Rif War

The Rif War, also called the Second Moroccan War, was fought between Spain (later assisted by France) and the Moroccan Rif Berbers.

Forces involved

Rifian forces

The Berber tribesmen had a long tradition of fierce fighting skills, combined with high standards of fieldcraft and marksmanship. They were capably led by Abd el-Krim who showed both military and political expertise. However, the Rifian regular army was never a very large force.^[5] The elite of the Rifian forces formed regular units which according to Abd el-Krim, quoted by the Spanish General Manual Goded, numbered 6-7,000, and other sources put it much lower - 2,000 to 3,000.^[5] The remaining Rifians were tribal militia selected by their Caids and not liable to serve away from their homes and farms for more than fifteen consecutive days. General Goded estimated that at their peak the Rifian forces numbered about 80,000 men by June 1924.^[4] Although Abd el-Krim was never able to arm more than 20,000 men at a time.^[6] In the final days of the war Rifian forces numbered about 12,000 men.^[3] Rifian forces were not well armed either, their weapons were badly maintained and in bad condition.^[3]

Spanish forces

Initially, the Spanish forces in Morocco were largely composed of Spanish conscripts. While they showed an ability to endure much hardship, these "Peninsular" troops were poorly supplied and prepared (few had marksmanship skills and proper battle training), with widespread corruption being reported amongst the officer corps, reducing supplies and morale. Even with their numerical superiority, they proved no match for the highly skilled and motivated Rifian forces. Accordingly, much reliance came to be placed on the few professional units comprising the Spanish "Army of Africa". Since 1911, these had included regiments of Moorish Regulares.

With the difficulties and early setbacks it experienced, the Spanish army began to adopt much from the French Foreign Legion and, as a result, a Spanish equivalent, the Tercio de Extranjeros ("Regiment of Foreigners", generally known in English as the "Spanish Legion"), was formed in 1920. The regiment's second commander was General Francisco Franco, having risen rapidly through the ranks. Less than 25% of this "Foreign Legion" were, in fact, non-Spanish. Harshly disciplined and driven, they quickly acquired a reputation for ruthlessness. As their number grew, they increasingly led offensive operations after the earlier disasters that had been suffered by the conscript forces.

Course of war

Early stages

As an outcome of the Treaty of Fez (1912) Spain gained possession of the lands around Melilla and Ceuta. In 1920 the Spanish commissioner, General Dámaso Berenguer, decided to conquer the eastern territory from the Jibala tribes, but had little success. On 1st July 1921 the Spanish army in north-eastern Morocco collapsed when defeated by the forces of Abd el-Krim, in what became known in Spain as the disaster of Annual, some 8,000 soldiers and officers reported killed or disappeared out of some 20,000. The Spanish were pushed back and during the following five years, occasional battles were fought between the two. The Rifian forces advanced to the east and captured over 130 Spanish military posts.^[7] By late August 1921 Spain lost all the territories it had gained since 1909. Spanish troops were pushed back to Melilla, which was their biggest base in the eastern Rif.^[7] Spain still had 14,000 soldiers in Melilla.^[7] However Abd el-Krim ordered his troops not to attack Melilla. Since citizens of other european nations were residing in Melilla, Abd el-Krim feared they would intervene in the war should their citizens come to harm.^[7] Thus the Spanish could keep their biggest base in the eastern Rif. Later Abd el-Krim would admit: "I bitterly regret this order. It was my biggest mistake. All the following tenor of events happened because of this mistake.".^[7] In 1924, during fighting at Dar Aquba, Abd el-Krim's men inflicted a staggering loss on the Spanish colonial forces, killing over 10,000 men.^[8] In a bid to break the stalemate, the Spanish military turned to the use of chemical weapons against the Riffians.

French intervention

In May 1924, the French Army had established a line of posts north of the Oureghla River in disputed tribal territory. On 12 April 1925, an estimated 8,000^[9] Rifs attacked this line and in two weeks over 40 of 66 French posts had been stormed or abandoned. French casualties exceeded 1,000 killed, 3,700 wounded and 1,000 missing - representing losses of over twenty percent of the French forces deployed in the Rif.^[10] The French accordingly intervened on the side of Spain, employing up to 300,000 well trained and equipped troops from Metropolitan, North African, Senegalese and Foreign Legion units. French deaths in what had now become a major war are estimated at about 12,000 ^[11].

Outcome

For the final attack commencing on May 8 1926 the French and Spanish had ranged 123,000 men, supported by 150 aircraft, against 12,000 Rifians.^[3] Superior manpower and technology soon resolved the course of the war in favour of France and Spain. The French troops pushed through from the south while the Spanish fleet and army secured Alhucemas Bay by an amphibious landing, and began attacking from the north. After one year of bitter resistance, Abd el-Krim, the leader of both the tribes, surrendered to French authorities, and in 1926 Spanish Morocco was finally retaken.

The unpopularity of the war in Spain, however, and the humiliating initial failures of the Spanish military, contributed to the instability of the Spanish government and the military coup of 1923.

References

SACANELL, Enrique. "El general Sanjurjo". Editorial La Esfera de Los Libros, Madrid (2004) ISBN: 9788497342056

External links

• Steven Thomas, 1911 - 1927 Rif War / Second Moroccan War

• The Rif War 1893 (sic) on OnWar.com.

• Chemical Weapons: Tenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC 7-11 November 2005, The Hague, The Netherlands

• Rif war

• David Montgomery Hart, The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif : an ethnography and history. Published for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research [by] University of Arizona Press, c1976. xxiii, 556 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. ISBN 0816504520 :

Series Viking Fund publications in anthropology ; no. 55 , Notes. Bibliography: pages 533-546. (Tucson, Arizona, (1976)