Red and Black Column

At the beginning of August 1936, Alberto Bayo was in charge of carrying out the landing operation for the Battle of Majorca, then under the control of the nationalist military. On August 6, preparations for the seizure concluded and the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia lent logistical support. On August 16, around 6,000 to 10,000 men landed in Mallorca and engaged in combat between Punta Amer and Porto Cristo, in the eastern part of the island. These troops were formed out of the Menorca garrison, which remained faithful to the Republic, and volunteers from republican political and union organizations.

According to Bayo himself, they formed the contingent: "militiamen from the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, a century of foreigners, young people from Estat Català, from the National Confederation of Labor, from the Republican Left of Catalonia, Acció Catalana and the Iberian Anarchist Federation".[1] Among the CNT members, it is known that the Transport Union organized a small group of 37 volunteers who embarked for Mallorca on August 14. 31 other affiliates to the CNT of Menorca also signed up.[2]

A column of 400 anarchist militiamen took the island of Cabrera on their own. They were commanded by Luis Jiménez Pajarero, an anarchist of the Badajoz regiment. However, they did not coordinate properly with Bayo's troops and entered Punta Amer on their own, before the expedition's official landing. The anarchist group of the Balearic Column (the one that Bayo commanded) was assigned the position of Punta Amer as well.

The militias withdrew from the islands in early September, ordered by Indalecio Prieto, Minister of the Navy, to return to Barcelona and be reorganized. The PSUC militiamen organized into the Freedom Column and was sent to the Madrid front, where they participated in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria. The anarchist militias formed part of the Red and Black Column and went to the Aragon front. A part of this column was the Column of the Vallès Oriental, of Granollers, which had about 600 volunteers. The Red and Black Column was commanded by the syndicalist García Prada and Jiménez Pajarero and in total would be around 1,500 militiamen. On arrival at the front at Huesca, the column became subordinate to the Harriers Column.

They arrived in Aragon in mid-September and established their headquarters in Sipan. From here, they fought against the nationalists of Monte Aragon and Estrecho Quinto, taking the latter. The column then moved north of the city of Huesca, taking Igriés as its base. Several centuries formed by escapees from the nationalist area joined the column, such as the Ayerbe-Lapeña century commanded by Máximo Franco Cavero.

When militarized it gave rise to the formation of the 127th Mixed Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army, commanded by Máximo Franco Cavero and commissioned by Evaristo Viñuales Larroy.

• Torralba Coronas, Pedro. From Ayerbe to Red and Black. 127 Mixed Brigade . Barcelona, 1980.
• Rodrigo, Antonina. "María Lejárraga: a woman in the shade". Barcelona, 2005
• Josep Massot i Muntaner. 'Of war and exile: Mallorca, Montserrat, France, Mexico, 1936-1975' . Barcelona, 2000
• Pedreira, Josep. Catalan soldiers in the Red and Black (1936-1939) . Barcelona, 2003