[7] The Battle of Guadalajara and the defence of the skies over Madrid against Nationalist bombing raids during the capital's long siege would be the only scenarios where the loyalist air force took part in an effective manner.

Aviation was developing in those years in Spain; in 1931 Captain Cipriano Rodríguez Díaz and Lieutenant Carlos de Haya González flew non-stop to Equatorial Guinea, then a Spanish colonial outpost.

During the Civil War the Air Force of the Spanish republican government would have to fight against the better equipped Aviación Nacional, created by the fraction of the army in revolt and their powerful Italian Fascist and Third Reich supporters.

The loyalist areas of Spain retained, however, a great part of the 60 Breguet XIX, 27 Vickers Vildebeest and 56 Hispano-Nieuport Ni-52 planes that the Spanish Air Force had before the hostilities, for the Republic had the control of the majority of the territory.

Within the month of his military coup, the help received by Francisco Franco from Nazi Germany (Condor Legion) and Fascist Italy (Aviazione Legionaria) gave the rebels the upper hand in airpower over Spain.

The first German and Italian bombers arrived to increase the size of the rebel air force already in July 1936 and Fiat CR.32 and Heinkel He 51 fighter planes began operating in August.

[9] These planes helped the rebel army side to gain full control of the air, as did the Italian Aviazione Legionaria and the German Condor Legion.

For identification purposes the Republican tricolor roundel was replaced by red bands, an insignia that had previously been used on Aeronáutica Naval aircraft during the monarchy in the 1920s, before the time of the Republic.

Afraid of the "Communist threat" Neville Chamberlain and Léon Blum were ready to sacrifice Spain, as they later sacrificed Czechoslovakia, in the belief that Hitler could be appeased.

[19] At the end of October, four months after the rebels had been supplied with German and Italian aircraft by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the first Tupolev SB bombers arrived from Russia.

[22] Innovative, and often lethal, aeronautical bombing techniques were tested by Condor Legion German expeditionary forces against loyalist areas on Spanish soil with the permission of Generalísimo Franco.

[26]The Spanish Republican Air Force was unable to counteract the deadly low-level attacks and close support of the infantry tactics developed by Wolfram von Richthofen during the Civil War.

The planes landed in Francazal near Toulouse, where the French authorities impounded them, arrested the Spanish Republican pilots, and swiftly interned them in concentration camps.

Even though it was largely ineffective, this squadron became something of a legend after the writer's claims of nearly annihilating part of the rebel army in the Battle of the Sierra Guadalupe at Medellín, Extremadura.

Even though President Albert Lebrun opposed direct assistance to the threatened fellow republic, Léon Blum, then the prime minister of France, decided to help the Spanish Republicans with discretion.

The French Ministry of Defense had feared that modern types of planes would easily be captured by the Germans fighting for Franco, and the lesser models were a way of maintaining official "neutrality".

In order to give the whole operation an official character, the Spanish Republican War Ministry authorities gave André Malraux the rank of lieutenant colonel, even though he was not a pilot and hadn't even been through military service.

This title gave Malraux authority as Squadron Leader of Escuadrilla España, for he was only answerable to general Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros, the Spanish Ministerio del Aire commander-in-chief.

Malraux was given considerable autonomy, in Albacete he recruited his own personnel, who escaped the control of the International Brigades run by hard-line Stalinist André Marty who tried to impose discipline.

At any rate, Malraux's participation in such an historical event as the Spanish Civil War inevitably brought him adversaries, as well as supporters, resulting in a polarization of opinion.

[38] The Soviet Union profited from the international isolation of the Spanish Republic imposed by the non-intervention agreements and assisted the beleaguered Republican government by providing weapons and pilots.

After the western democracies refused military assistance to the established Spanish Government in the name of so-called "Non-Intervention", the Soviet Union and Mexico were practically the only nations that helped Republican Spain in its struggle.

The Katiuska pilots took advantage for the time being of their aircraft's relatively higher speed, but the plane was vulnerable and its fuel tanks easily caught fire when shot at.

The Russian pilots gave their best performance in the Battle of Guadalajara, routing the Italian Aviazione Legionaria and pounding the Fascist militias incessantly from the air.