The Alcantara Cavalry Regiment and the Disaster at Annual
Rif
War, Morocco, July-August 1921 by Richard Baber
An earlier version of this article appeared in the magazine of the SOTCW - The Journal
The advance of General Manuel Fernandez Silvestre`s forces into the Spanish western zone from the old presidio Melilla towards Alhucemas Bay had started well enough.
Silvestre
had around 25,000 men and was well supplied, unfortunately he was not a clever
man who took little or no advice from his subordinates and even his superiors!
As his columns advanced they built a large number of blockhouses plus fortified
encampments and supply bases along their path; local tribes were paid off (but
not disarmed). Silvestre decided to move further into the Rif than planned and,
against the direct orders of General Damaso Berenguer Fuste, the Spanish High Commissioner
of the protectorate, he crossed the Amekran River
and built an outpost on top of Mt. Abarran, a holy site to the local Riffi.
Militarily Abd el-Krim who was trying to raise a rebellion against the Spanish must have welcomed the Spaniards advance into the Rif as it took them away from Melilla and stretching out their supply lines making them vulnerable. But then building a post isolated across the river from the bulk of the Spanish troops on top of a holy mountain which enraged the locals was a gift too good to ignore. His men acting with the aid of some native troops who betrayed their Spanish officers, attacked the outpost and nearly 200 Spaniards and loyal Regulares were killed; more importantly a battery of guns was captured along with large stocks of shells and small arms ammunition. Abd el-Krim used this success to gather more tribesmen to his banner with the promise of more victories and further loot.
What followed was a series of defeats that led one after the other, domino fashion, to one of the largest disasters to befall a European army in Africa. The next Spanish outpost to be attacked was Igueriben. Situated three miles from Annual this position was quickly surrounded and cut off from the main base. General Silvestre rapidly gathered what forces he had and rushed to Annual to rectify the situation. There followed several attempts to break the siege including two cavalry charges led by Silvestre himself, but heavy fire from Riffian artillery and machine guns drove back these brave efforts. The Riffians stormed Igueriben and in so doing managed to isolate and cut off General Silvestre and his men from Melilla, Annual being situated in a valley and Iguerben actually overlooks it and dominating its approaches.
On July 22nd, after several days with ammunition and supplies running dangerously low, General Silvestre gave the order to abandon Annual and for the Forces there in to try and fight their way back to the coast. What should have been an orderly withdrawal turned into a rout. Here accounts vary, with some stating that Silvestre was killed in combat, whilst others claim he committed suicide. Whatever the truth about the Spanish commander, his force was ill-prepared, and the Rifians fell upon the fleeing Spanish soldiers, civilians alike, slaughtering all they caught.
One of the units
involved in Silvestre`s advance across the Riff was; Regimiento de Caballeria Alcantara No14 (transl: 14th
Regiment of Cavalry “Alcantara”), commanded by Colonel Mandella. A veteran of
the campaign, the regiment had served in Morocco for 10 years. It was a very
well respected unit with a proud combat history, made up of mostly volunteers
with a high level of training and discipline. Col. Mandella was actually with
Gen. Silvestre at Annual when the General decided to abandon the town, he never
returned to his command and was killed during the retreat. Command of the
regiment fell to Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Primo de Rivera and Orbaneja
(regimental 2nd in command), cousin of Lieutenant
General Miguel Primo de Rivera who would become Dictator of Spain a few
years later. The regiment had six squadrons (five sabre squadrons armed with
sabres and carbines and a machine gun squadron), with a compliment of 32
officers and 685 men.
22nd July
The Lt. Col. himself
led a squadron out to support an isolated post which protected a vital river
crossing set in an high-sided gorge; if the position was lost, Izumar (the
regiment's base camp) would be cut-off.
