El Faro anti aircraft positions update

Pleased to see that some of the smaller anti-aircraft positions up at EL Faro on the cliffs overlooking the Bay of Alicante are being refurbished. The third picture shows one of the overgrown positions before they were uncovered and dug out as in the second picture. I stumbled across two or three of these fortifications deep in the pine groves opposite the Republicant barracks and munitions dump (in picture one) a few years back when walking the area. Along with the two big gun batteries closer to the cliff these positions would have been used to try and take out the Condor Legion and Mussolini's aircraft as they launched bombing raids on civilian targets in Alicante and along the coast.

Inland to Albacete - home of the International Brigades

Heading inland from the Costa Blanca it is a relatively short journey on the High Speed train from the terminal at Alicante to Albacete, the original home of the International Brigades. Albacete is now a thoroughly modern city but a bit of walking and digging around and you can find some of the key sites associated with the areas history as the base for the Brigades. The Gran Hotel still stands proudly in the centre, and its architecture, albeit it with a branch of Barclays Bank now located on the ground floor, will have changed little from its days as the HQ for the IB. Head out west from the Gran and you will find the magnificent bullring which was the reporting centre for thousands of IB volunteers who made it by all forms of transport from all over the world to sign up for the International Brigades. Like the Gran Hotel, it appears to have changed very little. On the outskirts of Albacete stands the University campus, the home of a beautifully carved and worked memorial to the volunteers who came to this part of the Spanish interior to fight for freedom. I understand that many of the Brigade volunteers were billeted to villages around Albacete before being deployed around the country to offensive and defensive positions. I will be back to find out more.

On Olla Beach, Altea

Take a tram north out of the Lucheros terminal in the centre of Alicante and you get some fantastic views as it winds its way up the coast towards Bendidorm, change for Line 9 and it will connect you up to the route even further up the coast to Denia. Its not the swiftest journey and on the day I travelled there was a connecting bus part of the way but, as always in Spain, there was a bar close by for the wait and I was in no hurry. The trip to Olla just up from Altea was well worth it. One of the finest preserved bunkers of the Civil War's Mediterranean Wall and in amazing nick bearing in mind it is partly in the sea. Lovely bar cum restaraunt close by for a drop of tinto and a pincho of tortilla and it was off back for the winding journey south as the clouds gathered.

Defensive positions on the Clot de Galvany

The nature reserve at Clot de Galvany - just behind Carabassi Beach - as the coast road heads down the hill from Gran Alacant to Arenales, is littered with some of best preserved Civil War defensive positions that have survived for the best part of 80 years. These bunkers would have been set up to cover a land based attack on Alicante from an invasion possibly springing from landings along the coast anywhere down as far as Cartagena 100km south. A network of bunkers, trenches and other defenses can be found throughout the nature reserve and it takes a couple of hours or more to cover the ground in a fine setting where you can also spot rare breeds of birds and other wildlife in this natural sanctuary. Can well recommend it for a visit, maps at the entrance locate the Civil War era bunkers.

Santiago Bernabeu - a Falangist on the streets of Santa Pola

Heading in to Santa Pola along the coast road from the Alicante side, with the island of Tabarca to your left, you end up on a wide beachside promenade named after another famous son of the town and huge footballing name - Santiago Bernabeu. But this man was no Republican hero like Manolo Macia. One of Franco’s key captains, Santiago Bernabéu Yeste was an active right winger well before the conflict. When war broke out he joined Franco’s army and became a captain in the 150th Moroccan Division. He was decorated for the role he played in the taking of Bielsa, a strategic town in the Pyrenees. But his real enduring claim to fame is that the Real Madrid stadium is named after him. I've heard and seen reports that the stadium itself was built by teams of Republican slave labour and the connection between Real and Franco, cemented by Bernabeu, is well documented. It seems out of kilter that not a couple of kilometers from where the Santa Pola football stadium is named after, and celebrates, the great republican fighter Manolo Macia, a street pays tribute to one of Franco's key operators.

The Mediterranean Wall

The Mediterranean Wall was a series of coastal defences built by the Republican militia to defend an area tretching from Cadiz to Genoa from sea borne attack. The area around Santa Pola is dotted with these defences, some reasonably well preserved and others slowly crumbling away as the two pictures above from Tamarat Beach near the salt processing facilities just south of Santa Pola show. This area was of strategic importance lying around 100km north of the Republican naval base of Cartagena. It was thought that Franco and his allies would be unlikely to mount an invasion from the sea at Cartagena itself but may look to invade the coast further north to establish a bridge head before pushing south and possibly north into the Republican strong hold of Alicante as well. That invasion never came as the fascists concentrated on land offensives which eventually saw them break through the lines, ultimately surrounding Alicante which was the last city to fall to Franco's forces. You can find a series of pill boxes on the nature reserve area as you head south along the coast out of Santa Pola. Be warned, not only is it a favourite spot with bird watchers but with nudists as well.

The bombing of Alicante market

On the 25th May 1938 a squadron of Italian fascist bombers launched an attack on Alicante which was to go down as one of the deadliest aerial missions of the Spanish Civil War. After the Aragon offensive Franco wanted to eliminate the maritime and commercial base of the Republic and authorised the Italian Aviazione Legionaria and Hitler's Condor Legion to launch indiscriminate attacks on Republican cities like Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante. On that day in May 1938 more than 90 high explosive bombs were dropped on Alicante, many of them falling on the central market. It was a busy day and the market was teaming with people and nearly 300 people were killed with over a thousand wounded. Many of them women and children. Today the market looks pretty much as it would have done 75 years ago and is still a bustling and thriving commercial centre with a timeless display of fish, meat,fruit and vegetables. The locals shop there in huge numbers and it is great place to visit. However, for seventy five years there was nothing at all to mark the terrible events of that day during the Civil War when the fascist bombs rained down. In May 2013, anti-fascists from the historical memory organisation finally succeeded in laying down a fitting tribute in the plaza behind the market which you can see above. It is one of the few Civil War memorials in Alicante where the right-wing politicians use every means that they can to play down events which still remain within living memory. With the relentless campaigning of the historical memory organisations we can hope that the Alicante market memorial is just one of many that will be unveiled in the future.