Battle of Talavera de la Reina

In its advance toward Madrid, the Army of Africa carried out a wide sweep from Seville through Extremadura, keeping the secure border with Portugal at its side or to its rear. It fought several battles against undisciplined Republican forces, composed of a mixture of militias, police units, and military units. Time and again, the rebel troops executed encircling maneuvers that spread panic among the static Republicans, leading to mass routs and, ultimately, defeats. This pattern was repeated in the Battle of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), which took place on 3 September 1936. As well as another Republican military defeat, this battle also had serious military and political consequences.

The troops commanded by Colonel Juan Yagüe reached the outskirts of Talavera on 2 September. They were preceded by a terrifying reputation following the massacres they had carried out in Extremadura, notably those of Mérida and Badajoz. Once again, the Republicans prepared to defend the ground, relying on trenches and a relative superiority in artillery. Once again, they had superior numbers: around 10,000 compared to the 5,000 attackers, but they were not an experienced or disciplined military force. The photo shows carabineros (border guards) entering the city to join the defence. Once again, the encircling maneuvers of the colonial troops spread panic among the Republicans, who fled, leaving much of their equipment behind. And once again, Francoist repression in left hundreds of victims among those who surrendered and among ordinary civilians. (There were so many bodies that they were burned with gasoline). But before that, the fighting had resulted in around 1,000 casualties among the rebels and another 1,500 among the defenders. 

The road to Madrid was left open for the Army of Africa, but it was decimated and exhausted, so it halted for two and a half weeks.

The most immediate consequence of the battle was the fall of José Giral’s exclusively Republican government and its replacement on 4 September by the Popular Front government led by Socialist Francisco Largo Caballero. On the military level, the delay in the rebel advance allowed the continued reinforcement of the defenses of Madrid. 

This was compounded by Franco´s subsequent error. When, on 21 September, Yagüe’s troops reached Maqueda, where the road forked toward Madrid or Toledo, Franco ordered them to head to the latter city to lift the siege of the Alcázar. Yagüe objected vehemently and was replaced by José Enrique Varela. This decision proved to be highly advantageous for Franco politically and in propaganda terms, but it was a clear military error. It allowed Madrid’s defenses to be strengthened even more, and for the first units of the International Brigades and modern Soviet war matériel to arrive.

When Varela finally arrived at Madrid at the beginning of November, he found that his forces were unable to penetrate the trenches defending the capital; not then nor during the two and a half years that the war lasted.

ACS