Paper Models as Propaganda During the Spanish Civil War

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

The guns aboard both the Baleares and her sister Canarias were the most powerful in the Spanish Nationalist fleet. Cruisers are usually thought of as commerce raiders, that is, they decide which civilian ships may come and go in the sea lanes. They can either support their own side with resupply of trade-goods, food and materiel, or they can starve an enemy of the same. As the largest ships in the Nationalist fleet, the pair were also thought of as battleships, too. Ships that engage and destroy the enemy with their gunfire.

The attached photos show the impressive array of firepower aboard the Canarias class ships. While the guns were designed by Vickers, they were built in Spain. And, in accordance with British thinking of the time, the guns were dual purpose…that is they could be used for surface-to-surface fire or anti-aircraft fire as well. This explains their ability to elevate so dramatically.

The eight, turret-mounted, 8 inch guns were Vickers 1924 model, 50 caliber rifles. They could be elevated to 70 degrees for anti-aircraft fire. While an impressive sight, targeting the weapons against fast moving aircraft was near impossible, so this attribute was rarely employed. Secondary armament was comprised of eight Vickers 1923 model, 120 mm, 45 caliber guns which could be elevated to an even higher 80 degrees. These are the guns deployed along the rails of the ships. Again, their anti-aircraft capabilities were doubtful, but their 4.7 inch shell were effective in shore bombardments and defense against lighter enemy naval forces. Eight 40 mm AA guns and machine guns were scheduled to be fitted, but as they were to be manufactured in Republican held areas of Spain, these weapons were never installed. The four sets of triple torpedo tube mounts were fired through the rectangular openings seen along the ship’s sides.

Interestingly, the Baleares shares an historical deficiency with the Titanic. Just as there are relatively few photographs of the Titanic compared to her older sister Olympic, the same holds true with the Baleares. To correct my error in a previous post, the Canarias was launched first, hence the title, Canarias class ships. As any second child knows, the photo albums at home show more photos of the first born than the newcomer. The same was true with the Baleares. The photos below come from both ships, and there’s really no need to differentiate between the two, as the weapons fit was the same for both sisters.

The colorful illustrations are of note, as they show the guns in detail. Also, look for the German helmets on the gun crews firing a broadside with the 120 mm guns.

That’s all for now…

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[southwestforests]

Originally Posted by Thumb Dog

Admittedly, this has not been the most exciting post,

Ahh, but the exciting thing is not always the proper thing.

Hard to decide whether Paint's utility is in spite of or because of its simplicity.
Perhaps that is one of those 'is it this or that' questions where the correct answer is 'yes'.

Interesting how one can read the dimensions and get some manner of an impression of a size, but seeing the thing in 3D on a measured grid is a somewhat different experience.

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And thanks, southwestforests.

I finished the cruiser Baleares on Monday and I took these photographs while the glue was still drying. This has been by far the most challenging of the Guerra Civil paper models I have built, and after some frustrating struggle, I am quite happy with the result. It took a bit of reengineering of the original model’s design, but it finally built into a straight and strong model of the flush-deck heavy cruiser.

There are just a couple of construction notes left to discuss. Of the two photos showing the hull on its side, the first shows a wooden strongback that I glued to the underside of the deck. It measures about ½” square and 18 inches long. It acted as an extra support when I glued the various parts to the deck. Some of the parts had uneven bases, and they needed to be pressed onto the deck and weighted down while the glue dried. And when drilled, the wooden strip provided secure sockets for the two masts.

I scratchbuilt a mat board part to fit in the bottom of the hull. It helps to form a strong box structure, and it prevents the hull from twisting. The holes in the bottom are so I can use my picks to pull the part into place as the glue dries.

The masts were made from metal tubing I had on hand, and were painted with gray primer. I didn’t attach any rigging, because the masts need to be removable for storage. As with the model’s gun barrels, I don’t mind using metal on my card modeling projects, but I try to avoid plastic. I even prefer the drawn canopies on my aircraft models more than formed plastic canopies. It saves on interior work as well.

Measuring 21 inches long, the model Baleares scales in at 1/363. While the model can be recognized as the Baleares, many of its features were never present on the real ship. Merchant-style air vents, the seaplane and catapult, machine guns and that strange (but now reduced) thing atop the conning tower are all out of place. But I wasn’t trying to build a scale model, as that would have been near impossible with the 80 year old drawings. What I hoped to do was assemble a clean and robust model that recalled the memory of the fighting ship, and if not the cause she fought for, at least the men who manned her.

I’ve attached more photographs below. One shows the stern of the ship with a new nameplate in place, as the name on the original drawing was quite faded. Another photo shows the Baleares sailing in consort with her sister, the 1/763 scale Canarias.

I’ll conclude with the history of the ship in a following post.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Her keel was laid by command of a king, she was launched by an elected democracy and she fought under a fascist flag. The Spanish cruiser Baleares saw many changes during her brief life. It is the end of that life that will be discussed here.

