African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1631 German Air Force Participation
Ultimately, Spanish Morocco is now effectively cut off from other rebel forces on the mainland, and the Strait of Gibraltar is controlled by the navy loyal to the Republican government of Madrid.

This gave Franco the opportunity to consolidate the rebel forces in Spanish Morocco.

In the following days, Franco successfully took command of the "Afrika Korps" and then used his personal prestige and military experience to unify the scattered rebel units, becoming the "local emperor" of Spanish Morocco.

Franco brought together Spanish troops and Moroccan militias in Ceuta, Melilla, and other areas.

While Franco's campaign in Morocco was progressing very smoothly, the situation on the Spanish mainland was not developing as smoothly as the rebel leaders had imagined.

The rebels in Spain were also mainly led by professional officers, and their soldiers were mostly volunteers or experienced mercenaries, with generally high levels of training and discipline.

The suddenness of the uprising and its clear objective caught the Madrid Republican government off guard.

However, the rebels only gained the support of half of the officers and a third of the soldiers. The majority of the Spanish army's soldiers and officers remained loyal to the Republican government. Their forces were dispersed and did not have a numerical advantage, making it impossible for them to overwhelm the government forces across the vast front.

However, the rebels held the advantage mainly in the north and west, Spain's agricultural regions, and failed to control key industrial and economic centers.

The industrial, financial, and political centers of Madrid, Barcelona, ​​and Valencia are all under government control, with the Republic controlling most of the military factories, heavy industry, and fiscal revenue.

At the same time, these areas controlled by the government are also where Spain's population is concentrated, which means that the Republican government can mobilize more troops.

However, the weaknesses of the republican government are also quite obvious. One is internal chaos, with many factions and government indecisiveness, which leads to slow response.

Secondly, the military and militia forces controlled by the government lack military skills and are lax in discipline, which prevents them from realizing their military potential.

All of these factors enabled the local rebels to make some progress in the interior and north, but they were unable to capture core areas such as Madrid or Catalonia. Although the Republican government was rich in resources, it was in a state of chaos in the early stages and was unable to quickly quell the rebellion, and the war reached a stalemate.

……

Madrid.

Following the outbreak of the rebellion, a new round of purges immediately took place within the Spanish Republican government, with the current Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Quiroga, being the first to be targeted.

“Prime Minister Quiroga, the rebellion now fully proves your previous judgment was wrong. These dangerous right-wing elements and nationalists had been planning this for a long time.”

A Republican member of Congress bluntly questioned the current leader of the Republican government.

In a republican government, the nominal head of state is the president, but this position, like the British throne, is not the actual leader of the country. The actual leader of the Spanish republican government is the prime minister.

The current prime minister of the Republican government is Quiroga, and Quiroga naturally bears the main responsibility for the current rebellion in Spain.

Faced with the parliamentarians' challenge, Prime Minister Quiroga was also frustrated. He said in a somber tone, "The responsibility for this rebellion is indeed due to my indecisiveness. I underestimated the danger posed by right-wing elements and failed to eliminate them thoroughly beforehand, which ultimately led to this rebellion."

Quiroga did not shirk responsibility; to a large extent, the reason the rebels gained momentum was due to the indecisiveness of the government he led.

Of course, this is not entirely Quiroga's fault. In fact, his predecessor, and now the president of the Republican government, Assaniah, also harbored illusions about the National Party.

Assagna also attempted to stabilize the country and ease tensions between the two factions, but Spain had become deeply polarized during his tenure, with frequent street violence, and he was forced to resign.

The man who took over was Quiroga, and it hasn't even been three months since Quiroga took office.

“Prime Minister Quiroga, it’s too late to hold anyone accountable now. We warned you many times before that the Nationalists might launch a rebellion. We even obtained some intelligence about the Nationalists’ conspiracy, but you chose to turn a blind eye to these issues, which ultimately led to this disaster.”

The Nationalists' conspiracy had actually been leaked long ago. Although the Nationalists were more united than the Republicans, they were also a mixed bag. So no matter how well they tried to hide it, someone would leak the information.

However, Quiroga never paid attention to these reports, or rather, he hesitated and was undecided about taking action against the Nationalists.

