Assault Guard

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The Assault Guard, officially known as the Security and Assault Corps, was a Spanish police force created during the Second Republic with the aim of having a police force for the maintenance of public order and that was of proven fidelity to the Republic.

It had an outstanding and intense activity throughout its history, especially during some events of the Spanish civil war. During the coup d'état of July 1936, the fidelity and performance of the Assault Guards was essential in many places for the coup to fail and, for this reason, they enjoyed prestige among the population of the republican zone. However, the Assault Corps was merged, by decree, on December 27, 1936 with the National Republican Guard to form the new Internal Security Corps, although it continued to maintain Assault and Vanguard units that acted in military operations.

Its effectiveness as a police force has been much disputed. It has been highlighted the loss of prestige that it suffered due to its actions in the events of Casas Viejas and in other crisis situations, and that it maintained the police practices of the other forces in terms of mistreatment of detainees, despite the fact that it had been created, among other reasons, to end them. Historians Oliver Olmo and Gargallo Vaamonde have stated the following:

The assault guards were not effective in the prevention of riots and in the maintenance of public order, among other things, because of the lack of preparation of their perpetrators and the painstaking of the same counter-insurgent mentality as the security police officers. [...] Undoubtedly, such a mentality presupposed the use of expeditious methods in forcing information from activists, collaborators or mere suspects to promote social protest, street agitation and political violence.
—Oliver Olmo and Gargallo Vaamonde, 2020, pp. 80-81

History

Origins

The Spanish Police was created in 1824 by royal decree of King Ferdinand VII. After many vicissitudes and reorganizations, the Protection and Security Corps was founded in 1844, a civilian police force, different from the militarized one that constituted the Civil Guard. It was in 1887 when it was determined that the Police comprised two services: Surveillance and Security, both dependent on the Ministry of the Interior.

According to a Royal Decree of November 25, 1930, a new Police regulation is approved. By means of this decree, the government Police was placed under the direct and sole command of the General Director of Security, dependent on the Minister of the Interior. The Police would be made up of two bodies: the Surveillance Body and the Security Body, attributing to both civilian character. However, the Security Corps was governed by military regulations, its components being subject to the Code of Military Justice. Its functions included the maintenance of public order, personal security, respect for property and observance of the law. Within this Corps, the so-called Gymnastics Section is created, in charge of maintaining public order.

During the Second Republic

With the arrival of the Second Republic in April 1931, social instability increased^{[citation required]}. Added to this is the fact that the police enjoy neither the support nor the confidence of the new republican rulers^{[citation required]}. Miguel Maura Gamazo, a conservative Republican politician who was appointed Minister of the Interior of the Provisional Government of the Republic, undertook the task of adapting the old Security Corps to new needs: "quickly create another force, to deal with disturbances of order in the cities, more agile and with more modern weapons, leaving the Civil Guard custody of the field, its true mission ».

After the Republic had just been proclaimed, on May 17, 1931, the Security Corps was reorganized and the so-called «Vanguard Companies» —later called “Section of Assault Guards”— were assigned, using as a base the already existing Gymnastics Section of the Security Corps. Integrated into the Security Corps, the Assault Guards Section constituted a shock force destined to act in crowds —due to festivities, parades, demonstrations, etc.— and in attempts to disturb public order. These are the predecessors of the current riot police. Among other changes, regarding the Civil Guard, its members were better endowed and equipped for the preservation of public order.

Finally, on February 9, 1932, a part of the Security Corps was transformed into Assault Guards, and the corps was renamed «Security and Assault Corps». Lieutenant Colonel Agustín Muñoz Grandes was named the first chief and founder of the Corps by the then General Director of Security, José Valdivia. His appointment was influenced by the great fame acquired by organizing and directing the regular troops of Morocco during the Rif War. Thus, Muñoz Grandes became the head of public order in large cities, remaining in charge of the new Republican Police until 1935.

In January 1933, this body intervened together with the Civil Guard in the repression of the events in Casas Viejas, in which more than twenty residents of the town died. The brutality used by the repressive forces shocked Spanish public opinion. It would not be the only action during that year, although during the so-called December Revolution of 1933 they acted again in the maintenance of order and the fight against the different uprisings and anarchist attacks. The other outstanding intervention would take place during the 1934 Revolution, where the Assault Guards again played an important role in the repression of the riots in Barcelona or the failure of the strike in Madrid and other important cities.

