Frontline Madrid: Battlefield Tours of the Spanish Civil War

by David Mathieson, Jon Snow (Foreword)

In July 1936 insurgent Spanish troops organized a military coup to oust the elected Republican government in Madrid. The rebel generals expected to force a quick, clean regime change but they failed. The botched uprising turned into a bloody civil war. Hundreds of thousands died in a bitter conflict which tore the country apart and rapidly turned into the prelude for an even greater conflict yet to come--the Second World War. The siege of Madrid was the key battle of the war. The world watched and waited for the city to surrender as General Franco's Nationalist army, backed by Hitler and Mussolini, closed in on the Spanish capital. But Madrid did not fall. Madrileños fought tooth and nail to defend their city. Helped by volunteers from fifty other countries--the International Brigades--they held out against all the odds until the end of the conflict in 1939. Despite its central role in twentieth-century history, the siege of Madrid is an episode largely hidden from today's visitor. There is no guide to the war sites and few clues for the inquisitive traveller who wants to know more. Frontline Madrid fills that gap. This unique guide book explains what life was like in the city under siege and what happened in the battlefield dramas. The simple to follow maps and diagrams make it easy to visit the frontline sites. The vividly written descriptions bring events and people compellingly to life. The role of prominent individuals, British and American--Orwell, Hemingway, John Cornford is explored. Off the beaten track, from the University district in the city centre to the mountains of Guadarrama less than an hour away, the remains of the war in Madrid can still be found--gun emplacements, bunkers, trenches and occasional debris. Frontline Madrid retraces the footsteps of those who lived through the conflict to take the reader on a tour in time. The usual tourist traps are left far behind to enter the gripping world of a war which shaped modern European history.

208 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst historical book i have ever read. First of all, this book is a completely and utterly bullshit, and is a biggest piece of shit that my eyes have ever seen. I have never witnessed the book being so historically inaccurate and bad. And I didn’t even mention that an author of this book is not only a fucking retard, but also a retard with dimentia. Starting with a fact that a guy cannot even speak, and construct a complex of sentences, finishing with a fact that he forgets every second sentence he has ever said. His attention span is shorter than a memory of a fucking gold fish. I swear he cannot even remember what he ate for breakfast, and you trust this moron to write a book that people are actually going to read. He is an actual menace to society despite his pre-historical age. It is very impressive how words so dangerous for your brain developement and adequacy can come out of such an old fuck’s mouth. I would rather watch two girls one cup for the rest of my life than read a single book from this Author. David Mathieson is the worst of the worst, and should be legally banned from writing books.

[Peyton Deal · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much information but it is all presented in a way that is intriguing, digestible, and well-researched. I especially loved the bits at the end of chapters that provided modern-day ways to access and visit the sites discussed in the book, especially given that many of the locations were not marked or preserved after the war. I learned so much reading this book.