Jesús Cruz Valenciano

My name is Jesús Cruz Valenciano. I am an emeritus professor of History. These documents belonged to my father, José Cruz Gámez, who completed advanced pilot training with the Republican air force in the fall of 1938 and flew at least one solo mission in February 1939.

My father was 17 when the war broke out. He volunteered as soon as he turned 18, taking this fearful decision because he was afraid that he would be drafted and not be able to choose where he served. My grandparents were very worried because their oldest son, a civil servant in the Finance Ministry who was posted to Soria, was drafted by the rebels. Throughout the war, my grandmother was terrified by the possibility that her two sons would find each other on opposites sides of the front line. My father’s decision to volunteer was motivated in large part by this situation. He started on the Guadarrama front where he took a course in radio telegraphy and served in this capacity until the spring of 1938.

The Guadarrama front had been one of the most active at the start of the war, but by the time my father got there it was mostly quiet. He told me that engagements were few and far between, and often followed an exchange of insults between the trenches. He recalled that one of those battles took place because of soccer game the two sides had organized. The days were long and tedious, and to kill the time they formed parties to flush out lizards, rabbits, and frogs that they then cooked and ate. Then, at the beginning of 1938, they learned that the air force was looking for volunteers for an accelerated training course for pilots. José applied, passed the tests, and was chosen.

José, a typesetter by trade, had attended a Catholic school as a poor student but left when he was only seven. He had been born in Baeza (Jaén) to a family of agricultural labourers who emigrated to Madrid when José was one. When he was 8, he began an apprenticeship as a printer, became a typesetter, and by the time the war broke out, he knew all the secrets of the trade. He was intelligent, thoughtful, hardworking, and despite his limited education, he had great intellectual curiosity.

The ten months he spent in the Republican air force had a profound effect on him. 

That he kept his flight journal despite the risks this represented during the dark postwar years, is testimony to this. He told me that training was very intensive and demanding, but the quality and professionalism of the instructors kept it from being difficult.

Although the curriculum was weighted toward practical matters, it included a theoretical component: cartography, principals of aeronautical physics, mathematics, and even some basic astronomy.  His journal offers interesting information about aspects of the accelerated pilot training courses that began in 1938.

My father benefitted from the laws rehabilitating Republican combatants, and because he had kept his flight journal, he was given the rank of retired major. Even though this recognition came late in his life, he was satisfied and encouraged by it.