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The aviation field of La Senia was constructed by the republicans in 1937. One day, in the beginning of the year 37, a republican general came to the village, who was dark-haired, not very tall and had a moustache. This man spoke to the major of La Senia at that time, Eduardo Cortiella Abella, and he told him that the vegetable gardens that were in the area of the road from La Senia to San Rafael, and from La Senia to La Galera were now owned by the army.

From that moment, they began to pull up all the olive trees and to level out the ground of the area where the field was to be located. When the ground was ready, the building and the shelter that continue existing today were built. The soldiers slept in the building, and the pilots slept in tents or in the houses of the people in La Senia. The fields were finished approximately on the 9th September 1937.

 

When the aviation field was finished, the aeroplanes started to come. All of the people in the village, from the first day in which the aeroplanes arrived, went to see how they landed. The people placed themselves around the field; they climbed the olive trees to be able to see the machines better. The first aeroplanes were two-winged fighters (one wing on top of the other, so we can say there were four). The republicans had no flying experience. To make the aeroplanes land, many tries were needed, and when it seemed that they were going to manage to do so, the aeroplane went up again. Thus, the landing of the first aeroplane took more or less two hours. Then, they learnt how to land the other aeroplanes. After a few days, the Polikarpov I-16 and the Katiuskas landed there. These republican aeroplanes were going to attack the nationalists located in the area of Castellón and Valencia.   The “Flights†of the Polikarpov I-16 Russian aeroplanes, were piloted by Russians that were staying in a guest house, located where today we can find the Bosch cake shop.  One of these pilots, Nicolás Bolochinco, is buried in our village. On the 4th November 1937, in the morning, he heard an alarm and had to go quickly with his I-16. When advancing along the takeoff runway and giving gas to his machine, this did not generate enough power, and when trying to rise, he crashed into the olive trees at the end of the field runway. He died and was buried in the graveyard, in a tombstone with his name that was also decorated with the sickle and the hammer, symbols of Communism. After some time, and due to political reasons, his tombstone was lost, and now, we do not know the exact place where he was buried.

The republican period in La Senia lasted very little; on the 14th April 1938, the nationalists came into the village. They came so soon because they were in Canet lo Roig, and there, they heard that in La Senia people did not oppose resistance, and as this was what happened, they entered the village as if it was nothing. Shortly after their arrival, there was a shooting because the republicans were still in Rossell, and they wanted to go back to the village. The shooting took place in Plaza España, where today we find the viewpoint. The shooting only lasted one night, but one of the nationalist leaders died.The first unit of the nationalist troops that entered in La Senia did so that 14th April. They came in crossing the bridge of the River Houses. It was the 3rd Squadron of the Villarobledo Cavalry Regiment. The Italian army entered on the next day, reinforcing the nationalists. When they arrived, they began to distribute cigarettes and chocolate in the streets between the people of the village. Then, Muslim soldiers arrived and what they wanted was to trade; they wanted to charge everything they sold in silver coins. As the stay of the republicans in the village was short, they know few anecdotes. One of them was that as many pilots lived in the houses of the people of La Senia, when they left the village, some of them left a gift to the lady of the house where they have lived: a bar of soap.

 

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