Spanish Civil War

Main article: Spanish Civil War

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the Corps aligned itself fundamentally with the Government of the Republic, being one of the armed forces with the least support for the military uprising of July 18: 70% remained loyal to the Government. However, the Zaragoza and Valladolid barracks joined the uprising - those of Oviedo, Seville and La Coruña at first remained faithful to the Republic. Of all the police forces that had remained in the government zone, that of Assault was the best seen by the majority of the population. This made a large number of soldiers decide to join this force, to avoid the misgivings and suspicions that military affiliation created among the workers' militias. This fact reached the point that the President of the Government, Largo Caballero, had to prohibit Army officers from joining the Assault Guard without the express authorization of the Ministry of War. The Assault Guards distinguished themselves as reliable infantry and shock to which the Republic always entrusted its most delicate operations, such as the suppression of the events in Barcelona in May 1937 or the capture of Belchite. Late in the war, the Assault Corps became the elite of the new People's Army. The writer George Orwell reflected it in one of his most outstanding works:

They were magnificent troops, with much difference the best that I had seen in Spain [...]. I was accustomed to the ragged and ill-armed militias from the front of Aragon, and I did not know that the Republic had troops like those. Not only were they men of exceptional physical conditions, but the most amazed me were their weapons...
Orwell, 1938, p. 146

Disappearance

Despite its important role, the body's life was coming to an end. With the reorganization of the institutions of the Second Republic at the end of 1936, some changes came: the Civil Guard had already been transformed by the Republican Government into the Republican National Guard. In turn, this was merged by decree on December 27, 1936 with the Security and Assault Corps to form the Internal Security Corps, but it did not become effective. However, the new Corps continued to maintain some Assault units. o Vanguardia —fundamentally the members of the now extinct Security and Assault Corps—, who served at the front or with pseudo-military missions in the rear. With the end of the war, the Internal Security Corps would be dissolved by the victors. The Law of March 15, 1940 promulgated by Francisco Franco would also make the Carabineros Corps disappear, integrating it into the Civil Guard. The few members of the Assault Guard who passed the purge files were integrated into the recently created Armed Police (whose members became popularly known as "the greys", because of the color of their uniforms).

Structure

Initial organization

The Security and Assault Corps was organized militarily and distributed in squads —of twenty-five guardsmen— that, grouped into companies, were deployed throughout the main Spanish cities. Its main function was the maintenance of public order and it normally acted in case of disturbances. Unlike the other police forces of the time, its main function was not the prosecution of crime. With its creation, the maintenance of public order, until then in the hands of the Civil Guard, was left exclusively to its charge in the areas where it was deployed. They were under the direct command of the Minister of the Interior.

The Assault Corps was divided into groups of different sizes, like the Army, but staying in the Company hierarchy:

Squad: 7 agents in command of a corporal.
Platoon: 3 squads plus a sub-official; they also had machine gun (Hotchkiss M1914), an uncovered 25-seater truck and smoke grenades.
Section: 3 platoons.
Company: 3 sections by an officer.
Group: 3 rifle companies and a "specialty company". This company included a larger flat and three sections: one of mortars, another of machine guns and the motorized section, which had light cars, motorcycles, vans and coaches, ambulances and armored Bilbao equipped with machine guns.

Evolution

On April 24, 1932, the increase in the strength of the Security and Assault Corps was authorized to 1 colonel, 2 lieutenant colonels, 12 commanders, 57 captains, 177 lieutenants, 302 non-commissioned officers and sergeants, and 3,896 corporals and guards. On September 8 of the same year, an increase of 2,500 more guards was authorized to join the existing ones. In 1936, the Corps already had 17,660 members: 450 chiefs and officers, 543 non-commissioned officers and 16,667 guards, of about 8,000 of them belonged to the Security section and the rest to the Assault section. For those dates, the body had 50 companies distributed in 16 groups: Madrid (1st, 2nd and 3rd), Bilbao (4th ), Seville (5th ), Valencia (6th ), Zaragoza (7th ), La Coruña (8th), Malaga (9th ), Oviedo (10th ), Badajoz (11th ), Valladolid (12th >), Murcia (13th ) and Barcelona (14th , 15th and 16th ).

Dark spots in your history

Some black spots in the history of the body were the aforementioned intervention in the repression of the anarchist revolt in Casas Viejas in 1933, the clashes in May 1937 in the streets of Barcelona, the harshness used to suppress some strikes or social protests and the participation of several of its members in the assassination of the leader of the National Bloc and deputy José Calvo Sotelo, on July 13, 1936.