Deluxe Golden Journal No. 62
Jarama River 1937
Publisher’s Preview by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
August 2024
Usually, I design games and write books because I feel like it. That’s probably not the best way to do things, but it does assure that we have an eclectic mix of things that reflect my interests. But for ourGolden Journal No. 62: Jarama River 1937, we’re going with what a group of Gold Club sponsors wanted. And somehow, I’ve become deeply emotionally committed to this project.
Panzer Grenadier has never covered the Spanish Civil War, though I’ve always wanted to take the series to the conflict in an official, legit manner. It’s definitely an out-of-the-way topic, which is why we’re doing so through the Journal, our exclusive little rag for the Gold Club. We’ve done topics outside the mainstream before, which is why I know that Jarama River 1937 needs to be done in this format if we’re going to do it at all.
In February 1937, the Spanish Nationalist División Reforzada de Madrid, an army-sized formation, launched an offensive east of Madrid aimed at cutting off the Spanish capital, then held by the Loyalists, from the provisional capital at Valencia. The Nationalists committed their best troops to the effort: the Moroccan regulares of the Army of Africa, the Spanish Legion, the Irish Brigade, and the fanatical Nazi mercenaries of the Condor Legion and their Panzer I tankettes.
Defending the line of the Jarama River, Gen. José Miaja’s Army of the Center fielded four division-sized groups of brigades including the volunteers of the International Brigades, supported by the T26 tanks of Soviet Gen. Dmitri Pavlov’s tank brigade (Spanish crews with Soviet officers). This would be the toughest battle fought by the International Brigades; Ernest Hemingway would write of the attack on Cerro del Pingarrón that destroyed the XV International Brigade thanks to the incompetence of their Soviet Hungarian commander Janos Galicz.
Yet despite their stunningly poor upper leadership, the Loyalists – both the Internationals and the Spanish Republican brigades – fought heroically against the best the fascist side could throw at them. Fighting raged through all of February. The bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War ended in a Nationalist defeat, with the Madrid-Valencia highway still in the hands of freedom’s defenders. For the moment, the fascist tide had been repelled.
This is a Deluxe Journal, which means it’s much larger than the usual Golden Journal, coming in at twice the usual size, with 20 scenarios and a whopping 176 pieces. It’s not a complete game; you’ll need some maps, rules, and markers from 1940: The Fall of France to play the scenarios.
While no snapshot of the Spanish Civil War can encompass all of the armed groups that fought one another for the future of Spain, the battles along the Jarama River saw a wide array of colorful units deployed by both sides. Fascist leader Francisco Franco wanted to outflank the capital of Madrid – the fascist attempt to seize the city directly having failed in their November 1936 attempt to storm the city directly.
The fascists deployed their best troops, the two components of the Army of Africa: the fanatics of the Spanish Legion, the “Bridegrooms of Death.” Formed in 1920 on the model of the French Foreign Legion, most legionaries were actually Spaniards who signed up to fight Spain’s colonial wars. Alongside them fought the long-service Moroccan regulares, mercenaries recruited to fight in the brutal, dirty war in Spanish Morocco. Several regiments of Moroccan cavalry also fought on the Jarama.
The armor, such as it was, came from the ground component of the German Condor Legion, a relatively small outfit (mostly the Condor Legion provided air and anti-aircraft units) equipped with Panzer I tankettes – no match for the T26 tanks sold to the Republic by their Soviet allies (paid in gold, at a premium price, as the West decided that denying assistance would somehow lead to peaceful negotiations).
Most of the Francoist forces at the Jarama River came from the National Army, by this point a mixed forces consisting of pre-war regulars, volunteers, conscripts, forcibly enrolled Loyalist prisoners, and large numbers of volunteers from the Carlist movement (quixotically hoping to restore a previous branch of Spanish royalty to the throne) and especially Falangists, the Spanish fascist movement. The National Army was noted for corruption and cronyism on a scale that dwarfed that of both royal and Republican Spain, a notable achievement in itself.
Franco’s forces also included the Irish Brigade; as the only foreign volunteer unit on the fascist side, it had to be committed to battle, but its commander stayed in his luxury hotel in Salamanca, drinking himself into a stupor, and in their only actual combat the fascist Irishmen managed to open fire on the fascist Spanish Legion, who gleefully returned it. But while the non-Irish fascists were also very bad men, unlike the Irish they were very good fighters.
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They faced the Popular Republican Army, an agglomeration of various leftist militias (labor unions, Communists, Socialists and Anarchists, all proclaiming themselves Anti-Fascist), pre-war regulars loyal to the Republic, and conscripts called up from Republican-controlled areas. The Anarchists were not present on the Jarama. The Popular Army had just started to impose new higher-level organizations, forming its mixed brigades into divisions, but the Army of the Center still operated under the earlier ad hoc division structure.
The forces on the Jarama River also included four of the International Brigades made up of foreign volunteers and organized by nationality. They varied in quality, with men ranging from idealistic fools seeking adventure to hardened combat veterans of the Great War. And they had “Pablo” – Soviet General Dmitri Pavlov, the 40-year-old former commander of the Soviet 4th Mechanized Brigade, held to be the Red Army’s best armor commander. Pablo had a small tank brigade of about 50 operable T26B tanks, and a doctrine of tank-infantry combined arms operations years ahead of its time.
