Battles of the Spanish Civil War

29 September 1936 · Strait of Gibraltar

Nationalist victory; Republican blockade of the Strait broken

Canarias and Almirante Cervera came south from Ferrol and caught the two Republican destroyers left guarding the Strait. Canarias hit Almirante Ferrándiz with her second salvo at about 20 km and sank her after a 40-minute chase into the Alboran Sea. Almirante Cervera hit Gravina twice, and she escaped to Casablanca. With the Strait open, the Nationalists could ship the Army of Africa from Morocco to Spain by sea.

5 March 1937 · Off Bermeo, Bay of Biscay

Nationalist victory; Galdames captured

Four armed trawlers of the Basque Auxiliary Navy were escorting the steamer Galdames from Bayonne to Bilbao when Canarias came out of Ferrol to stop her. Gipuzkoa was hit and limped into Portugalete under the shore batteries. Nabarra stood and fought the cruiser for almost two hours before she was stopped and sank. Canarias then captured Galdames; among her passengers was the Catalan politician Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera, later executed by the Nationalists.

30 April 1937 · Off Santander

España sunk by a Nationalist mine

España and Velasco were enforcing the blockade of Santander when they stopped a British freighter. Turning to support Velasco, España ran into a minefield the Nationalists themselves had laid off the port. The mine tore open her engine and boiler rooms; she listed slowly, which gave Velasco time to come alongside and take off her crew, and four men died. The Nationalists blamed a loose Republican mine, but divers who found the wreck in 1984 showed it had been one of their own.

29 May 1937 · Ibiza

Deutschland badly damaged

Two Republican bombers flown by Soviet crews raided Ibiza and hit the German heavy cruiser Deutschland, anchored there on Non-Intervention patrol; they may have taken her for Canarias. Two bombs started fires that reached her secondary ammunition, killing 31 men and wounding 74. Germany and Italy walked out of the Non-Intervention Committee, and Hitler ordered a reprisal.

31 May 1937 · Almería

German reprisal; about 20 civilians killed

In reprisal for the attack on Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and four destroyers shelled the Republican port of Almería at dawn, firing some 200 shells. About 20 civilians were killed, 50 wounded and 35 buildings destroyed. The Republic's defence minister, Indalecio Prieto, wanted to strike back at the German fleet, but the government refused, fearing open war with Germany.

7 September 1937 · Off Cherchell, French Algeria

Inconclusive; Republican convoy scattered

Baleares, patrolling alone, ran into a Republican force of two light cruisers and seven destroyers covering two merchant ships coming from the Soviet Union. The destroyers stayed with the convoy while Libertad and Méndez Núñez fought Baleares. Two hits from Libertad started a fire in a magazine and knocked out her forward guns. The merchant ships ran for the Algerian coast, where one was wrecked and the other interned by the French. The Republican commander, Miguel Buiza, was dismissed after the battle.

5–6 March 1938 · East of Cape Palos, near Cartagena

Republican victory; Baleares sunk

The biggest naval battle of the war. The Nationalist cruisers were covering a convoy from Italy when they met a Republican squadron out of Cartagena by chance in the dark. A first torpedo attack missed and the fleets lost each other. Admiral González de Ubieta turned to pursue, and at about 02:15 the cruisers met again. While they exchanged fire, Sánchez Barcáiztegui, Lepanto and Almirante Antequera closed to 3,000 m and fired torpedoes. Two or three hit Baleares and set off her forward magazine. British destroyers Kempenfelt and Boreas picked up most of the survivors, but more than 750 died, among them Admiral Vierna. It was the Republican navy's greatest success of the war.

7 March 1939 · Cartagena

Republican victory; Nationalist landing abandoned

Rebels against the Republican government seized Cartagena's coastal batteries and called on the Nationalists for help, and the Republican fleet left for Bizerte. The Nationalists sent a convoy of 16 ships with more than 20,000 troops from Castellón and Málaga. By the time it arrived, Republican troops had retaken the port and its batteries, and the convoy turned back. Castillo de Olite, her radio broken, never got the order and steamed on towards the harbour. The batteries sank her with 1,476 soldiers killed, the worst loss of life in any Spanish sinking.