26th Division (Spain)

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This article is about the Spanish Republican military unit. For other formations, see 26th Division.
26th Division
26ª División
Flag of the 26th Division of the People's Republican Army
Active1937–1939
Country Spain
BranchSpanish Republican Army
TypeInfantry division
RoleHome Defence
SizeThree mixed brigades:
119th, 120th and 121st
Part of11th Army Corps
Garrison/HQBujaraloz (1937 - 1938)[1]
EngagementsSpanish Civil War
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Ricardo Sanz García
The Noguera Pallaresa river in Tremp where the 26th Division distinguished itself at the bridgehead combats

The 26th Division (

Columna Durruti during the reorganization of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces
.

The 26th Division included the 119th, 120th and 121st mixed brigades throughout the Civil War. It fought in the Huesca Offensive, the Battle of Belchite, the Aragon Offensive and the Battle of the Segre. Finally it was disbanded in February 1939 after the withdrawal and rush to the border that followed the rebel Catalonia Offensive.

History

First phase: Aragon

The 26th Division was established on 28 April 1937 in

11th Army Corps (XI Cuerpo de Ejército). The command of the unit was entrusted to Ricardo Sanz García who had been the commander of the Durruti Column after Buenaventura Durruti's death and who would be the division's only leader.[1]

The violent events of the 1937

"General Kléber" commented about the 119th Mixed Brigade of the division that: 'It is totally useless' ("No sirve para nada...")[4]

Actions in Catalonia and extinction

In March 1938 the sweeping Aragon Offensive of the rebel faction caught the 26th Division by surprise and the whole unit retreated eastwards to Catalonia without putting any noteworthy fight. Later it was located at the Segre Frontline where it took part in the fruitless Balaguer Offensive in May. Most of the 26th Division remained at the Segre front until the end of 1938, but one of the battalions of the 120th Mixed Brigade of the division was at the Battle of the Ebro.[4]

At the onset of the rebel

concentration camps
by the French authorities.

Post-Civil War

The

Second World War began barely five months after the capitulation of the Spanish Republic. While some of the members of the 26th Division remained in the concentration camps, some of them were forced to join the French Armed Forces. A number of them were part of the 9th Armoured Company of the 2nd Armoured Division of the Free French Forces, where they formed a majority so that it was known by its Spanish nickname "La Nueve" or "La Española".[5]

This company was one of the first to enter Paris in 1944 in order to free the city from

Spanish Republican flag.[7]

Commanders

See also

  • 9th Armoured Company
    "La Nueve"
  • Camp de concentration d'Argelès-sur-Mer
  • Mixed Brigades

References

  1. ^ a b c d Carlos Engel (1999); Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del Ejército Popular de la República, p. 296
  2. ^ Carlos Engel, Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del E. P. de la República, 1999
  3. Hugh Thomas
    (1976), Historia de la Guerra Civil Española pág. 711
  4. ^ a b c Carlos Engel (1999), Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del Ejército Popular de la República, p. 156
  5. ^ "Españoles en la 2GM (y II)". Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  6. ^ Rutas Cervantes (1 September 2011). "Rutas Cervantes. Los Españoles que liberaron París: La Nueve". Retrieved 12 June 2016 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ utiliser, Ne pas (24 August 2014). "70e anniversaire de la libération de Paris : hommage à " la Nueve "". Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2016.

External links

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