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:
"For the facts carried in the days of
July 22 to August 9, 1921, in the events known as the" Disaster of Annual
where the unit fought heroically protecting withdrawal Spanish troops from
positions Annual, Monte Arruit".
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.
Typical cavalry uniform of the period note the blue cap
Cavalry belt buckle
Standard of the Alcantara
Mine are converted
from Warrior Miniatures SCW mounted infantry and BUM (Barcelona Universal
Models) SCW cavalry with Raventhorpe or Airfix (Confederate) heads. For foot
figures use Liberation or Bandera SCW figures with sun hats
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
Authors conversions to create Alcantara Cavalry from
various 20mm manufacturers L-R: Warrior Miniatures SCW mounted infantry; Waterloo1915 Anglo-Egyptian officer; Barcelona Universal
Models SCW cavalry
Liberation Miniatures SCW foot with head-swaps to create Alcantara on foot.
Memorial in the Historical Hall of the 10th Alcantara Cavalry Regiment.
The memorial lists the regiments casualties in alphabetical order for the retreat from Annual 1921.
It's a tribute to all those riders who sacrificed their lives in defense of their comrades and for their regiment.
Comemorative buttons
Funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Primo de RiveraNovember 14, 1923, Madrid was adorned for tribute to the leader of the Alcantera in the Rif
It was eleven to a quarter in the morning, when King Alfonso XIII, dressed in his cavalry uniform, took the Laureate Cross and placed it on the coffin. Then escorted by a guard of honour made up of other survivors of his regiment; the coffin was taken from Atocha to the cemetery of San Isidro.
This photo is of the funeral procession, King Alfonso is the figure in the pickelhelm directly behind the coffin.
