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Skiers in the Service of the Second Republic: The Alpine Battalion during the Spanish Civil War

2023; Routledge; Volume: 40; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2023.2177277

1743-9035

Alejandro Viuda-Serrano, Iker Ibarrondo-Merino,

Sport and Mega-Event Impacts

AbstractDuring the Second Republic proletarian sport developed in Castile, with a prominent socialist and communist influence and a clear international scope, bringing physical activity closer to the popular sectors. During the Spanish Civil War leftist social and political organizations understood it as a class-based conflict with sport as a distinctive key element of the working-class and managed to create battalions, some of them closely related to sport. The main objectives of this study are to clarify the formation, development and significance of the Alpine Battalion, and to discuss the role of sportsmen in wartime as a consequence of their political and sport practices. To achieve these targets, archival and press material was analyzed. Results show evidence of the formation of the Alpine Battalion around the Guadarrama range (Madrid) to protect the entrance to the capital city in December 1936 with socialist and communist members. Salud y Cultura, one of the first popular sport associations in Spain, played an important role being the key element to create the battalion. Despite political tensions, the battalion succeeded in creating an adequate environment for sport, culture and political analysis but also helped the Republican war effort until the end of the conflict.Keywords: Alpine BattalionSpanish Civil Warskiersworkers’ sportSpanish Second Republic AcknowledgementsThis research has been supported by the Ministerio de Universidades, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid RD 289/2021 and funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU).Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Sport and social class’, Social Science Information 17, no. 819 (1978), 837. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018478017006032 James Riordan, ‘Introduction’, in The Story of Worker Sport, ed. Arnd Krüger and James Riordan (Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1996), vii-viii.3 James Riordan, ‘The sports policy of the Soviet Union, 1917-1941’ in Pierre Arnaud and James Riordan, Sport and International Politics. The impact of fascism and communism on sport (London and New York: E & FN SPON, 1998), 69.4 André Gounot, ‘Between revolutionary demands and diplomatic necessity. The uneasy relationship between Soviet sport and worker and bourgeois sport in Europe from 1920 to 1937’ in Pierre Arnaud and James Riordan, Sport and International Politics. The impact of fascism and communism on sport (London and New York: E & FN SPON, 1998), 186.5 André Gounot, ‘Social Democratic and Communist Influences on Workers’ Sport across Europe (1893-1939)’, Labour History Review 80, no. 1 (2015): 13.6 André Gounot, ‘Le ‘front populaire des sportifs’ (1935-1939)’, in Les Mouvements sportifs ouvriers en Europe (1893-1939), ed. André Gounot (Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2016), 178.7 André Gounot, ‘The project of the People’s Olympic Games of Barcelona (1936), between Communism and regional Republicanism’, Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte 1, no. 3 (2015): 117.8 Tony Mason and Eliza Riedi, Sport and the Military. The British Armed Forces 1880-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 3.9 Ibid., 7.10 James A. Mangan and Colm Hickey, ‘Rescued from Obscurity: Forgotten of the Great War. Elementary Schoolteacher Sportsmen at the Front’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, nos. 3-4 (2011): 531-67; Clive Harris and Julian Whippy, The Greater Game. Sporting Icons Who Fell in the Great War (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2008).11 Brandon Luedtke, ‘Playing Fields and Battlefields: The Football Pitch, England and the First World War’, Britain and the World 5, no. 1 (2012): 96-115; Nigel McCrery, The Final Season. The Footballers Who Fought and Died in the Great War (London: Random House Books, 2014a).12 Nigel