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Terç de Requetès de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat

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Terç de Montserrat mausoleum

Terç de Requetès de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat (Spanish: Tercio de Requetés de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat) was a battalion-type Carlist infantry unit, forming part of Nationalist troops during the Spanish Civil War. It is known as one of two Catalan units fighting against the Republicans.[1] It is also recognized as the Nationalist unit which recorded the highest KIA ratio of 19%,[2] with corresponding average Nationalist figure estimated at 6%.[3] Its operational history consists mostly of long periods of inactivity or low-intensity skirmishes punctuated by two heavy combat engagements, culminating on 25 August 1937 and 19 August 1938.

Origins

[edit]
Joaquin Llorens Fernandez, 1909

Requeté was founded in 1907 by Juan María Roma as a Carlist sporting and outdoor grouping for teenagers;[4] in 1913 it was re-organised by Joaquín Llorens as a paramilitary structure.[5] Following a period of decay, in the early 1930s the organisation experienced enormous growth and in 1935 it was re-shaped along more sophisticated military lines by José Luis Zamanillo and José Enrique Varela. Prior to the Spanish Civil War the structure did not envision battalion-type units; its largest component was a requeté, roughly comparable to a company.[6] In Catalonia the strength of the organization was estimated as 3,000 first-line volunteers and some 15,000 in auxiliary units.[7] Following the failed coup of July 1936 they found themselves in total disarray, some killed, some captured, some in hiding and some fleeing the region.[8]

Since August 1936 first Catalan requetés started to arrive in the Nationalist zone, either having crossed the frontline or travelling via France.[9] The former Catalan Carlist leader Maurici de Sivatte and the former Catalan Requeté commander Josep María Cunill coined the idea of grouping them in a separate combat unit.[10] Initially it was to be named after Saint George, but in September 1936 Virgin of Montserrat was chosen instead.[11] As refugees kept arriving, in November the unit was set up as a battalion-type Carlist "Tercio" (in Catalan "Terç"), many of them created across the Nationalist-held regions.[12] In line with common practice, commissioned army officers of Carlist leaning were delegated to form its command layer.[13] Its combatants were almost exclusively volunteers, though at later stages there might have been some "false volunteers", since Catalan Republican POWs were offered to enlist as a way out of prison camps.[14]

Strength, organisation and armament

[edit]
Terç de Requetés de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat
commanders[15]
starting date rank name
1936-12-15 capitan Enrique Monteys Carbo
1937-08-03 teniente Alfonso Fenollera Gonzalez (prov.)
1937-08-21 teniente Francisco Roca Llopis (KIA)
1937-09-09 comandante José M. Sentís Simeón
1937-11-17 capitan Antonio de Ibarra Montis
1938-04-29 capitan Luis Quiroga Nieto
1938-06-30 comandante Jose Navas Sanjuan
1938-07-17 capitan Manuel Martinez Millan de Priego
1938-08-29 alferez Jose Daunis (prov.)
1938-09-22 comandante Norberto Baturone Fernandez
1938-11-04 teniente José M. Molinet Calverol (prov.)
1938-12-27 comandante Antonio Miranda Guerra

Until January 1938 the battalion formed part of 5. División Organica from Zaragoza, itself within V. Cuerpo de Ejército and component of Ejercito del Norte.[16] Then it was briefly assigned to few other different units (including a cavalry division, a reserve brigade and a Moroccan division),[17] until in June 1938, when transported towards Extremadura, it was incorporated into 74. División (Ejercito del Centro), and shared its fate until the end of the war.[18]

In late spring of 1937 the unit grew to around 200 men, divided into 2 companies;[19] this structure endured until the Terç was decimated at Codo.[20] During reconstruction the battalion was enhanced to 4 regular infantry companies and a machine-gun company, together with around 800 men (including around 20 commissioned officers).[21] Its peculiarity was a separate shock section, formed in June 1938 and unheard of in other Carlist battalions.[22] Support sub-units were reduced to medical services. Following losses suffered during the Battle of Ebro the Terç was brought back to its previous strength.[23] In May 1939, shortly before its dissolution, the unit consisted of almost 900 men.[24] The command was in Catalan.[25]

