Battle of Cape Espartel

Battle of Cape Spartel

Date	September 29, 1936
Location	Strait of Gibraltar, near Tangier, present-day Morocco
Result	Decisive Nationalist victory

Belligerents

Spanish Republic

Nationalist Spain

Commanders and leaders

Fernando Navarro Capdevila

Francisco Moreno Fernández

Strength

2 destroyers

1 heavy cruiser
1 light cruiser

Casualties and losses

1 destroyer sunk
1 destroyer damaged

None

The Battle of Cape Spartel (Cabo Espartel in Spanish) was a naval battle of the Spanish Civil War that broke the Republican blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar, securing the maritime supply route to Spanish Morocco for the Nationalists early in the war. The action occurred on September 29, 1936 between two Nationalist cruisers and two Republican destroyers.

The rebels at Ferrol, Galicia, had been able to seize the city's naval base in July, but at a large cost: over 30 mutinous officers had been shot by hundreds of sailors loyal to the Republic.

Their prize included the old battleship España (formerly Alfonso XIII), the cruisers Almirante Cervera and the unfinished Canarias, two light cruisers, one destroyer, and a number of torpedo boats and sloops. In September, a small squadron, including Almirante Cervera and Canarias, steamed from Ferrol to engage the Republican navy.

At the start of the war, the Spanish Republican Navy had the battleship Jaime I, three light cruisers, 14 destroyers, plus five submarines. In addition to España, the two cruisers and one destroyer taken by the Nationalists, by the following year they had completed Almirante Cervera and Canarias. They also had purchased four destroyers and two submarines from Fascist Italy. The Nationalists established a blockade of the Republican-held coastline for the entire duration of the war, but their paucity of ships limited the blockade's effectiveness.

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