As one of the two largest, most powerful ships in the Spanish Nationalist Navy, the Baleares was both a prestige ship and a target. Prestigious because of her size and her eight 8 inch guns, the largest in the Spanish Civil War, and a target because the sinking of such a ship would be a crushing blow to the Nationalists and a stirring victory for the Republicans. The career of the great ship came to a crashing end on March 6th, 1938 at the Battle of Cape Palos.

The Baleares had seen limited action after her commissioning on December 28th, 1936. In July, 1937, a handful of shots were exchanged between six Republican destroyers and the cruiser, with no serious hits recorded. Then, on September 7th, 1937, at the Battle of Cape Cherchell, the Baleares suffered a number of telling hits, one causing a fire in the ammunition storeroom for the 120 mm guns. Although hobbled, she withdrew and made it back to port for repairs.

Again fit for sea, the ship found herself in convoy duty on the night of March 5th-6th, 1938. The heavy cruisers Baleares and Carnarias, along with a light cruiser and three destroyers were providing stand-off protection for a convoy bring arms to Spain from Italy. The Republican Navy was at sea that night, too. Comprised of two light cruisers and 5 destroyers, the Republican ships were patrolling off Cape Palos, near Cartagena in the Mediterranean Sea. Without radar to warn the speeding ships, it must have been quite a surprise when the two squadrons raced past each other in the darkness. The Nationalist command chose to continue on course, hoping to reengage the enemy at daybreak, while the Republican forces chose to come about and tangle with the fascist forces in a risky night action.

Upon sighting the charging Republicans, the Baleares and Canarias opened fire, concentrating on the two Republican light cruisers, Libertad and Méndez Núñez. In the confusion of the night engagement, three of the Republican destroyers maneuvered and placed themselves between the four battling cruisers. Still in the dark, they then launched a concentrated torpedo attack, with at least two torpedoes from the Republican destroyer Lepanto finding their mark. Hitting the Baleares between A and B turrets, the exploding torpedoes detonated her forward magazine. Down by the bows and sinking, the awful sight seemed to knock the fight out of both sides, and the squadrons quickly withdrew.

The stern of the Baleares remained afloat for some time, and it was here that 441 members of her crew were rescued by a pair of British Royal Navy destroyers. 765 sailors perished in the sinking of the Baleares, including Vice-Admiral Manuel de Vierna y Belando, commander of the cruiser division.

In Nationalist Spain, the shock of this loss was akin to the loss of the HMS Hood or the USS Arizona. To this day, the subject is a sore point in Spain. In 1948, a large, stone monument to the Baleares was built in Palma de Mallorca under the watchful eye of Francisco Franco. For many years, it displayed Nationalist language and iconography that was offensive to many Spaniards. In 2010, the monument was stripped of its fascist symbolism and rededicated to the victims of the sinking of the Baleares and to a continuing peace in Spain.

I have attached a few images of the sinking of the Baleares, as well as pictures showing the ship in happier times. Oil paintings, trading cards, books, photographs and even a movie have been created to remember the Crucero Baleares. The ship will forever hold a special place in the vast seafaring history of Spain.

Again, many thanks to Francesc d’A López Sala and Tom Greensfelder for placing this rare model of the Baleares in my hands. I hope I did her proud.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Don Boose]

This is another well-researched, well-crafted, and well-illustrated historical vignette.

The trading cards remind me of my Korean War-era collection of "Red Star, White Star" bubblegum cards illustrating weapons, people, and events of the Korean War and associated Cold War. I wish I still had them.

I hope that you are preserving all of your posts in this thread. Collectively, your research, writing, and model building constitute a priceless historical record.

Many thanks for sharing all this with us.

Don

[wireandpaper]

Asi es!!!
That's right.

When was the Baleares model published and how many copies?
I always wonder how many models are build out of the printed copies.

Without doubt this is one of the best build ever of this particular model, which in many cases are closer to toys or for educational (indoctrination?) purposes rather than actual accurate models (like the hull look more like a destroyer than a cruiser in this case).

Very nice and educational, both as history and as building (adapting) tutorial.

Looking forward for your next installment, happy modeling!

Pablo

[southwestforests]

Card 94 mentions 1938 torpedo cost of about $15,000 --> using CPI Inflation Calculator on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' website it would take $257,158.51 today to buy that torpedo.

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hi, wireandpaper, southwestforests and Don Boose. Wire, I’m sorry to say I don’t know the year of publication or the numbers produced of the Baleares model. Published by Construcciones Goliat, the Baleares is the only model of theirs I have seen. There may have been a cover to the model’s three pages that gave more information, but if so, it is no longer available.

And southwestforests, a quarter of a million dollars for a torpedo these days sound like a steal.

Don, thanks so much for your kind comments. No, I haven’t archived this material, but you have me thinking that maybe I should. After all, the internet is the ephemera of our time. And thanks for your comments about my writing. It’s the history of these bits of paper that make them so fascinating to me. I try to describe them in the context their time, and I hope this adds to their interest. Thanks.


The following set of four dioramas was published in 1936 by Industrias Gráficas Offset of Barcelona. The first two in the set will be discussed in this post, with the remaining two next week. Thanks to Francesc ďA López Sala and Tom Greensfelder for sending me the needed scenes to complete my collection.

