"Nationalist" SCW Books?

[SJWi]

Good evening. I'm re-starting my long-dormant SCW gaming project. Looking at my library I realise most of my books are from the Republican perspective or about Republican units such as the International Brigades.

 Can anyone suggest any non-partisan, readily available books in English concerning the war from the Nationalist perspective?

 Thanks

[Oldgamer]

Brother Against Brother by Frank Thomas is well worth reading, he joined the Spanish Foreign Legion and fought at Madrid until wounded, he was then smuggled out of Spain by members of O'Duffy's Blueshirts!

[Panzer21]

Mine were of trouble by Peter Kemp - a British volunteer on the Nationalist side.

Most useful books are in Spanish. There were corresponding volumes on the Republican and Nationalist brigades for example.

General works in English tend to have biases. Thomas is a good start but has accusations of Nationalist bias from left wingers. Beevor is surprisingly sympathetic to the anarchists but hostile to the communists.
Paul Preston's biography of Franco is surprisingly balanced (Preston is LW) and gives an insight into why Franco fought the war the way he did.

What is you are after in particular?

Neil

[SJWi]

Neil, to answer your final question I guess the truth is "I don't know". Looking at my book collection I have books on the "International Brigades" and Clifford's "The People's Army in the SCW" plus various personal stories. However nothing about the Legion, the Carlists or the Italian CTV.

[Panzer21]

Well Peter Kemp served with the Carlists and Legion.

Probably the definitive book in English is:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Foreign-Legion-Civil-1936/dp/0826220835
But expensive.

The old Osprey is cheaper but brief:
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/spanish-foreign-legion-9780850455717/

I cannot think of anything in English on the Carlists - there's one that looks at the Carlist wars and SCW together....

CTV
Expensive one on uniforms, organisation

https://caricat.it/en/books-catalogs-manuals/2681-book-ctv-the-italian-volunteer-troops-corps-during-the-spanish-civil-war-193639.html

Another expensive one but probably definitive

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Italian-Intervention-Spanish-Princeton-Library/dp/0691617546

I'd recommend looking for the following:

CPQ 6 & 7

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325140503657

Battle for Madrid - covers entire war and the various battles for the capital.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/Battle-Madrid-Hills-George-Vantage-BOOKS/4970931664/bd

Both are far from without faults but a good basic start.

A lot of books focus on specific battles /Campaigns Brunete, Guadalajara, Ebro etc.

Neil

[SJWi]

Neil, thanks again. This is a bit of a minor sideline project for me so not planning to spend a huge amount of cash. However I recognised the "Battle of Madrid" book you list and found it mis-filed in my book collection so that has added to my reading.

[brasidas19004]

I can give a big thumb's up to Peter Kemp's book, which I reviewed briefly here:
https://upthebluefow.blogspot.com/search/label/Spanish%20Civil%20War

since the nationalists won the shooting war but lost the propaganda war, you will always find far more written on it from the Republican side, especially in English.

I'm presently doing a review on Cecil Eby's "Between the Bullet and the Lie" which is amazing.  In it he explains the lie of the Lincoln Brigade and their inability to do anything except double-down on it, or else face the fact that their lives were squandered as a PR event, after which the communists allowed them to be nearly wiped out then repatriated when they were no longer needed / wanted. They didn't fight well, either. Frankly, they didn't behave well, either.  An awesome book.

[Zenza Raggi]

I can give a big thumb's up to Peter Kemp's book, which I reviewed briefly here:
https://upthebluefow.blogspot.com/search/label/Spanish%20Civil%20War

You keep a very interesting blog. I was surprised not find the books by Anthony Beevor or Paul Preston among your recommendation for introductory reads.

Also interesting is the choice of 20mm as a gaming scale. I agree that is offers more presence than 15mm. And is well served by the excellent figures from Minairons. Unlike you I actually prefer the sculpting over that of the Empress Figures, but that is because I admire AB Figures and the sculptor for Minairons is clearly using that as a benchmark for his own work.

[H.M.Stanley]

I found Franco's International Brigade interesting.

Like you,most of my books are from the Republican perspective.

I'm rereading Beever's Batte for Spain at the moment.

[SJWi]

HM, my 15mm Peter Pig SCW are next up on my painting table when I return from holiday. That assumes I haven't been inspired by my travels to buy a Hussite or Medieval Polish army! I too might re-read Beevor. I read his 1st edition many years ago and found it difficult to follow as it jumped straight into the politics and party acronyms with little explanation. Maybe his revised edition might be better.

[italwars]

Its a kind of braith of air to be, at least, able to read something different ..that's to say SCW from the Nationalist side..

.as other said there are quite a few technical books in Spanish and something in Italian about CTV (which i frankly consider  not so interesting in view of our poor performance and the still unconvincing reasons for  the unpractical participation of Italy to the Spanish Levantamiento - read for ex. "Italian intervention in the SCW" by  John F. Coverdale)

but i i can suggest a good , sufficiently wargame related,  source, with  the "Uniformes de la Guerra Civil Espanola"  by J. M. Bueno. OOP , reprinted then again OOP. But you can find a free PDF copy to download from  Scribd..i hope it's not illegal?

I own the original edition and i can say that even if it's, apparently, just  a uniforms book, the limited historical  text and the captions to the plates are very good and decisvly side with the Nationalists...you can detect it also from the  larger space dedicated to plates and accurate description of many   Nationalist regular and volunteer units   if compared to the meagre and, sometimes, mocking small captions dedicated to  the republican side guys. strongly recomended