Scenario 2: The Siege of the Ronda Column, July 20, 1936

Read the scenario without photos here

After a day of brutal fighting, CNT worker-militants–with the cooperation of some Assault Guard, Civil Guard, and other Republican forces–have driven the army off the streets. What remains of the military rebellion in Barcelona is holed up in a few scattered churches, hiding behind nuns and priests as they fire into the crowds, or in the last remaining military installations by the harbor. The military rebels have all but lost the city, though hundreds of workers have lost their lives for their trouble. More yet will fall in the morning as workers storm the army’s final strongholds.

Above: The Ronda Colom, with the Columbus monument in the center of the rotary. The Dependencia Milirar to the right, with the red roof, and the Captencia to the right of that.
Below: To the left of the statue, the Atarazanas buildings.

Set up: Clear summer weather. First 4 rounds, nighttime visibility at 10”, 25” with binoculars. 

Beginning Round 5, Daytime visibility at 40”, 60” with binoculars.

Arrange the table in a large urban rectangle. On the eastern edge of the table sits the Ronda Colom, a wide rotary (round-about) by the harbor. To the north of the Ronda Colom, a few buildings up, sits the Capitania General building, housing the HQ of the IV Division of the Army. The Capitania serves as the center of the coup in Catalunya. On the northern edge of the rotary is the Dependencies Militars. Across the rotary, on the southern side of the Rotary/Ramblas, is the Caserna de Drassanes, or Atarazanas, the old military harbor buildings. 

Running away from the harbor is La Rambla de Santa Monica, which should stretch down the length of the table east to west. Alleys and side streets break up the blocks of buildings.

At the western end of the table, on the Rambla, stands the coordination post of the Comité de Defensa Local de CNT-FAI, at the Plaça del Teatro. There, groups of working-class street fighters, including many from the CNT’s Metalworkers and Transport unions, rally, while their delegates, including Buenaventura Durruti, Fransisco Ascaso, García Oliver, Pablo Ruiz, and Ortiz, prepare attack plans.

The situation was dire on the other side of the lines. Workers at the Telephone Exchange and in the Post Office effectively blocked communications by telephone between the army strongholds. General Goded, the man the architects of the coup sent to lead Barcelona’s army, had been captured the previous afternoon. Ramón Mola, Barcelona’s highest-ranking army commander remaining, and the brother of the author of the coup, General Mola, shot himself in despair as the siege worsened the previous night. As word spread among the terrified soldiers, morale dwindled.

If your ruleset utilizes a morale rating, mark all Nationalist units down 1 morale point for the whole scenario. Nationalists must pass orders between buildings by runners.

Unit Sheets: Make unit sheets for the groups/squads/companies etc. 

Ammunition: Nationalists have 8 ammo. Can be resupplied after the 10th turn if the Cavalry is able to reach the other Nationalist positions. Minus -1 Morale.

Workers have 5 ammo (You may distribute any ammo from the previous scenario to the forces however you choose, or save it in your general supplies later).

Gameplay: Game begins with the workers marching down the Rambla toward the Ronda Colom. Attacking players will use the CNT Defense Committee, located at the Plaça del Teatro, as the command group, with committee members acting as both runners to pass orders and reports back and forth, and as leaders of sectors of defense groups in action. Attackers can set up barricades up to the halfway point of the table, with a defense group at each. Attackers may also fortify a few buildings close to the center of the table, including the CNT Transport Workers Union headquarters building, and Casa Juan Restaurant, where they may place a machine gun on the balcony or roof.

The army will set up beforehand in and around the buildings situated on the Ronda Colom. If no player is commanding the army, then army defensive positions should be established before the game based on their historic positions (listed below), and its positions immediately open-fire on any workers in the open. 

265 Workers and loyalist officers take on 185 nationalist soldiers. 

Nationalists orders:

Defend the last strongholds. Establish a kill zone in the Ronda Colom. Kill any worker or loyal Republicans in the line of fire.

Republican orders:

Capture the 3 buildings around the Ronda Colom and end the rebellion.

Nationalist forces:

Units at the Capitania General:

4th Army Division

-1x General Goded and staff, 2 runners.

-1x Machine gun and crew

-1x platoon of 1 officer, 19 men

Units at the Dependéncies Militars/Office Building - around 110 men:

Artillery - 7é Regiment Lleuger d’Artilleria

-1x Coronel S. Cañadas Valdés, staff, and runner.

