Being there . . . . for the first comprehensive clarification, and readable understanding, pure and
clear, of the naval aspects of the Spanish Civil War, not only between the Republican and
Nationalist ships, but also each side’s involvement with German and Italian warships,
submarines and aircraft. Authored by a top, formidable, defense journalist, E.R. Hooten, who
wrote a dozen titles on subjects ranging from the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 to a popular, well-
appreciated, “Spain in Arms” (Casemate, 2022), the military history of the Spanish 1936 – 1939
tragedy is virtually fully known. Now, E. R., as the first-class biographer-historian he is, cogently
and painstakingly reconstructs the links, participation with, and continuity of between Spain’s
Nationalist warships and the German and Italian Fascist submarines and aircraft – – the pirates
of Hooten’s title.
SURPRISINGLY, A NEW CASEMATE MILITARY BOOK BY HIGHLY RESPECTED E.R. HOOTON,
RENOWNED AS A NONPAREIL EUROPEAN 2Oth CENTURY HISTORIAN, ARGUES FASCIST
USURPER GENERAL AND DICTATOR FRANCISCO FRANCO (1892 – 1975) AND HIS NATIONALS
WON THE VAST SPANISH CIVIL WAR, 1936 – 1939, ON THE TURBULENT ATLANTIC OCEAN AND
THE HIGH SEAS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BECAUSE OF HIS NAVAL RANGE OF ACTION, NORTH
AFRICAN INFLUENCE, and EUROPEAN POWER. UNTIL WELL INTO THE 1990’S, CONTEMPORARY
HISTORIANS INSISTED FRANCO’S VICTORY OVER THE REPUBLICANS WAS DUE TO A
COMBINATION OF WELCOMED FOREIGN TROOPS, SEAMEN, AND PILOTS, LARGELY ITALIAN,
AND UNENDING GERMAN STRATEGISTS, MUNITIONS, AND OTHER SUPPLIES. E.R. HOOTON
WRITES IN “FRANCO’S PIRATES”, “THE SEA BATTLES IN THE WATERS EMBRACING SPAIN AND
PORTUGAL HAVE LONG BEEN OVERSHADOWED BY THE LAND CONFLICTS.” THIS WELCOMED
STUDY WITH ITS SHOCKING WAR CASUALTIES LIST, METICULOUSLY RESEARCHED ENDNOTES,
THOROUGH BIBLIOGRAPHY, PROVIDES SERIOUS WORLD WAR II BUFFS THE FIRST FULL
ACCOUNT IN ENGLISH OF THE NAVAL ASPECTS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, ADDRESSING
FRANCO’S NATIONALIST DECISION-MAKING IN TERMS OF THE BLOCKADE, AND ESPECIALLY THE
ACTIVITIES OF BOTH NATIONALIST AND REPUBLICAN FORCES AGAINST EACH OTHER AS WELL
AS FOREIGN NAVIES AND MERCHANT MARINES. THEIR REACTIONS ARE OFTEN SHOCKING.
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“FRANCO’S PIRATES – – Naval Aspects of the Spanish Civil War, 1936 – 39”, by E.R. Hooten.
CASEMATE MILITARY PUBLISHERS, Havertown, PA 19083: 2024 Naval History, 252 pages, 6 ½” x
9 ¼”, hardcover, $37.95. Visit, www.casematepublishers.com.
It wasn’t until General Francisco Franco y Bahamonde’s death in 1975 did the truth of why
the Nationalists won the war emerge in to’to. In short, his Nationalists didn’t win because of
their own greater resources or more foreign support. They won because they used their
resources wisely, especially their strong NAVY more effectively. Throughout the three-year
ferocity, the Nationalists held the initiative, conquered territory, and forced the Republic to
take the defensive. The Republicans turned out to be a disunited, quarreling, and mutually
suspicious group of suspicious autonomous generals in independent states within the state.
For the uninitiated in Spain sad Civil War history, Hooten explains in detail how Franco, when
he assumed supreme power, organized the country first and foremost into a waging war
machine. Political unity of command was the concomitant of military unity of command. From
the early stages of the war, Franco was both Generalissimo of the Armed Forces and head of
state. Meanwhile, the Republicans used their available time and energy talking politics and
more revolutions, while the Nationalists concentrated on just making war. Proof: as early as
September 1936, the much smaller but competently and aggressively handled Nationals won
control of the Strait of Gibraltar, never to relinquish it. As Fascist Caudillo (leader) of Spain,
despite receiving a huge amount of German aid, Franco refused to join the Axis and would not
allow Hitler’s army and tank divisions to rumble through Spain on their way to attack the back
of Gibraltar. That he was quick, neat, and skillful in negotiating led the furious Nazi Fuhrer of
Germany in October of 1940 to say he would prefer to have three or four of his teeth pulled,
one after the other without pain relief, than suffer another sit-down meeting with the Caudillo.
Although Franco managed to keep Spain neutral in World War II, he feared Hitler enough,
especially should he win the war, to volunteer elite Spanish units into Russia to fight alongside
the losing Germans.
