Salvador Moreno Fernández (14 October 1886 – 2 May 1966) was a Spanish Navy admiral who participated in the coup d'état in Spain in July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic that triggered the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). He fought on the Nationalist side during the war, in which the light cruiser under his command took part in the Málaga–Almería road massacre. After the war he held several positions during the Franco dictatorship, including service as Minister of the Navy from 1939 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1957.Real Academia de la Historia. Posthumously, he has been stripped of some of his honors because of his support for the Francoist dictatorship and accused of war crimes.
Biography Early life Moreno was born in Ferrol on 14 October 1886, the son of Salvador Moreno y de Eliza — a Spanish Navy teniente de navío de 2ª clase (ship-of-the-line lieutenant second class) who later rose to the rank of vicealmirante (vice admiral) and was commander-in-chief of the Spanish Navy when he died in 1918 — and María Asunción Fernández y Antón. He grew up in Ferrol.
Naval career 1903–1936 Moreno entered the Spanish Navy in 1903 as a cadet and subsequently attended the Colegio Naval Militar (Naval Military College) aboard the training hulk Asturias (formerly the screw frigate ) at Ferrol. After completing the five-year course of study, he was commissioned as an officer with the rank of alférez de fragata (frigate ensign, the lower of the Spanish Navy's two ensign ranks) in September 1908 upon his graduation from the Colegio Naval Militar.
Moreno's first assignments were to the gunboat , the armored cruiser , the gunboat , and the aviso Giralda, which at the time was the royal yacht. In 1914 he began a tour aboard the battleship . He was promoted to teniente de navío (ship-of-the-line lieutenant) in 1916 and began an assignment on the staff of the Spanish fleet as personal aide to his father, Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) Salvador Moreno de Eliza. Upon completing this assignment, he returned to duty aboard España.
Moreno reported aboard the gunboat in 1919, and in 1920 he became the commanding officer of the torpedo boat . In 1922 he relinquished command of No. 12 and, promoted to capitán de corbeta (corvette captain), began a tour of duty at the Arsenal de Ferrol in Ferrol. In 1924, he was appointed head of the Janer Naval Gunnery Range in Marín, a position he held until 1931. While in charge of the gunnery range, he also directed the School of Artillery and Naval Gunnery and the squadron of ships assigned to the range, and he also commanded the destroyer from to 1925. He received the prestigious honorary title of Gentilhombre de cámara con ejercicio (Gentleman of the Bedchamber) to King Alfonso XIII in 1927, although this title was suppressed upon the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 while Moreno was still serving at the gunnery range. Later in 1931 he was promoted to capitán de fragata (frigate captain) and began an assignment as commander of the Ríos Secondary Naval Base in Vigo.
Moreno became commanding officer of the training ship in 1933. Under his command, got underway from Cádiz, Spain, on 15 July 1933 for a Mediterranean cruise in which she called at Cannes in France, Melilla in North Africa, two ports in the Balearic Islands — Mahón on Menorca and Palma de Mallorca on Mallorca — and Cartagena and Valencia in Spain before returning to Cádiz on 15 August 1933; covering at an average speed of , with 10% of the cruise conducted under sail, it remained as of 2022 the shortest cruise in the ship's history. His seventh training cruise in command was much longer. Departing Cádiz on 15 September 1933, called at Ferrol and at Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, made a transatlantic voyage to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, then stopped at Montevideo in Uruguay and Buenos Aires in Argentina. The ship then made a transit of the Strait of Magellan, stopping at Magallanes (the name of Punta Arenas from 1927 to 1938) in Chile, before proceeding into the Pacific Ocean and northward up the coast of South America, calling at Valparaíso in Chile, Callao in Peru, and Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone. She then passed through the Panama Canal, stopped at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and made port calls at Charleston, South Carolina, and New York City in the United States before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and concluding the cruise at Ferrol on 31 May 1934. During the 258-day cruise, the ship had spent 203 days at sea and covered at an average speed of , spending 67% of the voyage under sail.
On another cruise under Moreno's command, carried out a circumnavigation of the Earth. He relinquished command of in 1935 and subsequently served as defense counsel during a court-martial of his older brother, the future almirante (admiral) Francisco Moreno Fernández.
Spanish Civil War When the Spanish coup of July 1936 against the Second Spanish Republic took place, Moreno was assigned to reserve duty at the Arsenal de Ferrol in Ferrol. He immediately joined the Nationalist faction and took part in the military uprising in Ferrol that month as the Spanish Civil War broke out. The light cruiser was in drydock at the Arsenal de Ferrol for hull cleaning and minor repairs and under the control of officers, enlisted men, and civilians who supported the Republican faction and opposed the coup. On 21 July 1936, Moreno boarded the cruiser accompanied by Capitán de artillería (Captain of Artillery) Martínez Lorenzo, dissuaded the crew from opposing the coup, and took control of the ship for the Nationalists. For this action, the Nationalist faction awarded him the Naval Medal.
