- José Miaja
José Miaja Menant (
Oviedo ,Asturias , 1878 -Mexico ,January 14 ,1958 ) was a Spanish Army Officer in theSecond Spanish Republic .He entered the Infantry Academy at Toledo in 1896. His first post was in Asturias. Miaja was later transferred to
Melilla where he served in the Moroccan War of 1900, achieving the rank of majorcomandante in 1911, and rising toGeneral in 1932. Despite Miaja's membership in the right-wingUnión Militar Española in 1935 conservative minister of War,José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones , sent him toLérida , a relatively obscure posting far from that capital, an indication that he didn't have the full confidence of the government.At the start of the military rebellion that lead to the
Spanish Civil War , he was stationed inMadrid , remaining loyal to the republican government. In November 1936 he was named commander of the Junta de Defensa (Defense Council) for Madrid, when the government evacuated the capital before the imminent arrival of Nationalist troops. WithVicente Rojo Lluch as chief-of-staff, he managed to halt the Nationalists at the riverManzanares at theBattle of Madrid .As commander of the Central Zone, he directed the battles of the Jarama, Guadalajara and Brunete. He later supported the rebellion led by
Segismundo Casado against the government in March 1939, heading the Council of National Defense. After the end of the Civil War he went to Gandia, where he boarded an British ship that took him into exile, first to Algeria and France, then toMexico , where he died on January 14, 1958.
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