José Millán Astray
(La Coruña, 1879-Madrid, 1954) Spanish military.In 1894 he entered the Toledo Infantry Academy.He had not yet reached seventeen years of age when he graduated as a second lieutenant, the degree with which he served in an infantry regiment in Madrid.His subordinates had to suffer from very early on his manifest intolerance, reflected even in the smallest details (the punishments and arrests that he imposed when he judged that buckles and bayonets did not shine enough became famous).
In 1896 he entered in the Superior School of War, to obtain a diploma that would empower him to access the General Staff.However, after two months he volunteered to fight the nationalist rebellion that had broken out in the Philippines.He soon distinguished himself by his reckless courage, which earned him a large number of decorations.
He also fought in Morocco, was wounded four times and lost an arm and an eye.His interest in creating a corps of volunteers similar to the French Foreign Legion coincided with the concern that the Minister of War, General Villalba, had to reduce casualties.In Algeria he studied that elite unit and, created the Tercio de Extranjeros, was its first lieutenant colonel in chief.Among his collaborators was Francisco Franco.
During the civil war he was director of the Radio, Press and Propaganda Office and later of the Corps of War Maimed.He is especially remembered for the altercation he caused on October 12, 1936, at the University of Salamanca, in the presence of Miguel de Unamuno, to whom he responded with the aberrant cry of " Die intelligence! ".
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