Shipbucket

Index

• Background - December 1937 - August 1939 (This same post, just scroll down)
  First Period: September 1939 - June 1940 - The Spanish continuation war.
  Second Period: June 1940 - Early August 1940 - The German invasion of the Republican Zone.

Preliminary note: For this first period there are not FD drawings because the armament used was historically the same as in our timeline
Background, December 1937 - August 1939

In December 1937 the Republican side launched the offensive on Teruel (about which you can read read here) in order to defeat the nationalist troops trapped inside the bulgue of Teruel.



Unlike in our timeline, the offensive was a decisive Republican success and it turned the tides of the war in favour of the Republicans because it stopped the nationalist advance, so, the situation after the offensive, at the end of February was this:



And, after that offensive, in the anniversary of the foundation of the Republic (14th April) they launched a new offensive this time in the south of Madrid in order to relief the defenders of Madrid.



It went ok and, the spring of 1938 was popularly known as the Republican Spring



These two offensives stopped the nationalist initiatives and the Republicans owned the initiatives now.
Driven by the optimism of these victories the Republican HQ planned an offensive in Extremadura with the objective of crippling the nationalist army in two, leaving this way Andalucia ready be conquered:



However the offensive was a failure and, fortunately for the Republicans they falled back in time minimizing their casualties.



They lost some territories but they minimized their casualties so in the end it was a minor defeat.
Influenced by that defeat, the Republican HQ turned to be more cautious so they decided their next move to be not so maximalistic, so they aimed to conquest the cities of Zaragoza and Granada hoping that it's conquest would have a big moral impact in the nationalist side.



In the end, they managed to conquest these two important cities and this is how the frontlines looked like:



However it took a very big effort for the Republicans to take those cities and for nationalists to defend them so it exhausted both sides.
Due to the exhaustion of both sides, there were not more big battles, apart from some skirmishes.

As neither side could get an advantage to defeat their enemies, both of them decided to hold their positions expecting a bigger conflict in Europe to start (as it was common knowledge during those years that the beginning of a new war was only a matter of time) and that way to ally with their respective sympathetic supporting sides (with the axis in the case of the nationalists and the allies - and comintern - in the case of the Republicans).

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Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis

First Period: September 1939 - June 1940 - The Spanish continuation war

When Germany invaded Poland, two days later UK and France waged war on Germany.
One day later both sides allied with their respective supporters and, in the case of the Republicans this resulted to be in more supplies, specially in better airplanes and better trained pilots. That's how the International Air Brigades were founded, however they only had some Gloster Gladiator MK.I to use:



The Gloster Gladiator probed to be an excellent aircraft, specially against the Italian Fiat CR.32 of the nationalist side.

The republicans expected the Frenchs to invade the Iberian peninsula by the nationalist side, however, they were more concerned about the Franco-German border and they didn't send many help, apart from opening their ports to Republican merchants in all their ports, and supplying some airplanes, like the Morane Saulnier MS.406, which, was not seen as a very good airplane:



The nationalists, wanting to conquest Gibraltar (they were at war with the UK now that they were allied with Germany), launched a rather catastrophic assault to conquest it. Obviously they couldn't conquest it and they gave up on their efforts as they realized that they didn't have the ways to take the rock.

After Poland fell, the UK had prepared some Hurricanes to be sent to Poland, however they couldn't be released and they were sent to the Republican side where they played a brief, but very important role because they proved to be a very nice enemies for the nationalists:



The British also sold some Handley Page Hampden which were used in the central front, in Guadalajara, just east of Madrid:



Note: The inscription on this airplane reads "Bombas para los facciosos" which translates as "Bombs for the fascists"

Also, on this period of the war, in October 1939 to be more precise, the French 3eme division Marocaine (3rd Moroccan division) supported by the 2e régiment étranger de cavalerie (belonging to the foreign legion) invaded the Spanish protectorate in Morocco (controlled by the nationalist since the beginning of the war) encountering almost no resistance because most of the nationalist units of that area were fighting in the peninsula.
The French government tried to sell this as an important victory, however most of the French public opinion wondered if such movement was necessary and it created some unrest among the French generals.

Note: I know that there was a drawing here, but it's more suitable for the next period, so it will be reposted when i've finished it.

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Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis

Very nice work.
I see just one issue with the political background - from August 1939 to June 1941 Soviet Union and Germany were actually allied with each other. And in turn Republican Spain in it's later period was so dependent on Soviet support to be almost it's puppet state. So it creates an interesting political situation. (Especially, considering that after the outbreak of Winter War, France and Great Britain considered intervening on Finland's side against USSR and even aerial bombardment of oil fields in Azerbaijan).

Looks good, I would only add a point about the Hurricane (surprised Eswube didn't spot this!) That version you have is scaled wrong and has been superseded by me and Eswube. He re-worked my re-work!

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Jabba's Worklist

@Jabba
I only modified the shading and some details to the way I tend to do these. And that's the reason why I didn't noticed that Naixoterk used outdated Hurricane - I only remembered how "my" ones looked in the end.

I took this one: http://www.shipbucket.com/Misc%20Drawin ... ritain.png because it has a blank version. Which one do you suggest me to use?

BTW, i'm working now on the German invasion to the peninsula (in the republican controlled land, obviously), the German assault on Gibraltar and the possible effects it would have in the course of the war.

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Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis

Jabba meant these:
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 746#p98746
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 777#p98777
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 948#p98948
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 090#p99090
(personally I'd suggest You'd be rather careful about top of the vertical stabilizer and the "fin" around the tailwheel)

These are not in the Main Archive yet because unfortunately Administrators decided not to update it for the last 8 months.

This is a really interesting scenario and the drawings are wonderful. I'll be watching this AU closely, I'm very curious how it will turn out.

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Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!

I shan't comment on the AH part, though I admit I've had similar what-if ideas from time to time.

It's just great to see some what-if Republican aircraft, actually some of these are very plausible for a real what-if had Britain and France backed the Republican forces.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

First period post updated with new info and new pics, among them, the corrected Hurricane. Eswube i used your version because i took it from Polish wings thread, as those hurricanes are supposed to be the ones intended to serve in Poland.

_________________
Currently working on:

• Fiat G.50
  Breda Ba.64/65/75
  Dornier Do.17/Do.215
  Heinkel He.79
  Junkers Ju.52
  Junkers J.I

Repainting:

• Grumman F4F Wildcat/Grumman G-36
  Caproni Ca.135bis