Vicente Rojo Lluch Vicente Rojo Lluch ( 8 October 1894 – June 15 , 1966 ) was Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Armed Forces during the Spanish Civil War . Early life . 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 at the Alcazar 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 ( the " Regulares " were Moroccan colonial troops with Spanish officers ) . He was later posted back to Barcelona and to La Seu d ' Urgell . In 1922 , having risen to the rank of captain , he returned to the Infantry Academy in Toledo , where he occupied diverse educational and administrative positions . He was one of the editors of the curricula on the subjects of " Tactics " , " Weaponry " and " Firepower " for the new section of the Military Academy of Zaragoza . In this period at the Academy he collaborated on the foundation and direction of the Military Bibliographical Collection , along with captain Emilio Alamán . 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 . Spanish Civil War . When the Civil War started ( July 1936 ) , Rojo - a devout Catholic , and linked to the conservative Unión Militar Española - stayed loyal to the Republican Government and was one of the military professionals who participated in the reorganization of the Spanish Republican Army . 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 battles of Jarama , Guadalajara , Brunete and Belchite . On March 24 , 1937 he was promoted to colonel , and after the formation of the Negrín 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 People ' s Army , and created the denominated Mobile Army , that served as the offensive advance force of the Republican Army . On September 22 , 1937 he was promoted to the rank of general . Throughout that year he planned the offensives of Huesca , Brunete , Belchite , Zaragoza and Teruel . He was awarded the highest Republican decoration , the " Placa Laureada de Madrid " on January 11 , 1938 for his planning of the last mentioned operation . 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 . In December 1938 he planned an offensive in Andalusia and Extremadura in order to halt the Nationalist offensive against Catalonia , but the generals Matallana and Miaja rejected the plan and the offensive didn ' t start until January 1939 and failed . Exile . After the fall of Catalonia , in February 1939 , he moved with the government to France , where on February 12 , 1939 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General , the second only of the Republican army . After a brief stay in that country , the Service of Emigration of Spanish Republicans ( SERE ) paid his passage to Buenos Aires . Between 1943 and 1956 he taught as a professor at the military school of Bolivia . Rojo has been considered one of the most prestigious military officers of the Republic , and of the war as a whole . His figure was respected even by his nationalist opponents . The most surprising homage is Franco ' s portrayal of him in the film " Raza " . Return to Spain and death . In February 1957 he returned to Spain , where most of his family already lived . This return was made possible through a series of negotiations which involved several Nationalist military officers in Madrid , F . José Luís Almenar Betancourt S . J . , a Jesuit who was in contact him during his stay in Bolivia , and the Bishop of Cochabamba , a former military chaplain who had served under Rojo . Although he was not bothered in the beginning by the Francoist authorities , on July 16 , 1957 the " Special Court for the Repression of Masonry and Communism " informed him that he would be prosecuted for the crime of military rebellion , in his position as ex - commander of the Army . This was the customary charge on professional military officers who did not join the rebels in 1936 . He was sentenced to 30 years , but did not served a single day as the sentence was suspended sentence , and he was soon pardoned . Vicente Rojo died at his home in Madrid , June 15 , 1966 . Of the obituaries appearing in the Spanish press , only the one in " El Alcázar " , - mouthpiece of the Francoist ex - combatants - and the one by noted Falangist writer Rafael Garcia Serrano in the party press , amply eulogized his military achievements . He wrote several books detailing his military experiences in the civil war , which were published in the following order : " ¡ Alerta a los pueblos ! " ( 1939 ) , " ¡ España heroica ! " ( 1961 ) and " Así fue la defensa de Madrid " ( 1967 ) .