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The 17th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Popular Army of Madrid, took part in the Battle of Jarama and the fronts of Guadalajara.(Spanish: 15.ª División)[1] This was a division of the Spanish Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. which was involved in the Battle of Jarama —and great part of the Battle of Madrid, suffering grievous losses in both battles.
17th 17.ª B.Mixta | |
---|---|
Active | 1936–1939 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | Spanish Republican Army |
Type | Infantry division |
Role | Home Defence |
Part of | Toledo Autonomous Group (1936) 3rd Army Corps (1936 - 1938) 8th Army Corps (1938-9). |
Engagements | Spanish Civil War |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/GCE-Frente_en_nov_1938.svg/300px-GCE-Frente_en_nov_1938.svg.png)
The 17th Mixed Brigade was constituted, at the end of 1936, in Villarrobledo and the command was given to Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry Germán Madroñero López, having as commissar Manuel Simarro Quiles, of the PSOE. Madroñero was at the outbreak of the war, commander in the Wad-Ras Regiment No. 1 of Madrid. In mid-January 1937, the unit was mobilized and stationed in Ocaña with the intention that it would intervene in a planned offensive for Brunete, which will take time to complete. On 7 February, in the Battle of Jarama the Brigade was entrusted with the defense of the Titulcia Bridge until they were replaced with the Chorda Group. The Nationalist forces managed to pass through another route, avoiding the destruction of the bridge, which resulted in the 17th mixed brigade to close the gap and in relief of the 23rd WB. The unit was then transferred to the 15th division to aid in their reinforcement and assign new competences in the front of Madrid until that in December 1937.
History
editThe brigade was officially created on 29 July 1936 while the militias of the Fifth Regiment were militarized and organized in the provinces of Madrid, Toledo, Cuenca and Guadalajara, with some soldiers assigned to the latter. The first commander of the unit was the eldest of the Lieutenant Colonel of German Infantry Madroñero, then the war arrives in Madrid and the jarama and is appointed political commissar, Angel Maynar Cebrián. The unit was framed in the 13th Division of the III Army Corps.
The 17th mixed brigades had begun with the reservation.[2] In June the division became part of the Madrid Operations Army (transl. Madrid Operations Army), which was formed by the 15a.[3]
Jarama Battles
editIn mid-January 1937 he concentrated on Morata, preparing for an offensive test in Brunete that had to be delayed. After being a reserve unit and relay in the defense of Madrid, after a brief rest in the rear, Alcalá de Henares, it mobilized to intervene as a buffer force of the regular forces of Buruaga, in the vicinity of The hill of Suicide and white house. With the duties of the battle of Jarama, he was entrusted with the conquest of Pingarrón in the first moments. It intervened in the Battle of Jarama attacking the hill of El Pingarrón in February, the unit was decimated and in first line, after being eliminated many soldiers, it is the moment in which Luis Alcázar is a new sergeant of this unit.
On 12 February he attacked the Cuesta de la Reina and, two days later, he faced the Pingarrón Vertex. The next day, it was framed in the "B" Division commanded by the Yugoslav general Gal, participating with her, again, in bloody battles around the Pingarrón. During these actions, Madroñero was relieved by the infantry commander Hilario Cid Manzano who, on 18 July 1936, was a retired captain in Madrid.
At the end of the fight in the Jarama, the 17th Brigade joined the 13th Division and with it in front of Madrid, with a command post in Morata de Tajuña, under the command of a forgotten character: Lieutenant Colonel Julián del Castillo Sánchez. He was a 72-year-old infantry lieutenant, retired in Madrid and winner of the Cruz de San Fernando prize in the Cuban War.[4]
The 17th mixed brigade spent the rest of the war in a trench war, without fighting to be prominent, except for an attempt to break the front, to the desperate Francoist, to try to paralyze the national in the offensive Peñarroya, in January 1939 On 28 March, when the Madrid front surrendered, the Brigade closed its history.
Leaders
edit- Commanders
- Militia Lieutenant Germán Madroñero López (July 1936 - February 1937)
- Captain of Infantry Hilario Cid Manzano 14 February 1937 - June 1937).
- Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry Julián del Castillo Sánchez (July 1937- December 1937);
- Militia Major (December 1937 - March 1938), Carlos Fabra Marín;
- Militia Major Gregorio Herrero del Olmo, March 1938 October 1938.
- Militia major Manuel López Cabanas, October 1938 December 1938.
- Militia Captain Vicente Abad Olmos;
- Militia captain of Infantry (June 1937), Gil Montoya;
- Commissars
- Ángel Maynar Cebrián, member of the PSOE.
- Pedro Tordesillas Sanz, member of General Staff.
- Manuel Simarro Quiles, member of PCE.
See also
editBibliography
edit- Alpert, Michael (1989); El Ejército Republicano en la Guerra Civil, Siglo XXI de España, Madrid.ISBN 978-84-323-0682-2
- Carlos Engel Masoliver|Engel Masoliver, Carlos (1999); Historia de las Brigadas mixtas del Ejército popular de la República, 1936-1939, Editorial Almena, Madrid, 1999 ISBN 84-96170-19-5
- Thomas, Hugh (1976); Historia de la Guerra Civil Española. Círculo de Lectores, Barcelona.ISBN 84-226-0874-X.
- Salas Larrazábal, Ramón (2006); Historia del Ejército Popular de la República. La Esfera de los Libros S.L. ISBN 84-9734-465-0
References
edit- ^ Carlos Engel, Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del E. P. de la República, 1999, p. 98
- ^ Republica / Fuerzas / EPR / EPRO / OrdenMar37.htm O.1c) Order of battle of the Popular Army at Largo de Largo Caballero: April - May 1937
- ^ Republic / Forces / EPR / EprO / OrdenJun37.htm Popular Army Battle Orders: June 1937
- ^ José Luis Comellas, José Andrés-Gallego (1990). The Second Republic and the war . Vol. 17. Madrid: Rialp. ISBN 8432121150.