These interesting and colorful dioramas show soldiers fighting under the flag of Spain’s anarchist union, the CNT, fending off attacks by the rebel Nationalists in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. On the 17th and 18th of July in 1936, the Nationalist coup ďétat began in the Spanish Army under the direction of Francisco Franco and other members of the general staff. Their first objective was to take control of Spain’s major cities before subduing the rest of the country. Barcelona, the Catalan capitol, was at the top of the list.

The first diorama shows the Port Vell, or Old Harbor, in Barcelona. In the center background is the 200 foot tall Monument de Colom, or Columbus Monument. Here, on July 19th, 1936, members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, or CNT, are shown firing on an unseen enemy while an airplane circles overhead. The 5,000 attacking Nationalist forces were ultimately routed in the battle by overwhelming numbers of government loyalists, and the coup, at least for the time being, had failed.

The color of the diorama comes as a surprise, as most battle scenes of the Guerra Civil are in black and white. Upon close examination of the drawings, the soldiers appear quite young…boys, really. This and the other dioramas in the set are pure propaganda, showing clean, upright, uninjured fighting youth defending against an enemy so cowardly that they dare not show their face.

The second diorama depicts the Battle of Guadarrama, also known as the Battle of Somosierra, on July 24th, 1936. Nationalist planners had hoped to take Madrid in a swift end-around by quickly striking through the Somosierra Pass in the Guadarrama Range. In the diorama, CNT soldiers again fight with rifles and cannon against an unseen foe. And again, the men in the red hats were victorious against the professional army. All these early victories were reversed later in the war, but these dioramas brought hope to young and old alike that a quick victory for the government forces was at hand.

Only published in 1936, and the only paper models currently known to have been produced by this publisher, these four dioramas offer an idyllic view of war…more like a day’s outing than a fierce struggle against a determined enemy.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

I forgot to attach the uncut sheets. Here they are...

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Well, it looks like I got ahead of myself in describing the set of four Industrias Gráficas Offset dioramas shown last week. I wrote the two brief histories for the earlier post before I researched the stories for this week's dioramas. So, some corrections are in order.

The third diorama seen below is titled Zaragoza, and as with the previous two scenes, it shows a squad of riflemen with cannon, blasting away at a hidden enemy. The best I can tell, the earliest such action took place in Zaragoza on August 24th, 1937. Known as the Zaragoza Offensive, the Republicans, supported by nearly 50 tanks, tried to take the communications hub of Zaragoza, the capital city of Aragon, Spain. Things did not go their way.

Poor planning, sloppy recon, delays in bring up troops and losing their tanks in a quagmire of mud led to a Republican defeat at the hands of an equally unprepared but quickly reinforced Nationalist side. A number of the Republican’s Russian-supplied tanks were either destroyed or captured, and it was this type of turnover that put the previously modeled and described Russian T-26 tanks into the hands of the Nationalists.

The diorama is quite striking, with its large tree serving as a perch for a red-capped rifleman. He is overlooking the famed Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar on the Ebro River in Zaragoza. The Basilica received three hits from aerial bombs during the course of the war, and as miracles go, none of them exploded. Two of them remain on display in the church.

As always, the flags interest me, and it is of note that the red and black flag of the CNT-FAI, a joining of Spain’s largest anarchist unions, is shown in the first three dioramas flying backwards. The red portion of the flag should be the hoist. The second flag is the red and gold flag of Aragon, similar to the flag of its neighbor to the east, Catalonia.

The fourth diorama is called Mallorca, and refers to the Mallorca Landings that took place on August 16th, 1936. 8,000 Republican troops invaded Nationalist held Mallorca (Majorca), the largest of the Balearic Islands, with the intent of driving the Nationalists into the sea. For a time, the Republicans were able to push the outnumbered Nationalists aside using ground forces in concert with aerial and cannon bombardment. However, on August 27th, the Nationalists received much needed support in the form of supplies and overwhelming air power from their fascist ally, Italy. Without air superiority, the Republicans could no longer maintain their position, and they retreated to the beaches. In a foreshadowing of Dunkirk, the Republicans were the ones getting their feet wet, and by September 12th, they had left the island.

The scan of this rare paper model was a bit washed-out and fuzzy, but a little enrichment in the computer brought it back to life. The ram bow of an anchored Republican ship is seen at the right of the model, with an oar-powered whaleboat serving as a landing craft. The flags of the Republican forces and Catalonia are displayed here during their brief time on the island.

As the Zaragoza Offensive took place in the summer of 1937, the publication of the third diorama shows that Industrias Gráficas Offset was in business longer than the one year claimed last week. Also, the third and fourth scenes show Republican military defeats, something rather unexpected considering the first two dioramas displayed victories.

Construction of the four scenes was my usual, with mat board laminated to the back and bottom parts, and three-ply, 110 lb. card making up the other parts. 1/8 inch basswood stringers along with some square toothpicks were glued to the back of the parts to keep things straight. I also used the computer to remove the black placement markings seen on the flat, bottom parts of the dioramas. This gave a cleaner look to the finished project.

Thanks again to Tom Greensfelder and Francesc ďA López Sala for their scans of these historic models.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog