Book Review of
The RIF War
Vol. 1: From Taxdirt to the Disaster of Annual 1909-1921
Author: Javier Garcia de Gabiola
Helion & Co. Books
Africa @ War Series no. 59
ISBN: 978-1-914377-01-3
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $29.95
Africa @ War Series no. 59
ISBN: 978-1-914377-01-3
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $29.95
HISTORY:
The war in rugged northern Morocco is remembered for romantic films and novels about the French Foreign Legion, such as Beau Geste. In reality, the French intervention , although very important, was late and secondary in importance to that of the Spanish.
Spain , had been fighting in North Africa since 1909 in order to carve out new colonial possessions, in part at least to compensate for the recent loss of Cuba and the Philippines to the U.S. It was not an easy road however, and Spain suffered disasters such as Barranco del Lobo and victories such as the cavalry charge in Taxdirt in 1913, and had had to face enemies such as Mizzian, El Roghi, or the famous El Raisuni.
Abd el-Krim’s revolt caused 8,000 Spanish deaths at Annual in 1921 in which much of the new colony was lost, at least temporarily.
The war also saw the Spanish army completely reformed, reaching new levels of effectiveness with the founding of the Spanish Legion and the recruitment of Moroccan soldiers of the Regulares. These troops, together with a plethora of commanders who made their combat debuts here, such as Franco, Mola, Queipo de Kindelan, would later fight in the Spanish Civil War. These commanders would be called the “Africanistas” and would constitute the hard core of the military that rose up against the government in 1936.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co. is based in the UK.
This book is of soft-cover of 75 page in 8” x 11 ½” page format.
The cover art shows a photo that has been colorized of Regulares cavalry, over a color illustration side view of a Spanish Air Force Lohner Pfeilflieger biplane
It contains 146 black and white photos, 15 maps of Africa (3 of which are battle maps) and one colorized photo as the cover art, six data lists.
Vol. 1 of RIF War examines the operations of both sides in North Africa between 1909 and 1921, up to the Disaster of Annual. Within are details of the Spanish Army, its organization, tactics and reforms to meet the needs of the theatre, the fledgling Spanish military aviation which claimed a number of world firsts in this campaign, and their North African auxiliaries and opponents. RIF War is illustrated with 146 black and white photos, a selection of 6 color profiles of aircrafts and 4 color illustrations of troops.
The troops are a Rifian warrior, a Spanish Legionnaire, a Moroccan trooper and a Lieutenant of the Cazadores of Lusitania Cavalry Regiment.
Aircraft illustrated are: a Nieuport IVG/VIM, an Austrian-made Lohner Pfeilflieger, an improved version made by Spain of the Lohner, a Maurice Farman MF.7, a Maurice Farman MF.11 and a Spanish Barron Fechas, that was developed from the Lohner Pfeilfliger.
The black and white photos include ones of troops of all the combatants, officers, cavalry, aircraft and pilots.
This book will be of interest to aircraft modelers and historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the North American distributor of Helion & Co. Books, and all Helion titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.