The ruins of the old military camp 'Alférez Rubio Moscoso' of the Spanish Army

@ElentirENG ES 10·25·2023 · 23:20 0

In 1940, a year after the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Army had 27 divisions and a total of 366,000 men.

El Arteal: the ghost town used by the Spanish Legion as a training ground
The old military airfield of the Spanish Civil War in Calzadilla de los Barros

To give us an idea, the Spanish Army then had four times more troops than today. This involved the maintenance of numerous military facilities, including instruction camps for recruits (in Spain there was then compulsory military service for all men). One of those camps was the "Alférez Rubio Moscoso" Instruction Camp, located in the town of Padul, in the province of Granada.

This camp was built in 1941, serving as a recruit training center and as a training place for the "Córdoba" Infantry Regiment No. 10 and for the Special Operations Companies (COE). The camp was abandoned in the 1990s and today it is in a dilapidated situation, but it is still a military zone and property of the Ministry of Defense. Occasionally it is still used as a maneuvering field. Coincidentally, just a few days ago it was used for a training session by the Mixed Transport Company of the Transport Group III/21 (GTP III/21) of the Logistics Support Group No. 21 (AALOG 21) of the Logistics Brigade (BRILOG).

Today, the always interesting YouTube channel Aventuras Entresierras (I never tire of recommending that subscribe) has published an interesting video exploring those facilities (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see some screenshots of the video here, as a preview. Here we see an old barracks already destroyed.

The cement bases of the circular tents in the camp. The canvas was installed on this small wall, which served as insulation. The central pillar supported the column that raised the canvas roof. Up to 12 soldiers could fit in these tents.

In the camp there was a complete obstacle course for the training of the soldiers. Among the obstacles were these "dragon teeth", used by different armies as defenses against tanks.

A fake cement and brick tank, already in ruins. This is the part of the video that my teddy bear Bilbo (in addition to Scarface's dedication to him, of course). 😉