How to Pronounce Joaquín García Morato
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May 04, 1904 Melilla, Spain Died on 04 Apr 1939 (aged 34)
Spanish flying ace
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About Joaquín García Morato
- Joaquín García-Morato y Castaño, 1st Count of Jarama (4 May 1904 – 4 April 1939) was the leading Nationalist fighter ace of the Spanish Civil War.
- He is credited with 40 air victories, four gained while flying Heinkel He 51s and 36 with the Italian Fiat CR.32.An accomplished prewar pilot, Joaquín García-Morato served in Morocco (fighting Abd el-Krim insurgents during the Rif War), excelled in aerobatics, and instructed instrument flying. He was on holiday in England when the Civil War broke out.
- Hastening home to join the Nationalist cause, he gained his first victory on 12 August 1936 in a Nieuport-Delage 52, shooting down one of three Vickers Vildebeest over Antequera.
- He then flew one of the first Heinkel He 51s received from Germany.
- Flying this aircraft, on 18 August, he shot down a Republican NiD 52 and a Potez 540.
- He downed another NiD 52 on 2 September.
- He then began flying an Italian Fiat CR.32, shooting down another NiD 52 on 11 September: it was his fifth victory.
- Then he formed the Patrulla Azul ("Blue Patrol") of three CR.32 and during the early autumn 1936 he added six more aircraft of French manufacture, plus a British built Hawker Fury, to his score.
- He gained his 12th victory on 5 November (a Potez 540), followed by his first kill of a Soviet-built Polikarpov I-15 fighter.
- On 13 January 1937, he managed to shoot down two Tupolev SB-2 bombers - that outperformed the Fiat in terms of speed - attacking them from a superior height: they were his victories number 16 and 17.Morato achieved 40 credited victories over Republican aircraft, gained in 1,012 hours of operational flying.
- The only time he was shot down was on 3 October 1937, by a novice pilot he was training. Shortly after the war, on 4 April 1939, he was performing low aerobatics for newsreel cameras, when his Fiat CR.32 crashed, killing him.
