A brief history of the Durruti Column

To mark the 87th anniversary of the death of José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange, below is a brief and rough history of the man's greatest accomplishment: the creation of the Durruti Column and that forces liberation and collectivization of much of Catalonia and Aragon.

 The Durruti Column originally numbered 2000 workers. It included military advisors such as Commander Pérez Farrás from the Catalan capital police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and Guardia Civil lieutenant Pedro Garrido, and Artillery Sgt. José Manzana. The Column was made up of five Centurias, each led by CNT workers. 

    They brought along 12 artillery pieces organized into three batteries of four guns each. They brought 20 automobiles, 50 trucks (four for fuel, one for water, 15 for artillery, machine guns and ammo, and one with telegraph equipment), and three "tiznaos" (improvised armor constructed in collectivized factories.) They set off from Barcelona with a full parade and celebration on July 24, with the objective of liberating Zaragoza, the "second city of anarchism" and the capitol of the neighboring province, Aragon.

    In the first two days, the column rolled through Catalonia and advanced to Bujaraloz, a town in Aragon more than three-quarters of the distance between Barcelona and Zaragoza. Bujaraloz would serve as the column's headquarters for its entire existence. Along the way, the column liberated towns like Caspe, Cervera, Llieda, and Fraga, and added ten more centurias totaling 1000 volunteers from the area. They also captured 1000 rounds of ammo, 150 artillery shells, 10 have machine guns with 750 rounds of ammo, 15 trucks, 50 gallons of fuel, and 1000 pounds of food from the Nationalist forces.

    While their hearts were filled with hope by their early successes, already by then the column's official advisors were suggesting they slow down. These were not worker revolutionaries, they were military and police men who lacked the zeal and optimism required in the revolutionary moment, but possessed instead the education and experience of coordinated armed action. The column relented and waited for the other columns to catch up and secure the flanks and supply routes. The anarchists were busy while they waited, helping the peasants reorganize their towns and fields as collectives, establishing publishing efforts, and workeing to educate the rural people.

    After a week of waiting around, the other columns were still lagging behind. With each passing hour, the nationalists strengthened their defensive positions and reinforced the developing front-line. The Nationalists were already receiving help from the German Nazis and Italian Fascists, who provided planes for transporting the colonial Army of Africa from Morocco to southern Spain. These forces were much stronger and more experienced than the Peninsular army the workers defeated in Barcelona, Madrid, and other populous cities. It wouldn't be long before the Army of Africa arrived in Aragon, while Italian and German bombers took control of the skies.

    In the first weeks of August, the Durruti Column lent a hand to the columns in charge of the neighboring sectors, fighting north in Seitamo and liberating towns to the south along the Ebro, such as Gelsa, Pina de Ebro, Osera de Ebro, and Villafranca de Ebro. By August 13, they had also pushed west into the mountain town of Alfajarín, which would be their closest reach toward Zaragoza. From the hill by the old Alfajarín castle, they could see the street cars of Zaragoza. Their enemy made sure to keep the town's lights on all night to taunt the anarchists, who were once again advised strenuously by their advisors to hold up and wait for the front line to catch up to them.

    In the ensuing week, the Durruti Column took stock of their forces and supplies, and reorganized their column. They switched from 10-member groups to 25-member groups. The column now totaled 6000 militia members in 9 Agrupaciones and 45 Centurias. They had 7 or so groups of "Shock forces" totaling around 225 fighters. They organized their Agrupaciones to cover three sectors of the Aragon front. They organized a bakery, a mechanics' section, and a medical section of two doctors and a handful of nurses.

    The column suffered severe supply shortages. They only had 3000 rifles for the 6000 fighters. They only had 16 heavy machine guns and 9 mortars, and the same 12 cannons they left Barcelona with. They had 30 automobiles and 80 trucks, and 10 tiznaos. They turned one truck into a mobile printing press, from which they published their official bulletin, El Frente. Another truck they utilized as a mobile transmitter to blast revolutionary arguments across the front line to encourage soldiers to desert.