-1x 75mm cannon and crew

-2x platoons of 1 officer, 19 men

4th Batalló e Sapadores Minadors number 4 (mining sappers/engineers) 

-2x platoons of 20 men each, led by Captain Jose M. Brúses Danis

        -1x machine gun and crew.

Units at the Columbus statue, in the center of the Ronda Colom):

        -1x machine gun and crew, at the top of the statue column.

Units at the Atarazanas - around 45 men:

4th Batalló e Sapadores Minadors number 4 (mining sappers/engineers) 

-Tinent Coronel Antonio Navarro Serrano, staff, and runner.

        -1x Platoons of 1 officer, 19 men

Artillery - 7é Regiment Lleuger d’Artilleria

-1x reduced platoon of 10  infantry, led by Captain A. Urriza López

-1x 75 mm cannon and crew

        -1x machine gun and crew.

Republican forces:

CNT Defense Committee: 15x delegates of workers groups, including Durruti, Ascaso, and Oliver.

CNT militants: 25 Grupos, (ie, Affinity Groups, or just groups) of 10 workers. 

-1x truck, with a machine gun installed on the bed.

-1x machine gun on the balcony or roof of Casa Juan Restaurant, with Assault Guard or Mossos d'Esquadra crew and Sergeant Manzana

-1x 75mm gun and crew, commanded by Sergeant Gordo and workers crew

1x Breguet 19 Russian bomber flown by a Republican pilot.

(At turn 10)

Nationalists:

Cavalry - Montesa Cavalry Regiment number 10 (arrive at the far end of board from Ronda Colom, preferably on a street parallel to La Rambla, but if that is not possible, on the Rambla itself, behind the workers’ position.) 

-2 platoons of 20 soldiers each, led by Captain Captain Santos Villalón Pérez, mounted in 2-3 trucks.

-plus 100 ammunition to be distributed to the besieged Nationalists, if the Cavalry can reach them.

Republicans:

10 Grupos more of 10 workers militia will be available at turn 10, arriving from a pre-determined marker on the harbor side of the table.

(At turn 15)

(Optional, Republican side) Assault and Civil Guards: Up to 2 squads each, (arrive at the harbor side of the table.)

Machine gun inside the pill box on top of the Atarazanas

Victory Conditions:

*Workers win by eliminating any remaining Nationalist holdouts before round 25.

*Nationalists win by surviving through round 25.

Outcome: If the workers are victorious, they may move on to the next scenario, and carry over any remaining ammunition. Additionally, the capture of these military installations adds 500 ammunition points to the (soon-to-be) column’s general supply. Finally, any and all machine guns and cannons not destroyed in the fighting are added to the equipment list in your general supply.

Aftermath: As the sun rose on July 20, armed workers had the area around the Ronda Colom surrounded. The main thoroughfares leading to the round-about were clogged with barricades and throngs of revolutionaries. The CNT defense committee coordination post, established at the Plaça del Teatro, saw to the closing of nationalist pockets like at the Bruc intersection and the Hotel Falcon. They turned their attention to the final Nationalist strong-point in that section of the city.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist soldiers in the military installations were growing desperate. In the long day of fighting on the 19th, the army had been soundly defeated across the city, repeatedly ambushed and slaughtered by throngs of workers and policemen.  In the afternoon, Republican aircraft appeared and repeatedly bombed the area around the Ronda Colom. Overnight, the highest ranking leader of the coup, Ramón, committed suicide. The soldiers did have a good number of machine guns and cannons, which they deployed effectively across the open intersection, creating kill zones. Their long range weapons kept the workers at bay, pinned down behind barricades and in alcoves and stairwells. 

Durruti and other veteran militants from the Nosotros group gathered at the Plaza Arco del Teatro to strategize the fall of the Ronda Colom strongholds. Abel Paz writes, “Someone proposed using the truck on which the German anarchist group had mounted a machine-gun…they could drive the vehicle toward those sites while using the machine gun to clear the way for those following behind” (Paz 448). Ricardo Sanz and Aurelio Fernández climbed into the truck, while Durruti, Ascaso, Oliver, and Baró were among the attack force following behind.

As they reached the booksellers market near the Atarazanas, machine guns from the strongholds opened up. Bullets whizzed close to the comrades. A pill box atop the Atazaranaz building was particularly dangerous, and Ascaso took off through the booksellers carts to take care of it. As he broke cover to run across the street toward a truck, the gunner in the pillbox hit Ascaso in the head, killing him instantly.

At this same time, throngs of workers were on the other side of the building, reaching the doors, and those of the Dependencia across the Ronda. It was just after 1 in the afternoon and both strongholds surrendered, ending the military coup in Barcelona.