Rif War Volume 2

The Rif War in rugged northern Morocco is remembered for romantic films and novels about the French Foreign Legion, such as Beau Geste. In reality, the French intervention, although very important, was late and secondary in importance to that of the Spanish.

The second volume of The Rif War begins with the aftermath of the Disaster of Annual and documents the Spanish response and reconquest of Morocco. While the renewed campaign remained largely one of columns, outposts and fortresses, it also took on the character of a very modern war, with the use of armoured vehicles, trench warfare, aircraft, chemical weapons and large-scale amphibious landings by combined arms forces. Indeed, the Spanish landing at Alhucemas, conducted with French naval support, would become the subject of study by the Allies in the Second World War.