Spanish Reinactors

 12th Regimiento de Cazadores 

I have to be honest I`ve always been a bit wary of reinactors. I`ve never had the courage to do it myself and I`ve always found the guys who do can be odd.

These guys were taking part in the Novelda Modernista festival which celebrates the turn of the 19th Century/early 20th Century and Art Nouveau period.

They represent members of an light infantry unit serving in Morocco during the Melilla Campaign of 1908-10 (see a brief history below).

They were to a man pleasant, answered my stumbling questions in my awful Spanish with polite amusement and showed a great knowledge of their period. The uniforms and equipment to my inexperienced eye looked superb, the guys explained the uniforms were all re-pros but some buttons and some of the equipment was original and period!

These two were being medic and patient, pictured here playing up for the audience 😀

Looking down on the camp from the top of the triangular tower

Patiently putting up with a bloody tourist 😀

Some of many ladies wearing period costume

Like I said above I`m no expert on this period, but do have sources, I think the reinactors uniforms are pretty good.

Uniform Cuba 1897

Uniform Marocco 1908 

Period newspaper photo

The Second Melilla Campaign 1909

After the 1906 Algeciras Conference, Spain took the opportunity to expand her area of control around Melilla, Morocco. Mines were open in the hills above the presidio and a narrow gauge railway built to carry supplies to and the ore from those mines. This incensed the tribes and led to local trouble.

In August 1908, tribesmen attacked the mines and several workers were killed, luckily the local Riff leader was captured and sent to Fez (where he later died in prison). Unfortunately for the Spanish their best ally among the tribes was also forced out, leaving them with no support. The commander – General José Marina Vega asked Spain for reinforcements but none were sent. On July 9^th 1909 another attack upon the mines saw a number of railway workers killed, in response General Marina ordered a retaliatory offensive into the Rif.

 The Spanish Government sent troops to Morocco to help the pacification, it should be noted that at the time Spain had no professional Army or indigenous troops, so all those sent were mostly conscripts, poorly trained, badly equipped, lacking even basic maps.  

 There were two major actions:

Ai Aixa where six companies under command of Colonel Álvarez Cabrera got lost after leaving Melilla at nightfall and in the morning, found themselves in the Alfer Canyon, where they were decimated by gunfire from the heights. Colonel Cabrera and 26 men were killed, and 230 were wounded.

Barranco del Lobo General Pintos was ordered to keep guard in the vicinity of the Mount Gurugu at the helm of a brigade of jägers. The Riffians ambushed the jägers and inflicted losses of about 600 wounded and 150 killed on the Spanish troops (although the numbers are subject to dispute), including Pintos himself!

 After these defeats the Spanish flooded men into Melilla including artillery, raising the numbers to around 35,000. At the end of August they launched a new offensive with overwhelming numbers and had subdued the eastern tribes by January 1910. 

Whilst walking through the town later we saw dozens of people dressed in period costumes among them this fine gentleman wearing a Guardia Civil uniform.