Michael Alpert, The Spanish Civil War at Sea, Dark and Dangerous Waters by Robert L. Shoop

The 1936-39 Spanish Civil War continues to attract historians and students of revolutions and military actions.The land and air campaigns have been well-documented, but not the naval aspects of the Spanish Civil War, at least in English.With The Spanish Civil War At Sea: Dark and Dangerous Waters, Michael Alpert, an historian who has published several previous works on various aspects of the Spanish Civil War, fills that gap with a comprehensive narrative of that tragic war's maritime aspects.(While Alpert uses the standard term "Republican(s)" for the forces loyal to the Spanish government in 1936, he describes the forces commanded by Francisco Franco that challenged the Spanish government as "Insurgent(s)" rather than the more familiar term "Nationalist(s)."This review will use Insurgent(s) for consistency with the text.)Civil wars, by their nature, split a nation's population into competing factions, including that nation's military.The Spanish Civil War was no exception, splitting the Spanish Navy into Republican and Insurgent navies.It should be remembered that the Spanish fleet was relatively new in 1936, having had to be rebuilt after near total destruction by the US Navy in the 1898 Spanish-American War in the naval battles of Manila Bay and Santiago.Moreover, Spain endured years of internal turmoil prior to the outbreak of civil war.The Spanish Navy split along rank lines: the enlisted ranks and NCOs tended to side with the Republicans, while officers and the Naval General Staff sided with the Insurgents.The two sides split the combat vessels: the Republicans had one battleship, three cruisers, 13 destroyers plus three more destroyers that entered service during the war, 12 submarines (the entire Spanish submarine fleet), seven torpedo boats, one gunboat, and four armed Coast Guard cutters.The Insurgents commanded one battleship, four cruisers, three minelayers, five torpedo boats, three gunboats, and five Coast Guard Cutters.While the Republican Navy seemed to have a numerical advantage over the Insurgent Navy, the Republicans faced major difficulties.Their submarines were old and the torpedoes they fired were frequently unreliable (a fact which plagued the submarines of many navies in the Second World War).Also, the Republican naval

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