McCrery, Into Touch. Rugby Internationals killed during the First World War (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2014b); David Woodall, The Mobbs Own 1914-1918: The 7th Battalion. The Northamptonshire Regiment (Northampton: Northamptonshire Regiment Association, 2000); Tony Collins, ‘English Rugby Union and the First World War’, Historical Journal 45, no. 4 (2002): 797-817.13 David Bilton, Hull Pals. 10th, 11th, 12th & 13th Battalions East Yorkshire Regiment. A History of 92 Infantry Brigade 31st Division (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2014); Fred W. Ward, The 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (First Sportman’s). A Record of its Services in the Great War, 1914-1919 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1920).14 Kevin Blackburn, War, Sport and the Anzac Tradition (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); Murray G. Phillips, ‘Sport, War and Gender Images: The Australian Sportsmen’s Battalions and the First World War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 14, no. 1 (1997): 78-96; Jason Wilson, ‘Skating to Armageddon: Canada, Hockey and the First World War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 22, no. 3 (2005): 315-43; Andrew Horral, ‘‘Keep-A-Fighting! Play the Game!’: Baseball and the Canadian Forces during the First World War’, Canadian Military History 10, no. 2 (2001): 27-40. http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol10/iss2/3; Liam O’Callaghan, ‘Irish rugby and the First World War’, Sport in Society 19, no. 1 (2016): 97. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2015.103891615 J. A. Mangan, ‘Foreword’, in J. A. Mangan, Shaping the Superman: Fascist Body as Political Icon – Aryan Fascism (London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1999), xii.16 Mason and Riedi, Sport and the Military, 3.17 Arnaud Waquet, ‘Sport in the Trenches: The New Deal for Masculinity in France’, in Thierry Terret and J. A. Mangan, Sport, Militarism and the Great War: Martial Manliness and Armageddon (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), 14.18 Lorna Jackson, ‘Patriotism or Pleasure? The Nineteenth Century Volunteer Force as a Vehicle for Rural Working-Class Male Sport, The Sports Historian 19, no. 1 (1999): 137; J. Jason Wilson, ‘Skating to Armageddon: Canada, Hockey and the First World War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 22, no. 3 (2005): 337.19 Murray G. Phillips, ‘Sport, war and gender images: the Australian sportsmen’s and the First World War’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 14, no. 1 (1997): 81.20 See the example of the Footballers’ Battalion, 17th battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, as a propaganda unit: Ian Nannestad, ‘The charge of football is good, that with the bayonet finer’: the formation of the footballers’ Battalion, 1914’, Soccer History, no. 1 (2002): 6. For battalions with significant roles in war see an example: Jack Alexander, McCrae’s Battalion: the Story of the 16th Royal Scots (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2003).21 William D. Frank, Everyone to skis! Skiing in Russia and the rise of Soviet biathlon (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014), 15.22 E. John B. Allen, ‘Introduction: Skiing in Europe prior to World War I’, in K. B. E. E. Eimeleus, Skis in the Art of War (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2019), xvii.23 Gordon Williamson, German Mountain & Ski Troops 1939-1945 (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996), 3.24 Franco Dell’Uomo, Roberto Di Rosa and Amedeo Chiusano, L’Esercito italiano verso il 2000. Storia dei Corpi dal 1861. Vol. 1, Part 1 (Roma: Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito. Ufficio Storico, 2002).25 Stephen Bull, World War II Winter and Mountain Warfare Tactics (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2013).26 Peter Shelton, Climb to Conquer. The Untold Story of World War II’s 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops (New York: Scribner, 2003).27 ‘Spain’ is used throughout the document as a widespread and general term with no political or territorial connotations.28 For military