In numerical terms the Terç was equivalent to a regular army battalion, though in comparison it remained undertrained and underarmed. Most of its soldiers have not undergone regular army training, their military education reduced to few months (in some cases few weeks) of drills either in the barracks or on the rear of the frontline. The firepower of the unit relied mostly on bolt-action type 7 mm rifles, the primary individual weapon.[26] It was supplemented by various types of machine-guns, hand grenades and mortars (50mm and 81mm).[27] The Terç had neither own artillery nor own transport.[28]

Social composition

[edit]
Carlist standard

It is estimated that there were some 1,600 men fighting one time or another in the Terç. Due to data shortages no complete personal profiling is possible and all attempts to establish social base of the volunteers are founded on not necessarily correct statistical extrapolations.[29] According to the information available,[30] some 55% of the unit came from the working class, mostly farmers (25%), though also industry, workshop and service sector workers. The next most numerous group, 29%, were white-collar workers, either liberal professions or salary employees. Volunteers identified as "proprietors" formed 10%, though in most cases it is unclear what is meant by this category (probably landowners).[31]

Around 83% of requetés were males between 18 and 30 years of age, most of them between 21 and 25 (35%). Further 13% were males between 30 and 40 years of age,[32] with the remaining group formed by those younger than 18 (very few cases)[33] and older than 40.[34] There were two cases of father and son serving,[35] apart from 9 pairs of brothers and one case of 3 brothers.[36] Around 85% were bachelors and 12% were married, the remaining percentage either widowers or unknown.[37] The sample available was in 91% composed of the Catalans with the remaining ones coming mostly from the Balearic Islands,[38] though apart from other provinces single individuals originated even from the Canary Islands or Galicia.[39] Two most represented Catalan provinces were Girona (35%) and Barcelona (31%), with visibly less volunteers originating from Lleida (16%) and Tarragona (8%).[40] All the above statistical approximations, however, might be heavily distorted in case the data sample available is for some reason not representative.

social composition of the Terç[41]

There is no statistics available on political preferences of the soldiers. It is usually assumed that though some of them might have been related to La Lliga, APC or even to Alfonsism, the overwhelming majority of the volunteers were Carlists.[42] It is also noted that during political amalgamation into Falange Española Tradicionalista, "los carlistas del Tercio de Montserrat brillan por su ausencia" in the new state party.[43] During feasts the Terç soldiers greeted the Falangist centurias with cries of "¡Viva el Rey!" and "¡Muera el nacional-sindicalismo!"; confrontations between former Terç combatants and Falangists endured well into the late 1940s, not infrequently ending in riots.[44] 26 of the Terç combatants became later Roman Catholic priests.[45]

Operational history

[edit]
Codo, Monte Calvario perimeter

Even before the unit was fully formed its sub-components were deployed on the Aragon front in the sector of Belchite;[46] in early January 1937 the Terç took positions around the neighboring town of Codo.[47] The following 7 months produced almost no combat engagement[48] until in August 1937 the Republicans mounted an offensive towards Zaragoza. Following initial skirmishes on 23 August, the next day the unit stood its ground until it was almost entirely encircled. On 25 August remnants of the Terç broke through to own lines. Having lost around 150 KIA the battalion ceased to exist as operational unit and was withdrawn to Zaragoza.[49]

Between October 1937 and January 1938 the Terç was being reconstructed in the rear, in Torres de Berrellén near the Aragonese capital;[50] plans to merge it with another Tercio, considered at that time, were eventually abandoned.[51] Then it was deployed on the frontline at southern slopes of Montes Universales in the Alto Tajo region (Guadalajara province). The unit remained in the area until June 1938 (initially Mazarete – Huertahernando sector, later Mirabueno sector), taking part in light and occasional skirmishes and suffering minor casualties.[52]

KIA casualties[53]
campaign #
Codo (1937) 140
Huesca (1937)[54] 1
Torres de Berrellen (1937) 1[55]
Guadalajara (1938) 2
Ebro (1938) 153
Extremadura (1939) 20
Catalonia (1939) 1[56]

In June 1938 the battalion was transferred by improvised means from Alto Tajo to Sierra de Gredos (Ávila province),[57] in July to be directed towards Extremadura and to take part in closing of the Merida pocket. As little resistance was encountered, more requetés ended up in hospitals due to enormous heat rather than due to enemy resistance.[58] In late July the Terç was loaded onto train and via Salamanca, Aranda de Duero and Zaragoza urgently transferred to Catalonia, to the Ebro bend.[59]

