Segismundo Casado

Segismundo Casado (1939).

Segismundo Casado López (born October 6, 1893 in Nava de la Asunción , Segovia province , † December 18, 1968 in Madrid ) was a Spanish colonel who did not join the rebel military around General Franco during the Spanish Civil War and who remained loyal until shortly before the end of the war related to the republican government.

The son of a high-ranking military man, he entered the Cavalry Military Academy in Valladolid at the age of 15 . He was a member of a Masonic lodge , liaison officer of the General Staff and since 1934 commander of the President's Guard Regiment. He held this position when the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936. In 1936 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

He fought on the side of the Republic, but was a strict opponent of the PCE . In October and November 1936 he set up the Mixed Brigades of the Republican Army. He fought in the battle of the Jarama for the defense of Madrid and took part in the battle of Brunete . He then became chief of the XVIII. and the XXI. Army Corps and then the Army in Andalusia . On May 17, 1938, on the Aragon Front , he was promoted to colonel and appointed as the successor to General José Miaja as commander of the Army of Central Spain.

When the defeat of the republic was looming in early 1939 and the prolongation of the war would, in his opinion, lead to the seizure of power by the communists supported by Stalin , he organized the coup of March 4, 1939 against the legitimate government of Juan Negrín . This coup was supported by the moderate, western-oriented wing of the socialist party PSOE led by Julián Besteiro and the disappointed leaders of the FAI . On the night of March 5 to 6, 1939, he set up a National Defense Council , which, thanks to the support of the 14th Division under the command of the anarchist Cipriano Mera, defeated the troops loyal to the government in the capital. The fighting ended on March 12th. General Miaja joined the rebellion in Madrid on March 6 and had militant communists in the city arrested. President Negrín, who was already preparing to flee to France, ordered Luis Barceló Jover , the commander of the 1st Army Corps Center, to try to regain control of the capital. His troops invaded Madrid and there was again fierce fighting in the capital, which lasted for several days. But the anarchist troops under the leadership of Cipriano Mera defeated the pro-government troops under Barceló. This was captured and shot dead.

This victory enabled the anti-communist National Defense Council to negotiate a peace agreement with Franco, which the Franco-led government in Burgos, however, rejected, demanding an unconditional surrender of the Republican army. Shortly before the Franco troops captured Madrid on March 28, 1939, Casado fled to Valencia and from there to Marseille . He then went into exile in Great Britain and from there to Colombia and Venezuela .

When he returned to Spain in 1961, he was tried by a military tribunal, but was acquitted. The recognition of his military rank and the re-entry into the Spanish army was denied to him. In addition to other contemporary historical works, he published his memoirs in 1968 under the title So fell Madrid .