    For all of their efforts and optimism, this was the high-water-mark of the Durruti Column. They fought fierce battles throughout September and October, but could not advance further. Their supply issues only got worse. They struggled to maintain their positions against a better armed, organized, and trained professional enemy. 

    In November, Durruti was called to Madrid, which was under a massive siege from the Army of Africa. Durruti arrived in mid-November with the best of the column's centurias. They stood in the breech against the Nationalist thrust in the University City of Madrid, absorbing the blow of the fascist attack. Despite the conditions and a lack of relief or reinforcement from the Republican command, they stopped the Nationalist advance in University City, establishing the frontline there which would remain static for the remaining two and a half years the war. They lost a few buildings and most of the men they had arrived with, but saved Madrid.

    Durruti never returned from Madrid to continue on the push to Zaragoza. He was struck by a bullet on November 19 a few blocks from the front line, and died in the hospital on November 20th, another son of the people lost in the fight for freedom. 

 You may find photos of my Durruti Column miniature forces here:

Durruti Column, first days of the Spanish Civil War

Durruti Column, Mid-August 1936 - on

Shock Forces of the CNT-FAI columns

¡Á Zaragoza! Photos of early CNT-FAI workers columns and their equipment

A commenter in my previous post asked for some close-up photos of my miniatures. I thought it would be a fun opportunity to show off my workers militia columns as they prepare to set off for the campaign my friends and I are playing through.

If you have been following this blog, you know that we've been battling out the first few days of the Spanish Civil War in the streets of Barcelona. We just wrapped up the second scenario of the campaign, wherein the workers crushed the mutinous soldiers, defeating the local arm of the nationalist coup and unleashing a social revolution.

Before breaking down the table for the next game, I set up my version of the antifascist columns' parade on their way out of Barcelona and into the Aragon. Check out this historic video of the parade:

And now, photos of my forces departing Barcelona:

The volunteers come down the Ramblas, circle the Ronda Colom, and head west, ¡Á Zaragoza!

At the front of the Column, José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange rides in the Hispano Suiza. 

This model is based on this historic photograph. Durruti also marches beside the car next to the flag bearer.

The column's commander and namesake drives on, followed by cars painted with the letters and slogans of the CNT-FAI. Armed workers fill the streets.

Close behind the cars are a few trucks carrying anarchist militia volunteers.

Behind the truck comes the first of the tiznaos: improvised armored vehicles, created by metal workers welding plates onto expropriated trucks in the collectivized factories. 

This first one is of my own designed, built from leftover truck parts, plastic scrap, and index card.

The remaining tiznaos are historic ones, built from "paper model" schemes with index card. The first and third are Vulcanos, and the one in between is an MTM-1.

  

You can learn more about the improvised armor used by the Durruti Column at this TMP thread.

I have other tiznaos, including a 3D printed version of King Kong which I created, but only a few tiznaos were built in time to accompany the Durruti Column out of the city that day, and I just used the ones I saw in the video above for this display.

Behind the tiznaos are another car and a few more trucks. The trucks are hauling cannons and machine guns captured from the army.

These particular cannons are from HaT's French WWI Artillery set, which is plastic and inexpensive. 75mm French cannons saw a lot of use in the Spanish Civil War, and I have a good deal of them.

Behind the truck hauling artillery comes another full of volunteers, and two more carrying heavy machine guns.

The first truck carries two guns from BUM sets, which I think are supposed to be Hotchkiss M1914s. The second has a Maxim gun.

At the base of the statue, two HMG crews handle their weapons. The crew on the left are from Minairons, and the one on the right are converted BUM plastic miniatures. 

On the other side of the statue, the new column displays piles of ammunition, weapons, food, and other supplies captured from the army.

