12 Facts About Emilio Mola

Emilio Mola y Vidal was a Spanish military officer who was one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936 that started the Spanish Civil War.

Emilio Mola died in a plane crash in bad weather, leaving Franco as the pre-eminent Nationalist leader for the rest of the war.

Emilio Mola was born in Placetas, Cuba, at that time an overseas Spanish province, where his father, an army officer, was stationed.

Emilio Mola served in Spain's colonial war in Morocco where he received the Military Medal, and became an authority on military affairs.

Emilio Mola was wounded in action during the Kert campaign in May 1912 in the thigh and thus he was promoted to Captain.

Emilio Mola was made Director-General of Security in 1930, the last man to hold this post under Alfonso XIII.

Emilio Mola worked with elements of the right-wing Spanish Military Union and by the end of April 1936 was acknowledged as its leader in north-central Spain.

When Emilio Mola's brother was captured by the Republicans in Barcelona, the government threatened his life.

Emilio Mola then ordered systematic executions in captured cities to instill fear.

Emilio Mola then became Nationalist commander in the north, while Franco became commander in the south.

Emilio Mola's forces went on to secure the whole of the province of Guipuzcoa, isolating the remaining Republican provinces in the north.

Emilio Mola died on 3 June 1937, when the Airspeed Envoy twin-engined aircraft in which he was travelling flew into the side of a mountain in bad weather while returning to Vitoria.