Dr. Barsky addressing an international conference on medical aid to Republican Spain in Paris in July 1937 International again declared ``the readiness of the Comintern to begin negotiations on joint action at any moment".
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR
THE INSTITUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT
SOVIET WAR VETERANS' COMMITTEE
__TITLE__ INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITYProgress Publishers
Moscow
[1] __EDITORS__ INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD:
Britain
FRANTISEK KRUZIK
Czechoslovakia
ROGER MICHAUT
France
HANS TEUBNER
German Democratic Republic
RENATO BERTOLINI
Italy
PIOTR WASILUK
Poland
IVAN NESTERENKO
USSR
LAZAR LATINOVIC
Yugoslavia
COJlHflAPHOCTb HAPOAOB C HCFIAHCKOH PECnyBJIHKOFI
1936---1939
Ha anrjiHftcKOM
__COPYRIGHT__
First printing 1975
© Translated into English. Progress Publishers 1974
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
10605---85 014(01)-75
[2] CONTENTS Page From the Publishers .... 5 The Fight Goes On. ByThe idea of publishing a book about the international solidarity with the Spanish people in the thirties was advanced in July 1966 at the Berlin international meeting of veterans of the Spanish national-revolutionary war and former international brigaders. An International Editorial Board was set up for the purpose. At its meeting in Moscow on January 10 through 19, 1970, the Board discussed and approved for publication the materials presented by a number of national organisations of Spanish war veterans.
Naturally, the collection could not contain material on all the national contingents that took part in the struggle in Spain. Nevertheless, the contribution made by anti-fascists from the countries listed in the book was decisive both for the movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic and for the organisation of International Brigades.
The International Editorial Board was greatly helped in its work by Dolores Ibarruri and other editors of the monumental study The War and Revolution in Spain 1936--1939; by International Brigade veterans Franz Dahlem (GDR), Franciszek Ksiezarczyk (Poland), Karlo Lukanov (Bulgaria), and Valter Roman ( Rumania).
The articles on the solidarity movement with Republican Spain were prepared by the following organisations of veterans of the movement and of the anti-fascist war of the Spanish people in 1936--1939 (the authors' names are given in brackets):~
A group of Argentinian volunteers in the Spanish People's Army (a group of authors);~
The Association of Austrian Volunteers for Republican Spain in 1936--1939 and Friends of Democratic Spain (Max Stern);~
The International Brigade Association and Friends of Republican Spain, Britain (Nan Green);~
The Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee, Bulgaria (D. Sirkov);~
Veterans of the International Brigades---Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of Canada (a group of authors);~
5A group of Cuban fighters in the Spanish Republican Army (Ladislao G. Carbajal, Ramon Nicolau);~
The Union of Fighters Against Fascism, Czechoslovakia (Prof. Frantisek Kruzik);~
A group of Finnish international brigaders (Paavo Koskinen, Onni Hukkinen);~
The Fraternity of Former Spanish Volunteers, France (Roger Michaut);~
The section of former fighters in Spain, the Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee in the GDR (Prof. Hans Teubner);~
The Union of Hungarian Guerrillas (Jeno Gyorkei);~
A group of Irish veterans of International Brigades (Michael O'Riordari);~
The Italian Association of Anti-Fascist Volunteers in Spain (Cesare Colombo);~
A group of Norwegian veterans of International Brigades ( Randulf Dalland, J. Lappe, S. Mortensen, E. Reiersen);~
The Central Commission of the Veterans of the Dabrowski Brigade under the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, Poland (a group of authors);~
The Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee in the Rumanian Socialist Republic (Mihai Burca, Valter Roman);~
The Union of Swedish Volunteers in Spain (Knut Olsson, Sixten Rogeby);~
The Fraternity of Former Swiss Fighters in Republican Spain (a group of authors);~
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, USA (Arthur H. Landis);~
The section of participants in the national-revolutionary war in Spain, the Soviet War Veterans' Committee (Prof. D. Pritsker);~
The Fraternity of Former Yugoslav Volunteers in the Spanish Republican Army (a group of authors).