Taking up the rear are units wearing mostly brown and black with "mountain" hats. These units served during the previous scenario as "delegates" of the workers defense committees. These miniatures are from a different set of Durruti Column forces I've made, representing later Durruti Column members when the organization became more uniformed and better equipped.

Another from the group of later forces shows off a grenade. This piece is from Bandera's "Durruti Column" set.

The figures are quite a mix. Most of them are probably from Barcelona Universal Models (BUM), with a good deal from Bandera, Minairons, and Irregular, all of whom have their own great Spanish Civil War ranges. There are plenty of conversions in there as well from HaT Industrie and Ceasars and others cheaper plastic figures.  I won't bother to separate them out by company, I'm not making any free commercials here, but if you own a line of Spanish Civil War miniatures and would like to send me some I would be happy to paint them up and take some photos for your publicity.

That said, I'll try to do posts like these every so often, showing off different factions and forces.

The Siege of the Ronda Colom, Part 4

We picked up our battle of the Ronda Colom where we had left off this Sunday morning. Things looked bleak to begin with for the nationalist rebels. In previous rounds, John and I had successfully driven our anarchist workers up the table, containing the mutinous soldiers in the north-eastern corner. This is precisely where our fifty reinforcements would arrive, behind the 2 government buildings, pushing rolls of newspaper for cover (I love history, especially the history of anarchist revolts). 

In the opposite corner, Lee and Chris received two trucks of infantry and another with ammunition. 

John and I had built new barricades, earlier in the game, in preparation for the arrival of these soldiers. We also garrisoned the buildings on either side of the road with four riflemen each, and placed two dynamite throwers behind the stone barricades.

Chris and Lee likewise built a stone barricade to welcome our reinforcements, but as they had been forced to deal with the steady advance of the workers in the previous rounds, they were not quite ready for the arrival of reinforcing workers.

We broke out the booze a little earlier than usual, before we even started playing, actually. As a result we were perhaps not as focused or productive as usual... but we certainly entertained ourselves and celebrated May Day's eve.

Chris rolled against John for Round Initiative to kick off Round 10. Chris won. The nationalists' only remaining operational ranged weapon was a heavy machine gun outside the corner of the Dependencia Militar, center rear of the photo below. The MG crew could barely see the head of one of the anarchists behind the statue poking up behind the sandbags and pile of barrels. Chris fired the MG but could not hit the worker.

Now began our round of ranged weapons, and we sure had a bounty of options at our disposal. John kicked it off with this worker and his home-made grenade. He flung the explosive over the church wall at the blue car and machine gun in front of the Capitancia across the street.

The grenade sailed high, way high, and landed on the roof, causing 5 damage. 

I fired the last shell of cannon 1, set up in front of the Theatro, and hit the roof of the Dependencia, causing minor damage. Next, John looped the plane over the courtyard of the Dependencia, and dropped a bomb perfectly below. It exploded in the courtyard, killing three generals, including the highest ranking commander of the sector, who happened to be standing in the doorway to the courtyard.

Though we did not deduct a morale penalty for the death of the top commander, I think the unexpected event damaged the morale of the players, who soon shifted to a posture of full retreat, opting to attempt the path of victory in which they win by running and surviving for 25 turns.

The cannon the workers captured at the Columbus Statue fired a shell at the orange palace by the harbor. It crashed into the building, causing 3 damage points.

One of the workers lobbed another homemade explosive at the machine gun crew in front of the Dependencia, but also tossed it to far. It destroyed one of the sand bag barricades, but caused no other damage.

Movement Phase began. Chris had the lone surviving soldier behind the blue car crawl toward the idle machine gun to break it down and haul it inside.

Lee, who took command of the reinforcements, with all parties agreeing they were in dire straits, sent their soldiers out of the trucks to fight for the barricades.

This action triggered overwatch. First, I had one of the dynamiters toss a projectile a dangerous 4 inches over the stone barricade.

