"Nationalist zone" (zona nacional) called the National Defense Junta. Based in Burgos, it was nominally headed by Miguel Cabanellas, the most senior participating general. On 5 September a Nationalist offensive sent by General Mola under Colonel Alfonso Beorlegui took Irún and closed the French border. Mola's forces went on to secure the whole of the province of Guipúzcoa, isolating the remaining Republican provinces in the north. A junta in Burgos proved unable to set overall strategy; thus, Franco was chosen commander-in-chief at a meeting of ranking generals on 21 September. Mola continued to command the Army of the North and led an unsuccessful effort to take Madrid in October. In a radio address, he described Nationalist sympathizers in the city as a "fifth column" that supplemented his four military columns. The Republican government then proceeded to carry out the mass execution of as many as 2,000 suspected civilian and military supporters of the Nationalists. What was later known as the Paracuellos massacres crushed any potential fifth column. Death Mola died on 3 June 1937, when the Airspeed Envoy twin-engined aircraft in which he was travelling flew into the side of a mountain in bad weather while returning to Vitoria. The deaths of Sanjurjo, Mola, and Goded left Franco as the pre-eminent leader of the Nationalist cause. In the assessment of historian Stanley Payne, Mola had been "the only subordinate capable of talking back to Franco." Although there have always been accusations that Franco arranged the deaths of his two rivals, so far no evidence has been produced. In 1947, Franco, as Caudillo of the recently re-established Kingdom of Spain, posthumously granted Mola the title of Duke of Mola and Grandee of Spain. The title was immediately assumed by his son, Don Emilio Mola y Bascón. It was abolished in October 2022, under the purview of the Law of Democratic Memory. See alsoDesaparecidos del franquismo'' Fifth column Mohamed Meziane White Terror (Spain) References Sources 1887 births 1937 deaths People from Placetas Spanish generals People of the Rif War Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Dukes of Mola Cuban nobility Grandees of Spain Spanish anti-communists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1937 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Spain Spanish military personnel of the Kert campaign