Unfortunately the colonel was met with the sight of a flood of men withdrawing from Annual. An army in name alone, little command or control, units intermixed, men just looking to escape east in complete disorder. To his credit Col. Primo de Rivera did not abandon his duty, he quickly abandoned his patrol and gathered the rest of his regiment and began to organise the fleeing groups into some sort of order forcing them to move as one body with his squadrons and troops on the flanks effectively boxing them in. Once order had been regained, the regiment sent out parties to occupy strategic high ground, both on the flanks and in advance of the retreat. These parties fought short bloody actions to first clear and secure their positions; then held them until the straggling column had passed. This continued all day until, the column reached Ben Tieb, it is noted that many of the cavalrymen dismounted allowing wounded comrades from the column to be carried on their mounts.
23rd July
At dawn the
colonel began a general withdrawal towards the next major Spanish position - Dar
Druis, first he sent 5th squadron with some light guns ahead of the main body
to scout and drive off any Riffi already in position. He then sent a couple of
troops to the River Kert to collect as much water as possible (I assume they
had mules and pack horses). Finally once the main column was on the move, the
colonel together with two squadrons and a battery of guns formed up as a
rearguard screen. As the column straggled across the countryside, sections of
riders fanned out to collect the troops from various posts: Ababda, Ain Kert, Azib o Midar,
Cheif, Karra Midar and Tafersit. These fighting patrols often encountered Riffi
and were forced to fight both to and from their objectives, casualties among
the cavalry were high, but many Spanish troops were able to join the main
column because of this sacrifice.
At the position called Cheif the column met another
withdrawing column commanded by General Navarro, held up by a strong Riffi
force. Col. Primo de Rivera led his men in a massed, mounted charge through
rifle and machine gun fire; once through the lines; they wield around and
charged back towards the enemies rear. These two ferocious charges forced the
Riffi to break contact allowing the combined columns to move on and finally
reach Dar Druis; but at the cost of over seventy casualties to Alcantara and
many dead horses. In the same battle the Alcantara fought a proper mounted
action against native Metalsa horsemen, Alcantara`s discipline and training
drove the enemy cavalry from the field.
The road to Melilla was cut by the Riffi, a convoy of ambulances was shot up with many fatalities among the already wounded, drivers and medical staff. Upon getting this news, General Navarro seems to have lost his nerve and instead of digging in and trying to hold Dar Druis, he ordered the base evacuated and his command to withdraw to Mount Arruit via Batel.
Leading the withdrawal was of course Alcantara, though many men now carried wounds and almost all the horses were spent. But, the regiment (or what was left of it) continued to show great spirit and bravery, troops and sections moving out to clear Riffi from blocking positions and protect the more vulnerable column. At the Igan River (where the convoy of ambulances had been attacked earlier); the Riffi had dug in a strong blocking position. Col. Primo de Rivera called his survivors together:
""Soldiers, the hour of sacrifice has come. Let each one do his duty. If you do not, your mothers, your sweethearts, all Spanish women say they are cowards. We will show that we are not".
With that, supported by machine guns and a few cannon he led the remaining men (about two squadrons) in another mounted charge to clear the Riffi who were defending the ford. After a savage fight which included much hand-to-hand combat, the Alcantara broke through, drove off the Riffi and then held open the ford for the rest of the column pass through to Batel.
El Alcantara move forward protecting the flank of the straggling Spanish column
20mm figures from the authors collection
When the Spanish finally reached Mount Arruit, Col.
Primo de Rivera and the remains of his regiment continued to sally forth and
harass the enemy. On July 30th, Lt. Col. Primo de
Rivera`s left arm was severely lacerated by grenade fragments, but the colonel
refused to abandon his command. Finally in a desperate attempt to prevent
gangrene he ordered one of his officers to remove the arm and stuffed his
handkerchief into his mouth to muffle his own screams whilst the operation was
done without any anesthetics.
Lt Col. Primo de Rivera died of his wounds at Monte Arruit a few days after the survivors arrived at the base, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Cross of San Fernando.
