War Industries Commission

The War Industries Commission (Catalan: Comissió d'Indústries de Guerra, CIG) was a body set up by the Generalitat de Catalunya on 7 August 1936 with the aim of organizing and coordinating the efforts of all production facilities to supply armaments to the republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. After reducing its powers in the wake of the May Days, the Commission remained operational in Catalonia until 11 August 1938, when it was completely taken over by the republican government.
In 1936, Catalonia had virtually no war industry. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, some workshops and factories began to autonomously produce weapons. The effort, however, in most cases was inefficient and sterile. To fix this, the CIG was created, headed by the Minister of Finance Josep Tarradellas, with the aim of channeling this push into something effective. The artisanal production of weapons was banned, the production of the converted industries was regulated and new military industrial infrastructure was constructed. On a large scale, the commission was organized into main sections, dedicated directly to the production of weapons or equipment, and auxiliary sections, dedicated to obtaining raw materials, semi-finished products or machinery abroad.
The results of the War Industries Commission varied according to the factories, some achieving very satisfactory productions and others failing to mass-produce. In total, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people worked in the CIG as a whole, between direct and auxiliary employment, in about 500 workshops and factories. With the republican appropriation of the industry in 1937, the production decayed noticeably.
On 17 July 1936, the Spanish Civil War began and republicans defeated the nationalist uprising in Catalonia. But in Catalan territory there were practically no war industries, and many workers, aware of the needs of the front and driven by the revolutionary spirit of the time, decided on their own initiative to start making weapons and equipment for the soldiers. This rapid spontaneity, however, had very low efficiency. In order to make these initiatives effective, the CIG was created on 7 August 1936, which became effective by decree of the Generalitat, on 12 August.
The War Industries Commission of Catalonia was headed by a Council of War Industries, made up of 8 men. The Councilors of War Industries were in charge of different tasks and were appointed by the Councilors of the Generalitat. The distribution was as follows:
In addition, the performance of Eugenio Vallejo is very remarkable, forming part of the commission as a representative of the Minister of Economy. A trade unionist for the CNT, he was an indispensable part of resolving conflicts with workers.
The work of the CIG was divided into three sections: aviation, iron and steel and chemistry. Their managers, respectively, were Miguel Ramírez de Cartagena, Eugenio Vallejo and Francesc Salsas Serra (who left the position in February 1937).
This council, where all the political factions of Catalonia were represented, was in constant conflict with the republican government. With the May Events the Council changed in line with political changes and the will of the state to deal with military production increased.
The first maneuver of the Republic was the creation of the Armaments Undersecretariat, which assumed part of the powers of the CIG. This assumption of powers continued in October 1937, when the Republic intervened in all the collectivized factories and workshops that were not owned by the Generalitat. With this, the dense tissue that had formed was torn. In some things the Undersecretariat acted correctly, like in the suspension of the production of the armored trucks, that served little in combat cross-country. But the contempt shown for the production that was carried out was a blow to the workers who did not produce again at the same speed or with the same enthusiasm.
Finally on 11 August 1938, by decree, despite the opposition of the Generalitat and the fact that there was no clear reason, the 15 remaining CIG factories would passed to the jurisdiction and direction of the Undersecretariat of Spanish Armaments and Ammunition.
The CIG organized a dense industrial network of five hundred workshops and factories in addition to laboratories all over the Catalan territory, regardless of which were owned by Spain. The companies under the control of the CIG were expropriated, intervened or coordinated, as the case may be and in agreement with the Workers' Control Committee. The work of the CIG focused mainly on the metallurgical and chemical fields.
Overall, the most successful industrial reconversions were those that went from producing stationery, bicycles and cosmetics to manufacturing cartridges. Many of the factories and workshops in one year reached manufacturing quotas of up to 1 million cartridges per month. The biggest problems the commission had to face were the irregularity of the raw material and the lack of foreign exchange.
The factories involved by the CIG, and the number of workers who worked there, in Barcelona were: Elizalde (400 workers), Foret (440), Fàbrica Riviere (1,200), Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima (1,279), Material para Ferrocarriles and Construction (1,500) and Hispano-Suiza (1,500). In the rest of Catalonia, the Electrochemistry of Flix (650), Pirelli (1,500) and the Ercros of Lleida took part.
The factories and workshops coordinated by the CIG were many more. With more than 200 workers in Barcelona there were: Orfeó Sincrònic (212), Compañía del Gramófono Odeón (223), Altos Hornos de Cataluña (241), Industrias Lacambra (262), Labora Talleres Confederales no. 1 (294) and Metales y Platería Ribera (508). In the rest of Catalonia, with more than 200 workers, the following companies were coordinated: Comité Metalúrgico de Torelló (312), Casa Bacas (332), Casa Serra (385) and Talleres G. de Andreis (631).
The companies directly and totally controlled by the CIG, some created and others confiscated, but all owned by the Generalitat, were the following 15 factories:
Due to the nature of the products there were accidents. Specifically, an entire ship where grenade launchers were stored exploded.
The working conditions of the CIG workers were heterogeneous. In general the salary was above average. The days were long and they had few holidays, in some cases one afternoon a week, which could also be used to make overtime better paid (doing jobs such as packing, finishing tasks in the middle of work, etc.). In order to avoid abstention in the workplace to obtain bread or other food, which was distributed in bakeries where large queues formed, advantages were given for the supply of food. In some factories the distribution of bread or milk was guaranteed to prevent the cessation of production. In some cases, especially in the chemical industries, workers were often at risk due to shortcomings in Occupational Safety and Health. The treatment of the explosives caused several deaths and injuries.
