Terç de Requetès de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat () was a battalion-type Carlist infantry unit, forming part of Nationalist troops during the Spanish Civil War. It is known as one of two Catalan units fighting against the Republicans.another unit was the Falangist I Centuria Virgen de Montserrat, created in Burgos, see Joan Maria Thomàs, Falangistes i carlins catalans a la «zona nacional» durant la Guerra civil (1936-1939), [in:] Recerques: Història, economia i cultura 31 (1995), p. 9 It is also recognized as the Nationalist unit which recorded the highest KIA ratio of 19%,"unidad nacional que registró mayor porcentaje de muertos de la Guerra, un 19 por ciento", Lucas Molina Franco, Pablo Sagarra, Óscar González, Grandes batallas de la Guerra Civil española 1936-1939: Los combates que marcaron el desarrollo del conflicto, Madrid 2016, , page unavailable, see here. The homage page requetes.com aggregates the number of the fallen at 318, but provides names of 334 individuals, see . According to scholarly estimates, the number of KIA suffered by the Terç during the war ranges between 269 and 327, see Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013, , pp. 830-1. The total number of men who fought in the Terç is estimated at 1,600, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, La metamorfosi del carlisme català: del "Déu, Pàtria i Rei" a l'Assamblea de Catalunya (1936-1975), Barcelona 2014, , p. 32 with corresponding average Nationalist figure estimated at 6%.the average KIA ratio for the nationalist army is estimated at 6%. Units described as "the most enthusiastic contributors" to anti-Republican cause, the Navarrese Carlist battalions, suffered on average the KIA ratio of 11,3%. Quoted after Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War,Cambridge 2012, , p. 184. However, some Navarrese Carlist tercios suffered KIA casualties comparable or exceeding those of the Montserrat Terç; Tercio de Lácar recorded 720 KIA and 1,500 WIA, Aróstegui 2013, p. 828. In comparison, the Moroccan troops, usually used as shock units, recorded the KIA ratio of 15% (11,500 out of 78,500), Stephanie Wright, Glorious Brothers, Unsuitable Lovers: Moroccan Veterans, Spanish Women, and the Mechanisms of Francoist Paternalism, [in:] Journal of Contemporary History 55/1 (2020), p. 53 Its operational history consists mostly of long periods of inactivity or low-intensity skirmishes punctuated by two heavy combat engagements, culminating on 25 August 1937 and 19 August 1938.

Origins

Requeté was founded in 1907 by Juan María Roma as a Carlist sporting and outdoor grouping for teenagers;Aróstegui 2013, pp. 55-6 in 1913 it was re-organised by Joaquín Llorens as a paramilitary structure.Eduardo G. Calleja, Julio Aróstegui, La tradición recuperada: el Requeté Carlista y la insurrección, [in:] Historia Contemporanea 11 (1994), pp. 30-31, also Aróstegui 2013, pp. 56-61 Following a period of decay, in the early 1930s the organisation experienced enormous growth and in 1935 it was re-shaped along more sophisticated military lines by José Luis Zamanillo and José Enrique Varela. Prior to the Spanish Civil War the structure did not envision battalion-type units; its largest component was a requeté, roughly comparable to a company.for details see Eduardo González Calleja, Contrarrevolucionarios, Madrid 2011, , especially sub-chapters Varela y la reorganización del Requeté (pp. 122-126), El desarrollo del Requeté (pp. 189-192), La reestructuración y el adiestramento de la milicia tradicionalista (pp. 198-200) and El perfeccionamento de la estructura paramilitar carlista (pp. 259-265) In Catalonia the strength of the organization was estimated as 3,000 first-line volunteers and some 15,000 in auxiliary units.Robert Vallverdú i Martí, Catalanisme i carlisme a la Catalunya republicana (1931-1936), [in:] L. Duran (ed.), El catalanisme en el nostre passat nacional, Solsona 2010, , p. 102; somewhat different figures in his earlier work, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, El carlisme català durant la Segona República Espanyola 1931-1936, Barcelona 2008, , pp. 318-319 Following the failed coup of July 1936 they found themselves in total disarray, some killed, some captured, some in hiding and some fleeing the region.for details see Vallverdú 2008, pp. 293-343

Since August 1936 first Catalan requetés started to arrive in the Nationalist zone, either having crossed the frontline or travelling via France.in line with the call from general Mola "todos hacia Navarra", Pablo Larraz Andía, Víctor Sierra-Sesúmaga Ariznabarreta, Requetés: de las trincheras al olvido, Madrid 2011, , 9788499700465, p. 131 The former Catalan Carlist leader Maurici de Sivatte and the former Catalan Requeté commander Josep María Cunill coined the idea of grouping them in a separate combat unit.Vallverdú 2014, pp. 25-6 Initially it was to be named after Saint George, but in September 1936 Virgin of Montserrat was chosen instead.Aróstegui 2013, p. 687 As refugees kept arriving, in November the unit was set up as a battalion-type Carlist "Tercio" (in Catalan "Terç"), many of them created across the Nationalist-held regions.in total there were around 40 tercios created, though some of them either short-lived or partially organized, see Aróstegui 2013, pp. 688-9 In line with common practice, commissioned army officers of Carlist leaning were delegated to form its command layer.Aróstegui 2013, p. 689 Its combatants were almost exclusively volunteers, though at later stages there might have been some "false volunteers", since Catalan Republican POWs were offered to enlist as a way out of prison camps.Joaquín Monserrat Cavaller, Joaquín Bau Nolla y la restauración de la Monarquía, Madrid 2001, , pp. 224-229. It was a common practice in the Terç that Republican POWs were interrogated on the spot and Catalans were offered enlisting before having been reported as POWs, Manuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis in Historia Contemporanea, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Valencia 2009, p. 84. There is no information on conscription exercised after the Nationalist conquest of Catalonia in early 1939.