This regiment literally fought itself to destruction as part of the rearguard, charging again and again into the teeth of the Riffian fire attempting to protect their comrades. When the retreat was over and the survivors paraded and a roll was called:
Of the four troop
commanders – three were dead, the other a wounded prisoner.
Of the 29 other
officers – 21 dead, 3 wounded, 2 prisoners (one wounded)
Six warrant
officers – 5 dead
20 sergeants – 18
dead
63 corporals – 53
dead
13 trumpeters –
all dead
14 farriers – 11
dead
17 privates 1st
class – 14 dead
524 troopers – 403
dead
Out of the entire regiment there was less than one full troop left!
Post script
On July 2nd 2012,
The Spanish government issued a Royal Decree (No 132) granting Armoured Cavalry
Regiment No10 "Alcántara"
the Distinguished Cross of San Fernando as a Laureate Collective. The award
text reads:
Recreating the action on tabletop
Now I`m not into
playing elites, I tend to run history, based games, but I have wanted to do
this on tabletop for ages since the first time read about it.
Scenario 1: Convoy escort
Set your table up
with a windy track with wooded hills and deep wadis. The Spanish convoy start
at one end and must exit the other. Either place or randomly generate warbands
(Harkas) of Riffi along the trail to ambush this convoy. The troopers of
Alcantara must protect the convoy at all cost, attacking any Riffi encountered
or aggressively patrolling to keep the harkas away from the vulnerable convoy.
Set a time limit for the Spanish (if you don`t cross the table by "X" the rearguard are overwhelmed and you all die!) and a casualty limit for the Riffi (too many casualties among your warriors will lose you loyalty among the tribes).
Scenario 2: Blocao relief mission
A couple of
platoons from Alcantara are sent to bring back the garrison of an isolated
blocao. Again a simple table with the blocao set at roughly halfway across.
The patrol from
Alcantara must make their way to the blocao and then escort the garrison off
the table. The Riffi could appear from random directions in varying numbers to
make things interesting. The cavalry should be encouraged to act aggressively,
but protect their charges at all costs. Bonus points for heroic acts, saving
wounded, killing Riffi.
Scenario 3: Massed battle
The Riffi have
blocked the column, General Navarro calls upon the Alcantara to save the day "for
the glory of Alfonso XIII and Spain"!
Set up the table
with the Riffi set to block the columns retreat with entrenchments, using any
buildings, farm walls, etc. The terrain can be as open or constricted as you
want, but give the cavalry some opportunity for movement and charges.
If you give the
Riffi any machine guns, limit the ammunition.
You could give
Alcantara some artillery support (65mm mountain guns) as well as their own
machine gun squadron. If your short of cavalry, have some of the saber squadrons
start on foot.
Painting and figures
Alcantara cavalry
wore an olive green uniform and floppy sun hat (like a jungle booney hat), some
illustrations I`ve seen also show them in a light blue pillbox cap. All the
colour sketches I have seen show the uniform colour to be similar to GW
"Castellan green", I mix this with Vallejo "Russian Uniform
Green"; brown leather webbing and pouches; badges were bronze, NCO stripes
and officers stars bright yellow; horse
furniture was usually brown leather.
Sources
El Alcantara 1921 by Julio Albi
Rebels in the Rif by David S. Woolman
The Betrothed of Death by Jose E. Alvarez
La Legion 1921 by Francisco Martinez Canales
Les Imagenes del Desastre Annual 1921 by Antonio Carrasco Garcia
Uniformes de las Unidades Militares de la
Ciudad de Melilla by
Jose Maria Bueno Carrera
Atlas Ilustrado de las Guerras de Marruecos
1859-1926 by Emilio Marin
Ferrer
The Rif War Vol1: From Taxdirt to the Disaster
of Annual 1909-1921 by Javier
Garcia de Gabiola
Desperta Ferro No30 – El Desastre de Annual
Liberation Miniatures SCW foot with head-swaps to create Alcantara on foot.