The bomb fell short, landing just on the other side of the barricade and pinning the worker who threw it. The explosion killed three soldiers, however, pinned a forth, and caused 5 damage to the truck and nearby building.

The second dynamiter was even more successful.

The toss killed 5 more soldiers, pinned 4, and caused 6 damage to both trucks and the blue building. 

Next, the rifles in the blue and gray buildings caught the soldiers in their crossfire, killing 4 more. Half of the platoon of soldiers was dead.

Now it was our turn for movement. Across the table, the workers charged bravely forward. Their moment had arrived.

Half of the reinforcing workers rushed into the back door of the Capitancia. With most of the soldiers inside facing out the west windows at John's advanced positions, only 4 soldiers were positioned to fire at the 25 workers entering. Chris's soldiers stood strong, killed one worker, and pinned another, but it was spitting at the rain.

The workers rushed inside, overtaking the soldiers who had already fired and splitting off to take both the east and west wings of the building. The courtyard, they left unoccupied.

Two more soldiers fired from a second floor window, across the courtyard at the anarchists in the courtyard's eastern doorway, but missed.

Workers rushed out of the I-shaped gray building in the south-east corner to join the advanced group by the statue. Soldiers fired at them from the orange palace by the water, killing two. Another 5 workers survived to join the group at the statue. 

To start the skirmish phase, Chris called for a fight at the frontline between the CNT-FAI reinforcements and the soldiers at the barricade.

I won the roll, and six workers mowed down the 3 soldiers across from them. Inside the building, the workers forced two surrounded soldiers to roll for surrender. Both surrendered.

On the other side of the table, Lee's ambushed soldiers fought back. They fired at the workers who had shot at them from the windows of the buildings. This platoon had high morale due to good rolling before the game. They managed to land some pretty improbable shots, killing three workers. The soldiers now planned to withdraw and attempt the go the long way around the gray building. 

Regroupment phase began. Chris initiated the general evacuation from the Capitancia. Soldiers ran for the staircase in the corner of the building.

The three soldiers alive on the ground floor made it out the low window at the south-east corner.

Next door at the Dependencia, the soldiers remained at their posts.

Across the Ramblas, workers on the second floor of the Atarazana's military office building rushed up to the roof, hunting the lone soldier remaining: a spotter who had been left behind and isolated in the pill box.

Round 11 began. Chris and Lee won the Round Initiative roll again, but when they fired their machine gun at the workers behind the Columbus statue, they missed again. 

John and I began our ranged attack on the nationalist holdouts. Our plane had run out of ammunition and left the table to resupply. Also, it had fallen over and broken, again. My dynamiter on the Ramblas tossed another grenade at the machine gun nest. This one landed closer, not close enough to cause damage, but it did pin the machine gun crew and damage the building.

Behind them, the cannon at the statue fired on the orange palace, but the shell fell harmlessly short. It had not bee a very effective ranged phase for us.

The Movement Phase began. Far to the west, Lee attempted to extract the remaining soldiers from our ambush. The 5 workers who were alive in the buildings fired at the fleeing soldiers, killing 4.

Nine, however, had survived to regroup on the other side of the building.

Four soldiers and officers abandoning the Capitancia ran into the long, low white building by the harbor. They occupied the central building, to the north of the Orange Palace, where they had supplies.

Outside, the workers advanced further. A detachment of the reinfocremence with three grenaders had previously entered the northern section of the long white building by the water. Now they, and their comrades behind the newspaper rolls, prepared to charge further south. They hoped to conquer the souther section of the long white building, the ammo there, and the back door to the orange palace.

Across the Ronda, the anarchists on the roof of the Atarazanas ordered the spotter to surrender. Chris, naturally, refused.

He proceeded to win the roll to refuse surrender, then when the skirmish phase began, he won the local skirmish roll too. Then, the stubborn bastard managed to kill one of my workers with his pistol before being gunned down. Chris is the kind of guy you want on your side in a fight.

