Battle of Annual

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Battle of Annual
Part of the Rif War

Spanish corpses on Monte Arruit, July 1921.
Date July 22, 1921
Location Annual, present-day Morocco
Result Decisive Riff victory
Combatants
Republic of the Rif Spain
Commanders
Abd el-Krim El Khattabi Manuel Fernández Silvestre
Strength
3,000 combatants 25,700 Spanish troops plus
5,100 Moroccan auxillaries
Casualties
~1,000 dead ~13,192 dead
~1,100 captured

The Battle of Annual was a battle fought in Spanish Morocco between the Spanish Army of Africa and combattants of the Rif region. It was a major military defeat suffered by the Spanish army on July 22, 1921 at Annual in northeastern Morocco during the Rif War. The defeat, almost always referred to as the Disaster of Annual, led to major political crises and a redefinition of Spanish colonial policy toward the Rif.

In early 1921 the Spanish army commenced an offensive into north-eastern Morocco from the coastal regions previously held. The advance took place without the extended lines of communication being adequately established or the complete subjugation of the areas occupied.

On July 22, 1921, after five days of siege, Spanish forces garrisoning the encampment of Annual under the command of general Manuel Fernández Silvestre after the contiguous position of Igueriben had fallen, were attacked and destroyed by the Riffi irregular forces under the command of Mohammed Ben Abd el-Krim El Khattabi, a former functionary of the Spanish administration in the Office of Indigenous Affairs in Melilla and one of the leaders of the tribe of the Aith Ouriaghel (known as 'Aith Urriaguel' in Spanish).

General Silvestre disappeared and his remains were never found. The over-extended Spanish military structure in the Western Spanish Protectorate in Morocco crumbled. More than twenty Spanish posts were overrun and their garrisons massacred. At Afrau on the coast Spanish warships were able to take off the garrison and at Zoco el Telata de Metalsa in the south Spanish troops and civilians were able to retreat to the French Zone.

The surviving Spanish troops retreated some 80 km to the encampment of Monte Arruit where a stand was attempted under the command of General Felipe Navarro y Ceballos-Escalera. This position was however surrounded and cut off from supplies. Accordingly, General Dámaso Berenguer Fusté, Spanish High Commissioner in the protectorate, authorized surrender on August 9. Nonetheless, the Rifeños did not respect the conditions of surrender and killed many of the refugees within the fort. General Navarro, along with some six hundred others was taken prisoner.

Melilla was only some 40 km away, but was in no position to help: the city itself was almost defenceless and lacked properly trained troops. The refusal of the adjoining tribe of Beni Sicar to join Abdelkrim (and perhaps some luck) saved Melilla.

Spain quickly assembled elite units of the Army of Africa which had been operating south of Tetuan in the Western Zone and had not accompanied Silvestre's forces in the advance to Anual. These mainly comprised the newly raised (1920) Spanish Legion and Morrocan Regulares. Transferred to Melilla by sea these reinforcements enabled the city to be held and Monte Arrut to be retaken by the end of November.

The final casualty report to the Spanish Cortes listed 13,192 Spanish dead but the total may have been higher. Rifeños dead are estimated at about 1,000. Material lost by the Spanish included more than 20,000 rifles and 400 machine guns (figures cited by David Woolman in Rebels in the Rif).

The political crisis brought about by this disaster led Indalecio Prieto to say in the Congress of Deputies: "We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence. The campaign in Africa is a total failure, absolute, without extenuation, of the Spanish Army."

The Minister of War ordered the creation of an investigative commission, directed by the honored general Juan Picasso González, which developed the report known as the Expediente Picasso, which, despite calling out numerous military mistakes, owing to the obstructive action of various ministers and judges did not go so far as to lay political responsibility for the defeat, which popular opinion widely placed upon King Alfonso XIII, who according to several sources had encouraged Silvestre's irresponsible penetration of positions far from Melilla without having adequate defenses in his rear.

This crisis was one of the many that, over the course of the next decade, undermined the Spanish monarchy and led to the rise of the Second Spanish Republic.

The Disaster of Annual is described in two novels -Iman, by Ramón J. Sender; and La Ruta by Arturo Barea-.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Much of the material in this article comes from the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.

  • Rebels in the Rif - Abd El Krim and the Rif Rebellion. David S. Woolman, Stanford University Press 1968.
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