Spain, July 5th, 1936
The Spanish army went to action. Following the assassination of Franco nine days earlier and persistent rumours that a coup was brewing well before that, someone might have expected the government to be waiting for one. If it was, it had clearly failed to take the necessary action to prevent it. The coup plotters on their part had waited till Sunday in hopes of maximizing surprise but were less than completely successful either. The rebels quickly seized control of Spanish Morocco, the Balearic islands and the Canary islands where general Ochoa had been exiled in all but name after the Popular Front had come to power. In the Spanish mainland though results had been decidedly mixed for both sides. In Madrid the coup was suppressed with supporters of the coup forced in the Montana barracks, which would be stormed the next day and survivors executed. Old Castille, Leon and Navarre quickly sided with the rebels. On the reverse Valencia and Catalonia, stayed loyal to the republic, although Catalonia with the socialists and communists still weak from the 1934 rebellion had fallen under control of the anarchists. Further west the rebels had managed to secure Cadiz and Seville but their hold to them was rather precarious. Spain had been effectively split in half. So had the army and police forces in the mainland. The Army of Africa had passed under complete rebel control, on the reverse the majority of the navy had remained under control of the government. The advantage from controlling the navy though would be mostly negated when both Italy and Germany intervened on the side of the rebels allowing the rebels to move troops from Africa to the mainland reinforcing their hold on the south-west.
The coup had just given place to full scale civil war.
Constantinople, July 13th, 1936
A Comintern international conference in the city decided on supporting the Spanish government, with money and volunteers. The free city offered many unique opportunities in supporting the efforts to reinforce the republic. With British, French and Italian troops and civil servants already in the city, not to mention Greeks and Turks and large foreign communities, including tens of thousands of former While Russians, it was inevitable that the Queen of Cities was also home to spies and smugglers of all kinds.
Paris, August 1936
Under intense British pressure France proclaimed non intervention in the Spanish civil war. It would be soon followed by over two doze nations, ironically enough including Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. Germany and Italy were already in blatant breach of non-intervention not just providing arms to the Nationalist side but also sending "volunteers" by the thousands to reinforce them. The Soviet Union would soon follow their example. France itself would continue shipping aircraft to the Republicans till the end of the year despite in theory leading the non intervention movement.
Spain, September 1936
With all out war underway, Largo Caballero became the Republic's prime minister a clear sign of the increasing control of the government by the Left. On the Nationalist side things remained less clear cut. During August general Ochoa's southern army had captured Estremadura linking with the northern army of general Mola and putting the entirety of the Portuguese border under Nationalist control, a useful advantage given Portuguese support for the nationalists. Following that Ochoa had advanced against Madrid, ignoring the Loyalist siege of Alcazar in Toledo, correctly expecting the besiegers would pull back to defend Madrid anyway. But noone was in overall control of the rebellion till finally, in September 27th general Miguel Cabanellas had been proclaimed generalissimo with Mola and Ochoa under him.
Drama, Macedonia, September 1936
The first load of Virginia tobacco was put in the oven for curing. The Greek tobacco industry had been facing a serious problem over the past few years as the British tobacco industry had switched over to Virginia and Burley tobacco and would not buy Oriental tobacco. Worse yet from the Greek point of view there appeared to be a gradual switch away from oriental tobacco in continental Europe as well. And far worse from a strategic point of view Germany was among the United States one of the two main importers of Greek tobacco leaving Greece potentially economically dependent on Germany. Given the international situation this was not something acceptable to the Greek government. The Agricultural university of Athens had been given as a priority task the introduction of American tobacco varieties to Greece back in 1933 and following the first successful experiments in the 1935 planting season, the Agricultural Bank of Greece had start subsidising the switch to Virginia and Burley tobacco, in place of the lower quality varieties of Oriental tobacco. A wholesale switch to the American varieties was neither expected nor desirable, Greek varieties like Agrinion, Smyrna or Basma were excellent in their own way after all but it was hoped that over the next 5 years around a third of the Greek tobacco production would switch to American varieties. These in turn were exportable to Britain...
Madrid, October 1st 1936
20,000 Nationalist troops supported by Italian and German tanks and aircraft assaulted the city. On the Loyalist side the defenders were numerically superior with 42,000 men but were severely lacking in arms and ammunition compared to their opponents. For two weeks Nationalist troops slowly ground their way through taking and inflicting very heavy casualties. It looked as if Madrid was about to fall... then the first 50 T-26 tanks shipped from the Soviet Union entered the battle counterattacking against the exhausted Nationalists and pushing them back. The Nationalists would still keep a toehold at the city at a cost of nearly 10,000 casualties but Madrid held. But the Loyalist victory, at 20,000 casualties had been anything but cheap...
Mugla, Turkey, October 12th 1936
Mussolini had held to his part of the deal with Kemal and a referendum on the future of Caria, had taken place in September 1936. The result had not been much in doubt, Turkey would had won a fair referendum and Kemal had not had any intention of taking chances. A Turkish infantry division had then replaced the Italian garrison and Kemal was here to declare victory, at the first territory in Anatolia to be returned to Turkish control. And to take the opportunity to announce the new law introducing surnames for everyone, he would graciously accept the spontaneous public calls, organized of course ahead of time, to take up Ataturk as a surname himself.
Vyronas, Smyrna, October 1936
The old neighbourhood of Daragatsi [1] had taken the opportunity to rename itself after Lord Byron back in 1924 at the centennial of his death, after all the previous name after a tree used for hangings was somewhat problematic. Now it was becoming home to thousands of new residents as most of the Greek population of Caria had voted with their feet after the referendum, leaving the territory ahead of the Turkish army.
Valencia, Spain, October 1936
Greece had been quick to follow the British and French lead over not intervening in the Spanish civil war and the government had scrupulously followed the agreements. Entirely coincidentally the Greek army had provided a large amount of old munitions to the Hephaestus works, to recycle their materials in exchange of an equal amount of new munitions, of course there was nothing odd in newly build artillery shells and bullets costing as much as the recycled materials they were made of. As there was nothing odd in Hephaestus also buying old torpedoes, 65mm mountain guns, Chauchat LMGs and 8mm Mannlicher rifles that had been captured from the Bulgarians back in 1913 again for disposal, actually at prices higher than newly built weapons. The first ships carrying Greek surplus munitions and arms to the Loyalists start unloading their cargo, the payment, in gold had already been disposed to Greek accounts in Paris. Greek re-armament, needed financing and the British were still refusing to provide loans for military sales after all...
[1] Modern day Umurbey