On 29 July 1938 the Terç was deployed in the Vilalba dels Arcs sector (Tarragona province) and for 10 days successfully fought a defensive battle.[60] Then for a week it was shuttled by trucks and on foot between different sectors with no real combat until it returned to Vilalba, this time with offensive assignment.[61] During the attack of 19 August the Terç lost around 60 KIA and 170 WIA on the Cuatro Caminos crossroad[62] and was engaged in heavy fighting also during the following days, until on 30 August it was moved to more quiet sectors. Total losses reached 700, including 150 KIA.[63] While the recovering wounded were coming back to line and new recruits were arriving, the Terç remained in the Ebro bend on vigilance and patrolling duties.[64] Massive casualties suffered, sometimes described as self-immolation, are subject to controversy until today.[65]

Vilalba dels Arcs, Cuatro Caminos

In mid-December 1938 in Fatarella the battalion was loaded onto trains and in early January 1939 it was deployed back in southern Extremadura, this time engaged in defensive operations against the last Republican offensive of the war.[66] During the counter-offensive the unit captured Valsequillo before early February it was transported by train to Navalmoral.[67] It was then transferred to Chozas de Canales (Toledo) and in late March moved by trucks to Albarreal de Tajo, advancing with virtually no resistance.[68] The Terç ended the war in Menasalbas.[69]

In April the unit remained in Western Castile until it took part in Victory Parade in Madrid on 19 May 1939.[70] It entered Barcelona on 31 July, taking part in local celebrations until it was stationed in the Jaime I barracks. The process of releasing most soldiers took until mid-September; the ones still in service were transferred to Moncada barracks.[71] The Terç was officially dissolved on 26 October 1939, its standard deposed at the Montserrat Monastery.[72]

Reception and legacy

[edit]
monument to Catalan requetés[73]

History of the Terç was acknowledged though not celebrated by the Francoist regime.[74] In 1943 the 1. and 2. company of the Terç were awarded Cruz Laureada de San Fernando, the highest Spanish military honor, for their gallant performance at Codo;[75] in 1943 the same honor was conferred individually upon Jaime Bofill-Gasset i Amil (1915-1989).[76] No unit in the Francoist army referred to the Terç.

In 1955 the Terç ex-combatant, Salvador Nonell Brú, published its history.[77] The bid to construct a mausoleum located within the Montserrat complex was initially opposed by Franco, who claimed that all the fallen should rest at Valle de los Caídos;[78] the mausoleum was finally opened in 1961.[79] In 1965 a requeté monument was unveiled in front of it;[80] the original site layout was blurred in the decades to come.[81] Commemorating crosses were erected also in Codo and in Vilalba dels Arcs. Today the Mausoleum remains closed and visitors are admitted by individual appointment;[82] it is owned by Hermandad de Ex Combatientes del Tercio de Requeté de Nostra Señora de Montserrat, the organisation founded in the late 1950s.[83]

Codo, former Calle Tercio de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat

History of the Terç played vital role in mobilisation of Catalan Carlism during Francoism, helping to sustain its Traditionalist and Catalan identity.[84] Commemorating the fallen and the living has always been vital point of annual Carlist Montserrat gatherings. Hermandad served also as semi-official regional Carlist organisation, though it was involved in controversies within the Traditionalist realm. The RENACE group centred around Sivatte accused its moving spirit, Nonell Brú, of appeasement versus the regime; the Sivattistas considered it outraging that memory of Terç was enveloped in the Francoist propaganda.[85]

Following transición the Terç is criticised by democratic groupings, who charge the unit with war crimes.[86] They also demand that requeté monuments are dismantled as incompatible with Ley de Memoria Histórica.[87] The Montserrat monument and sites elsewhere are periodically vandalised by unknown perpetrators.[88] According to the internet poll by Catalanist Racó Català service, 77% of respondents consider the Terç soldiers traitors.[89] Streets formerly named after the unit have dropped "Tercio" and are now referring to "Our Lady of Montserrat". The last combatant of the Terç died in 2019.[90]