On 23 July 1936, Moreno took command of Almirante Cervera. She got underway from Ferrol on 26 July 1936 for crew training at sea and returned to port the next day. On 29 July she put back to sea and headed for the Bay of Biscay, where Moreno's first task was to operate in the Cantabrian Sea to aid Nationalist soldiers besieged in the Zapadores and Simancas barracks at Gijón by Republican forces in what became known as the Siege of Gijón. Under his command, Almirante Cervera assisted the Nationalist troops by bombarding targets they requested, especially in the vicinity of the besieged barracks. Although these bombardments were of no great military effectiveness, they had a significant positive impact on the morale of the besieged soldiers. The siege ended in the complete annihilation of the Nationalist garrison. The last communication Moreno received from the besieged barracks before they fell to the Republicans was "Fire on us; the enemy is inside," but he did not act on it because he believed it was a Republican ruse.Artemio Perez.
Almirante Cervera returned to Ferrol on 15 August 1936, where Republican aircraft attacked her that day. On 17 August, she again got underway for the Bay of Biscay in company with the battleship España. Almirante Cervera'''s incessant activity during this cruise earned her the nickname "El Chulo del Cantábrico" ("The Bully of the Cantabrian") as she conducted continuous operations to support Nationalist troops on the northern front, bombarded enemy positions, and captured ships.
After Almirante Cervera underwent repairs at the Arsenal de Ferrol between 1936, Moreno got her back underway in company with the heavy cruiser bound for the Strait of Gibraltar, where Spanish Republican Navy forces were weak because most of the Republican fleet had deployed to the Bay of Biscay. At the strait, the two Nationalist cruisers encountered the Republican destroyers and . In the ensuing Battle of Cape Spartel on 29 September 1936, Canarias sank Almirante Ferrándiz while Almirante Cervera pursued Gravina. Although Almirante Cervera hit Gravina twice during the chase, her guns were badly worn and fired inaccurately, and Gravina made port at Casablanca in French Morocco. Nonetheless, the battle gave the Nationalists control of the Strait of Gibraltar for the rest of the war.Thomas (1979), p. 184.Cortada, page 18.Frank.
In October 1936, Almirante Cervera entered the Mediterranean Sea, then returned to the Strait of Gibraltar to protect Nationalist shipping, and she sank a launch and the coast guard vessels Uad Lucus and Uad Muluya on 9 October. She searched for the Republican naval squadron between in an attempt to intercept it as it headed south from the Bay of Biscay. Operating both alone and with the Canarias, she remained active constantly, capturing merchant ships, transporting Nationalist troops, escorting convoys, and bombarding Republican positions, including on 11 January 1937 when Almirante Cervera and Canarias bombarded Republican forces defending Málaga. Nationalist forces captured Málaga during the Battle of Málaga in early February 1937, and on 8 February 1937 Moreno took part in the Málaga–Almería road massacre — also known in Spain as La Desbandá, a term conveying the sense of a panicked dispersal of people — in which Almirante Cervera (under Moreno's command), Canarias, the heavy cruiser , and Nationalist aircraft, tanks, and artillery indiscriminately bombarded civilians fleeing en masse along what is now the N-340 road from Málaga to Almería after the fall of Málaga to Nationalist forces, killing between 3,000 and 5,000 people, according to even the most conservative estimates provided by various sources.
Moreno was promoted to capitán de navío (ship-of-the-line captain) and took command of Canarias on 12 February 1937. His tour in command began inauspiciously, for on 13 February the 4,181-gross register ton Greek cargo ship Meropi suddenly appeared close aboard in dense fog and collided with Canarias, her bow scraping along Canarias′s starboard quarter as her anchor opened a gash in Canarias′s side. Canarias put in at the Arsenal de Ferrol in Ferrol for repairs, as well as for the installation of the last of her guns, some of which had been left ashore in the rush to get her commissioned for wartime service in 1936.
With Canarias′s repairs complete and the last of her guns installed, Moreno received orders to deploy to the Bay of Biscay to intercept two cargo ships known to be bound for Spain with war matériel for Republican forces. Canarias found the first of them, Galdames, in the Cantabrian Sea on 5 March 1937 as Galdames, on a voyage from Bayonne, France, under escort by four Basque Auxiliary Navy trawlers, was trying to reach the cover of defensive minefields off Bilbao. In the ensuing Battle of Cape Machichaco, Canarias drove off the trawler Guipuzkoa with heavy damage, sank the trawler Nabarra and captured her 20 survivors, and seized Galdames. A few months later, Nabarra′s survivors were tried by court-martial and sentenced to death, but Moreno, impressed by the courage shown by Nabarra′s crew, interceded on their behalf with Francisco Franco, leading Franco to pardon them and release them in recognition of their bravery.
On 8 March 1937, Canarias captured the second cargo ship, the motor ship Mar Cantábrico, which was disguised as a British ship and was bound from Mexico to Spain loaded with war matériel for Republican forces, including 10 airplanes, 50 artillery pieces, 500 machine guns, and 14 million rifle cartridges. After sighting Mar Cantabria at 12:00, Moreno was forced to order Canarias to open fire on her to make her stop. After she stopped, a prize crew from Canarias went aboard her to put out fires that were detonating rifle ammunition in her holds and prevent her from sinking due to gunfire damage. The prize crew took her to Ferrol, her cargo was distributed to Nationalist forces, and the Nationalists armed her and incorporated her as an auxiliary cruiser into their fleet, of which she eventually became the flagship.