page_title: José María Sentís Simeón
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: José María Sentís Simeón / Military career
caption_attribution_description: Español: Título original: Soldados en trenes en la estación del Norte con destino a la contienda de África (6/10) Localización: San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa)
context_page_description: José María Sentís Simeón was a Spanish politician, official and military. He is best known as General Director of Prisons for 8 months in 1942–43 and as civil governor of Guadalajara and Palencia, also during the early Francoism. In 1964–67 he served as the Cortes deputy. Throughout most of his life he was an active Carlist, in 1962–65 serving as Secretario General of Comunión Tradicionalista. He retired from the army in the rank of a colonel.
context_section_description: In 1921 Sentís volunteered to serve in Morocco, where he was assigned to Regimiento de Luchana. In his later recollections he claimed to have served 2,5 years in Africa, but as late as in 1926 he was still reported in the press as serving in the Dark Continent. He completed the colonial experience as lieutenant before returning to his Almansa regiment. Sentís spent the late 1920s on routine garrison service; in 1927 he grew to captain and assumed command of a machine-gun sub-unit. When the Republic was declared Sentís remained capitán; the new military administration did not have much trust in his loyalty, especially that he did not make a secret of his Carlist, ultra-Right outlook. By the end of 1931 he was left with no clear assignment, reduced to the status of "disponibile". It is not clear whether he was reinstated before the new 1933 Right-wing government assumed power, yet prior to 1934 he was already assigned to the 4th Somatenes Division. During the October 1934 revolutionary unrest in Catalonia Sentís commanded troops which seized the building of Tarragona Gobierno Civil, occupied by members of Esquerra Republicana and Estat Catalá, and was vital to thwarting revolutionary attempts in the province. According to one source he assumed "funciones de gobernador Civil y de Orden Público", according to another he was formally nominated the provincial Delegado de Orden Público. In late 1935 he was back with his old Regimiento de Almansa.
  Since the mid-1930s Sentís together with Joaquín Bau, later to become his lifelong friend, was engaged in buildup of the Carlist organization network in the province. In 1936 the activity transformed to full-scale conspiracy, including paramilitary training of Carlist requetés and securing arms for their units. He remained engaged in negotiations with Falange and served as a link between the Carlists and the military plotters. On July 18 their plan turned into a failure; despite significant strength of local requetés in Tarragona, poor communication among the conspirators and dilatory stand of the military led to their passive, wait-and-see policy.
  Once it became clear that in Catalonia the coup failed, Sentís first went into hiding and then having obtained false French ID papers left Barcelona on an Italian ship. From Genoa he was driven across Southern France and in August he entered the Nationalist zone in Navarre. Immediately reporting to Burgos, he was assigned to an unspecified unit, deployed on the Madrid front. It is there where Sentís got wounded twice; heavy injuries suffered due to enemy mortar fire landed him in the hospital. He spent there at least a few months before in November 1937 he was nominated commander of Tercio de Montserrat, the Catalan battalion-type requeté unit. At the time the Tercio was stationed near Zaragoza, being brought back to strength following decimation suffered during the battle of Codo; Sentís spent just 2 months heading the battalion and did not lead it in combat; in November 1937 he was reassigned to administration duties.
caption: troops departing for Morocco (1922)
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