The King Grants Regiment ‘Alcántera’ an Audience

His Majesty the King on 19th September granted an audience to a delegation from 10th Armoured Cavalry Regiment ‘Alcántara’, headed by the general commander of Melilla, General Álvaro de la Peña. Also attending was the unit’s commander, Colonel Juan Luis Sanz. In all, there were around twenty servicepersons who went to the Royal Palace in Madrid for the audience with King Juan Carlos, on the occasion of the Laureate Collective Award granted by Royal Decree 905/2012, of 1st June.

The King congratulated the Regiment for having received this decoration to express recognition of their heroic action during the events which occurred from 22nd July to 9th August 1921, while the unit was protecting the redeployment of Spanish troops from Annual to Mount Arruit. The Alcántara Light Infantry Regiment, 14th of the Cavalry –as it was then called-, suffered an extremely high number of casualties:  28 of the 32 commanders and officers, as well as 523 of the 685 non-commissioned officers and troop personnel. 

During the audience, King Juan Carlos personally greeted each member of the delegation and took an interest in the international missions in which the unit has participated in recent years.

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