El Desastre de Annual

The historically known as Annual disaster occurred in the summer of 1921, between July 21, when the Rif rebels led by a former Moorish friend of Spain, Mohamed Abd-el-Krim, occupied the Spanish position of Igueriben, and the 10 August, with the surrender and massacre at Monte Arruit. In between, thousands of Spanish soldiers suffered a true Stations of the Cross by undertaking a desperate and doomed retreat. The news of such events, as well as the subsequent captivity of hundreds of Spanish soldiers and countrymen, shocked the whole of Spain and were the direct cause of various political crises such as the coup d'état and the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera as well as the subsequent fall of the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. That tragic defeat of the Spanish army was the beginning of the last Spanish colonial war, which lasted six years and ended with the military occupation of the Protectorate of Spain in Morocco. In this book, Gerardo Muñoz chronologically and in detail recounts the events that occurred during the Annual Disaster, but also what happened during the military campaign for the rest of 1921 and the dramatic experiences lived by some of the captured Spaniards. And he does it by highlighting the human factor, that is, the protagonists; not only the senior military, but also many young people who were part of the troops and who are the great forgotten in official chronicles.