See also

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ another unit was the Falangist I Centuria Virgen de Montserrat, created in Burgos, see Joan Maria Thomàs, Falangistes i carlins catalans a la «zona nacional» durant la Guerra civil (1936-1939), [in:] Recerques: Història, economia i cultura 31 (1995), p. 9
  2. ^ "unidad nacional que registró mayor porcentaje de muertos de la Guerra, un 19 por ciento", Lucas Molina Franco, Pablo Sagarra, Óscar González, Grandes batallas de la Guerra Civil española 1936-1939: Los combates que marcaron el desarrollo del conflicto, Madrid 2016, ISBN 9788490606506, page unavailable, see here. The homage page requetes.com aggregates the number of the fallen at 318, but provides names of 334 individuals, see here. According to scholarly estimates, the number of KIA suffered by the Terç during the war ranges between 269 and 327, see Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013, ISBN 9788499709758, pp. 830-1. The total number of men who fought in the Terç is estimated at 1,600, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, La metamorfosi del carlisme català: del "Déu, Pàtria i Rei" a l'Assamblea de Catalunya (1936-1975), Barcelona 2014, ISBN 9788498837261, p. 32
  3. ^ the average KIA ratio for the nationalist army is estimated at 6%. Units described as "the most enthusiastic contributors" to anti-Republican cause, the Navarrese Carlist battalions, suffered on average the KIA ratio of 11,3%. Quoted after Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War,Cambridge 2012, ISBN 9780521174701, p. 184. However, some Navarrese Carlist tercios suffered KIA casualties comparable or exceeding those of the Montserrat Terç; Tercio de Lácar recorded 720 KIA and 1,500 WIA, Aróstegui 2013, p. 828. In comparison, the Moroccan troops, usually used as shock units, recorded the KIA ratio of 15% (11,500 out of 78,500), Stephanie Wright, Glorious Brothers, Unsuitable Lovers: Moroccan Veterans, Spanish Women, and the Mechanisms of Francoist Paternalism, [in:] Journal of Contemporary History 55/1 (2020), p. 53
  4. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 55-6
  5. ^ Eduardo G. Calleja, Julio Aróstegui, La tradición recuperada: el Requeté Carlista y la insurrección, [in:] Historia Contemporanea 11 (1994), pp. 30-31, also Aróstegui 2013, pp. 56-61
  6. ^ for details see Eduardo González Calleja, Contrarrevolucionarios, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788420664552, especially sub-chapters Varela y la reorganización del Requeté (pp. 122-126), El desarrollo del Requeté (pp. 189-192), La reestructuración y el adiestramento de la milicia tradicionalista (pp. 198-200) and El perfeccionamento de la estructura paramilitar carlista (pp. 259-265)
  7. ^ Robert Vallverdú i Martí, Catalanisme i carlisme a la Catalunya republicana (1931-1936), [in:] L. Duran (ed.), El catalanisme en el nostre passat nacional, Solsona 2010, ISBN 9788497799683, p. 102; somewhat different figures in his earlier work, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, El carlisme català durant la Segona República Espanyola 1931-1936, Barcelona 2008, ISBN 9788478260805, pp. 318-319
  8. ^ for details see Vallverdú 2008, pp. 293-343
  9. ^ in line with the call from general Mola "todos hacia Navarra", Pablo Larraz Andía, Víctor Sierra-Sesúmaga Ariznabarreta, Requetés: de las trincheras al olvido, Madrid 2011, ISBN 8499700462, 9788499700465, p. 131
  10. ^ Vallverdú 2014, pp. 25-6
  11. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 687
  12. ^ in total there were around 40 tercios created, though some of them either short-lived or partially organized, see Aróstegui 2013, pp. 688-9
  13. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 689
  14. ^ Joaquín Monserrat Cavaller, Joaquín Bau Nolla y la restauración de la Monarquía, Madrid 2001, ISBN 8487863949, pp. 224-229. It was a common practice in the Terç that Republican POWs were interrogated on the spot and Catalans were offered enlisting before having been reported as POWs, Manuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis in Historia Contemporanea, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Valencia 2009, p. 84. There is no information on conscription exercised after the Nationalist conquest of Catalonia in early 1939.
  15. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 684-704
  16. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 693
  17. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 693-4
  18. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 695
  19. ^ the pre-war paramilitary structure was not reproduced and sub-components of the terç were named "companies", not "requetés"; it was also the case with lower-grade sub-units
  20. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 689-691
  21. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 694. The number of NCOs is not known. In some other Carlist units like Tercio de Lacar the number of NCOs was comparable to the number of commissioned officers
  22. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 695
  23. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 701
  24. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 702
  25. ^ in line with the emergent Francoist ideology the anti-Republican troops were subject to increased nationalist pressure, see Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas, De gaitas y liras. Sobre discursos y prácticas de la pluralidad terrirorial en el fascismo español (1930-1950), [in:] M. Á. Ruiz Carnicer (ed.), Falange. Las culturas políticas del fascismo en la España de Franco (1936-1975), Zaragoza 2013, especially pp. 305-308, also his La región y lo local en el primer franquismo, [in:] Stéphane Michonneau, Xosé M. Núñez Seixas (eds.), Imaginarios y representaciones de España durante el franquismo, Madrid, 2014, ISBN 9788415636656, pp. 127-154. Despite this pressure, in some Carlist units the command language was other than Spanish. In companies formed by volunteers from rural Gipuzkoan areas the command language was Basque since the requetés did not understand Spanish well enough. Because of their speaking Catalan, the Montserrat terç soldiers faced mistrust in some Castillan towns; girls from villages in Toledo province refused to dance with them as they did not speak "en cristiano", Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 126
