Figure to assemble and paint
Ref.: 12 – GE
Weight: 210 grs.
Material: White Metal
Number of Pieces: 13
Historical Review:

Rafael García-Valiño Marcén – 1837. Ref.: 12 – GE

Rafael García-Valiño y Marcén (Toledo, 24 October 1898 – Madrid, 29 June 1972) was a Spanish military officer who played an important role during the Civil War and later during the Franco dictatorship.

A veteran fighter in the Rif War, during the course of the Civil War he took part in some of the main battles, taking part in the campaigns of Guipúzcoa, Vizcaya, Teruel, Aragon, Levante, Ebro and Catalonia. At the end of the war, he held the rank of general and commanded an army corps and was also one of the most famous high commanders. During Franco’s dictatorship, he held posts of high responsibility, such as Chief of the Army’s Central General Staff, Captain General of the 1st Military Region and High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco.

Born in Toledo on 24 October 1898 into a family with a military tradition. With an early military vocation, he entered the Infantry Academy at the age of fifteen. A brilliant student, he was promoted to lieutenant at the age of 18 and joined the Spanish Army in Africa with the declared intention of participating in the Spanish campaigns in the region, convinced that the end of World War I would allow for greater Spanish expansion and the consolidation of the colonies. Valiño played a distinguished role in the Rif War. First on the front line in the occasional encounters with Berber troops and guerrillas, he was wounded on several occasions and rose to the rank of major.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, with the rank of major, he was taking the General Staff course at the War College in Madrid (the current War College), although that July he was on holiday in Zarauz, from where he went to Pamplona to take orders from the rebels.

He took an active and decisive part in the main actions that led to the breaking of the Iron Belt in Bilbao and precipitated the fall of the city.

Under the command of General Emilio Mola, García Valiño commanded various units on the northern front and in Aragon; after the battles of Gandesa and Castellón (1938), his troops reached the Mediterranean and divided the Republican territory into two parts. Promoted to colonel in 1937 and brigadier general a year later, he also took part in the fall of Catalonia and in various military operations in the provinces of Toledo and Ciudad Real.

After the war, García Valiño served as Government Delegate in Melilla and, in 1942, he became Chief of the Army’s Central General Staff. (1) In 1942 he became the youngest lieutenant general in Spain. Captain General of the 4th Military Region (Barcelona) in 1950, in 1951 he was appointed High Commissioner in Morocco, a post he held until the colony’s independence in 1956. That same year he was entrusted with the direction of the Army College and, from 1962 to 1964, the Captaincy General of the 1st Military Region (Madrid).

According to historian Paul Preston, Valiño was one of Franco’s youngest and most capable generals, of whom he would later become an active critic.

NOTE (1)

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was a student at the General Staff College, on holiday in July 1936. When the war ended, as a general, he was obliged to continue his studies to obtain a diploma in General Staff, despite his brilliant career. At the General Staff College, he had an incident in the first class, when the teacher said that the class was over and that the students could leave, to which General Valiño replied that he was a general and the most senior of all those present, so he would be the one to authorise the end of the class and allow the students to leave.

Faced with this situation, the army management decided to validate his General Staff diploma without the need to continue his studies.

An anecdote provided by Infantry Colonel Emilio Diz Monje, a professor at the Army War and Leadership School (heir to the former Army Staff College), to whom I would like to express my gratitude.