Jarama River 1937 features Pavlov’s tank-supported offensive on 13 and 14 February, and his brigade’s defeat of the Condor Legion’s cute little tanks. But primarily, it’s an infantry game, the close and brutal, no-quarters fighting between the Internationals and the Moroccans, the valor of the 1st Brigade’s Estremaduran farm boys who finally took the Pingarrón from the Legion after four repeated assaults.
It's the story of men who stood against fascism, shedding their blood for freedom at a time when their own governments turned their backs on them and pretended that it would all go away if they just ignored it hard enough. That the fascists weren’t serious about their agenda of murder and horror, that they were just another political movement with slightly conservative policies.
Perhaps 10,000 Loyalist troops died on the Jarama, the bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War; there is no solid count of casualties for either side. They halted the fascists here, but would ultimately lose their war amid international indifference.
It’s a privilege to tell their story. Fighting fascism is never in vain.
The Golden Journal is only available to the Gold Club (that’s why we call it the Golden Journal).
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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good.
He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.
Daily Content includes no AI-generated content or third-party ads. We work hard to keep it that way, and that’s a lot of work. You can help us keep things that way with your gift through this link right here.
In February 1937, the Spanish Nationalist División Reforzada de Madrid, an army-sized formation, launched an offensive east of Madrid aimed at cutting off the Spanish capital, then held by the Loyalists, from the provisional capital at Valencia. The Nationalists committed their best troops to the effort: the Moroccan regulares of the Army of Africa, the Spanish Legion, the Irish Brigade, and the fanatical Nazi mercenaries of the Condor Legion and their Panzer I tankettes. 
Defending the line of the Jarama River, Gen. José Miaja’s Army of the Center fielded four division-sized groups of brigades including the volunteers of the International Brigades, supported by the T26 tanks of Soviet Gen. Dmitri Pavlov’s tank brigade (Spanish crews with Soviet officers). This would be the toughest battle fought by the International Brigades; Ernest Hemingway would write of the attack on Cerro del Pingarrón that destroyed the XV International Brigade thanks to the incompetence of their Soviet Hungarian commander Janos Galicz. 
Yet despite their stunningly poor upper leadership, the Loyalists – both the Internationals and the Spanish Republican brigades – fought heroically against the best the fascist side could throw at them. Fighting raged through all of February. The bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War ended in a Nationalist defeat, with the Madrid-Valencia highway still in the hands of freedom’s defenders. For the moment, the fascist tide had been repelled. 
This is a Deluxe Journal, which means it’s much larger than the usual Golden Journal, coming in at twice the usual size, with 20 scenarios and a whopping 176 pieces. It’s not a complete game; you’ll need some maps, rules, and markers from 1940: The Fall of France to play the scenarios.
The fascists deployed their best troops, the two components of the Army of Africa: the fanatics of the Spanish Legion, the “Bridegrooms of Death.” Formed in 1920 on the model of the French Foreign Legion, most legionaries were actually Spaniards who signed up to fight Spain’s colonial wars. Alongside them fought the long-service Moroccan regulares, mercenaries recruited to fight in the brutal, dirty war in Spanish Morocco. Several regiments of Moroccan cavalry also fought on the Jarama.
The armor, such as it was, came from the ground component of the German Condor Legion, a relatively small outfit (mostly the Condor Legion provided air and anti-aircraft units) equipped with Panzer I tankettes – no match for the T26 tanks sold to the Republic by their Soviet allies (paid in gold, at a premium price, as the West decided that denying assistance would somehow lead to peaceful negotiations).
Franco’s forces also included the Irish Brigade; as the only foreign volunteer unit on the fascist side, it had to be committed to battle, but its commander stayed in his luxury hotel in Salamanca, drinking himself into a stupor, and in their only actual combat the fascist Irishmen managed to open fire on the fascist Spanish Legion, who gleefully returned it. But while the non-Irish fascists were also very bad men, unlike the Irish they were very good fighters. 
They faced the Popular Republican Army, an agglomeration of various leftist militias (labor unions, Communists, Socialists and Anarchists, all proclaiming themselves Anti-Fascist), pre-war regulars loyal to the Republic, and conscripts called up from Republican-controlled areas. The Anarchists were not present on the Jarama. The Popular Army had just started to impose new higher-level organizations, forming its mixed brigades into divisions, but the Army of the Center still operated under the earlier ad hoc division structure.
The forces on the Jarama River also included four of the International Brigades made up of foreign volunteers and organized by nationality. They varied in quality, with men ranging from idealistic fools seeking adventure to hardened combat veterans of the Great War. And they had “Pablo” – Soviet General Dmitri Pavlov, the 40-year-old former commander of the Soviet 4th Mechanized Brigade, held to be the Red Army’s best armor commander. Pablo had a small tank brigade of about 50 operable T26B tanks, and a doctrine of tank-infantry combined arms operations years ahead of its time.
Jarama River 1937 features Pavlov’s tank-supported offensive on 13 and 14 February, and his brigade’s defeat of the Condor Legion’s cute little tanks. But primarily, it’s an infantry game, the close and brutal, no-quarters fighting between the Internationals and the Moroccans, the valor of the 1st Brigade’s Estremaduran farm boys who finally took the Pingarrón from the Legion after four repeated assaults.
Perhaps 10,000 Loyalist troops died on the Jarama, the bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War; there is no solid count of casualties for either side. They halted the fascists here, but would ultimately lose their war amid international indifference.
