Editing Juan Pujol García (section)

== Spanish Civil War ==
[[File:Joan Pujol 7th Light Infantry.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Pujol as a conscript, 1931]]

In 1931, Pujol did his six months of compulsory military service in a cavalry unit, the 7th Regiment of Light Artillery. He knew he was unsuited for a military career, hating horse-riding and claiming to lack the "essential qualities of loyalty, generosity, and honor."<ref name=Pujol19>[[#Pujol|Pujol (1985)]]. p. 19</ref> Pujol was managing a poultry farm north of Barcelona in 1936 when the [[Spanish Civil War]] began. His sister Elena's fiancé was taken by Republican forces. Later, she and his mother were arrested and charged with being [[Counter-revolutionary|counter-revolutionaries]]. A relative in a trade union was able to rescue them from captivity.<ref name=Pujol24>[[#Pujol|Pujol (1985)]], p. 24</ref>

He was called up for military service on the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republican side]] (in opposition to [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalists]]), but opposed the Republican government due to their treatment of his family. He hid at his girlfriend's home until he was captured in a police raid and imprisoned for a week before being freed via the [[Carlism|Traditionalist]] resistance group ''Socorro Blanco''. They hid him until they could produce fake identity papers that showed him to be too old for military service.<ref name=Pujol25>[[#Pujol|Pujol (1985)]]. p. 25 "Meanwhile my girlfriend got in touch with one of the units of Socorro Blanco, a secret organization which endeavored to assist those who are being persecuted for idealistic or religious reasons. One of their girl helpers posed as a revolutionary and arranged for me to be let out of prison at dead of night. Free, I join the ever-growing number of those leading a clandestine existence. I went into hiding again."</ref> He started managing a poultry farm that had been requisitioned by the local Republican government, but it was not economically viable. The experience with rule by committee intensified his antipathy towards communism.<ref name=Pujol29>[[#Pujol|Pujol (1985)]]. p. 29 "I was not prepared to keep being told off while they did nothing to put the business on a sounder economic footing."</ref>

He re-joined the Republican military using his false papers with the intention to desert as soon as possible, volunteering to lay telegraph cables near the front line. He managed to desert to the Nationalist side during the [[Battle of the Ebro]] in September 1938.<ref name="Seaman42"/><ref name=MarkSeaman>[[#Seaman|Seaman (2004)]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ut5y5vwKyW4C&pg=PA9 p. 9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114231933/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ut5y5vwKyW4C&pg=PA9|date=14 January 2020}}. "He was a reluctant participant in the Spanish Civil War, being persecuted by the Republicans in his native Catalonia and feeling little sympathy with the Fascist ideology of the Nationalists."</ref> However, he was equally ill-treated by the Nationalist side, disliking their fascist influences and being struck and imprisoned by his colonel upon Pujol's expressing sympathy with the monarchy.<ref name="Seaman43">[[#Seaman|Seaman (2004)]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6CAPU9Ln3RYC&pg=PA43 p. 43].</ref>

His experience with both sides left him with a deep loathing of both fascism and Communism,<ref name=MarkSeaman/> and by extension Nazi Germany and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=Historynet>{{cite web|last=Isby|first=David|title=World War II: Double Agent's D-Day Victory|url=http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-double-agents-d-day-victory.htm|publisher=Historynet.com|access-date=1 January 2012|date=12 June 2006|archive-date=16 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216012340/https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-double-agents-d-day-victory.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> He was proud that he had managed to serve both sides without firing a single bullet for either.<ref name=MarkSeaman/> After his discharge from the Nationalist army, he met Araceli González in [[Burgos]] and married her in [[Madrid]]; they had one child, Joan Fernando.<ref name=MarkSeaman/><ref name=Garbo93>[[#Pujol|Pujol (1985)]]. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7tIDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA93 p. 93].</ref>