Segismundo Casado

Segismundo Casado López (10 October 1893 – 18 December 1968) was a Spanish Army officer; he served during the late Restoration, the Primo de Rivera dictatorship and the Second Spanish Republic. Following outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he sided with the Republicans, gradually rising to commander of the Army of the Centre. He is best known as leader of the coup against the government of Juan Negrín; its objectives were preventing a Communist takeover and terminating fratricidal bloodshed during the war, considered already lost. The rebels seized control of the Republican zone; in their quasi-government Casado served as the minister of defense. Negotiations with the Nationalists failed; Casado went on exile, first to Britain and from 1947 to Latin America, returning to Spain in 1961.

Military career

There is little clarity as to Casado’s parents. Himself he claimed - and this information is reproduced by the Spanish Real Academia de la Historia - that his parents, Tomás Casado Arribas and Tomasa López Quinsano, were farmers, and that his father worked as '' bracero''. According to his own account during childhood and youth he suffered misery and it was thanks to extraordinary efforts of his parents that he managed to complete education in a local primary school. However, numerous other sources claim that his father was a military and served as an infantry captain.

Junior officer

As an adolescent in 1907 Casado entered the Cavalry Academy in Valladolid. Having completed the curriculum as 15th among 44 graduates, in 1911 he was promoted to segundo teniente. Initially he was posted to Regimento Cazadores de Almansa, but was soon transferred to 4. Regimento de Caballería in Burgos; within this unit he was posted to 1. Deposito de Caballos Sementales in Jérez de la Frontera. In 1912 he was again transferred to Regimento de Lanceros del Príncipe. In 1913 he was promoted to teniente primero. In 1912-1916 he followed various courses, e.g. at Curso de Escuela de Equitación Militar, Escuela Central de Tiro and Secciones de Obreros y Explosivos en lor Regimientos del Arma. In 1917 he was deployed with his regiment on public order duties during a general strike. In 1918 Casado entered Escuela Superior de Guerra; in 1919 he was promoted to captain.

In 1921 Casado was transferred to Larache in Spanish Morocco and assigned to a machine gun company, deployed mostly as protection of various logistics operations. He was appreciated by superiors, who in reports noted Casado’s distinguished role in combat and in the rear. However, following less that half a year in Morocco in 1922 he was withdrawn from line, assigned to Regimento Mixto de Artillería and then to Comandancia General de Ceuta. In 1923 Casado received the General Staff diploma.

In 1924 Casado was recorded within the Alcalá de Henares garrison. In 1925 he assumed command of a squadron in Regimento de Lanceros de la Reina in Madrid. In 1928 he entered another military course intended for candidates to higher officer ranks, and in 1929 he was promoted to comandante. In 1930 he was posted to Escuela de Estudios Superiores (later Escuela Superior de Guerra), but this time as auxiliary professor at Curso de Táctica y Servicio de Estado Mayor. According to his own account, from the onset Casado opposed the Primo de Rivera dictatorship; documents confirm that in 1927 he defended in military court some individuals involved in so-called Sanjuanada, and in 1929 he represented in court the officers deemed engaged in rebellious activities in Ciudad Real.

Senior officer

The advent of the Republic produced military reform and revision of some promotions; in 1931 Casado’s ascension to commandant was reversed. Casado continued to work in Escuela Superior; in 1931 he published a study, ''Organización del Ejército Francés'', and in 1933 ''Empleo de la División de Caballería en el Servicio de Exploración estratégica'' followed. According to some sources, at the time Casado became one of key advocates of armored units, up to total replacement of cavalry with armoured units (''arma blindada''. In late 1934 he was (again) nominated to comandante. In early 1935 Casado was nominated commander of personal detachment of the president (escolta del presidente), Niceto Alcalá-Zamora; since May 1936 he performed the same role serving the new president, Manuel Azaña.

According to some sources during the coup of July 1936 Casado personally decided that Azaña be relocated from his residence in El Pardo to the centre of Madrid; the move which might have prevented Azaña’s captivity, as presidential communications unit rebelled. He than served in Sierra de Guadarrama, according to some in general staff of “columna Bernal”, and according to others as “jefe de la columna Galán”. In October 1936 he was recalled to Madrid and assumed the role of head of operations department at the General Staff, reportedly because he was considered “excellent planner”; he was also promoted to teniente coronel. Other sources claim he was dismissed as head of operations shortly.

Since 1936 Casado remained engaged in organisation, planning and teaching. Following the decision to build mixed brigades he was active raising the units, though instead of the original concept of autonomous operations, he preferred them to be part of divisions . He kept lecturing at Escuela Popular de Estado Mayor, soon relocated to Valencia; at one point he became the head of the institution. In May 1937 Casado was nominated general inspector of the cavalry. During the summer of 1937 he assumed command of XVIII. Army Corps, which at the time mounted an offensive in Aragon; following initial advance, the corps failed to reach its objectives. In September 1937 Casado was nominated commander of the newly formed XXI. Army Corps, also deployed in Aragon. In March 1938 he assumed command of the Army of Andalusia, but in May he returned to Madrid to head the Army of the Centre. Also in May he was promoted to coronel. In February 1939 Casado was promoted to general.

Casado's coup

Throughout 1938 Casado developed doubts about the prime minister Negrín’s strategy to keep on fighting. He was increasingly convinced that the war was already lost, and that further resistance would only produce unnecessary deaths, sufferings and destruction. He blamed the Communists for prolonging the war in the interest of the Soviet Union. Since late 1938 Casado engaged in talks with some politicians about forming an anti-Negrín opposition, and since early 1939 he entered into secret peace talks with the Nationalists. In February the conspiracy was already well developed; Casado was its undisputed leader, supported by most of the military command layer, the Anarchists and the Socialists.

On March 5, 1939 the plotters declared constitution of Consejo Nacional de Defensa (CND), which claimed all power in the Republican zone; it was presented as a pre-emptive strike against imminent dictatorial Communist takeover. Casado was the key man behind CND; during a phone talk with Negrín he refused to budge. He temporarily acted as the CND president, but ceded the post to general Miaja the following day and within the body he assumed ministry of defense. It is not clear to what extent Casado was commanding CND-loyal troops during fightings against the Communist-loyal units, which went on in Madrid until March 11. Once CND assumed full control over the Republic Casado took part in some juridical proceedings, resulting in death sentences and execution of some Communist leaders, especially Luis Barceló.

Casado and CND continued talks with the Nationalists. He intended to negotiate a staged surrender, evacuation of all these willing to leave Spain and no political repression afterwards; he might have even hoped for re-integration of professional Republican officers into the post-war army. The Nationalists demanded immediate and unconditional surrender; no such document has been signed, but Casado eventually realised that further negotiations were pointless. On March 26 CND ordered no resistance to Nationalist advance, which commenced the next day. On March 28 Casado flew out of Madrid to Valencia. According to some sources he tried to arrange ships for mass evacuation and in his last radio broadcast he claimed they would be available in Alicante; according to others he did close to nothing in terms of enabling evacuation. On March 29 in Gandia Casado boarded a British warship, which set sail in the early hours of March 30.

Exilee and retiree

On British hospital ship Casado was transported to Marseille; he then travelled to the United Kingdom, most likely with approval of the London government. He received a stipend from the British Committee for Refugees from Spain; following intervention of the Foreign Office, his allowances were set at a higher rate than normally. In late 1939 he was given a job in the Spanish section of the BBC
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