Spanish soldiers’ little-known part in liberation of Paris

As always on August 25, Paris commemorated the anniversary of its liberation after four years of occupation during the Second World War.

And as is now customary, Anne Hidalgo, the Spanish-born mayor of Paris, paid tribute to Spanish soldiers in the Jardin de los Combatientes de La Nueve (Garden of the Fighters of The Ninth). This year she was accompanied by Angel Victor Torres, Spain’s minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory minister.

There were 160 soldiers in La Nueve  and 145 were Spanish.  The company was part of General Leclerc’s Free French Second Armoured Division,  the first to enter Paris after the battle for the city, which had begun on August 19.  Fighting ended when the German garrison surrendered on August 25 and Allied troops entered the city.

What commentators at the time, and Franco’s Spain certainly ignored, was the presence of Spanish soldiers at the head of the victory parade which made its way down the Champs-Elysees.

Led by Lieutenant Amado Granell they wore US uniforms, used US equipment, drove US half-tracks and were assumed to be American.

A closer look would have revealed that those same military vehicles bore the names of Guadalajara, Brunete, Teruel, and Guernica, all Civil War battles.

In fact, the French newspaper Liberation published a photograph of Amado Granell on August 25, identifying him as the first of Leclerc’s soldiers to enter Paris and describing him as American.   Years were to pass before the Spanish contribution was recognised.

How and why were they there?

At the end of Spain’s 1936-1939 Civil War, around have a million people who had supported the defeated Republican side fled to France, where they lived in refugee camps.

Many men, especially those with military experience, joined the French Foreign Legion but deserted after they were ordered to fight against the Allies in North African areas loyal to France’s pro-Germany Vichy government. They then joined the Free French Army.

Spanish historians began to focus on La Neuve after the 1975 Transition to democracy but it was not until 2004 that Paris recognised the part played by the Spanish fighters by installing plaques along the route the company had taken into the city 60 years earlier.  These begin at Porte d’Italie and continue to city hall, via rue Esquirol.

The Jardin des Combattants de la Nueve where a plaque hails the soldiers  as “Heroes of the Liberation” was installed by city hall and unveiled by Spain’s King Felipe in June 2015.

Granell received the Legion of Honour and was offered the post of commander in the French army, which would have required taking French citizenship.

He explained that he felt obliged to decline: “France is my girlfriend, but Spain is my mother,”  Granell allegedly said, although he continued to live in Paris.

In 1950 he opened a restaurant in the city that became a meeting place for exiled Republicans, later returning to Spain where he died in a road accident in Sueca (Valencia) in May 1972.

Ironically, he was driving from his home in Alicante to the French Consulate in Valencia city to complete the formalities for a pension in return for his services to the French army.