Remains of airfields from the Spanish Civil War in rural areas

Republican aviation, during the Spanish Civil War, maintained a series of airfields and air bases where it deployed both its aviation formations and ground equipment. The main ones at the beginning of the war were, both military and civil, the airfields of Los Llanos (Albacete), San Javier and Los Alcázares (Murcia), Barajas (Madrid) and Barcelona.

In the Madrid area, the Getafe and Cuatro Vientos air bases stood out above Barajas, but at the beginning of the Battle of Madrid (November 1936) they had already fallen into the hands of rebellious troops, which caused Barajas to become the main air base in Madrid, with the support of other airfields such as the one in Guadalajara of the Hispano-Suiza factory. For its part, the one in Los Llanos, in Albacete, became the headquarters of the Republican Aviation.

As the war progressed, the Republicans increased the number of airfields in order to disperse possible enemy attacks, and after the winter of 1937 the Republicans limited themselves to establishing a maximum of one squadron per airfield, hence the increase of these facilities throughout the geography of the territory that was under Republican control.

Airfields and Air Bases used to be located somewhere in the immediate vicinity of a town. They couldn't be far away, since usually the pilots of the planes lived in them. Only the equipment maintenance teams and the forces responsible for protecting the facilities were permanently located in the facilities.

The most important ones had a more developed infrastructure. There was a farmhouse where the controls, shelters, and quartering for the troops were located. Usually, the communications were by radio and sometimes they did not have electric light.

Flat areas were chosen that were easily accessible and which often corresponded to cultivation areas. The main activity to set up an airfield was to clear the field, uproot banks, trees, vines, move stones and flocks out of the field, and deep areas were filled to level the surface.

Once the surface was filled, it was watered with a tanker truck and rolled with rollers and mules; even in some places, the dirt was trampled on with tampers, large wooden sticks with handles like clubs.

Despite the basic nature of these infrastructures, the vestiges they left in the areas where they were installed were quite numerous in the form of control buildings (often reusing agricultural buildings), watchtowers, checkpoints for controlling access to the airfield or anti-aircraft shelters.

Perhaps because of their underground nature, anti-aircraft shelters are the most and best preserved infrastructures of those that comprised those facilities.

Shelters used to consist of two more or less facing inputs/exits that may or may not protrude from the surrounding terrain. Built with brick and cement, the entrance doors led to staircases leading to the shelter itself.

Examples of this type of construction are abundant based on the findings that some members of our team have been making in their fieldwork.

As we said, these accesses give way to stairs or ramps through which you go down to the shelter, which usually consists of a more or less long corridor, with straight walls and vaulted ceilings in almost all cases, and which are usually finished in cement or brick or a combination of both techniques. The depth reached by these excavations varies widely, ranging from 2 m or more than 5 m deep.

Although we can be pleased that these infrastructures are no longer necessary for our survival, we consider that it would be interesting, in some cases, to their rehabilitation and enhancement so that our history does not fall into oblivion.

In the meantime, let some other tenants benefit from their existence.

INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM:

http://www.errepublika.org/REPUBLICA_AERODROMOS_GCE.htm

http://olmodevilladeves.blogspot.com/2011/12/aerodromo-republicano-de-villa-de-ves.html

Ruiz-Manjón Cabeza, Octavio (1990). The Second Republic and the War. General History of Spain and America (2nd edition). Madrid

http://www.cazarabet.com/idea/aerodromo/index.htm