There may be two reasons for this. One is that Prime Minister Quiroga does not want a civil war to break out. After all, Spain is in such a terrible state now, and another civil war could very likely lead to Spain's further decline.

Spain had already fallen to the status of a second-rate country, and its decline was still on the rise. If a civil war broke out, industrial and agricultural production would be severely affected, and many people would die, further exacerbating Spain's problems and reducing it to a completely third-rate country.

Another reason may be that Prime Minister Quiroga underestimated the strength of the rebels. He did not expect that once the Nationalists launched their rebellion, they would take more than a third of the country's military force and nearly half of its officers.

This directly led to the scale of the Spanish rebellion exceeding the expectations of most Republicans, and the rebellion now covers almost all of Spain, as well as Morocco overseas.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. The Republican government's underestimation of the enemy allowed the Nationalists to seize the opportunity. For example, Franco had been exiled to the Canary Islands, which gave the Nationalists' main leader the opportunity to fly to Morocco and take over the Moroccan Afrika Korps.

In addition, there were other rebel leaders. The Spanish government must have taken some measures beforehand, but these measures did not play a key role in enabling them to successfully unite and launch the rebellion.

Prime Minister Quiroga stated, "I do not intend to shirk responsibility for the outcome of the rebellion in Spain, but the situation has indeed far exceeded my expectations, and no practical and feasible plan for suppression has been developed. Therefore, I am no longer suitable to remain in this position, and I hope the government will accept my resignation."

After announcing his resignation, Quiroga breathed a sigh of relief. He had been under immense psychological pressure these past few days, bombarded with negative news, which had left him exhausted. Now that he was facing opposition from disgruntled members of the government, he decided to go with the flow and relinquish his position as prime minister.

Kiroga's move caught everyone off guard, since they were only dissatisfied with him but didn't really want him to resign.

Now that the rebellion has occurred, the Republican government needs someone capable of leading the suppression of the rebellion independently.

At this moment, President Assagia spoke up, saying, "Kiroga, are you really going to submit your resignation? Now that the rebellion has occurred, your actions are no different from deserting in the face of battle. Changing commanders in the midst of battle is a major taboo. As the prime minister of the republican government, you should set an example and take the initiative to shoulder the heavy responsibility, instead of shirking the problem."

The President of Assamia undoubtedly had a high opinion of Quiroga; otherwise, he wouldn't have entrusted him with the position of Prime Minister.

Faced with President Assanne's reminder, Kiroga shook his head weakly and said, "Since the rebellion broke out, I have been under immense pressure, and now I truly realize that I am no longer suitable to sit in the position of prime minister. Therefore, I hope that the president will not persuade me any further. You should now elect a new prime minister to lead the government to victory and suppress the rebellion." Assanne made it clear that he did not want to serve as prime minister anymore, and when others tried to persuade him, he made his attitude clear. This left everyone with no choice but to elect a new government leader.

After several hours of heated debate, centrist Barrio became the new prime minister.

However, another bizarre situation occurred: these new prime ministers were forced to resign just hours after taking office because of their political beliefs.

Barrio attempted to form an "emergency government," even including some moderate right-wing parties, and tried to negotiate with rebel leaders, such as General Mora, by telephone.

He also proposed that conservative General Sanhurho lead the new government in exchange for the rebels laying down their arms.

Putting aside Barrio's weak move to negotiate with the rebels, the vast majority of people within the Republican government could not accept his appointment of Sanhurjo as prime minister.

As mentioned before, Sanhuljo was one of the main leaders of the Nationalist Party, just like Mora and Franco.

By appointing Sanhurjo as prime minister, Barrio has essentially handed the government directly to the Nationalists, a move that the other Republicans naturally cannot accept.

Subsequently, the Republican government had no choice but to select a new prime minister, and ultimately chose the left-wing Republican, Hillary.

Hillary was undoubtedly a fighter; as soon as he became prime minister, he immediately ordered the distribution of weapons to workers' organizations and unions to fight the rebels to the end.

However, even if Hillary becomes prime minister, he will be subject to many constraints. There are too many factions within the Republican government, including his own Republican faction, which has many opponents, not to mention other factions.