The article ``The Fight Goes On" is written by Chairman of the Communist Party of Spain Dolores Ibarruri; the article ``An Important Stage in the Peoples' Struggle Against Fascism'', by former Commissar General of the International Brigades Luigi Longo, now Chairman of the Italian Communist Party; the article ``The War in Spain and the Struggle of the International Communist Movement for Unity of the Anti-Fascist Forces'', by the veteran of the International Brigades, Franz Dahlem (GDR), now member of the CC SUPG; the concluding article was prepared, on instructions from the International Editorial Board, by the Soviet Editorial Board (I. S. Kremer and I. N. Nesterenko).
__FIX__ All that above is AUTHORS field! [6] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE FIGHT GOES ON __AUTHOR__ DOLORES IBARRURIThe resistance of the people of Spain to the military-fascist revolt that began in June 1936 holds a special place among the political events that shook the consciousness of Europe and the world in the thirties.
In a period when the so-called democratic governments were conceding position after position to fascism and thus helping it to gain ground, this powerful and unexpected resistance immediately won the sympathies of the most progressive forces in all countries, and particularly those of the working class, who declared their support for the Spanish people in no uncertain terms.
A counterweight to this attitude of the popular and democratic forces was the open hostility to the struggle of the Spanish people on the part of the governments of France and Britain, which from the outset tried to stifle it with the help of the so-called policy of non-intervention, which in effect meant aiding and abetting the aggressor.
This policy prevented the Spanish Government from purchasing the arms so badly needed for defence against the counter-- revolutionary revolt, that had its origins in Mussolini's Italy and in Hitler Germany, which were then preparing to launch acts of aggression in Europe.
The force opposing the policy of cowardly tolerance of and concessions to fascist aggression adopted by the ``democratic'' governments (a policy that was very soon to turn against those who conducted it---openly or shamefacedly) was the Soviet Union. Then the only socialist state, despite its geographical remoteness from the scene of events, which made it almost impossible physically to come to the aid of the Spanish people, it declared from the very first hour of the struggle that the cause of the Spanish Republic was that of all progressive and forward-looking mankind.
The Soviet Union consistently proved in practice that its declaration was not a mere propagandist phrase, that it reflected an unswerving determination to help the Spanish people and government in their desperate resistance to fascist aggression. And this despite the fact that between Spain and the Soviet Union at that time there had not even been any diplomatic relations.
7The fascist putsch left the Republic without means of defence. Popular resistance seemed impossible without aircraft, without tanks, without guns, without all the things that could have been used against the insurgent forces, which Italy and Germany were supplying with every kind of offensive and defensive weapon.
The Soviet Union provided the Republican Government with military equipment to fight the revolt. But it was no easy task to deliver it both because of the distance between Spain and the USSR and because of the policy conducted by the governments of France, Britain and the U.S.A.
How many Soviet ships were attacked and sunk on the way to Spain! How many Soviet people filled with a heroic resolve to help the Spanish people defend their right to a life of freedom in a democratic Spain sacrificed their own lives in this cause!
How many aircraft, how many engines remained on French territory, held up by the Blum government at a time when our soldiers were crying out for arms with which to defend themselves! A considerable quantity of these arms never arrived in Spain and was subsequently used by the Germans against the French people themselves. Nothing can wash away the historical guilt of those who devised the policy of ``non-intervention''!
Appealing to the internationalist consciousness of the Communists, of the whole international working-class movement, of all progressively-minded people, the Communist International in every country mobilised for aid to the Spanish people the most capable fighting elements and organised the International Brigades. In the trenches of Republican Spain the soldiers of these brigades won eternal glory. Defending the Spanish people and the freedom of their own countries, they raised the banner of proletarian internationalism to the highest peaks of heroism and self-sacrifice.
The Communist International, realising that all peoples of the world had a stake in the struggle of the Spanish people, called upon all working people, all progressive forces to come to the aid of Republican Spain in its resistance to fascist aggression.
Italians and Germans, French and Poles, Britishers and North Americans, Rumanians, Bulgarians and Yugoslavs, Austrians and Swiss, Finns and Swedes, Irish, Norwegians and Albanians, Canadians, Cubans, Argentinians, Mexicans and representatives of other Latin American republics, people of all continents, arrived in Spain to fight alongside the Spanish people in the first great battle against fascist aggression, a battle that became the prologue to the Second World War. There may not have been so many of them, but all the same their participation was of immense importance because of their heroism, selflessness and spirit of self-sacrifice. The contribution of the internationalists was of invaluable assistance to us and inscribed the finest page in the history of international solidarity.
8With the deepest emotion one reads this book and feels how alive and strong, despite the passage of time, is the memory of Republican Spain, the first country to face armed fascist aggression.
