|
The nationalists entered the village of La Senia on the 14th April 1938; from that day, everything changed in relation to the period when the republicans were in the village. The Germans brought new aeroplanes to the fields; the first German aeroplanes that landed in the field were the Messerschmitt Bf-109, they were called “Arrows”. The aeroplanes landed in groups of four, it was evident that German aviators were much more prepared than the republicans. Later on, they brought some fighter-bombers called Stukas Ju-87, that the village inhabitants called “Camels”. And finally, they brought the Heinkel He-51. The Germans were accommodated in different places of the village; the officers in the “Molino Hospital” or in the “Castillo” near the field, and the troops in the abandoned houses of people that had left the village or in inhabited houses. The Germans brought many distractions to the village, one of them was that they brought girls from Zaragoza for their entertainment to the Castle that was near the field, and they changed them every week. Besides, there was German cinema in the Modern Club every afternoon and night. Also, every day, the band of the Germans made a small performance in the Plaza Mayor of the village. There were many more activities. During the stay of the Condor Legion in the village, there were many events. One of them took place on the 16th December 1938. The republicans came to attack La Senia. 
The Condor Legion placed an antiaircraft belt around the field, served by Germans, and another antiaircraft line, served by Spaniards. They were located in the estates of la Tanca, Molino Hospital and Mas de Menaca, and they were known as canaries because all the people forming the line were from the Canary Islands. When they saw the eleven Katiuskas coming, they shot the first two; one of them was piloted by Captain Francisco Gómez and his machine gunner Lieutenant Victoriano Sánchez Catalán. They died when the aeroplane crashed near the gully of la Covalta, in the municipality of Canet lo Roig. The observer of this plane whose plate number was BK-093 saved his life jumping with a parachute, and turned in at the headquarters of the Civil Guard in Sant Jordi. Next day, after being very well treated by the Civil Guard Sargeant of Sant Jordi, he was taken to the aviation field, where the day before he had bombarded La Senia. The German pilots invited him to beer and to lunch. They told him that they were very angry with him, because instead of destroying the aeroplanes, so that they couldn’t fly, the bombs were thrown to the Castle, beside the field where they had accommodated their girls. 
Another event whose end was also a tragedy took place with some children from the village that went every day to the field. They went there just in case any German asked them any favour, and gave them something in exchange for their help. Three of these children found a round object in the field, like a ball, not very big, which had a yellow hole in the middle: a bomb. The children rolled it along the street because it was very heavy. When they reached the village, one of them took a hammer from his house and they began to hit it on the hole. While they were hammering the bomb, a boy studying in the Spanish Falangist Movement passed. There were three types of education in the movement: “cadetes, flechas and pelayos”. The boy was a “cadete”, and that day they had given them a wooden musket; the other boy who was hitting the bomb stood up to see him, and one of his companions continued hitting until it exploded. One of the boys was severely injured and died in the hospital, the other one lost the hand and the leg of the side where the bomb was. Next day, Captain Molders called the only child who had suffered no damage, and asked him where they had found the bomb. Molders did not say anything more because the boy was not the one to blame. The incident which was most known in the village was when the Saixes bakery caught fire. In that time, Saixes was in Sant Joan street, where we can now find the Nivell photographer. When it caught fire, the people of the village went to help to extinguish it, and the Germans also. They extinguished it with buckets full of water. Later on, when everything was over, the Germans laughed because “saixes” in German means shit. 
Another curious event was the burial of a young German pilot, Eric Beyer. We can now visit the graveyard of La Senia, which is known as the tomb of the German aviator. On the 8th June 1938, Lieutenant Eric Beyer went in an attack mission to the front of Castellón, he was shot down and his aeroplane, a Heinkel-51, crashed near the municipality of Torre de'n Domènech. All German pilots, when they died, were placed inside zinc sealed boxes, and repatriated to Germany so that their family could bury them.  
Eric Beyer only had his mother; his father, a military, had died some years ago. When he sent letters to his mother, he told her about La Senia, he said that it was a beautiful village with a river of crystal clear waters and a very blue sky. When the body of Eric Beyer arrived to Vigo to travel by boat to Germany, his mother said that she would like her son to be buried in that town which he considered so beautiful. Therefore, the body of Eric Beyer went back to La Senia. The body arrived to La Senia a month and a half after his death, on the 22nd July 1938. But this was not the end of the problems. The commander of the Condor Legion decided to bury him in the graveyard, but there was an ecclesiastical problem: Eric Beyer was a protestant and the priest of the village was against his burial in a catholic graveyard. The problem was solved immediately, the colonel of the J/88 said: “If you do not give the authorisation, I will shoot you”. Thus, the 22nd July 1938, Eric Beyer was buried with all the honours in the La Senia graveyard. 
|
