From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andres Garcia La Calle (1909-1980)

In Spanish Andrés García La Calle , his family name is usually encountered in one word : Lacalle. Born in Sestao of the Biscay Golf, in Spain. (04/02/1909)

The squadron leader of the 1st fighter squadron of the Spanish Republic and later Commander of all the republican fighter units during the Spanish Civil War. He started his career in 1929 as an NCO after having got his license in a private aero club. He saw action immediately on the break of the civil war flying with all outdated planes for the time, like the Nieuport Ni-52 Delage, the Hawker Fury, the Loire 46 and the Dewoitine 371 where ,nevertheless,he scored his first 3 victories. He was so promoted to Lieutenant.

Near September 1936 upon the arrival of the more modern soviet fighters Polikarpov I-15 (Chato) and Polikarpov I-16 (Mosca) he takes part in the first squadrons organized by the Russians that defended Madrid and contributed to the endurance of the city despite the terrorist air bombing attacks against civilians by German and Italian units. In November of the same year he takes over this squadron organized now under Spanish control as Captain. It is the 1st Fighter Squadron that became known as the ‘Lacalle Squadron’. It consisted of 25 planes , the leader and another 6 groups of 4. One of these groups included American only pilots and was named the ‘American Patrol’. The most prominent of them Frank Glasgow Tinker has left a detailed description on the character of Lacalle, in his book Some Still Live. The other 3 were Albert Baumler , Harold Evans Dahl and the early killed Benjamin Leider (Note : Leider was a true volunteer that refused extra payment for his services). Lacalle was very young for his duties (Tinker called him ‘The Kid’) , almost careless as a child when driving a car but extremely skilled while flying a plane. Tinker was amazed that Lacalle has scored victories flying the very difficult Ni-52. As a leader was careful not to expose his fighters to unnecessary risks as he knew how difficult was to replace them but when the duty called he was ready to fight under any conditions.

During the Battle of Jarama Lacalle demonstrated the presence of his squadron by making multiple ground attacks to support closely the republican troops and was thus nicknamed ‘The hero of Jarama’. During the Battle of Guadalajara he orders his planes to fly under very poor visibility conditions that surprises totally the Italian attackers ; their columns stuck on the roads to Madrid were decimated. End of 1937 he is promoted to Major and is sent to Russia for advanced training. On his return he is promoted to Lt. Colonel and he is given the task of reorganizing all the fighter units. Most of his pilots in the ‘Lacalle Squadron’ will lead these new fighter groups. Lacalle himself is officially credited with 12 victories at that time but it might well be this number was actually 21. The reason for the distortion was that the mercenary American pilots in his unit were highly paid for their salaries and extra for their kills while the Spanish pilots were receiving some 10 times less salary and no money for any kill. Lacalle was intentionally not keen in confirming any claims except the very obvious ones and so it went for his own kills.

By the end of 1938 he is in an extremely hard position as he is running desperately out of equipment, material, planes and mainly experienced pilots. He will lead the very last fighter operations after the Battle of the Ebro with only 30 fighters against some 550 of the combined German and Italian planes under Franco. On February the 6th, 1939 , he will evade from the Vilajuiga airfield to France (Toulouse-Francazal) in his last I-16 fighter. He will stay in a refugee camp in the area of Argeles-sur-mer in Perpignan, France, until he escapes to Mexico. He will die in Saint Domingo of Cuba in 1980. He has been awarded three medals and he will write a book for the civil war under the title : ‘The myths and the truth’.

1. The most famous pilots of the Spanish Republic (spanish language)
2. Lacalle’s short biography from the Spanish Ministry of Defense (spanish language)
3. The air war of the republicans : 1936 (spanish language)
4. Article on Frank Tinker with references to Lacalle including his picture together with the 'American Patrol'