Virgilio Leret

Virgilio Leret Ruiz (Pamplona, August 23, 1902 - Melilla, July 18, 1936) was a Spanish soldier, aviator, engineer and inventor, who remained loyal to the Republic after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, and was one of the first officers executed by the rebels in that war. He is the husband of Carlota O'Neill de Lamo, Spanish feminist writer and journalist, who spent five years in prison after the execution of the captain, later going into exile with the couple's two daughters.

He participated in the war in Morocco, where he began his career as an aviator. He spoke Arabic and French. Perhaps the least known facet of him is his project (in 1935) of a jet engine (called Continuous Reaction Mototurbocompressor ) that his assassination at the start of the Civil War prevented him from starting.

Biography

Early years and military training

Virgilio Leret Ruiz was born on August 23, 1902 in Pamplona, the third of eight children born to Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Manuel Leret y Úbeda (1876-1956) and María Luisa Ruiz y Ramírez.

At the age of 15, he followed the family career (military in Cuba), although with great inclinations towards the technical. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Infantry Academy of Toledo, where he graduated as second lieutenant on July 8, 1920. Shortly after, he was assigned to the Seraglio Regiment No. 69, based in Ceuta.

Moroccan War

He participated in the Moroccan campaign between 1920 and 1924, fighting against the rebels led by Muley Ahmed al-Raisuli and Abd-el-Krim. Among many other actions, he took part in the Occupation of Chefchaouen and the Landing of Al Hoceima. He heroically endured, together with 20 of his soldiers, the harsh siege imposed for 21 days by the Riffians on the blockhouse they garrisoned. Around this time he learned Arabic and French.

His campaign as an aviator began in Africa in 1925, where he remained until 1927. During this time he was part of the 2nd Squadron Group of the Western Zone, the 5th Expeditionary Group and the Breguet-Rolls Squadron. During the landing at Al Hoceima, his plane was shot down and, after walking for 24 hours through enemy territory, he managed to save his life by reaching the French zone of the Moroccan protectorate on foot, located at a great distance. In 1929, after 5 years of study, he obtained the title of Free Mechanical Electrical Engineer, with the highest qualification. He was totally devoted to the army and his projects, but he also had time to play the violin and to write fiction, signing with the pseudonym "El Caballero del Azul". By then the Rif War had ended. and he was back on the peninsula. Parallel to this intense activity, in the 1920s he met in Barcelona what would be his wife, Carlota O'Neill, a left-wing feminist from Madrid of Mexican origin, who profoundly marked his life.

Due to his military activity in Morocco, he was awarded three times: in 1922 and, later, 1927 and 1929 with the First Class Cross with the red badge. King Alfonso XIII named him a First Class Knight of the Order of Military Merit. Of his decorations, the first was for his performances on the ground, while the second and third were for his heroic performances in the air.

Second Republic

In 1930 he was stationed in Getafe when the republican uprising led by Fermín Galán and García Hernández broke out in Jaca on December 12. On the 15th, a new attempt at a republican pronouncement took place in Getafe, led by Ramón Franco, Hidalgo de Cisneros and Queipo de Llano. The officers, including Leret, requested from the head of the base that they be allowed not to shoot their fellow rebels. This led to their also being accused of military rebellion, while the three named fled to Portugal (and then to Paris), the The rest went into detention by the last leaders of the Monarchy. Leret entered prison but it would be for a short time, since the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931 and he will be immediately amnestied.

Between 1931 and 1932 he was present in various military assignments, being assigned in June 1932 to the El Atalayón Naval Air Base, located near Melilla, on the shores of Mar Chica.

In 1934 he was part of the Dornier Squadron, which went around Spain. In that same year, a government decree (already during the Radical-Cedista biennium) forced the military to declare "that they did not belong to any political and/or union society". Leret declared not to belong to any party or union. When the Revolution of Asturias broke out in October 1934, a legionnaire declared in a media outlet: "as long as the Legion exists, communism will not enter Spain". Upon hearing this statement, Virgilio wrote a letter to the chief general of the eastern constituency of the Protectorate, Manuel Romerales, asking if the decree of non-membership of political societies had been repealed. General Romerales ordered the arrest of Leret and the initiation of judicial proceedings.

