Vicente Rojo Lluch (8 October 1894 – 15 June 1966) was Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Armed Forces during the Spanish Civil War. Early life He was the posthumous son of a military man who fought against the Carlists and in the campaigns of Cuba, from where he returned ill. In 1911 Rojo entered the Infantry Academy at the Alcazar of Toledo, receiving his commission in 1914 with the rank of second lieutenant, fourth in a class of 390 cadets. After having been assigned to Barcelona he went on to the Group of Regulars from Ceuta (the Regulares were Moroccan colonial troops with Spanish officers). He was later posted back to Barcelona and to La Seu d'Urgell. In 1922, having risen to the rank of captain, he returned to the Infantry Academy in Toledo, where he occupied diverse educational and administrative positions. He was one of the editors of the curricula on the subjects of "Tactics", "Weaponry" and "Firepower" for the new section of the Military Academy of Zaragoza. In this period at the Academy he collaborated on the foundation and direction of the Military Bibliographical Collection, along with captain Emilio Alamán. In August 1932, he left the Academy to enter the Superior War School with the objective to make the course of the General Staff. During his time at the academy, a peculiar event took place in which he proposed to the cadets a tactical assumption that consisted of passing through the river Ebro to establish a route in the Reus-Granadella, an operation very similar to one a few years later, during the civil war, he would later put into practice in the famous Battle of the Ebro in the area between Mequinenza and Amposta. He was promoted to major on 25 February 1936. Spanish Civil War When the Civil War started (July 1936), Rojo - a devout Catholic, and linked to the conservative Unión Militar Española - stayed loyal to the Republican Government and was one of the military professionals who participated in the reorganization of the Spanish Republican Army. In October 1936 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was designated head of the General Staff of the Forces of Defense commanded by General Jose Miaja, head of the Junta de Defensa de Madrid created to defend the capital at all costs after the transfer of the Republican government from Madrid to Valencia. In