Álvaro de Lacalle Leloup (29 October 1918 – 1 September 2004) was a Spanish

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent c ...

who served as President of the Board of Joint Chiefs of Staff between 1982 and 1984, i.e., chief of staff of the

Spanish Armed Forces The Spanish Armed Forces are in charge of guaranteeing the sovereignty and independence of the Spain, Kingdom of Spain, defending its territorial integrity and the constitutional order, according to the functions entrusted to them by the Spanish ...

at the time. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Lacalle was a

Carlist Carlism (; ; ; ) is a Traditionalism (Spain), Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty, one descended from Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain, Don Carlos, ...

Requeté The Requeté (; , ) was a Carlist organization, at times with paramilitary units, that operated between the mid-1900s and the early 1970s, though exact dates are not clear. The Requeté formula differed over the decades, and according to its c ...

combatant for the Nationalist faction. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was one of the volunteers of the so-called

Blue Division The 250th Infantry Division (), better known as the Blue Division (, ), was a unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain operating from 1941 to 1943 within the German Army () on the Eastern Front during World War II. It was officially designated t ...

(, ), or the 250th Infantry Division of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

; the division was sent to the Eastern Front by the Francoist regime to fight alongside

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Awards

* Grand Cross (with White Decoration) of Naval Merit (1962) * Grand Cross of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild (1975) * Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1984) * Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Gregory the Great (1984)

References

1918 births 2004 deaths People from La Rioja Spanish lieutenant generals Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Blue Division personnel Grand Crosses of the Royal and Military Order of San Hermenegild Grand Crosses of Naval Merit Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great {{Spain-mil-bio-stub