  26. ^ exact type might have differed. Some sources point to 7,65mm rifles, probably earlier Spanish versions of Mauser 98; the others suggest 7,92 mm types or 7,57mm types, though all of them might have been used
  27. ^ compare estimates of ammunition fired during the Villalba dels Arcs battle, Aróstegui 2013, p. 697
  28. ^ though at times there were 20-40 trucks assigned, Aróstegui 2013, pp. 694, 697
  29. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 32
  30. ^ detailed personal information is available for 319 soldiers who died in combat and whose brief biographies were published in Salvador Nonell Brú, Así eran nuestros muertos: del Laureado tercio de requetés de Ntra. Sra. de Montserrat, Barcelona 1965; quoted after Vallverdú 2014, pp. 32
  31. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 33. In comparison with requete tercios from the Vasco-Navarrese area there were relatively few farmers and working class volunteers in the Montserrat unit; in Alava some 85% of requete volunteers were proletarians, and some 73% of all volunteers were farmers, Germán Ruiz Llano, El voluntariado alavés durante la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis Universidad Complutense], Madrid 2016, pp. 109, 165
  32. ^ volunteers of the Montserrat unit seemed somewhat older than volunteers from Vasco-Navarrese tercios; among the Alava requete volunteers these between 30 and 40 formed 8.5%, Ruiz Llano 2016, p. 116
  33. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 37. The homage webpage claims the opposite, namely that "los Voluntarios Catalanes eran muchachos, en su mayoría muy jóvenes (casi nińos)", compare requetes.com service available here. This is not unlikely, since many youths could have provided false birth details in order to get enlisted
  34. ^ there were 2 individuals above 50, Vallverdú 2014, p. 37
  35. ^ all from Gerona; all four were killed in action, Francisco Javier de Lizarza, Los combatientes carlistas en la Guerra de España (1936-1939), [in:] Stanley G. Payne (ed.), Identidad y nacionalismo en la España contemporánea: el carlismo, 1833-1975, Madrid 2001, ISBN 8487863469, p. 148
  36. ^ Lizarza 2001, p. 148
  37. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 38
  38. ^ especially from Mallorca
  39. ^ Vallverdú 2014, pp. 38-9
  40. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 39
  41. ^ source: Vallverdú 2014, pp. 32-35
  42. ^ Vallverdú 2014, p. 23; there are exceptions, though; a British scholar questions Carlist character of the unit indicating that only one-third "appear to have come from a Carlist family or organization" and that "the remaining two-thirds came overwhelmingly from davout but politically non-active Catholic backgrounds", Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and Crisis in Spain 1931-1939, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 9780521086349, p. 257. In Alava the Carlists formed some 70% of the requete volunteers, Ruiz Llano 2016, pp. 109, 165
  43. ^ Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 65
  44. ^ Martorell Pérez 2009, pp .233-4, 253, César Alcalá, D. Mauricio de Sivatte. Una biografía política (1901-1980), Barcelona 2001, ISBN 8493109797, p. 52. A police report claimed that in the 1940s the Barcelona bookstores were visited by individuals who demanded that owners remove books of Primo de Rivera and Franco, otherwise "the requeté police will come and burn you down", Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 234
  45. ^ Matías Mau, La Llave de la Verdad, Madrid 2014, ISBN 9781497365513, page unavailable (see here)
  46. ^ El Tercio de Requetés de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat entry, section Los primeros pasos: Formación del Tercio de Requetés de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat [in:] www.1936-1939.com service (link blocked by Wikipedia, entering at own responsibility)
  47. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 689-691
  48. ^ one scholar claims that the first half of 1937 was sort of rural Arcadia: "'Each requeté had a home where he could spend some time, get his clothes washed, and eat if he wished.' The town, which lacked drinking water and other necessities, not untypical in 1930s Spain, nevertheless welcomed the approximately 200 Catalans with whom they maintained a solid and even affectionate relationship founded on reciprocity between soldiers and villagers. Peasants paid the requetés to harvest fields of wheat or fruit trees locates in no-man's-land. Soldiers also recovered herds od sheep wandering near "red" lines", Michael Seidman, The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War, Madison 2011, ISBN 9780299249632, pp. 52-53; an opposite opinion in Vallverdú 2014, p. 26; the author claims that the Terç served as a shock unit during its service at the Aragón front
  49. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 691-692
  50. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 692-693
  51. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 696 2013, p. 531
  52. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 693-694
  53. ^ requetes.com service available here
  54. ^ a detached mountain section, Compañía de Esquiadores
  55. ^ unclear, possibly either victim of an accident or killed in a guerilla ambush
  56. ^ unclear, possibly either victim of an accident or killed in a guerilla ambush
  57. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 694-5
  58. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 694-696
  59. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 696
  60. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 696-7
  61. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 697
