soria Division.

My air rules are not yet written down. But as a rule I treat air forces, lacking ground to air radios, as what our FRP friends would call “Non Player Characters.” Since the entire campaign was fought with low cloud cover I was able to avoid concern with patrol altitudes. I represent the Republican domination (due not only to numbers but to nearer and paved airfields) quite simply. Normally a D6 traditionalist, I use a D10 for air support. Beginning on turn two or three each player can roll for air support. However, the Republican player gets a squadron (one model in my game) with a score of 0-8. The hapless C.T.V. player can bring up a squadron, invariably a CR 32, with a roll of 0-2. Bombers will invariably conduct bombing attacks, and the “controlling” player gives target priorities. For Brihuega, a later scenario, the Republicans get one or two all out attacks with 3 combat turns over target.

The first several games involved a willful anachronism on my part. When war broke out in Spain Andre Malraux energetically set about raising a volunteer French squadron. I wrote my thesis on French Air Policy and its impact on the 1940 debacle. Some of the Douhetian absurdities which plagued L’Armee de l’Air were actually sent to Spain and served in Malraux’s expeditionary air force. Wonder of wonders, just as I began working on Guadalajara Squadron Shop was having a sale on Marcel Bloch 200’s(M.B. 200)! William Green, in his BOMBERS OF WWII declared that in response to the 1932 specification for a “multiplaces de combat” (conceptually Guilio Douhet’s heavily armed strategic bomber) :”French aircraft designers committed more sins against esthetics than did the designers of all other nations combined.”

Of them our Assistant Attaché for Air Paris commented [16]: “If the reports are true that the modern Potez 54 B.C.R. (Bombardment Combat Reconnaissance) planes and maybe some Bloch 200 have been shot down by foreign pursuit planes it is probable that these events have been one of the reasons why the Air Ministry has altered the armament on the new Bloch 210. (essentially an MB 200 with retractable landing gear.)

But I digress. The French elements had shot their bolt by Guadalajara. It was an all Russian show, though there were a number of foreign pilots, involved, especially in the biplane pursuit (I-15) squadrons. Malraux was on hand at the time of the battle. But the Blochs were not. I couldn’t resist. In addition to rolling for I-15s, I-16s, etc. I gave the Republican player the Malraux squadron free from the start. The hitch was that as an amateur effort, it had a bombing error greater than usual.

The scenario described has been run about 12 times since 1991. The first full scale effort was, I think, at HISTORICON 93 or 94, with Wally Simon (he of the Basement) commanding the Republicans. It went badly from the start when the apocryphal Malraux squadron, ordered to bomb Ibarra’s Palace, clobbered the Garibaldini in the Bosque de Brihuega. It was a close fight, but the overall C.T.V. commander had uncanny luck with the aircraft rolls, and the CR 32 were in the air about twice as often as they should have been.

Wally was undone when Internationals coming up the Caraterra from Torija were strafed in their trucks by CR 32s. Usually, however, perhaps 8-9 out of 12 times, the C.T.V. has been vanquished in the historic manner. The non-player character quality of the aircraft was probably most evident in a game, I think at FALL IN! 97. The C.T.V. player rolled up a CR 32 squadron with ground attack orders. His target priority was road traffic near Brihuega. The attacks were very effective. But all the road traffic in the indicated sector was C.T.V..

Of late, inspired by Jack Radey’s research, I have been playing with the Battle of Brihuega on the 18th of March 1937. It is quicker, dirtier, and more historically balanced. I retain the limited option for Italian fighter intervention (though historically the CTV rolled badly on that.) Essentially you find the C.T.V. with the 6th Blackshirts over the Tajuna, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Blackshirts (Dio Lo Voule Division) in and around Brihuega.

Opposite the 65th, composed of Carabineros, the 70th of Anarchists, the Movil de Choque and the XII Internationals with three strong battalions, a support gun battery, and some mortars. There are 4 tank and one armored car companies to play with. Each side gets three off board artillery gruppos, and the Republicans get 1-2 air strikes with an I-16, an I-15, an R-5, and an SB-2. I have been more generous than General Roatta, and left Dio lo Voule with Fiamme Nere’s 20mm battery. So far it hasn’t been enough. The C.T.V. has lost every time. At FALL IN 00! I was pleased that a barely victorious Republican player offered the unsolicited comment “We couldn’t have done it without the air force!” I am certain that the Republicans of 1937 were of exactly the same opinion.

The Spanish Civil War The Guadalahara Offensive

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