Strength, organisation and armament Terç de Requetés de la Mare de Déu de MontserratcommandersAróstegui 2013, pp. 684-704 starting date rank name 1936-12-15 capitan Enrique Monteys Carbo 1937-08-03 teniente Alfonso Fenollera Gonzalez (prov.) 1937-08-21 teniente Francisco Roca Llopis (KIA) 1937-09-09 comandante José M. Sentís Simeón 1937-11-17 capitan Antonio de Ibarra Montis 1938-04-29 capitan Luis Quiroga Nieto 1938-06-30 comandante Jose Navas Sanjuan 1938-07-17 capitan Manuel Martinez Millan de Priego 1938-08-29alferez Jose Daunis (prov.) 1938-09-22 comandante Norberto Baturone Fernandez 1938-11-04 teniente José M. Molinet Calverol (prov.) 1938-12-27 comandante Antonio Miranda Guerra Until January 1938 the battalion formed part of 5. División Organica from Zaragoza, itself within V. Cuerpo de Ejército and component of Ejercito del Norte.Aróstegui 2013, p. 693 Then it was briefly assigned to few other different units (including a cavalry division, a reserve brigade and a Moroccan division),Aróstegui 2013, pp. 693-4 until in June 1938, when transported towards Extremadura, it was incorporated into 74. División (Ejercito del Centro), and shared its fate until the end of the war.Aróstegui 2013, p. 695

In late spring of 1937 the unit grew to around 200 men, divided into 2 companies;the pre-war paramilitary structure was not reproduced and sub-components of the terç were named "companies", not "requetés"; it was also the case with lower-grade sub-units this structure endured until the Terç was decimated at Codo.Aróstegui 2013, pp. 689-691 During reconstruction the battalion was enhanced to 4 regular infantry companies and a machine-gun company, together with around 800 men (including around 20 commissioned officers).Aróstegui 2013, p. 694. The number of NCOs is not known. In some other Carlist units like Tercio de Lacar the number of NCOs was comparable to the number of commissioned officers Its peculiarity was a separate shock section, formed in June 1938 and unheard of in other Carlist battalions.Aróstegui 2013, p. 695 Support sub-units were reduced to medical services. Following losses suffered during the Battle of Ebro the Terç was brought back to its previous strength.Aróstegui 2013, p. 701 In May 1939, shortly before its dissolution, the unit consisted of almost 900 men.Aróstegui 2013, p. 702 The command was in Catalan.in line with the emergent Francoist ideology the anti-Republican troops were subject to increased nationalist pressure, see Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas, De gaitas y liras. Sobre discursos y prácticas de la pluralidad terrirorial en el fascismo español (1930-1950), [in:] M. Á. Ruiz Carnicer (ed.), Falange. Las culturas políticas del fascismo en la España de Franco (1936-1975), Zaragoza 2013, especially pp. 305-308, also his La región y lo local en el primer franquismo, [in:] Stéphane Michonneau, Xosé M. Núñez Seixas (eds.), Imaginarios y representaciones de España durante el franquismo, Madrid, 2014, , pp. 127-154. Despite this pressure, in some Carlist units the command language was other than Spanish. In companies formed by volunteers from rural Gipuzkoan areas the command language was Basque since the requetés did not understand Spanish well enough. Because of their speaking Catalan, the Montserrat terç soldiers faced mistrust in some Castillan towns; girls from villages in Toledo province refused to dance with them as they did not speak "en cristiano", Martorell Pérez 2009, p. 126

In numerical terms the Terç was equivalent to a regular army battalion, though in comparison it remained undertrained and underarmed. Most of its soldiers have not undergone regular army training, their military education reduced to few months (in some cases few weeks) of drills either in the barracks or on the rear of the frontline. The firepower of the unit relied mostly on bolt-action type 7 mm rifles, the primary individual weapon.exact type might have differed. Some sources point to 7,65mm rifles, probably earlier Spanish versions of Mauser 98; the others suggest 7,92 mm types or 7,57mm types, though all of them might have been used It was supplemented by various types of machine-guns, hand grenades and mortars (50mm and 81mm).compare estimates of ammunition fired during the Villalba dels Arcs battle, Aróstegui 2013, p. 697 The Terç had neither own artillery nor own transport.though at times there were 20-40 trucks assigned, Aróstegui 2013, pp. 694, 697

Social composition