  62. ^ for detailed homage account see here; a non-partisan account in Ruben Garcia Cebollero, Ebro 1938: La Batalla de la Tierra Alta, Madrid 2010, ISBN 9788497637183, pp. 134-142; excerpts from other accounts (including Chris Henry, The Ebro 1938: Death Knell of the Republic. London 1999, ISBN 1855327384 available here
  63. ^ Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 130
  64. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 697-701
  65. ^ some authors claim that Nationalist units occupying neighboring positions failed to sustain the Villalba dels Arcs attack of the Terç, and speculate about possible intention to decimate the battalion as a nucleus of inconvenient Catalanism, see Vallverdú 2014, pp. 29-30; this opinion is fairly popular, with some authors mentioning even "estratégia diabólica del General Franco", see Jaume Aguadé i Sordé, El diari de guerra de Lluís Randé i Inglés: Batalles del Segre i de l'Ebre i camps de concentració (abril 1938-juliol 1939), Madrid 2004, ISBN 9788497910828, p. 53. Other authors maintain that the losses resulted from military errors, first suicidal frontal charge and then poor co-ordination with neighboring units, artillery and air force. According to some, Catalan requetes "were sent forward drunk, knowing that a successful assault was impossible", see Porta de la Historia blog, available here
  66. ^ some authors claim that the Francoist regime was bent on preventing the Terç from entering the Catalan territory; the motive would have been to make any Carlist political demonstrations impossible, Vallverdú 2014, pp. 31-32. The same opinion in Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 65
  67. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 701
  68. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 701-2
  69. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 702
  70. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 702-3
  71. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 703
  72. ^ Aróstegui 2013, p. 703
  73. ^ dismantled in 2022, see Josep Miralles Climent, Tres monuments no franquistes víctimes de la llei de memòria historicá, [in:] Teresa Abelló et al. (eds.), Heréncies, Barcelona 2023, ISBN 9788409563050, pp. 279-290
  74. ^ e.g. in 1946 the Tarragona civil governor banned the Terç combatants to stage anniversary celebrations of the Villalba dels Arcs battle, Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 320
  75. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 703-4
  76. ^ Manuel de Santa Cruz Alberto Ruiz de Galarreta, Apuntes y documentos para la historia del tradicionalismo español: 1939-1966, vols. 4-5, Seville 1979, p. 150
  77. ^ Los requetés catalanes del Terç de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat en la cruzada española: 1936-1939, Barcelona 1956; it was many times reprinted, the last time in 1992
  78. ^ Aróstegui 2013, pp. 704
  79. ^ see La Vanguardia 30.04.61, available here
  80. ^ see La Vanguardia 02.05.65, available here
  81. ^ the original layout envisioned the requeté soldier, wounded or exhausted, looking towards the Montserrat basilica, compare here. Once the new pavillon was constructed, the soldier appears to be crawling towards a restaurant or a souvenir shop
  82. ^ another place serving as unofficial Terç museum is located in Vilalba dels Arcs; a private enterprise in so-called Casa Coll, where combatants of the Montserrat unit used to meet annually, it admits guests by appointment
  83. ^ for its history see Salvador Nonell Brú, Diario de amor y de la paz. Historia de la Hermandad del Tercio de Requetés de Ntra. Sra. de Montserrat (1939-2000), Barcelona 2000
  84. ^ "These memories were not meant to be mere recollections of past events, but uplifiting tales of the past for the present. Instead of detailing the tedium of time in the trenches, they chronicle stimulating examples of Carlist values in action, of Carlists doing what came "naturally" to them, and doing it well: taking up the arms to defend and propagate their ideals", Jeremy MacClancy, The Decline of Carlism, Reno 2000, ISBN 9780874173444, p. 17
  85. ^ Alcalá 2001, p. 104
  86. ^ "they are not heroes, they are assassins", read the banner placed at the entry to the Mausoleum in 2005, see indymedia service available here. No details are provided; usually the Terç soldiers are approached generally as "Catalan fascists", see directa.cat service available here or cristianofeixistes. Most detailed charges found read that the Terç soldiers performed "repressió sanguinària a tota la província de Tarragona, deixant muntanyes d'innocents cadàvers enterrats en cunetes per allí on passaven", see here; opposite view claims that the Terç soldiers were sent away from Catalonia in the fall of 1938 in order to prevent possible tension, resulting form brutal treatment of Catalan population by other Nationalist units, see Vallverdú 2014, pp. 31-3. It is known that during its service in Alto Tajo county the Terç was not welcomed by the local population (Aróstegui 2013, p. 693); also during its Extremadura deployment the battalion performed policing operations (Aróstegui 2013, p. 696), though no information about war crimes either against enemy POWs or local population has been revealed. The Terç soldiers deny the charges and claim that "En el Tercio de Montserrat no se dio un tortazo a un enemigo", Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 84. This opinion is repeated in Seidman 2011, pp. 76-7: "Catalans serving in the Republican army who had the good fortune to be captured by their countrymen in the Tercio de Montserrat were given chocolate, a treat they had not tasted for a long time "
  87. ^ compare racocatala service available here
  88. ^ see indymedia service, available here
  89. ^ out of 117 respondents. See Racó Català service available here
  90. ^ Felio Antonio Vilarrubias Solanes (born 1922) as a 14-year-old boy volunteered to requete units during the 1936 coup in Barcelona; taken prisoner, he was condemned to death. Commuted, he escaped from prison and joined the Terç once Barcelona had been taken by the Nationalists in 1939, Ha mort Felio Vilarrubias Solanes, glòria catalana d’Espanya, [in:] DolcaCatalunya service 10.04.19, available here

