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Jose Miaja

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Birth name
  
Jose Miaja Menant

Rank
  
General

Allegiance
  
Spanish Republic

Name
  
Jose Miaja

Died
  
14 January 1958(1958-01-14) (aged 79) Mexico

Service/branch
  
Spanish Republican Army

Battles/wars
  
Rif War Spanish Civil War Siege of Madrid Battle of Jarama Battle of Brunete Battle of Guadalajara

José Miaja Menant y Vicente Rojo Lluch en la Guerra civil española - Batalla de Guadalajara


Jose Miaja Menant (20 April 1878 in Oviedo, Asturias – 14 January 1958 in Mexico) was an army officer of the Second Spanish Republic.

Contents

Early life

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 major comandante in 1911, and rising to General in 1932. Despite Miaja's membership of the right-wing Union Militar Espanola, in 1935 conservative minister of War, Jose Maria Gil-Robles y Quinones, sent him to Lerida, a relatively obscure posting far from the capital, an indication that he did not have the full confidence of the government.

Spanish Civil War

At the start of the military rebellion that lead to the Spanish Civil War, he was stationed in Madrid, remaining loyal to the Republican government and was appointed Minister of War. In November 1936, he was named commander of the Junta de Defensa de Madrid (Madrid Defense Council), when the government evacuated the capital before the imminent arrival of Nationalist troops. With Vicente Rojo Lluch as chief-of-staff, he managed to halt the Nationalists at the river Manzanares at the Battle of Madrid.

As a Spanish Republican Army 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 communist government in March 1939, heading the National Defence Council (Consejo Nacional de Defensa). He was awarded the Laureate Plate of Madrid for his role during the Siege of Madrid.

Exile

After the end of the Civil War, he went to Gandia, where he boarded a British ship that took him into exile, first to Algeria and France, then to Mexico, where he died on 14 January 1958.

References

Jose Miaja Wikipedia