1936 Portuguese naval revolt

Mutiny in the Portuguese Navy 1936 Portuguese naval revolt spillover of the Spanish Civil War 1936 Naval Revolt Soldiers Portugal.jpg 300px Mutineers are arrested by government police forces. 8 September 1936 Lisbon, Portugal Government victory Portugal Estado Novo Red flag.svg Organização Revolucionária da Armada (Portuguese Communist Party) Portugal António de Oliveira Salazar Unknown National Union Shore defences1 submarine Portuguese Communist Party 1 aviso1 destroyer Unknown Both ships beached12 sailors killed20 sailors wounded238 sailors arrested The 1936 naval revolt (pt Revolta dos Marinheiros de 1936 1936 Sailors' Revolt) or Tagus boats mutiny (Motim dos Barcos do Tejo) was a mutiny in Portugal that occurred on 8 September 1936 aboard the aviso NRP Afonso de Albuquerque 1934 2 and destroyer NRP Dão 2. It was organized by the Revolutionary Organization of the Fleet (Organização Revolucionária da Armada, ORA), a left-wing group with links to the Portuguese Communist Party. The mutiny broke out on 8 September 1936 among communist sailors in the Portuguese Navy's two newest warships moored in the estuary of the Tagus River near Lisbon. Their aim was ostensibly to take part in the Spanish Civil War alongside the Republicans by sailing to a Republican-held port in the Mediterranean. However, the revolt failed and the convicted sailors were the first to be sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp established in the Cape Verde Islands to house political prisoners. Meneses Filipe 2009 Salazar: A Political Biography https://books.google.com/books?id=hewsI4PU6sMC Enigma Books; 1 edition 200 978-1929631902 Background In February 1936, a coalition of leftist groups won the national election in Spain. Several Spanish conservatives sought refuge in Portugal, whose right-wing dictatorship, the Estado Novo, felt equally threatened by the change in government. Soon thereafter, a coup d'état led by generals Emilio Mola, José Sanjurjo and Francisco Franco, and supported by Spanish conservatives and fascists, initiated the Spanish Civil War.Alpert 1994 52–54 The Portuguese government offered support to Franco's forces in defiance of a non-intervention agreement they had been pressured to sign by their ally, the United Kingdom. The British government warned the Portuguese that they would not protect them from attacks by the Republican faction if Portugal continued to be involved in the war, making Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar increasingly nervous about his position.Alpert 1994 54–55 While the Portuguese government increased its support of Franco, the Portuguese Communist Party stepped up its activism in opposition to the Estado Novo. Through the Revolutionary Organization of the Fleet (Organização Revolucionária da Armada, ORA), which had grown in strength over the course of the early 1930s,Raby 1988 63 the party plotted a mutiny of several Portuguese Navy ships with intention of allowing them to sail to Spain to assist the Spanish government in the war.Stelmach 2014 129–130 Mutiny The Portuguese fleet lay at anchor in the estuary of the Tagus River on 8 September 1936.https://expresso.sapo.pt/sociedade/morreu-o-ultimo-homem-da-revolta-dos-marinheiros-de-1936=f874600 Morreu o último homem da Revolta dos Marinheiros de 1936 The Last Man of the 1936 Sailor Uprising Has Died Jornal Expresso 17 February 2016 pt 11 March 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160311002511/http://expresso.sapo.pt/sociedade/morreu-o-ultimo-homem-da-revolta-dos-marinheiros-de-1936=f874600 dead The rebels planned to seize control of the ships present and the coastal forts. At 03:00 their ships were to begin their departure, following each other out at fifteen minute intervals.http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17281307 Portuguese Mutiny The Sydney Morning Herald 2 October 1936 17 Trove No word was received from the fort garrisons, so the rebels' plan would only work if they could embark before shore batteries came into action. However, a wireless operator tipped off the Portuguese Admiralty to the plan at around 01:00. A boat was immediately dispatched to survey the situation of the fleet. thumb|left|The aviso NRP Afonso de Albuquerque 1934 6, pictured in 1935 Upon seeing the Admiralty launch, most of the Portuguese sailors realized their plot had been discovered and chose not to revolt. By then the crews of NRP Afonso de Albuquerque 1934 2 and NRP Dão 2, two of the navy's most modern ships,De Meneses 2013 200 had already mutinied, forcing their officers below deck at gunpoint. The sailors on Afonso de Albuquerque attempted to lure the Admiralty officers aboard, but the launch fled and the crew opened fire with machine guns. It took almost an hour before the alarm was raised ashore. When the forts were finally alerted, they could not target the mutineers' ships due to a heavy mist. The rebels were hesitant to leave without further orders from their leaders, and did not attempt a breakout until daylight. The Portuguese naval minister ordered coastal artillery to fire on any vessel attempting to leave the harbour. At 07:30 Afonso de Albuquerque and Dão raised steam and proceeded down the river at about 8 kn in. By then the mist had cleared and the shore batteries opened fire. Afonso de Albuquerque responded but was soon struck. A loyal submarine — one of the three Delfim submarine 0 submarines in the harbor — opened fire on her with a machine gun. 10 September 1936 Portuguese Naval Revolt http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48177188 The Advertiser Adelaide, South Australia 24 Associated Press 12 July 2016 Afonso de Albuquerques bridge was destroyed in the engagement and her engines were crippled. Dão, caught in the cross-fire between two forts, was also hit and both ships ran aground. The crews raised white flags to signal their surrender.Ferreira Marshall 2010 24 Government forces boarded Afonso de Albuquerque and arrested its crew. In an attempt to conceal their actions, several sailors stripped off their uniforms and attempted to swim ashore. Loyal Portuguese troops raked them with machine gun fire. The rebels were rounded up near the Belém Tower and taken prisoner. The leader of the revolt, a sailor from Dão, committed suicide. Aftermath The Portuguese Navy Ministry reported that twelve sailors were killed and twenty wounded. 238 were arrested and deported to the Tarrafal concentration camp on Santiago, Portuguese Cape Verde.Sapega 2008 74According to journalist John Pilger, at least one of the sailors was deported to East Timor.Pilger 2010 299 The Ministry dismissed both crews in their entirety, reinstating sailors only if they were able to prove they resisted the mutiny.January 2020 An investigation was also opened into discipline aboard the aviso Bartolomeu Dias 1934 2. According to historian Glyn Stone, the revolt was "easily suppressed and remained an isolated incident" and did not pose a threat to Salazar.Stone 1994 13 The German Ambassador to Portugal, Oswald von Hoyningen-Huene, reported that "it is even said that Salazar...provoked the dramatic development, or at the very least allowed matters to run their usual course."De Meneses 2013 200–201 The government framed the mutiny as a communist plot to surrender the Portuguese ships to the Spanish Republican Navy.Ferreira Marshall 2010 24 On 9 September, Salazar issued an official statement which depicted the Spanish Civil War as an international conflict and warned of the dangers of political contagion. He appealed for the creation of a new armed force to counter such a threat.Alpert 1994 55 The next day he introduced a law forcing all public servants to swear allegiance to the principles of his regime.Stone 1994 13–14 On 30 September, an anti-communist paramilitary force, the Legião Portuguesa, was formed.Alpert 1994 55 Communist activity in the Portuguese Armed Forces declined after the mutiny and remained minimal in the following years.Raby 1988 63–64 Though it had dealt with the mutiny with force, the Portuguese government feared further revolts. Several days after the event the British press reported that several Portuguese Army units had rebelled, prompting the Portuguese embassy in London to issue a denial and declare the foreign press was depicting the Portuguese situation as chaotic to the Spanish government's benefit, and therefore the government was "obliged to intensify its offensive against communism".Stelmach 2014 130–131 The mutiny ultimately strengthened Portuguese support for Franco's faction in the Spanish Civil War.Stone 1994 13–14 In October the Portuguese government officially severed relations with the Spanish Republican government.De Meneses 2013 201 See also Madeira uprising (1931) Notes References 30em Bibliography Alpert Michael A New International History of the Spanish Civil War Palgrave Macmillan 1994 https://books.google.com/books?id=2OggkHZIcGkC 978-0312120160 De Meneses Filipe Ribeiro Salazar: A Political Biography Enigma Books 2013 978-1929631988 Ferreira Hugo Gil Marshall Michael W. Portugal's Revolution: Ten Years On 2010 Cambridge University Press Cambridge 978-0521154857 1st paperback Stone Glyn Glyn Stone The Oldest Ally: Britain and the Portuguese connection, 1936–1941 1994 Boydell Press Woodbridge 0-86193-227-7 Pilger John Hidden Agendas Random House 2010 https://books.google.com/books?id=8v1TmtI6m5YC 978-1407086415 Raby D. L. Fascism and Resistance in Portugal: Communists, Liberals and Military Dissidents in the Opposition to Salazar, 1941–1974 https://books.google.com/books?id=2sZRAQAAIAAJ 1988 Manchester University Press 978-0719027970 reprint Sapega Ellen W. Consensus and Debate in Salazar's Portugal: Visual and Literary Negotiations of the National Text, 1933–1948 Penn State Press illustrated 2008 https://books.google.com/books?id=-WyItk5I5qwC 978-0271034102 Stelmach Anita 'We can't have Reds in Portugal': The Portuguese Response to the Spanish Civil War Flinders Journal of History and Politics 30 111–142 2014 0726-7215 External links Revolta dos Marinheiros. Decreto-Lei n.º 26:995 Diário do Governo 214 11 September 1936 https://dre.pt/application/dir/pdfgratis/1936/09/21400.pdf http://www.urap.pt/index.php/histria-mainmenu-37/32-histria/178-revolta-dos-marinheiros-de-1936 Revolta dos Marinheiros de 1936 Administrator 4 October 2008 17 February 2016 Category:Anti-Francoism Category:1936 in Portugal Category:Communism in Portugal Category:Communist rebellions Category:1936 conflicts Category:Estado Novo (Portugal) Category:Naval mutinies Category:Maritime incidents in 1936 Category:Portuguese Navy Category:International reactions to the Spanish Civil War Category:September 1936 in Europe