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A de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft Captain Cecil Bebb was a British MI6 officer and freelance pilot who flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco in 1936, a journey which was to trigger the onset of the Spanish Civil War.[1] Contents 1 Events of July 1936 2 Legacy 3 See also 4 References 5 Notes 6 External links // Events of July 1936 At 07.15 on the morning of July 11, 1936, Bebb took off from Croydon airport, London, in a Dragon Rapide aircraft, with a navigator, his friend Major Hugh Pollard, and two female companions. The flight log records that the aircraft was bound for the Canary Islands. The purpose of Bebb's flight was to collect General Franco from the Canaries and fly him to Tetuán in Spanish Morocco, at that time a Spanish colony, where the Spanish African Army was garrisoned. Franco was recognized by the government in Madrid as a danger to the Second Spanish Republic and had been sent to the Canaries in order to keep him away from political intrigue. Had a Spanish plane flown to the islands, the authorities would likely have been alerted, but the British aircraft attracted little or no attention. Bebb and Franco arrived in Tetuan on July 19 and the general quickly set about organising Moroccan troops to participate in the coming coup. It is possible that British security services may have been complicit in Bebb's flight. Certainly his companion Pollard was an MI6 agent. The flight itself was planned over lunch at Simpsons in the Strand, where Douglas Jerrold, the extreme right-wing editor of the Catholic English Review, met with the journalist Luis Bolín, London correspondent of the ABC Newspaper and later Franco's senior press advisor. Jerrold then persuaded Pollard to join the enterprise, and Pollard in turn recruited Bebb as pilot, plus his daughter Diana, and a friend, as "cover".[2] It is not clear how much or to what level the British government knew about the activities of the secret services in aiding Franco. Britain remained officially neutral throughout the duration of the Spanish Civil War.[3] Legacy Bebb himself was decorated by Franco in recognition of his services. In 1938, as the Spanish Civil War ended, Bebb was awarded the Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Red Arrows. Many years later, in 1970, Franco conferred on him the Order of Merit and the White Cross, in a ceremony in Madrid. The aircraft that carried Franco to Tetuán in Morocco, a DM89 Dragon Rapide (G-ACYR), was presented to Franco as a gift, after the end of World War II, and is now displayed in the Museo del Aire near Madrid. In a 1987 interview for the British television documentary The Spanish Civil War, Bebb stated that he had been approached by "a gentleman from Spain, who asked me if I was prepared to go to the Canary islands to get a Rif leader to start an insurrection in Spanish Morocco. I thought 'what a delightful idea, what a great adventure'".[4] See also Spanish Civil War References Alpert, Michael, A New international history of the Spanish Civil War Retrieved March 6, 2010 King, Harry, Going To Live In Spain: a Practical Guide To Enjoying a New Lifestyle In The Sun Retrieved March 6, 2010 Macklin, Graham M., Major Hugh Pollard, MI6, and the Spanish Civil War, The Historical Journal (2006), 49:277-280, Cambridge University Press. Preston, Paul, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain Retrieved March 6, 2010 Riess, Curt, They Were There: The Story of World War II And How It Came About Retrieved March 6, 2010 Notes ^ *Article by David Mathieson at www.guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 July 2006 Retrieved March 6, 2010 ^ *article on randompottins blog Retrieved March 6, 2010 ^ *Article on Major Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard at http://journals.cambridge.org Retrieved March 6, 2010 ^ *Interview with Cecil Bebb at www.YouTube.com Retrieved March 6, 2010 External links Article by David Mathieson at www.guardian.co.uk July 2006 Retrieved March 6, 2010 Cecil Bebb at www.terrynorm.ic24.net Retrieved March 6, 2010 Major Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard at http://journals.cambridge.org Retrieved March 6, 2010 Cecil Bebb interviewed at www.YouTube.com Retrieved March 6, 2010 article on Bebb's flight to the Canaries at randompottins blog Retrieved March 6, 2010