Assault Guards
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Assault Guard Corps Cuerpo de Guardias de Asalto |
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| Common name | Guardia de Asalto |
Badge of the Assault Guard Corps
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| Agency overview | |
| Formed | January 30, 1932 |
| Preceding agency | Compañías de Vanguardia |
| Dissolved | 1939 |
| Superseding agency | Policía Armada |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | Spain |
| Governing body | Ministry of Governance |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Overviewed by | Directorate-General of Security |
| Parent agency | Cuerpo de Seguridad |
| Footnotes | |
| GuardiadeAsalto.com | |
The Guardia de Asalto (English: Assault Guard) was the heavy reserve force of the blue-uniformed urban police force of Spain during the Spanish Second Republic. The Assault Guards were special police units created by the Spanish Republic in 1931 to deal with urban violence.
At the onset of the Spanish Civil War there were 18,000 Assault Guards. About 12,000 stayed loyal to the Republican government, while another 5,000 joined the rebel faction. Many of its units fought valiantly in the battlefronts against the Francoist armies and their allies. This display of loyalty towards the Spanish Republic brought about the disbandment of the corps at the end of the Civil War. The members of the Guardia de Asalto who had survived the combats and the ensuing Francoist purges were made part of the Policía Armada, the corps that replaced it.
Following the overthrow of the Spanish Monarchy in April 1931, the new Republican regime created the Guardia de Asalto as a gendarmerie style national armed police that could be used to suppress disorders in urban areas. Armed and trained for this purpose, the Guardia de Asalto was intended to provide a more effective force for internal security duties than the ordinary police or the conscription-based army. Since its creation in 1844 the 25,000 strong Guardia Civil had been available to be ordered into the larger cities in the event of unrest, but this efficient rural force —its officers drawn from the regular army and with an oppressive image— was not seen as being in sympathy with the new Republic or particularly suited for urban operations.
The Ministro de la Gobernación Miguel Maura accordingly reorganized elements of the existing police into a more heavily armed republican security force for service in the cities, leaving the countryside to the Guardia Civil. As an initial step Compañías de Vanguardia (Vanguard Companies) were created. These were subsequently redesignated as Sección de guardias de Asalto. As a part of the reformed Cuerpo de Seguridad they provided an instrument for controlling mass demonstrations; similar in function to modern riot squads. In 1932, the Cuerpo de Seguridad was renamed as the Cuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto.
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Wikipedia