In the male case, one of the main incentives was to avoid being sent to the front to fight. However, it was not legally clear how these cases should be handled and very often young workers ended up being enlisted as well. This was also a topic of conflict between the Republic and the CIG.
The war material produced until 30 September 1937, only by the industries involved, according to the performance report of Josep Tarradellas was as follows: Grenades
To produce this total of 718,830 almost 10,000 tons of iron were smelted.
Aviation bombs
Approximately 2,500 tons of cast iron were needed to make them.
Fuses
A total of 566,442 fuses were made by melting and rolling about 1,200 tons of brass bar.
Bullets
It took 500 tons of lead and 400 tons of brass to produce them.
Masks
These masks were equipped with the corresponding filters. The simpler civilian versions were already in the final stages of production.
Transports
A total of 1,115 transports took place.
Others
There were also significant quantities of clubs, axes, picks, mallets, hoes, etc.
The CIG received several completely new weapons development projects. These initiatives, often of a personal or local nature, ranged from the assembly of armored vehicles to the creation of war rockets to radio control equipment. Some of these projects, under the auspices of the commission, managed to move forward, others did not prosper.
The manufacture of tanks, which trade union propaganda had tried to promote since the beginning of the war, had not gone beyond armored cars and added machine guns. These armored trucks, often called tiznaos, had little mobility in an open war field and also suffered numerous breakdowns due to the added weight. Until then, leaving aside armored trucks, the only tanks that had operated in the Spanish Civil War were of foreign origin: the T-26, Panzer I and L3/35. One of the CIG's aspirations was to produce its own tank.
In Catalonia, the only places which had the experience and capacity to carry out such a project were the Benach workshops in Sadurní d'Anoia (Modern Machinery for Construction and Public Works) where before the war they manufactured construction machinery. In 1937 it was renamed Factory Z. This workshop, of about 75 workers, had already before the war proposed to manufacture an artillery tractor, which did not go ahead. The caterpillar tractors they manufactured, and used to remove snow and earth, was the foundation of the Sadurní armored vehicles, a series of armored vehicles with modern characteristics. These tractors were equipped with Hispano Suiza 60 Horsepower engines, which were started with a crank, and had caterpillar tracks, which could be iron or rubber. With the outbreak of the war, they partially converted their production to armored vehicles.
They initially produced armored artillery tractors and semi-caterpillars for aircraft towing. Later Soviet tanks would also be repaired or improvements made. But in early 1937 they embarked on the production of a fully proprietary tank prototype. It was armed with a single 7mm Hotchkiss machine gun, placed on a hemispherical mantle, and was completely covered with sheet steel. The Factory Z also produced armored personnel carriers based on the same chassis. These armored vehicles had a carrying capacity of about 6 men but had the roof uncovered unlike the tank variant.
These armored vehicles, popularly called the Sadurní tank, despite being relatively modern, due to the lack of sheet metal or other raw materials, the slow production and the lack of a supply chain to repair them made that the Republican government dismissed its production. It is unknown if the prototypes came into combat or if they were converted into artillery tractors.
Rockets during the Spanish Civil War were mostly used to launch propaganda at the enemy, to illuminate battlefields at night or to send signals. A couple of initiatives tried to give combat use to rockets.
The first project was that of Josep Belmonte Cañellas, called Torpede aeri. This assault guard designed a simple rocket launcher that could fire a projectile 70 cm long and 0.5mm thick, with a warhead. Inside it carried an explosive charge of 2 kg, in the shape of a pineapple to cause more shrapnel. The rocket was propelled at about 700 km/h and had a range of about 1,000-4,000 meters, stabilized with 20 cm fins. In addition, Belmonte also highlighted possible uses and variants of the rocket: land, anti-aircraft, multiple rocket launchers, with incendiary projectiles, etc.
On 12 March 1937, a Generalitat official sent to the CIG requested a report on the "Air Torpedo". The CIG agreed to communicate to the Ministry of Defense of the Generalitat the intention to make 6 models to test their capabilities, asking Josep Belmonte for a mold. In the end, however, the invention did not prosper.
The second rocket project was carried out by the trade unionist Ramon Angelats. Knowing that artillery projectiles were very expensive, he decided to look for a cheaper alternative. After some tests Angelados was able to design a rocket with a range of 3,000-4,000 meters with an explosive charge of 4 kg. 24 of these weapons went into battle on the Aragon front and the south. Although the production took place in Catalonia, the CIG was not involved.
Images of what look like a pair of unmanned naval widgets are preserved in the Montserrat Tarradellas i Macià Archive. The first appears to be a small vessel, with hydrodynamic forms, that was operated with a radio control system. In addition to photographs of the ship there are images of valve transmitters and receivers, motors similar to the current servomotors, accumulators, etc. Altogether it could be the guidance system of the widget, this is a hypothesis, as no document has been found to corroborate this.
The other unmanned naval apparatus is what appears to be an aquatic mobile target. Small in size and with a unique shape, it could be used for shooting tests or for making false targets for the enemy.
To detail the production methods and record the successes, the Commission published seventeen volumes that formed a collection of technical publications. In total, however, there were up to twenty-eight. The titles were as follows: