The history of Manuel Ruiz de Huidobro y Alzurena, born in 1910, has disappeared from history. As the military historian José Luis Isabel Sánchez explains in a very detailed dossier on this figure, our protagonist’s career began in 1932, when he joined the Corps of Engineers. After a more than rapid rise in the military ranks – he soon became a sergeant – and with the start of the civil war, he volunteered in Valladolid to fight in the Falange militias. From that moment on he was present at much of the decisive battles for the capital; including Jarama or Brunete. By the end of the fratricidal confrontation, he had already received four awards for bravery and earned a renewed promotion to captain.
Huidobro joined the Blue Division in April 1942, when ten months had passed since Ramón Serrano Suñer’s legendary speech. The one in which he blamed the Soviet Union for the outbreak of World War II: “Comrades, this is not the time for speeches.” But yes, that Falange: “Comrades: This is not the time for speeches. But the fact that the Falange is currently making its condemning verdict: Russia is guilty! Blame for our civil war. Guilty of the death of José Antonio, our founder. And of the deaths of so many comrades and so many soldiers who died in this war due to the oppression of Russian communism. “The destruction of Russia is a demand of the history and future of Europe.”
Like many other Falangists, Huidoro was deeply touched by this speech; It almost spurred him to set his sights on Russia and fight in World War II. Shortly thereafter, Huidobro was assigned to the 262nd Regiment, where he was soon promoted to captain. With this unit he was again on the Krasny Bor front on February 10, 1943. “On that day, 38 Soviet battalions left Kolpino, the industrial area of Leningrad, in front of which the Blue Divisionsupported by about eighty tanks, about 150 batteries and an indeterminate number of “Stalin’s organs”, i.e. projectile launchers,” emphasizes historian Xavier Moreno Juliá in statements to ABC.
Final battle
Huidoro and his company, consisting of one hundred and twenty men, covered an approximately two kilometer long front on the Leningrad Front. There they had to resist the Soviet advance. On the day of what would become the Blue Division’s bloodiest battle, the captain received worrying reports. His scouts informed him that he had heard noises in a forest near his company’s positions (the 3rd Company) that almost certainly came from battle tanks. The officer wanted to confirm what he feared most: the Soviet tanks were preparing to attack.
But it wasn’t the only thing. Almost as if they knew they had been discovered, within minutes Stalin’s men began heavy artillery fire on the Spanish defenders. “Huidobro moved to his company’s observatory, where he stationed ten anti-tank men as a mobile reserve,” adds Isabel in this case.
When an attack loomed, Huidobro prepared his men for battle in the only way he could. He walked around the position and urged his soldiers to fight to the death, ordering them not to get up from the trench floor while the artillery fire continued. At this point, the captain did not know how many enemies in total would attack them. Unfortunately, when the armored vehicles appeared, he realized that forcing them to retreat would be a herculean task. The message he sent to his superiors states: “The enemy is attacking in large numbers.” Artillery barrage in front of the position and above the forest.
Attacks towards death
The first two Soviet attacks were stopped with difficulty but successfully by Huidobro’s 3rd Company at the edge of the forest. And all based on rifle and machine gun fire. The Soviets made little progress. However, the same thing didn’t happen in the third challenge. In it, Stalin’s men managed to break through the Blue Division’s right flank using flamethrowers. If the tanks had not been effective, the fire would have been. Far from despairing, the captain surveyed the trenches and encouraged his men to resist to the end. And not only that: to serve as an example, he climbed onto the ditch bare-chested. “That we are Spanish! That this is nothing! That they can’t get through here!” he shouted.
Repatriated from the Blue Division in 1943
According to Isabel, he stayed there for a long time. More specifically, until two of his men persuaded him to take cover. At this point, the situation for his company looked very bleak. Decimated, the Spaniards watched as the Soviets overran their left flank in the following hours and attacked the trenches with fixed bayonets. There is hardly anything else that could be done. Choked by pressure from the USSR soldiers and with only 25% of the men he originally had, Huidobro encouraged the surviving soldiers to launch a final attack. And there he died from a well-aimed shot in the neck. His soldiers held firm for a few more hours.
In 1945, the ABC newspaper published the award of the Laureate Cross of San Fernando: “Due to the contradictory trial files, His Excellency the Tefe of the State against Generalissimo of the National Army, has decided to award the Laureate Cross of San Fernando to the late infantry captain Don Manuel Ruiz Huidobro Alzunema. for his heroic actions during the events in which he met a glorious death.
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