During the Spanish Civil War, both sides of the conflict fielded ideological militia units. Today, I am sharing my Right-Wing militias, in preparation for Scenario 3: The Battle of Caspe. Below, you will find photos of the Requete militias, followed by those of the Falange.
In the images below, we have the Requete militia, preparing to defend the Caspe church (based loosely off the real church in Caspe).
The Requetes began as a Catholic monarchist boy-scouts-type operation, which became militarized before the war. Politically, they were a bizarre "Carlist" faction. The movement began a century before the Spanish Civil War, by supporters of Ferdinand VII's son, Carlos V, who made a claim to the Spanish throne in 1833.
By the 1930s, they were a large and well-organized outfit, based largely in the Basque region, who wanted Spain to be even more conservative and Catholic than it already was, if you can believe that.
At the top of the church, various Requete militiamen stand around an armed priest (from Irregular miniatures). There are many reports of clergy members firing out at the crowds of workers in the opening days of the Spanish Civil War, which led in some cases to mobs attacking the churches. 1, 2, 3*.
With the priest are a Requete LMG team, from Miniarions, as well as various grenaders and a spotter/officer, which I believe was from one of Caesar Miniatures' partisans sets (Underground Resisters, or Partisans in Europe).
The Carlists in the church plaza are also a mix of Minairons and Ceasars.
In the church itself, I have another priest from Irregular, as well as nuns from the Partisans in Europe set.
For the next set of the photos, we have the real fascists of the Spanish Civil War - The Falange militia. I won't say too much more about them politically, but I did put them here in the graveyard, where fascists belong.
These miniatures are all plastic, mostly from the same sets of Caesars' but also some Barcelona Universal Models (BUM).
-Thanks to Lee for research assistance on this blog post.