cycling see: Francisco del Río Joan, Ciclismo Militar. Aportaciones para un Reglamento de Campaña, (Madrid: Imprenta de la Revista Técnica de Infantería y Caballería, 1912). For military gymnastics see: Depósito de la Guerra, Reglamento provisional de gimnasia para infantería (Madrid: Talleres del Depósito de la Guerra, 1921). For physical education see: Eduardo de los Reyes Sanz, El Ejército y su Influencia en la Educación Física Nacional (Manresa: Imprenta de Esparbé, 1921); Dirección General de Preparación de Campaña, Reglamento de Instrucción Física para el Ejército (Madrid: Talleres del Depósito de la Guerra, 1927).29 See Justo Alberto Huerta Barajas, Gobierno y Administración Militar en la II República española: 14 de abril de 1931/18 de julio de 1936 (Madrid: Boletín Oficial del Estado, 2016), 493. This battalion was formally disbanded in Alcalá de Henares in July 1936 due to its participation on the uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War. See: ‘Detalles interesantes de la toma de Alcalá de Henares por las tropas del pueblo’, La Libertad, July 23,1936, 8; See also archive material: Causa no. 12 (1936) instruida contra el Batallón Ciclista de Alcalá de Henares por el delito de Rebelión Militar, Document 28079, File 175, Dossier 37, Sección Fondos Contemporáneos (hereafter FC), Causa General (hereafter CG), Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, Spain (hereafter AHN).30 Andrés Domínguez and Xavier Pujadas, ‘Estadios y trincheras. Deporte y retaguardia en la guerra civil, 1936-1939’, in Atletas y ciudadanos. Historia social del deporte en España 1870-2010, ed. Xavier Pujadas (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2011), 198-201. On the issue of sport and diplomacy during Francoism see: Juan Antonio Simón, ‘Football, Diplomacy, and the International Relations during Francoism, 1937-1975’, in Soccer Diplomacy: International Relations and Football since 1914, ed. Heather Dichter (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020), 48-69, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12sdv7x; Alejandro Viuda-Serrano, ‘A diplomatic mission. Spain and the 1948 London Olympics’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 27, no. 6 (2010): 1080-103.31 Alejandro Viuda-Serrano and Iker Ibarrondo-Merino, ‘Doomed Youth: Antonio Cánovas, a Young Sportsman in Time of War in 1930s Spain’, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 3, 577814 (2021): 10.32 Julián García Candau, El deporte en la guerra civil (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 2007), 79-87.33 Juan Ferragut, ‘El batallón Ciclista Enrique Malatesta. La útil colaboración del deporte’, Mundo Gráfico, March 24, 1937, 5. The Battalion had mainly messaging and liaison duties: ‘El batallón ciclista Enrique Malatesta, magnífico agente de enlace, presta valiosísimos servicios en el frente y en la retaguardia’, Ahora, December 22, 1936, 8; ‘Notas de unos combatientes del Batallón ciclista’, La Trinchera, June 20, 1937, 3.34 Francisco de Luis, Historia del deporte obrero en España. De los orígenes al final de la guerra civil (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2019), 282.35 Ibid., 285; Miguel Flores, Antonio Gascón and Fernando Martínez de Baños, Guerra civil Aragón: El Pirineo (Zaragoza: Delsan Libros, 2008).36 Javier Pérez, La brigada de los toreros. Historia de la 96 Brigada Mixta del Ejército Popular (Madrid: Almena, 2005).37 For the Batallón Joven Guardia see: Comité Nacional de la FCDO, ‘En Valencia se ha constituido la Federación Cultural Deportiva Obrera’, El Mundo Deportivo, November 4, 1936, 4. For the Batallón Cultura y Deporte see: Iker Ibarrondo-Merino, ‘Basque sportspeople under the shelling of the Condor Legion. Batallón Cultura y Deporte during the Spanish Civil War’, European Studies in Sports History no. 12 (2019): 169-92.38 Domínguez and Pujadas, ‘Estadios y trincheras’, 200.39 ‘La juventud por la libertad. Una magnífica selección de deportistas se contiene en el II Batallón del Regimiento Pirenaico que va a partir hacia el frente’, El Mundo Deportivo, March 3, 1937, 1; Jaume de Ramon, El Regiment Pirinenc núm. 1 de Catalunya (Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau, 