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Vicente Rojo LluchVicente Rojo Lluch (Enguera, Valencia, 1894 - Madrid, June 15, 1966) was a prominent Republican army officer during the Spanish Civil War. He was the posthumous son of a military man who fought against the Carlists and in the campaigns of Cuba, from where he returned ill. In 1911 Rojo entered the Infantry Academy of Toledo, receiving his commission in 1914 with the rank of second lieutenant, fourth in a class of 390 cadets. After having been assigned to Barcelona he went on to the Group of Regulars from Ceuta and later again to Barcelona and to the Seu d'Urgell. In 1922, having risen to the rank of captain, he returned to the Infantry Academy, where he occupied diverse educational and administrative positions. He was one of the editors of the curricula on the subjects of Tactics, Armament and Shot for the new section of the Academy of Zaragoza. In this period at the Academy he collaborated on the foundation and direction of the Military Bibliographical Collection, a collection on military subjects that he reached ample diffusion in Spain and abroad, along with captain Emilio Alamn. In August 1932, he left the Academy to enter the Superior War School with the objective to make the course of the General Staff. During his time at the academy, a peculiar event took place in which he proposed to the cadets a tactical assumption that consisted of passing through the river Ebro to establish a route in the Reus-Granadella, an operation very similar to one a few years later, during the civil war, he would later put into practice in the famous Battle of the Ebro in the area between Mequinenza and Amposta. He was promoted to major on February 25, 1936. When the Civil War started in July 1936, he stayed loyal to the Republican Government and was one of the military professionals who participated in the reorganization of the Republican forces. In October 1936 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was designated head of the General Staff of the Forces of Defense commanded by General Jose Miaja, head of the Junta de Defensa de Madrid created to defend the capital at all costs after the transfer of the Republican government from Madrid to Valencia. In this capacity he prepared an effective defense plan for the city that prevented its fall. Afterwards, his fame as an organizer increased. As head of the Central Army HQ, he demonstrated outstanding performance in the planning of the main operations developed by the mentioned Army, in the Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete and Belchite. With increased prestige, in March 1937 he was promoted to colonel, and after the formation of the Negrn government in May, was made Head of the General Command Staff of the Armed Forces and head of the General Staff of the Ground forces. From this new position he was in charge of directing the expansion of the Popular Army, and created the denominated Mobile Army, that served as the offensive advance force of the Republican Army. Throughout 1937 he planned the offensives of Huesca, Brunete, Belchite, Zaragoza and Teruel. Promoted to general in October 1937, he was one of the most prestigious military officers of the Republic. The most ambitious operation he carried out throughout 1938 was the offensive of the Ebro, a plan that grew from the previously mentioned tactical assumption developed in the Superior War School, that gave rise to the long running battles of the Ebro that developed from July 25 to November 16, 1938. In these battles the Republic gambled its international prestige, its endurance and the possibility of being able to give a favorable turn to the course of the war. After the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, he traveled to France, and after a brief stay in this country the Service of Emigration of Spanish Republicans (SERE) paid his passage to be transferred to Buenos Aires. Between 1943 and 1956 he taught as a professor in the Military school of Bolivia. In February 1957 he returned to Spain, thanks to the negotiations of a Jesuit who knew him during his stay in Bolivia and also guaranteed by the Bishop of Cochabamba, old military chaplain to the orders of Rojo. Although he was not bothered in the beginning by the pro-Franco authorities, on July 16, 1957 the Special Court for the Crimes of Espionage and Communism informed him that he would be prosecuted for the crime of military Rebellion, in his position as ex--commander of the Army, paradoxically by the fact of not having rebelled against the legitimate government of the Republic. Apparently his return displeased certain military sectors, reason why Franco had to solve the situation in a salomnica way: Rojo would be condemned and later pardoned. He wrote several books detailing his military experiences in the civil war, which were published in the following order: Alerta a los pueblos! (1939), Espaa heroica! (1961) and As fue la defensa de Madrid (1967). Vicente Rojo passed away in Madrid on June 15, 1966. Rojo Lluch, Vicente Rojo Lluch, Vicente Rojo Lluch, Vicente
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