Franco, Bahamond Fransisco Paulino Teódulo Hermenegildo.

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Franco, Bahamond, born 04-12-1892, in Ferrol, Spain, from a military family , originally intent on entering the Spanish Navy, Franco instead became a soldier. His father Nicolás Franco y Salgado de Araújo (1855-1942) was an officer and paymaster in the navy. His mother, María del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade (1865-1934) , also came from a family that worked for the navy. Franco did not grow up in a happy family. His father indulged in games and drink and had extramarital affairs. His mother was very devout and petty-bourgeois conformist. In the many domestic quarrels, young Francisco always sided with his mother. His father was very strict with him. When Franco’s father eventually moved to Madrid with a much younger woman, he lost contact with his son. Many of Franco’s traits are believed to be a result of his dislike for his father: he did not smoke, drink, play cards, or visit bars or brothels. In 1923 he married Carmen Polo y Martinez-Valdés. who, because of his short stature, she called her “commander”. Together the couple had a daughter in 1926, who was named Carmen, also often called Carmencita, just like her mother. Carmen married Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, part of a family of large landowners. Their daughter even marries a descendant of the royal family, Alfonso de Borbón. Carmen still hoped that her granddaughter would be queen, but her husband had already arranged for Juan Carlos to take the throne after his death. After the death of her husband, the family falls apart. Her daughter is arrested at Madrid airport when she tried to smuggle her father’s gold and medals out of the country, a grandson was convicted of poaching in a nature reserve and the biggest blow to Carmen was the death of her great-grandson who, at the age of eleven during Polo’s life, was killed in a car accident.In the last years of her life, she barely leaves her Madrid apartment, she follows mass on the radio. She died in solitude at the age of 87 and is buried in the family grave in the Mingorrubio cemetery, where her husband would also be reburied on 24-10-2019. Mother Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés died age 87 on 06-02-1988, in Madrid.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother Nicolás, Francisco wanted to become a naval officer, but the naval school did not accept new enrollments between 1906 and 1913. Much to his father’s dismay, he decided to join the army. In 1907 he was enrolled in the infantry academy in Toledo. He was not a good student, only in history he was above average. His seriousness and sense of duty would advance his career. Franco participated in the Rif War in Morocco, becoming the youngest general in Europe by 1926. Franco and the military participated in a coup d’état against the Popular Front government. The coup failed and devolved into the Spanish Civil War during which Franco emerged as the leader of the Nationalists against the Popular Front government.
The Spanish Civil War started on 18-07-1936. The first days of the uprising revolved around the taking of power in Spanish Morocco. Franco sought the support of the indigenous Moroccan population on the one hand and control over the Spanish troops that were stationed there on the other. This led to the execution of 200 officers who remained loyal to the Republic, including a nephew of Franco. He also had a transportation problem. Most of the naval units were loyal to the Republic and blocked the Strait of Gibraltar. It was therefore not possible to transfer his troops from Spanish Morocco to the Spanish mainland. Franco turned to Mussolini who made an unconditional offer of weapons and planes. At the same time, Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris succeeded in persuading Hitler in Nazi Germany to support the Spanish nationalists. From July 20, Franco, with the help of 22 German Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, of the Condor Legion under command of Generalmajor Hugo Otto Sperrle,
set up an airlift to the nationalist-controlled city of Seville. The bombing of the city of Guernica on 26-04-1937, in which 60% of all houses were destroyed and hundreds of civilians killed, provoked a storm of international outrage.
After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy, Benito Mussolini
 and Nazi Germany, while the communist Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided certain forces of the left, he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. During World War II, Franco officially maintained a policy of non-belligerency and later of neutrality. However, he supported the volunteer Blue Division. The Blue Division or 250th Infanterie-Division  under command of General Agustín Muñoz Grandes   in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War, under Generalfeldmarschall der Artillerie, Wilhelm Freiherr von Leeb
   Army Group North. Munoz Grandes served as First Vice President of Spain and died 11-07-1970 age 74, in Madrid.
Franco didn’t want to be involved in the WWII battles with his army and Adolf Hitler (did you know) (see Hitler’s parents) said after there last meeting that he preferred to go earlier three times to a dentist than talking again with Franco. Franco supplied Heinrich Himmler
     with a list of 6.000 Jews in Spain, for the Nazi’s “Final Solution”. It is true that Franco built no concentration camps on Spanish territory, nor did he voluntarily hand Jews over to Germany. In 1969, Franco designated Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón, with the new title of King of Spain, as his successor.
Spanien 1 Peseta 1966 Francisco Franco Bahamonde

Death and burial ground of Franco, Bahamond Fransisco Paulino Teódulo Hermenegildo.

  Franco was suffering from various health problems, including a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Over the years, Francisco Franco’s health deteriorated slowly but surely. And while the technocrats pushed through one reform after another (like the press law in 1966, which provided for censorship after the fact, rather than beforehand as was the case until then), Franco withdrew further and further from active politics. Hunting, fishing and especially watching football were his passions. It was not until August 1968 that Franco announced that Juan Carlos would succeed him after his death. Franco died at the old age of 82, on 20-01-1975. He is buried at Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, a colossal memorial officially dedicated to casualties during the Spanish Civil War.
 

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