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| Battle of Cape Machichaco | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSpanish Civil War | |||||||
 Cape Machichaco | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Nationalist Navy | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1 heavy cruiser | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
| ||||||
| 4 civilians killed | |||||||
Thebattle of Cape Machichaco was a naval battle which took place on 5 March 1937 offBermeo, during theSpanish Civil War, between the SpanishNationalist heavy cruiserCanarias and fourBasque Navy trawlers escorting aRepublican convoy. The trawlers were protecting the transport shipGaldames, which was sailing to Bilbao with 173 passengers.[1]
On 4 March, four armed trawlers of theBasque Auxiliary Navy section of theSpanish Republican Navy,Bizcaya,Gipuzkoa,Donostia andNabarra departed fromBayonne, France. Their intention was to defendGaldames's mail, passengers, machinery, weapons, supplies and 500 tons of nickel coins property of theBasque government.Canarias sailed fromFerrol with Salvador Moreno as the captain, with orders to stop the transport ship.Galdames, which was steaming up with the lights and the radio switched off, was outrun byBizcaya andGipuzkoa.
Next morning, while all the trawlers were watching forCanarias,Galdames rejoined them.Bizcaya's captain was Alejo Bilbao,Nabarra's Enrique Moreno Plaza fromMurcia,Gipuzkoa's Manuel Galdós, andDonostia's Francisco Elortegi.
The first trawler to spotCanarias wasGipuzkoa, 30 kilometers (19 mi) north of Bilbao. The Basque trawler was hit on the bridge and the forward gun. Return fire fromGipuzkoa killed oneCanarias seaman and wounded another. The armed trawler, with five fatalities and 20 injured aboard, managed to approach the coast, where the shore batteries forcedCanarias to retreat.Nabarra andDonostia tried to preventCanarias from findingGaldames and engaged the cruiser.
Donostia withdrew from the battle after being fired on byCanarias, butNabarra faced the enemy for almost two hours. She was eventually hit in the boiler and came to a stop; 20 men abandoned the sinking trawler, while other 29 were lost with the ship, including her captain, Enrique Moreno Plaza.[2]
The transportGaldames, which was hit by a salvo fromCanarias and lost four passengers, was eventually captured by the Nationalist cruiser.Gipuzkoa arrived atPortugalete seriously damaged andBizcaya headed forBermeo, where she assisted the Estonian merchantmanYorbrook with a load including ammunition and 42 JapaneseType 31 75 mm mountain guns, previously captured byCanarias and released.Donostia sought shelter in a French port.
The 20 survivors fromNabarra were rescued by the Nationalists and taken aboardCanarias. Instead of the expected hostility and mistreatment, they were given medical assistance, and both the cruiser commander, future Francoist Admiral Salvador Moreno and Captain Manuel Calderón interceded with Franco when the Basque seamen were sentenced to death in retaliation for the shooting of two crewmembers of the armed trawlerVirgen del Carmen, captured by Republican sympathizers and diverted to Bilbao in December 1936. The survivors were eventually acquitted and released in 1938.[3]
In contrast, one of the passengers aboardGaldames,Christian Democrat politicianManuel Carrasco Formiguera, fromCatalonia, was imprisoned and executed on 9 April 1938.[2]
43°52′26.02″N2°44′17.6″W / 43.8738944°N 2.738222°W /43.8738944; -2.738222