2004).40 Andrés Domínguez, ‘La práctica de la modernidad: Orígenes y consolidación de la cultura deportiva en España’, in Atletas y ciudadanos. Historia social del deporte en España 1870-2010, ed. Xavier Pujadas (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2011), 55.41 Xavier Pujadas, ‘Del barrio al estadio. Deporte, mujeres y clases populares en la Segunda República, 1931-1936’, in Atletas y ciudadanos. Historia social del deporte en España 1870-2010, ed. Xavier Pujadas (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2011), 127.42 Ibid.43 Pujadas, ‘Del barrio al estadio’, 137.44 De Luis, Historia del deporte obrero en España, 224-34; Pujadas, ‘Del barrio al estadio’, 127.45 Ramón Martorell, ‘Salud y Cultura’, Crónica, August 8, 1937, 8-9. For the Sociedad Deportiva Obrera see: De Luis, Historia del deporte obrero en España, 28-40.46 Pujadas, ‘Del barrio al estadio’, 141.47 Xavier Pujadas and Carles Santacana, L’altra Olimpíada. Barcelona’36 (Barcelona: Llibres de L’Índex, 1990); Iker Ibarrondo-Merino, ‘El apoyo a la Olimpiada Popular de Barcelona 1936 en Castilla’ (PhD diss., Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 2021), 187.48 José G. Cayuela, ‘La Sierra de Guadarrama, ámbito deportivo de la Sociedad madrileña, 1870-1936’, in Orígenes del deporte madrileño, 1870-1936: condiciones sociales de la actividad deportiva, coord. Ramón Zabalza (Madrid: Comunidad de Madrid, 1987), 81-7.49 Ibid., 106-8.50 Ramón Martorell, ‘Salud y Cultura’, Crónica, August 8, 1937, 8-9.51 ‘Grupo alpino Salud y Cultura ante la Olimpiada Negra de Bertín’, Mundo Obrero, February 4,1936, 5; Ramón Martorell, ‘Salud y Cultura’, Crónica, August 8, 1937, 8-9.52 ‘Un batallón de skiadores para la lucha en la nieve’, Estampa, October 10, 1936, 21-2.53 Ramón Tamames, La República. La era de Franco (Madrid: Alianza, 1973), 263-4.54 Ibid., 265-71.55 Gabriel Jackson, La República española y la Guerra Civil, 1931-1939 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1978), 277-95.56 ‘Un batallón de skiadores para la lucha en la nieve’, Estampa, October 10, 1936, 21-2.57 ‘Batallón alpino juventud’, El Liberal, September 25, 1936, 4; File 1561, Dossier 17, page 40, FC, CG, AHN.58 Jacinto M. Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama (Madrid: La Librería, 2006), 209. Velázquez is mentioned in the repression records at the AHN: File 1561, Dossier 17, pages 35, 40 and 44, FC, CG, AHN. He was a leader of Salud y Cultura: ‘Se celebra una reunión en Madrid para formar el Comité Español’, El Socialista, May 16, 1936, 5.59 ‘Se convoca a los milicianos que tengan prácticas de esquí’, El Sol, September 25, 1936, 2; ‘Está formándose el batallón alpino juventud’, La Voz, September 25, 1936, 2.60 ‘Llamamiento a los esquiadores’, El Sol, October 3, 1936, 2.61 ‘Batallón Alpino juventud’, El Liberal, September 27, 1936, 5.62 ‘Se celebra una reunión en Madrid para formar el Comité Español’, El Socialista, May 16, 1936, 5.63 ‘Editorial’, Cumbres, no. 5, October 1937, 1.64 ‘Por el Batallón Alpino juventud’, El Liberal, October 26, 1936, 7.65 About his involvement in the battalion see: Bernard Sicot, ‘Luis Cernuda: los años del compromiso (1931-1938)’, La Experiencia Literaria, no. 16 (2009): 105-130.66 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 40, FC, CG, AHN.67 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 209. Balaguer is mentioned in the repression records at the AHN: File 1561, Dossier 17, page 68, FC, CG, AHN.68 ‘Batallón Alpino’, La Libertad, September 16, 1936, 5; ‘El alistamiento en las milicias de la república’, La Voz, September 22, 1936, 2.69 ‘El comandante Rodríguez, de oficio mecánico, que fundó el batallón alpino’, Mundo Gráfico, July 14, 1937, 2.70 ‘Socorros y donativos’, La Voz, September 22, 1936, 3; ‘Noticias diversas’, El Liberal, September 23, 1936, 6. The Sociedad Peñalara collected donations for the battalion at its office, Pi y Margall St. no. 5; the Sociedad Deportiva Excursionista accepted cash or equipment at its secretary office, Eduardo Dato St., no. 5.71 ‘La bandera del 5º Regimiento condecorada con la medalla de oro de la Cruz Roja’, La Voz, October 12, 1936, 3; ‘El Batallón Alpino’, La Voz, September 28, 1936, 