Amado Granell

Amado Granell Mesado (November 5, 1898 – May 12, 1972) was a Spanish military officer of the 20th century. He participated in the Spanish Civil War framed in the Spanish Republican Army and later went to France, where he joined the French Foreign Legion who fought against Nazi Germany during World War II. He headed the column of the 9th Company "La Nueve" of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, which consists of Spanish combatants, that was the first allied military unit that entered Paris after its occupation by the Wehrmacht. As such, he appeared on the cover of the newspaper Libération after the Liberation of Paris, and met with the leader of French Resistance, Georges Bidault.

Amado Granell was the son of timber importer from Burriana, Spain. Amado Granell enlisted in the Spanish Legion in 1921 reaching the rank of sergeant, While in the service, his father's boat sank during a cruise and Granell returned to the family home for economic reasons. After he married Aurora, the couple operated a motorcycle shop in Orihuela until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

In Orihuela he joined the Comité de Enlace Antifascista and in September in the Volunteer Army, formed to defend the Second Spanish Republic, where he was assigned to the Columna de Hierro. In 1937, partly based upon his experience in the Legion, Granell was promoted to major, receiving the command of Regimiento Motorizado de Ametralladoras, composed of about 1,200 men, and participated in the defense of Madrid.

Later, he was made commander of the 49th Mixed Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano), which defended the city of Castellón, but by June 15, 1938, forces of the army withdrew and retreated south. With the collapse of the besieged Republic, on March 29, 1939 Granell, along with some 2700 people, including civilians and soldiers, embarked at the port of Alicante on the merchant ship Stanbrook, which moved them to Oran, in French Algeria.

After a stay in the camps established by the French colonial authorities, Granell and other ex-combatants were released after the Western Desert Campaign by Anglo-American forces. Then, along with 7000 Republican soldiers, enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, in the Marching Regiment of Chad, which was later integrated into the 2nd. Armored Division under General Philippe Leclerc, in which there were about 2000 Spanish men.

The ª 2 Armored Division was transferred to England where, after a period of training, should pass to France after the Normandy landings. On August 1, 1944, the 9. ª Chad Regiment composed of Spanish fighters, which was organized by Granell, landed on Utah Beach. After a bumpy progress toward Paris, meeting German resistance at Écouché, the regiment arrived at the gates of Paris on August 24. General Leclerc, and as a matter of honor, ordered Captain Raymond Dronne, who commanded the 9. ª Company, which was his unit who, without waiting for orders from the Allied command, first entered the city in anticipation of U.S. forces. At nine in the evening, two sections of 9th Company, one headed by Dronne and the other by Granell, composed of 120 men and 22 vehicles, entered the French capital coming to the city hall. There Granell met with resistance leader Georges Bidault had already been installed there. The image was captured by a photographer and the next day appeared on the front page of Libération.

After the liberation of Paris, La Nueve was transferred to the German front, where Granell actively participated in taking the Eagle's Nest, the holiday retreat of Adolf Hitler in the Bavarian Alps. Of the 144 men who composed the first La Nueve. that landed in Normandy, only 16 survived the war. 96 of the deceased were former Spanish Republican soldiers.

After the war, Granell received the Legion of Honour from Philippe Leclerc, and rejected an offer of promotion to commander of the French army which would have required him to have become a French citizen.

Significantly, in France he acted as intermediary between monarchist politicians and Spanish Republicans in a program sponsored by the U.S. and the UK plan trying to locate Juan de Borbón, who was heir to the Spanish throne before the war. For this purpose and on behalf of Francisco Largo Caballero, Granell met in Lisbon on April 4, 1946, with José María Gil Robles (senior), but the operation to get Prince Juan failed. An agreement was made between Don Juan and General Franco that Prince Juan Carlos was to be made the future head of state.After this failure that undermined all hopes of Granell to overthrow the Spanish State, he completely abandoned life of politics.

In 1950, he opened a restaurant in Paris, which became a meeting point for the Spanish Republicans. He later returned to Spain, where he lived in Santander, Valencia and finally Alicante. He died in a traffic accident near the town of Valencia on 12 May 1972, while heading to the French consulate in Valencia to manage the payment of a grant for his service as a French army officer.