During the time he was in prison, he designed a jet engine, original and revolutionary for its time, which he called Continuous Reaction Turbocharger. This invention was patented in the Madrid Industrial Property Registry on March 28 of 1935, with the no. 137.729.

He joined the Anti-Fascist Republican Military Union, participating in the meetings prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and organizing the so-called "Sindicato C. de Aviación whose documents were found among Virgilio's belongings after his arrest.

Coup d'état of July 1936

On July 17, 1936, he was the accidental head of the El Atalayón Naval Air Base. At the beginning of the uprising in Melilla that would give rise to the Spanish civil war, he defended the base from the attack of the 2nd Tabor Squadron of Regular Cavalry, under the command of Captain Corbalán. During this attack, the fire of Leret and his men caused the death of a Moroccan sergeant and soldier from the attacking unit, who were the first dead in the Spanish civil war. Faced with resistance from the base, the 2nd Regular Infantry Tabor, under the command of Commander Mohamed ben Mizzian, interrupted their march towards Melilla to cooperate in the assault, but before it resumed Leret and his men surrendered, faced with the obvious disproportion of forces. According to the rebels, he was taken prisoner, transferred to the Rostrogordo fort where he was shot on July 18, 1936, in the company of two air lieutenants who had been involved in the defense of the base, as well as captains Luis Casado Escudero and Joaquín Fernández Gálvez. However, the official report was false and it was learned later through a secret report from an insurgent lieutenant that Leret had been put to death "at dawn on July 18, half-naked and with a broken arm", along with lieutenants Armando González Corral and Luis Calvo Calavia. In recognition of his service record and his heroic resistance in Melilla, the government of the Republic promoted him posthumously to the rank of commander.

His wife Carlota, who had developed her feminist career as a playwright and as director of the newspaper Nosotras, was arrested, like many other daughters and wives of Republicans, and separated from her daughters, María Gabriela (Mariela) and Carlota (Loti), losing custody. They had married when they were expecting their second daughter. She was tried by a military court eighteen months after her arrest and sentenced to six years in prison, for knowing Russian, for being a subversive and for her responsibility in the acts of her husband.

After her release from prison in 1940, Charlotte O'Neill took the plans for the Continuous Reaction Turbocharger to the British Embassy to give to James Dickson, aviation attaché, with the idea that they might be useful to the Allied cause. Descendants of Virgil's brothers still have handwritten copies of the plan.

His wife settled in Barcelona, at the home of her sister Enriqueta O'Neill, who helped her regain custody of her daughters. In 1949, she and her older daughters left for Venezuela, and later Mexico.

Acknowledgments

In March 2011, a documentary on the figure of Leret was released, directed by the Pamplona journalist Mikel Donaza and produced by ETB, the Aena Foundation and the Public University of Navarra, with the title Virgilio Leret, the gentleman del azul, in reference to the pseudonym used by Leret to write fiction. In 2011, the Parla city council decided to name a street after him.

In 2017, the family of Virgilio Leret Ruiz in Spain, descendants of his brothers, began a campaign to collect signatures to change the street of the Francoist Aviador Zorita (Demetrio Zorita Alonso), proposed by the Commissioner of Historical Memory of the City Council from Madrid, by that of Virgilio Leret Ruiz; highlighting the breach of the Historical Memory Law by the Madrid City Council, governed by Manuela Carmena through the candidacy of Ahora Madrid.

In May 2017, following a public complaint by the Federation of Forums for Memory, the relatives of Virgilio Leret Ruiz in Spain began a campaign for the Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Spain to recognize his execution for his left-wing ideas Thanks to the support of the General Confederation of Labor and the Association of former Anti-Franco Political Prisoners, the file was changed.

In support of the AENA workers against the privatization of the company, they declared that: "For this reason, given the pressures for privatization, we show you our support. We have reiterated our commitment to a public AENA stating that no airport should bear the name of Virgilio Leret Ruiz until it is absolutely declared that no airport or its management, through AENA, will be private."