LUIS SANS HUELÍN (1876-1897)

"A Helped to walk by a companion and badly wounded, he continues to lead them to combat without fainting "

Lieutenant Sans Huelín was only 20 years old when he was seriously wounded. He continued in battle supported by one of his men until the end. For this they awarded him the Laureate.

Spanish soldiers in the Philippines

Today we rescue the incredible story of the first fallen of the General Academy in its first time; his name, Luis Sans Huelin. He was born in Malaga on February 7, 1876. He entered the Toledo Infantry Academy in August 1894, where due to his application in his studies, he was appointed galonist sergeant. Promoted to second lieutenant in February 1896, months later he sailed for the Philippines with the 6th Expeditionary Hunter Battalion.

On January 1, 1897, a year after his arrival in the Philippines, he was in command of his section, no more and no less than in Cacarong de Silé, where he had one of the biggest battles waged by the Spanish Army against the Tagalog insurgents took place. Luis's section was framed in the column made up of 450 soldiers commanded by Commander José María de Olaguer y Feliú.

At dawn, the attack began on the barricaded defenses of Cacarong de Silé, which were heavily defended by more than 2,000 entrenched enemies with eight cannons. The assault began with unusual force; and excessive was also the defense. Second Lieutenant Sans Huelin has his soldiers open fire on enemy positions, while sheltering from hostile shrapnel with movement, learned battle order, and advancing mutual supports.

The rebels defended themselves with rifles, shotguns, lantacas, shrapnel cannons and stones. They made several outings armed with knives, but they were always repulsed and finally, after a rough fight, the trenches were crowned. As the troops advanced they saw a chasm covered with weeds. Many insurgents had hidden in it, not only to remain hidden and attack the troops from behind when they had passed, but to assassinate the soldiers who, unaware of that trap, sank into the abyss whose mouth was covered with branches. with great skill.

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When the soldiers found out what the rebels had tried, they set fire to the branches and 200 rebels died there burned. Others fled and were shot and bayoneted by the troops. Continuing to advance, it was discovered that, in all the burrows and folds of the land, there were many rebels who pretended to be dead and when they saw that the troops passed, they stood up and fired their weapons. They were all killed.

They are already so close to the enemy that the wind carries all kinds of sounds and voices to them, as if they were a stone's throw away. The lieutenant, with a young voice but resolute in the attack, gives the order to fix bayonets for the final assault. At that moment he is injured, he believes in the shoulder, in the leg and perhaps in the hip. Since he cannot get up on his own, he asks a colleague to help him get up to continue the attack by haranguing and giving strength to his section.

Spanish soldiers advancing in the Philippine War
And that is the image that remains for the memory:that of the young second lieutenant Luis Sans Huelin leaning on a companion, who may be a soldier, whose name we do not know. That comrade who in combat grabs the aching body of his senior commander and, surrounding the wounded flesh with his hands, obeys the order of his second lieutenant so that he can continue with his soul completing the assault while encouraging and calling the bayonet to all his section, who sees how his boss, helped to walk by a companion and badly wounded, continues to lead them to combat without fainting. Meanwhile, the defenses of Cacarong de Silé continue to vomit fire sheltered in the trenches.
They are one step away from reaching the bayonet, when Luis is fatally shot in the chest and falls dead on the spot. Two brave men, one badly wounded who asked to continue going on the attack and the other who obeyed that order, when logic called for other care for his second and young lieutenant. The section reaches the trenches, jumps on the enemy and manages to dislodge it with a bayonet blow. Everyone knows that, without the strength that their lieutenant gave them and without that comrade who, carrying him, carried him on the wings, they would not have achieved that victory. Two events that made a section that belonged to the 6th Expeditionary Hunters Battalion great, two men, two soldiers who together, one supported by the other, continued the assault until the end.

Spanish soldiers, one of Filipino origin
The total number of casualties caused to the enemy was around a thousand men, approximately 600 in the main attack and another 500 produced by the other columns. The casualties of Oleguer's Spanish column were:dead, one officer, Lieutenant Luis Sans, and 23 soldiers; 1 officer, Captain Santiago Izquierdo Osorio, and 65 troops were wounded. The rest of the columns had two soldiers dead and one officer and 18 troops wounded.
This action against the Tagalog insurgents was transcendental, it was the first important combat against the enemy that caused many casualties, which made the activity of these decreased notably in the province of Bulacán and that many rebels surrendered to the Spanish authorities.
Being the first to fall from the Infantry Academy in its 2nd period, on November 18, 1919 it was surrendered a tribute in the Alcázar of Toledo, which was attended by his mother and brothers, and which was presided over by H.M. Don Alfonso XIII, who unveiled a tombstone in his honor, which read:“To the second lieutenant D. Luis Sans Huelín, first officer of the current Infantry Academy, died gloriously on the battlefield. The companions came from him. November 1919” .

Inang Filipino chapel in memory of Filipino heroes of the Caracong de Sile.