3. The combatants enjoyed with various songs to cope with the war. We can highlight this one: ‘Con su cabo a la cabeza y sus esquís a sus pies, son los amos de la sierra, y al fascismo han de vencer [With their sergeant at the head and skis on their feet, they are the masters of the mountains and have to defeat fascism]’ (Clemente Cimorra, ‘Un día de ventisca y nieve con los esquiadores de la guerra’, La Voz, November 29, 1936, 1).72 ‘Los milicianos del batallón alpino esperan en las crestas nevadas entrar en liza’, Crónica, December 20, 1936, 12. They ultimately would change the name to Mountain Battalion (File 1561, Dossier 17, page 3, FC, CG, AHN).73 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 73, FC, CG, AHN; ‘La organización de las milicias voluntarias’, Ahora, October 28, 1936, 9.74 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 9, FC, CG, AHN; Mauro Bajatierra, ‘La guerra. Sangre y nieve’, Umbral, February 5, 1938, 8-9.75 File 1561, Dossier 17, pages 6 and 30, FC, CG, AHN; Mauro Bajatierra, ‘La guerra. Sangre y nieve’, Umbral, February 5, 1938, 8-9; Luis Gallego, ‘Luchemos’, La Voz del Combatiente, April 29, 1937, 3; ‘Relato de la guerra. Los guardabosques actúan’, La Voz del Combatiente, June 11, 1937, 3.76 ‘Los milicianos del batallón alpino esperan en las crestas nevadas entrar en liza’, Crónica, December 20, 1936, 12.77 Miguel Arribas, ‘Ayer, hoy, mañana’, Cumbres, no. 1, January 1937, 8.78 Mauro Bajatierra, ‘La guerra. Sangre y nieve’, Umbral, February 5, 1938, 8-9.79 Francisco Molina, ‘Nuestra especialidad’, Cumbres, no. 5, October 1937, 3; Francisco Molina, ‘La maniobra’, Cumbres, no. 9, June 1938, 2. ‘Tropas de montaña’, Cumbres, no. 2, February 1937, 2.80 ‘Relato de la guerra. Los guardabosques actúan’, La Voz del Combatiente, June 11, 1937, 3.81 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 137.82 All the issues of Cumbres are available in the Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid, collection Periódicos Varios de Guerra (PVG), vol. 7, no. 16, 386/2.83 Enrique Hurtado, ‘El deporte en nuestro Batallón’, Cumbres, no. 3, August 1937, 6; ‘Deporte’, Cumbres, no. 5, October 1937, 8; Enrique Hurtado, ‘Desarrollo deportivo en el ejército’, Cumbres, no. 10, July 1938, 10.84 Enrique Hurtado, ‘El deporte adaptado a la guerra’, Cumbres, no. 2, July 1937, 7.85 Unión de Muchachas (Girls’ Union) was a rearward battalion made up of 2,000 communist young women who participated in combat around Madrid. See Lisa Lines, ‘Female Combatants in the Spanish Civil War: Milicianas on the Front Lines and in the Rearward’, Journal of International Women’s Studies 10, no. 4 (2009), 183; ‘Festival-homenaje al ejército de centro por la Unión de Muchachas’, Ahora, September 7, 1937, 2.86 ‘Clausura de la Exposición de guerra de la Llar del Combatent Catalá’, La Libertad, August 30, 1938, 2.87 ‘En la Sierra Nueva’, República, January 29, 1937, 5.88 Joaquín de la Cámara, ‘Serranía’, La Voz del Combatiente, April 20, 1937, 6.89 File 1298, Dossier 1, FC, CG, AHN.90 Teógenes Díaz, ‘el Ejército político, premisa fundamental para ganar la guerra’, La Voz del Combatiente, February 5, 1937, 4.91 Mauro Bajatierra, ‘La guerra. Sangre y nieve’, Umbral, February 5, 1938, 8-9. That was the case of the soccer player of Madrid FC José María Muñagorri: File 1561, Dossier 17, page 43, FC, CG, AHN. Manuel Balbuena was killed for desertion on April 1938: File 1561, Dossier 18, pages 147-179, FC, CG, AHN. Manuel Fouz was also killed on February 1938 for desertion: File 1561, Dossier 18, pages 180-214, FC, CG, AHN.92 File 1561, Dossier 17, pages 5-6, FC, CG, AHN. Luis Rodríguez Manteola was killed on December 1937 allegedly for desertion. However, his murder was ordered for suspicions about his political loyalty: File 1561, Dossier 18, pages 3-42, FC, CG, AHN.93 Pedro Sánchez López, ‘Kultura Cultura’, Cumbres, no. 3, August 1937, 6.94 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 24, FC, CG, AHN. Number of soldiers by the end of 1937. See Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 213.95 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 5, FC, CG, AHN.96 ‘El Batallón Alpino crea la 4ª compañía’, El Liberal, December 19, 1936, 4.97 