The Spanish Republican Air Force, Spanish: Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (FARE), was the air arm of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. It was popularly known as "La Gloriosa" (The Glorious One).This defunct Air Force is largely known for the intense action it saw during the Spanish Civil War, from July 1936 till its disbandment in 1939. There was great ineptitude and lack of decision-making in the command structure of the FARE throughout the Civil War. Starting from the crucial first weeks of the conflict in July 1936, the rebel side was able to undertake a massive airlift of troops from Spanish Morocco using mostly the slow Ju 52, without any Spanish Republican Air Force interference. This was the world's first long-range combat airlift and the FARE failed to check it. The Battle of Guadalajara and the defence of the skies over Madrid against Nationalist bombing raids during the capital's long siege would be the only scenarios where the loyalist air force took part in an effective manner. In other important republican military actions, like the Battle of Teruel and the decisive Battle of the Ebro, where the Aviación Nacional was relentlessly strafing the loyalist positions, the republican military airplanes were practically absent from the skies. Moreover, when they appeared and attacked, they did so in an unorganized and inadequate manner that mostly failed to achieve positive effects. Most of the FARE planes that survived the conflict were repainted with the markings of the Aviación Nacional after the defeat of the Spanish Republic in the Iberian battlefields.