Meanwhile, the workers advanced on both sides of the palaces. John's forces marched confidently into the streets, facing no opposition.

The last soldier behind the blue car surrendered without a fight. He probably heard footsteps behind him, as our reinforcements appeared in the doorway after conquering the Capitancia.

John's advanced groups connected with our reinforcements. The all out charge on the Capitancia had been an overwhelming victory. We had only lost 3 or so comrades in the action.

Down the street to the south, more of John's attack groups raced toward the Dependencia through the ally behind the church. I brought a small group with grenaders out of the gray building I had been forced to wrest from Chris's fingers during our previous days play. They charged the machine gun nest behind the sandbags in front of the Dependencia Militar.

The gun crew there had been pinned by the earlier grenade. Thus, they could not skirmish with me, but one of the soldiers inside the vestibule of the Dependencia fired on the approaching anarchists, killing 1.

The remaining workers fired over the sandbags, obliterating the machine gun crew and one of the soldiers in the vestibule.

In the courtyard between the two long white buildings on the northern waterline, one of my dynamiters poked his head around the corner to attempt a toss on the soldiers inside. 

Chris won the roll, the soldiers won the initiative and wasted my dynamiter. That's ok Chris, I have two more dynamiters coming up behind him!

During the Regroupment Phase, I advanced more workers into the Ronda. We needed to close the pockets around the surviving soldiers. 

Though I knew it wasn't super smart, I reinforced the fairly-exposed group behind the Columbus Statue. Others left the Atarazanas and took cover behind the burnt out truck. I needed to amass an attack force close enough to rush the orange palace when the time came. Or at least enough workers to keep Chris's soldiers looking that way while I attacked through safer corridors to the rear...

During regroupment, my former artillery crew, armed with rifles of fallen comrades, joined the group guarding the barricade behind the Theatro. They vaulted the barricade and set off to hunt the soldiers.

My previously-pinned dynamiters peeled off the barricades, which had served us well. Three army trucks, two slightly damaged and the third full of ammo, stood, abandoned, on the other side.

Other comrades, delegates from the defense committees who had been spread out along the alleys to relay orders and information, moved west to join the chase.

On the other side of the Theatro, the truck arrived to pick up cannon 2. The crew loaded it into the bed.

We ended the day there. The workers had breached the army's defensive line and pushed on all three objectives. The original assault force, bolstered by many workers' defense groups, made contact with the reinforcing workers in the Capitancia.

The soldiers still clung to the upper floors of the Dependencia, but their hold was tenuous.

Four soldiers remained in the white building north of and connected to the orange palace, but throngs of workers pressed them from two sides.

At the end of the day, the Nationalists' strongest remaining position was the orange palace by the harbor.  They had six soldiers, including a light machine gun, positioned in the windows there.

The workers of the CNT-FAI defense committees had raised the red and black flag of social anarchism over two of the three objectives.

Besides the 9 survivors of the Cavalry group on the run behind the lines, the only remaining soldiers were confined to three buildings in a wedge on the eastern edge of the table, surrounded by armed and enraged workers. 

It took us a couple of days, but we have decided to call this game now and move on to the next scenario. With control of two of the three objectives in the workers hands, and the army actively abandoning the third objective, this siege has finally ended in a decisive victory for the CNT-FAI. Lee and Chris played admirably, in a scenario which all agreed was lopsided, which accurately reflected the balance of forces during the historic event.

For John and I, our battle strategy worked great. We were initially set back when Lee's first cannon shot obliterated an entire assault group of 25, but after that we were able to move steadily from building to building, holding positions outside of the northern palaces while we marched down the south side of the table, surrounding the army's positions. By the end of the four days of play, we had control of the vast majority of the table, and had captured or knocked out all of their machine guns and artillery.

Check back next time, when our campaign takes us out of the streets of Barcelona, and into the Aragon countryside, ¡Á Zaragoza!