Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Iron Column (Catalan: Columna de Ferro, Spanish: Columna de Hierro) was a Valencian anarchist militia column formed during the Spanish Civil War to fight against the military forces of the Nationalist Faction that had rebelled against the Second Spanish Republic.

First, the Alcoy group led by Rafael Martí,[2] which left Valencia with some 150 militiamen, passed through Sagunto, where they were joined by another hundred volunteers.

[4] In these early days the column almost totally lacked organization, until after several casualties caused by disorganization in combat they decide to form the centuries.

Among its earliest acts were the freeing of convicts from the San Miguel de los Reyes prison and the burning of judicial archives.

Faced with this provocation, the column responded with force: so on two occasions, one in Valencia and another in Castellón, the revolutionaries stormed the courts to destroy judicial records, the City Council to destroy property records, and even attacked the San Miguel de los Reyes prison where they released the prisoners held there.

[11] When, in November 1936, the Government was evacuated to Valencia due to the proximity of nationalist troops to Madrid, several ministers were arrested, humiliated and threatened with death as they passed through Tarancón, a town controlled by the column.

But the battle was fruitless, since the Republicans did not support the artillery attack and their planes did not know how to take advantage of their superiority, nor did they activate any contiguous front so that the enemy would not send reinforcements.

The Iron Column resisted the government plan of turning the popular militias into regular army units longer than any other group.

As against corporals, sergeants, and officers, graduated from the academies, and completely useless in matters of war, we have our own organization, and we do not accept a military structure.

[15] An unknown member of the Iron Column wrote the Protesta ante los libertarios del presente y del futuro sobre las capitulaciones de 1937 [es] (Protest in front of the present and future libertarians about the surrenders of 1937) where the author denounces the militarization and the compromises by the CNT leadership at the time.