Further reading

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Vilalba dels Arcs, monument feixista
  • César Alcalá, El Tercio de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat: cifras definitivas, [in:] Aportes. Revista de historia contemporánea, 56 (2004), pp. 39–51
  • Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013, ISBN 9788499709970
  • Rafael Casas de la Vega, El Tercio de Montserrat heroico, en Codo, y eificiente, en el Ebro, [in:] Aportes. Revista de historia contemporánea 22-23 (1993), pp. 82–97
  • Pablo Larraz Andía, Víctor Sierra-Sesúmaga Ariznabarreta, Requetés: de las trincheras al olvido, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788499700465
  • Luis Maria Mezquida y Gené, La batalla del Ebro. Asedio y defensa de Villaba de los Arcos en sus aspectos militar, económico, demográfico y urbanistíco, Tarragona 2001
  • Salvador Nonell Bru, El laureado Tercio de Requetés de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat, Barcelona 1992
  • Estanislau Torres, La desfeta del Terç de Requetès de Nostra Senyora de Montserrat, Barcelona 1993, ISBN 9788478263882
  • Robert Vallverdú i Martí, La desfeta del Terç de Nostra Senyora de Montserrat. Aproximació sociològica als seus components, [in:] Daniel Montaña, Josep Rafart (eds.), El carlisme ahir i avui. I Simposi d'Història del Carlisme, Aviá-Berga 2013, ISBN 9788494101700, pp. 151–166
  • Robert Vallverdú i Martí, La metamorfosi del carlisme català: del "Déu, Pàtria i Rei" a l'Assamblea de Catalunya (1936-1975), Barcelona 2014, ISBN 9788498837261
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