The "Disaster of Annual" was a grave military defeat suffered by the Spanish army on July 22, 1921 at Annual in northeastern Morocco during the Rif War or War of Melilla. The defeat led to a redefinition of Spanish colonial policy toward the Rif. 22 July is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Annual is a settlement in northeastern Morrocco about 120 km west of Melilla. ... Rif mountains near Al Hoceima The Rif (Arif in Berber, er-Rif الريف in Arabic) is a mainly mountainous region of north Morocco, from Cape Spartel and Tangier in the west to Cape Tres Forcas and Melilla in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the river...

Spanish corpses at Monte Arruit.

On July 22, 1921, after five days of siege, Spanish forces garrisoning the encampment of Annual under the command of general Manuel Fernández Silvestre after the contiguous position of Igueriben had fallen, were attacked and decimated by the Riffi irregular forces under the command of Mohammed Ben Abd el-Krim El Khattabi, a former functionary of the Spanish administration in the Office of Indigenous Affairs in Melilla and one of the leaders of the tribe of the Ait Waryaguil (known as 'Beni Urriaguel' in Spanish). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... 22 July is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ... Time Magazine, August 17, 1925 Abd el-Krim (c. ...

General Silvestre disappeared; his remains were never found. The whole Spanish military structure in the Western Spanish Protectorate in Morocco crumbled and fell into pieces. The majority of Spanish troops fled in panic: Cannons, rifles, ammunition, hospital equipment… everything was abandoned to allow a faster escape. The behaviour of many officers did not set any standard of heroism or professionalism.

Those few posts that tried to hold were massacred by the Riffian warriors. Only a few units maintained what resembled some military discipline and chain of command. Notably among those was the cavalry unit called Cazadores de Alcántara, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Primo de Rivera (who was wounded by a cannon in the Monte Arruit siege and died shortly after). Fernando Primo de Rivera, also known in English by the name Prime Fernando of Creek and Sobremonte (1831-1921), was a Spanish politician and soldier. ...

The few Spanish forces who escaped alive retreated some 80 km to the encampment of Monte Arruit, under the command of general Felipe Navarro y Ceballos-Escalera, but this position, too, was surrounded and cut off from supplies, because of which, looking at the conditions, general Dámaso Berenguer Fusté, Spanish High Commissioner in the protectorate, authorized surrender on August 9. Nonetheless, the Rifeños did not respect the conditions of surrender and entered with blood and fire into the camp, killing many soldiers and taking General Navarro prisoner, along with some six hundred others. For the rule of Oliver Cromwell, see The Protectorate. ... August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. ...

Melilla was only some 40 km away, but was in no position to help: Melilla itself was almost defenceless and lacked properly trained troops. The refusal of the adjoining tribe of Beni Sicar to join Abdelkrim (and perhaps some luck) saved Melilla. Melilla is a Spanish exclave in North Africa, located on the northernmost tip of Maghreb, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

Spain quickly assembled its shock troops (La Legion and Regulares), which were deployed in the Eastern Zone of the Spanish Protectorate in Northern Morocco to save the city of Melilla from what would otherwise have been a certain fate.

In total, during the fighting took the lives of between 10,000 and 20,000 Spanish soldiers and about 1,000 Rifeños.

The political crisis brought about by this disaster led Indalecio Prieto to say in the Congress of Deputies: "We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence. The campaign in Africa is a total failure, absolute, without extenuation, of the Spanish Army." Indalecio Prieto Tuero (April 30, 1883 - February 11, 1962) was a Spanish politician, one of the leading figures of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in the years before and during the Second Spanish Republic. ... The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. ...

The Minister of War ordered the creation of an investigative commission, directed by the honored general Juan Picasso González, which developed the report known as the Expediente Picasso, which, despite calling out numerous military mistakes, owing to the obstructive action of various ministers and judges did not go so far as to lay political responsibility for the defeat, which popular opinion widely placed upon King Alfonso XIII, who according to several sources had encouraged Silvestre's irresponsible penetration of positions far from Melilla without having adequate defenses in his rear. Alfonso XIII of Spain (May 17, 1886 – February 28, 1941), King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. ...

This crisis was one of the many that, over the course of the next decade, undermined the Spanish monarchy and led to the rise of the Second Spanish Republic. A monarchy, (from the Greek monos, one, and archein, to rule) is a form of government that has a monarch as Head of State. ... History of Spain series Prehistoric Spain Roman Spain Medieval Spain -Visigoths -Al-Andalus -Age of Reconquest Age of Expansion Age of Enlightenment Reaction and Revolution First Spanish Republic The Restoration Second Spanish Republic Spanish Civil War The Dictatorship Modern Spain Topics Economic History Military History Social History Flag of the...

The Disaster of Annual seems to have been consciously erased from the collective Spanish memory, but two novels written in the immediate aftermath give a very good idea of the events: Iman, by Ramón J. Sender; and La Ruta by Arturo Barea. For information about the model, see Iman Abdulmajid. ...

External link

• "La Guardia Civil en el Desastre de Annual", an article on this topic from the official site of the Spanish Guardia Civil (in Spanish).
• Rif War of 1919-1926 on OnWar.com

Guardia Civil (Civil Guard in Spanish) is the name of several police forces: Guardia Civil (Spain) Guardia Civil (Peru) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

References

Much of the material in this article comes from the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.