Carlos de Haya Gonzalez
Carlos de Haya González de Ubieta (Bilbao, Vizcaya, March 1, 1902 - Puerto Escandón, La Puebla de Valverde, Teruel, February 21, 1938) was a Spanish aviator, especially known for his participation in air raids and his performance for the national side during the Spanish civil war. He died when his plane hit another republican aircraft and fell to the ground. He died on impact.
Biography
Studies and teaching
At the age of sixteen, he entered the Quartermaster Academy, from which he left in 1921, as lieutenant with number 2 of his promotion, and, after a few months assigned to the Quartermaster Troop Command, in Burgos, he marched to Morocco and there, in the territory of Melilla, he participated in numerous convoys to the advanced positions, fighting on several occasions; he also takes part in the operation to recapture the position of Afrau.
He held the following titles:
- Watercraft course in 1926
- Professor of mechanics
- Parachutist
- Radiotelegrafista
Captain in 1932, he was a teacher at the piloting schools of Alcalá de Henares and Cuatro Vientos.
Africa Campaign
In 1925, already a lieutenant, he was assigned to the 5th Mountain Company, stationed in Tafersit on campaign duty; He requests to take the pilot course in Albacete and once completed and obtained the corresponding title, he goes to the Transformation School to achieve the military pilot course with which he is assigned to the I Aviation Regiment.
In the eastern zone of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, he joined the Brístol Squadron, stationed at the Nador aerodrome, and with it he participated in campaign operations, carrying out numerous reconnaissance and bombardment missions in the Sidi Messaud sector and that of Yebel Uddía, the towns of Tasaguín and Immalaten and many other points where, overcoming strong resistance, the Spanish forces are painfully advancing. At the end of 1926 he is appointed to follow a seaplane course in Los Alcázares, rejoining his squadron in Melilla once finished. Transferred to the Auárnara aerodrome, in Larache, in January 1927, he participated from there in operations on the western front, bombarding Tazarut, the towns of Royarsa and numerous objectives of the Kabila of Beni Arós. In the last phases of the campaign, while in Souk el Had from Beni Berkul supported the advance of the Capaz column with his machine guns, he was hit by ground fire, being wounded and being cited as distinguished.
Aviator
After the war, together with Tauler he carried out the first aerial tour of Spain, in which the night stages and those that he had to carry out through clouds forced him to use the radio direction finder and to solve numerous technical problems created by a system that was in its beginnings and from which everything is yet to be learned.
In 1929, in the Breguet XIX Gran Raid model plane that with the registration number 12~71 was assigned to the Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome, accompanying Captain Cipriano Rodríguez, he set circuit speed records, over 5,000 and 2,000 km without load and 2,000 with 500 kilos.
Two years later, at Christmas 1931, with the same airplane and also forming a crew with Cipriano Rodríguez Díaz «Cucufate», he carried out the Raid to Guinea, covering in a single stage the 4,300 kilometers that separate Seville from Bata, in a brilliant and precise 24-hour flight over the Sahara desert and the Niger jungle.
Inventor
Invents a gyroscopic integral that will be adopted in the Aviation Service under the name «Haya Integral» and will be patented in Spain and France. In addition, he patents a drift corrector. In 1930, he patented the Slide Rule; It consisted of a strip of graph paper on which the time lines were drawn, from 0 to 5 h with 5 min intervals; the distance lines, from 0 to 500 km with intervals of 10 km and a faithful moving speed from 120 to 170 km/hour.
Civil War
In July 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish civil war, he headed from Malaga to Seville, where he was stationed at the Tablada aerodrome as head of the 2nd Squadron of Breguet XIX of group 22, to join the coup against the Second Republic. With the DC-2 captured in Tablada, he was closely linked to the Strait Air Shuttle and participated in the so-called "Victory Convoy". In addition to acting as personal pilot of the coup leader Franco, he carried out numerous war services, among which the supplies to the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza stand out, besieged by the Republican forces until May 1, 1937, when the Sanctuary, defended by a hundred civil guards and totally ruined, it is conquered by the republican troops. During this time he used the method of & # 34; turkeys as parachutes & # 34;, since the provisions were delicate, such as medicines, and these birds allowed them not to break, in addition to being able to eat.
During the Battle of Belchite, in 1937, he once again stood out making one of these risky supplies. This time aboard a Junkers Ju 52, he made multiple low-flying flights over the besieged town, under heavy anti-aircraft fire and Republican hunting, to supply the defenders with medicine, food and ammunition.
He is attached to the Italian fighter group Asso di Bastoni equipped with Fiat CR-32 «Chirri». On February 21, 1938, in the midst of the Battle of Teruel, he quickly joined the front from Bilbao, where he attended his funeral for his mother. In a large air battle over Escandón, he collided with a & # 34;Chato & # 34; republican: Captain Haya rammed the plane of the republican pilot and sergeant, Francesc Vinyals, from the tail when he was chasing a colleague of Haya's. Haya died when his plane crashed into the ground. The "ace" Francoist Joaquín García-Morato, who was his brother-in-law, claimed the body from the heads of the Republican aviation Hidalgo de Cisneros and Camacho Benítez, but received no reply.
With more than 300 war services in the 19 months he was able to fight, he flew an average of 40 hours per month. He was posthumously awarded the Laureada de San Fernando and the Military Medal and was given a promotion for war merits. He was also awarded the Italian Gold Medal (Laureada Italiana).
Historical memory
He had a street in his honor in Madrid, "Capitán Haya", which was renamed Calle del Poeta Joan Maragall by the plenary session of the City Council of the capital in 2017, however, the name of &# 34;Captain Haya" it must be restored, as the appeal has been upheld for the judgment of judgment no. 13/2019 of the Contentious-Administrative Court no. 15 of Madrid.
Similarly, in Bilbao the name has also been changed. In Malaga, the Carlos Haya Hospital changed its name to the Regional University Hospital by agreement of the General Directorate of Democratic Memory of the Junta de Andalucía in application of the Autonomous Law and one of the main arteries of the city intends to be renamed to & #34;Camino de Antequera" in 2018 but continues to maintain the name Carlos Haya.
In Santander there is still a street in his honor, curiously in the port and railway area.[1]
In Getafe he has a monument in a square near the Air Base where he passed on his route in the Madrid-Paris Raid.
In Seville, the secondary school and high school "IES Carlos Haya" It owes its name to him, in addition to having previously been reserved for soldiers from the Tablada barracks.