(2 of 5)
Alphabet Militia. When, beginning July 17, 1936, Army garrisons all over Morocco and Spain revolted under their officers' orders, Leftist political groups in Spain were not entirely unprepared. Wiseacres had believed that civil war was inevitable ever since the February elections gave the Rightist parties a popular vote of 4,696,000 to the Leftists' 4,356,000, but, owing to Spain's peculiar electoral system, gave the Leftists control of the Government with 296 seats in Parliament to the Rightists' 177. The Rightists correctly assumed that over to them would go most troops of Spain's regular Army, but assorted Leftist political groups began drilling and equipping little armies or militias of their own: the C.N.T. (National Confederation of Labor); U.G.T. (General Union of Labor); F.A.I. (Iberian Anarchist Federation); the P.O.U.M. (United Marxist Party); etc., etc. Among the most colorful was the "Batallón de los Figaros," a battalion composed entirely of barbers and hairdressers which later did yeoman service. Two nights after the Rightists first rose in arms, new Leftist Premier Jose Giral opened the jails and distributed truckloads of rifles, handed out in the slums and factory districts of Madrid. The workers and released persons who thus were given arms, plus the "Alphabet Militias," were all there was to oppose Francisco Franco, who had with him 90% of Spain's Army officers and about 60,000 troops. Each Leftist militia had its own supply service, its own officers and stock of munitions and they cooperated with each other or not as the spirit moved them.
Fifth Regiment. Most efficient of all the Leftist militias was the Fifth Regiment, raised by the Communist Party in Madrid, and it was from that original block of 1,000 men that the present efficient People's Army of the Leftists has grown. Its development, described graphically by Leftist Volunteer Ralph Bates in the New Republic four months ago, was gradual. Other Madrileños, in the frantic first days of the capital's defense, saw that the men of the Fifth Regiment were actually being drilled before being sent into the lines, that it seemed to have officers whose commands were obeyed, that its supplies arrived promptly. Volunteers hustled to join the Fifth. From the beginning of the war, the able organizers of the Fifth preached the necessity of a centralized Leftist Army under a "unified command." Despite its size the Fifth Regiment had not sufficient prestige to beat down the opposition of the Leftist Government's assorted politicians until Nov. 7, 1936, when Francisco Franco's armies were stopped at the very gates of Madrid.
Defense of the capital lay in the Fifth Regiment's hands. Few thought it could succeed, least of all the Leftist Cabinet, then headed by Socialist Extremist Francisco Largo Caballero. Packing up in haste, the Cabinet fled the capital secretly for Valencia, leaving official instructions for greying, amiable, José Miaja to defend Madrid or surrender as he thought best. At this point the Communist leaders of the Fifth Regiment issued a historic manifesto to all Madrid citizens telling them to build barricades in the streets, to fill bottles with gasoline for use as homemade incendiary bombs against tanks, to defend every street against the advancing Rightists.