Italy in the Spanish Civil War: the origin of the Balearic Legionary Aviation

This article reveals the formal request for the creation and future use of the Italian airbase in Mallorca signed in August 1936 by the military attache of the Embassy of Spain in Rome, Manuel Villegas Gardoqui, as well as explores the scope of this figure as emissary of Franco to Mussolini. This document signed by Villegas allowed the Italians to attack objectives "of moral character" in the Republican side. This transcendental fact, that is, the creation of the base of the Balearic Legionary Aviation, had not been deeply explored before. The main sources used are the archives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Military Archive of Avila, the Public Record Office (Foreign Office) and the scientific works published about the Civil War in Mallorca and the Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War: Coverdale, Heiberg, Rovighi/Stefani, Mattioli, Quartararo, Saz, Rizo, Vaquero, Moradiellos, Rodrigo, Villas, Massoti Muntaner and Martinez Bande, among others.