Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain (9 July 1887 – 3 June 1937) was one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936, which started the Spanish Civil War. After the death of Sanjurjo on 20 July 1936, Mola commanded the Nationalists in the north of Spain, while Franco operated in the south. Attempting to take Madrid with his four columns, Mola praised local Nationalist sympathizers within the city as a "fifth column" - possibly the first use of that phrase. He died in an air crash in bad weather, leaving Franco as the pre-eminent Nationalist leader for the rest of the war. Sabotage, though suspected, has never been proven. Early life and career Mola was born in Placetas, Cuba, at that time an overseas Spanish province, where his father, an army officer, was stationed. The Cuban War of Independence split his family; while his father served in the Spanish forces, his maternal uncle Leoncio Vidal was a leading revolutionary fighter. In Spain, he enrolled in the Infantry Academy of Toledo in 1907. He served in Spain's colonial war in Morocco where he received the Military Medal, and became an authority on military affairs. He was wounded in action during the Kert campaign in May 1912 in the thigh and thus he was promoted to Captain. By 1927 he was a Brigadier-general. Mola was made Director-General of Security in 1930, the last man to hold this post under Alfonso XIII. This was a political post and his conservative views made him unpopular with opposition liberal and socialist politicians. When the left-wing Popular Front government was elected in February 1936 Mola was made military governor of Pamplona in Navarre, which the government regarded as a backwater. In reality, the area was a center of Carlist activity, and Mola himself secretly collaborated with the movement. He worked with elements of the right-wing Spanish Military Union and by the end of April 1936 was acknowledged as its leader in north-central Spain. July Rebellion and Civil War Mola emerged as the chief planner among the plotters. While General José Sanjurjo, in exile in Portugal, remained the recognized leader, Mola was delegated the authority within the organization to plan operations in Spain. Known as "the Director," Mola sent secret instructions to the various military units to be involved in the uprising and worked out a detailed plan