Spanish Civil War

Hi, WF, a nice post. Trust me when I say it is not a matter of brain capacity to understand such things as the Requeté… even for most Spaniards are difficult to explain…

The word Requeté doesn’t have a translation, it is just a designation to a XIX century born right wing, ultra-conservative, catholic movement. The real name is Comunión Tradicionalista and they were known simply as Tradicionalistas or Carlistas (Traditionalists or Carlists) for their attachment to tradition and anti-revolutionary vocation and their support to the pretender king Charles –Charles V for their supporters, with a strong opposition to the values of the French Revolution- in 1833). The popular designation was Requeté (for movement or a single person) and Requetés (for people)
The term Requeté is popularly believed to mean the-most-traditionalists (as prefix re- in Spanish means “more than” and requete- means “even more than”, the popular believe was that it was for reque-Traditionalists). Actually it seems the term came from a joke that derived into a song and dubbed a Traditionalist battalion, and, hence the entire movement.
The Requetés (or Traditionalists/Carlists) had a special strength in the Spanish regions of Navarre and Basque Country (almost a half of the Traditionalist soldiers came from this two regions). The use of the flower… I don’t know the English name of the heraldry flower of the House of Bourbon… well… the use of this flower in the ranks was rooted to its origins as supporters of the separate line of the bourbon family represented by Charles V.
In April 19th 1937, for political purposes at least, the Traditionalist Communion was merged with the (previously merged too) Falange and JONS [National Syndicalist Offensive Boards] –simply known as Falange- to create the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista [a Spanish diplomat always added to it “and of the Great European Express Trains”]. This large name was designated too as the Movimiento Nacional [National Movement] and became the only political party after the war.
In the sixties, Spanish Carlists split into two movements, one faithful to its origins and another with a socialist leaning.
Sorry the extent of the post… At least I hope it will be a practical demonstration that there was no problem with your brain...
After all… I guess the translation of Milicia del Requeté could be Traditionalist Militia as well.

Thanks buistR, omitting explanations in English texts is understandable as it's not too well known even in Spain... I'm glad you found it useful...

In Spain there’s a worrying tradition of starting civil wars, and if the term “war” stands for terrible things, the add of “civil” boost that even more. Some we think scars of our last civil war are a difficult subject to deal with in a balanced way, so the ones who fortunately were just indirectly affected should better opt to… I believe the English expression is kiss and make up; what did happen did it, it was terrible, both sides conducted shamefully and it’s our chance to behave more properly (as long as we can).
I guess people who fought and died in a war, whichever side they were in (sometimes not willingly or brainwashed to do it) it’s a better tribute to keep their memory alive (like this and other Internet forums do) than unearthing bones, but that’s a personal point of view…

About the drawings, I don’t know much about Navy ranks, but the ones on the Falange, Army and Requeté were accurate, so extrapolating Navy ones should be too… It’s a very nice work.
In addition you can use the Army drawing to depict the Guardia Civil ranks, GC was a militarized police, save for the Soldado de 1ª which they didn’t have, the rest of the ranks are the same of the army in a dark green background.
GC was dismantled in 1937 in the Republican Zone, in the National Army they formed columns and acted mostly as supporting units and rearguard security service, although they earned some fame in punctual separate actions.
Nowadays GC has been put apart from the armed forces and just wear its characteristic patent leather three-cornered in full dress required events.

Hi, I have taken advantage of being a Spaniard and having no language handicap to learn a bit more about the Republican Army ranks...
At first, I thought, as Chris, that there would be several general degrees, in a contemporary way, but I was wrong. The Ejército Popular de la República (Republican People's Army) had just a rank for generals, and its insignia was as depicted in WF's drawing [except for republican General Pozas who wore an unofficial variant].
One thing I have seen is that officers at command of a unit larger than their rank would use to be in charge of wore a few smaller three-dot gold stars: 1 for a brigade, 2 for a division, 3 for an army corps; and 4 for an army. The gold stars were placed in line under the rank insignia. A general would just bear 4 stars when commanding an army, ranks under general could display 1-4 stars depending the unit they were commanding at the time, for example, a colonel at the head of a division would show two stars under his insignia, and just one if commanding a brigade.
Anyway, the common Spanish stars display [1 Brigadier (General de Brigada) 2 Major General (General de División) 3 Lieutenant General (Teniente General) and 4 General (former Capitán General rank, now General del Ejército)] was not used in the Republican Army.
I hope this will be of some use.