File 1561, Dossier 17, page 67, FC, CG, AHN; Alberto Palmer, ‘Editorial’, Cumbres, no. 8, February 1938, 1.98 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 210.99 The official name was ‘Batallón de Montaña del Ejército de Centro’. See ‘Circular del Ejército de Tierra’, Diario Oficial del Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, no. 146, June 18, 1937, 653.100 Ibid., 211.101 1st company: Alejandro Gutiérrez (Jun./18/1937-Aug./31/1937), Ángel Tresaco (Aug./31/1937-Oct./01/1938) and Crescencio Montenegro (Oct./01/1938-Apr./01/1939); 2nd Company: Miguel Arribas (Jun./18/1937-Oct./01/1938) and José Pérez (Oct./01/1938-Apr./01/1939); 3rd Company: Vicente García (Jun./18/1937-Apr./01/1939); 4th company: Jesús Velázquez (Jun./18/1937-Oct./01/1938) and Ricardo Palacios (Oct./01/1938-Apr./01/1939); 5th company: José Valdevira (Jun./18/1937-Jan./24/1939) and Victoriano Rodríguez (Jan./24/1939- Apr./01/1939); 6th company: Ambrosio Tiedra (Jun./18/1937-Apr./01/1939); 7th company: José Liaño (Jun./18/1937-Apr./01/1939). See Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 211.102 Political commissars appear to have their origins in the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Commissars were responsible for the discipline of the unit and mediation between militiamen and the military command. See Amanda Marie Spencer, ‘The Defence of Madrid: The Spanish Communist Party in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Vol. I’ (PhD diss., Department of History, University of Sheffield, 2006), 120-1.103 Ibid. Palmer is mentioned in the repression records at the AHN: File 1561, Dossier 17, pages 33 and 44, FC, CG, AHN.104 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 189-206; García Candau, El deporte en la guerra civil, 112-20.105 The Thälmann Battalion was part of the International Brigades in the SCW. Named after the German communist Ernst Thälmann, included around 1,500 German, Austrian, Swiss and Scandinavian soldiers. They fought mainly in the defence of Madrid. See Arnold Krammer, ‘Germans Against Hitler: The Thaelmann Brigade’, Journal of Contemporary History 4, no. 2 (1969): 65-81.106 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 54.107 Two companies were usually at the highest positions of the Guadarrama front while other two remained at the rearguard. The rest of the battalion was involved in surveillance or supply services and a small part of the battalion was on leave in the nearby towns.108 The night of March 5, 1939, Colonel Segismundo Casado, commander of the Republican Army of the Central Region, carried out a coup d’etat in Madrid with the collaboration of some socialist, republican and anarchist leaders, allegedly to reach an honorable peace agreement with Franco and to avoid the shedding of more Republican blood continuing with a hopeless struggle. Communist units resisted and tried to secure Madrid, but they were wiped out by the anarchist General Mera 4th Army Corps. On March 29 Franco marched unopposed into Madrid. See Ángel Viñas, ‘Playing with History and Hiding Treason: Colonel Casado’s Untrustworthy Memories and the End of the Spanish Civil War’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 91, no. 1-2 (2014): 296-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2013.868646109 Arévalo, El Batallón Alpino del Guadarrama, 85-6.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlejandro Viuda-SerranoDr. Alejandro Viuda-Serrano is a Senior Lecturer at the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain). The former General Secretary of the European Committee for Sports History (CESH), his research is focused on sports history during the Spanish Civil War and Francoism as well as on history of Olympism, education, press and gender.Iker Ibarrondo-MerinoDr. Iker Ibarrondo-Merino is a postdoctoral researcher at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and a researcher at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid (Spain). He was awarded the CESH Early Career Scholar Award 2018 and has recently published in European Studies in Sports History (ESSH) and Frontiers in Sport and Active Living. His research interests are workers’ sport and politics in Spain.