Alfonso Beorlegui Canet

Who was Alfonso Beorlegui Canet?

Alfonso Beorlegui Canet was a Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry in the Spanish Army. In the Spanish Civil War, he led the Nationalist campaign to capture Guipúzcoa in August and September 1936.

On 18 July 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, in Pamplona, Beorlegui put himself under the orders of General Emilio Mola, who ordered him take control of the Civil Guard and Assault Guards of the city and put him in charge of public order in the city. Shortly afterward, Mola ordered Beorlegui to lead an offensive to the Basque province of Guipúzcoa with the regular troops, Civil Guard forces and some newly raised units of requetés. After heavy fighting they occupied Irún on September 5, closing the French border to the northern provinces of the Republic. Beorlegui was wounded in the advance towards the international bridge of Irún and died a month later. Mola's forces soon went on to secure the whole of the province, isolating the remaining Republican provinces in the north, which led to their fall the next year.