The fact that the Republican government changed three prime ministers in almost a single day also confirms the current chaos in the leadership of the Republican government.

……

The chaos within the Republican government caused it to miss the best opportunity to suppress the rebels. However, the rebels were not much better off than the Republican government, and the war between the two sides entered a protracted stalemate. During this period, Franco seemed to be quite relaxed.

Spanish Morocco, Detuan.

Franco's subordinates were reporting to him: "General, now most of the forces in Morocco have sworn allegiance to us, including the Afrika Korps' garrisons, regular troops, police, and local administrators."

Franco sat in his chair, studying a map of Spain, and said without looking up, "Very good. How is the army's training going?"

The subordinate replied, "The army's training is proceeding in an orderly manner, the supply of weapons and ammunition is sufficient, and supplies from Italy and Germany are also being gathered in Melilla in an orderly manner and then sent to Ceuta, Tetouan and other places."

Melilla has now become a logistics base for the Afrika Korps. Supplies from Germany and Italy arrive here first and are then transported to other places by sea, land and air to meet the Afrika Korps' training and living needs.

Melilla itself is highly secure and has an airport, railway and port, making it an ideal transit hub for Moroccan rebels' supplies.

In contrast, Ceuta is too close to the Spanish mainland and could be threatened by the Spanish Navy, so it is not suitable as a logistics base. Detournament, on the other hand, serves more as a command center.

In this timeline, because Germany annexed Austria-Hungary and gained access to the Adriatic Sea, German supplies could be shipped from Trieste and transported via the Mediterranean to Melilla, further enhancing Melilla's importance.

Franco said, "Very good. The supplies from East Africa will arrive in Melilla last, so the troops can train freely. We now have plenty of weapons, ammunition and food."

"Our only concern now is how to break through the naval blockade and get our troops to the homeland to participate in the war!"

Franco's army is now fully prepared; the only problem is how to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to join the war.

Although the Afrika Korps was Spain's most elite force, with combat capabilities far exceeding those of its homeland, the Afrika Korps had to return to its homeland to join the battle; otherwise, no matter how elite it was, it would be unable to play a role.

Franco's men also raised questions: "General, how we cross the sea is a crucial issue. The navy has blockaded Gibraltar and is loyal to the Republican government."

"We have no navy of our own, so it is impossible for us to break through the naval blockade of Gibraltar."

Despite his subordinates' concerns, Franco remained confident, stating, "Our Afrika Korps is primarily composed of land forces and cannot defeat the homeland navy through a fleet-based approach."

“But we have another way to leave here. Do you remember how we got from the Canary Islands to Tetouan?”

This gave his subordinate a bright idea, and he replied, "General, do you mean we can transport the Afrika Korps back to our homeland by plane, across the Strait of Gibraltar?"

Franco nodded and said, "That's right. As long as we have enough transport planes, we can send our soldiers and weapons to the mainland to fight. The war on the Spanish mainland is now at a stalemate. As long as we can cross the Strait of Gibraltar to join the war, the scales of victory will definitely tip in our favor."

Franco offered a solution, but his subordinate remained uneasy, asking, "General, the problem is we don't have enough transport planes!"

In theory, transporting the Afrika Korps back to its homeland would be a very effective method, but Morocco simply doesn't have enough aircraft to help Franco complete this plan.

However, Franco was not worried at all. He told his subordinates, "We do not have enough planes, but Germany has them, Italy has them, and if all else fails, we can ask East Africa for help. However, I believe that Germany and Italy will definitely agree to our request."

"I plan to speak directly with German Chancellor Adolf and Italian Prime Minister Benito to ask the German and Italian air forces to help us complete our transoceanic mission."

Franco acted swiftly. That very evening, he spoke with Adolf and Benito. Unsurprisingly, both Germany and Italy planned to directly deploy their air forces to help Franco send the Afrika Korps to mainland Spain.

To this end, the German Air Force directly dispatched more than twenty of its most advanced Ju 52 transport planes to Morocco. One Ju 52 could transport more than twenty fully armed soldiers to Spain, and more than twenty planes could transport a company of soldiers at a time.

(End of this chapter)