Along with the fighters of the International Brigades Soviet airmen and tank crews arrived in Spain as fighting men and instructors for our soldiers, who did not yet know how to use modern weapons. Together they fought heroically and died gloriously, showing the full significance of proletarian internationalism, how much it meant that there was such a country as the Soviet Union, the first socialist country in the world.
Although the armed struggle ended with the defeat of the Republic because of the inequality of forces and the betrayal by the Madrid Junta led by Colonel Casado, the struggle for the Republic and democracy did not end with the establishment of the Franco dictatorship. It has heroically continued in the most difficult conditions of a terrorist regime, and it continues to this day, inspired above all by the working class and its Communist Party.
This struggle which is being fought by the workers, peasants and students of universities and institutes in Spain, by the intelligentsia, professional people, and the basic political groups of our country, excluding of course the most reactionary section of the big bourgeoisie and the still surviving groups of the fascism of yesteryear, this struggle has brought about the crisis that the dictatorship is experiencing today. The further development of this crisis will undoubtedly condemn Francoism to extinction and lead to the establishment of a democratic system in Spain.
The most interesting thing about this struggle is that, just as in the years between 1936 and 1939, it is being waged mainly by the young generation, not only Communists but also other democratically-minded contingents of youth. The young people are continuing the tradition, the glorious and heroic tradition which takes its source from our fighters of 1936 to 1939 and their fraternal unity with the comrades of the International Brigades. This tradition lives on consistently and vigorously. Youth today fights with the revolutionary conviction that only by struggle can they put an end to dictatorship and open up for Spain the path to democracy and socialism.
Today this struggle is supported by all the main democratic forces of our country, including many people and groups that only yesterday were supporting Franco. This struggle is shaking the fascist structure of the regime and creating conditions for the establishment of a democratic system in which the working class and democratic forces will play a role that determines the political and social structure of Spain---a Spain open to all that is progressive, whose goal is socialism, and socialism only, a goal towards which all of today's main political forces who are aware of the historical realities of our epoch are striving.
9 __ALPHA_LVL1__ AN IMPORTANT STAGE IN THE PEOPLES'The pages of this book recall the great urge for solidarity that arose when the working people and democrats of all countries hastened to the assistance of Republican Spain, which had been attacked by the combined forces of the insurgent generals, German nazism and Italian fascism.
The news of the Franco revolt roused great anxiety throughout Europe and the world. Massive popular demonstrations of solidarity took place in London, Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and many other capitals. Everywhere people expressed a determination to render real assistance to the Spanish Republic, the victim of attack. Food and medical supplies were hastily collected and sent to Spain; field hospitals were organised. Volunteers from various countries tried every means of getting to the Franco-Spanish frontier in the Pyrenees or of reaching Spain by sea from the ports of Southern France. Foreign antifascists living in Spain or those who had arrived at Barcelona to take part in the People's Olympiad^^1^^ volunteered for the ranks of the first people's detachments that fought against the militaryfascist conspirators.
After the emotional upsurge of the first days came the question of how to find organisational forms for rendering material assistance and participation by the volunteers. This problem assumed special importance in France, partly because in France there were many groups of emigres who had left their homeland for economic or political reasons (heavy unemployment or savage reaction and fascist regimes) and who were now eager to help Republican Spain. The French working people and democrats---under the influence of the Popular Front---took an active part in the _-_-_
~^^1^^ The People's Olympiad, to be opened on July 22, 1936 in Barcelona, was sponsored by proletarian and democratic sports organisations of a number of countries.---Ed.
10 national and international struggle for peace and freedom. France was then almost the only gateway into Spain, but this gateway was by no means easy to reach or to pass through. This was the France of the Popular Front, but it was also the France of Leon Blunj, and neither material aid nor the volunteers themselves could freely enter neighbouring Spain.This is confirmed by the massive evidence collected in this book concerning the difficulties that the anti-fascist volunteers from many countries encountered and had to overcome to defeat the vigilance of the police when crossing the frontier.
As is known, the capitalist states of Europe conducted a policy of what they called non-intervention. But this ``non-intervention'' was one-sided. Despite Franco-Spanish agreements, the French government considered it its duty to prevent the flow of aid to Spain. At the same time the fascist government of Italy and the nazis met no obstacles in sending arms and troops to the assistance of the rebel generals.
With the permission of the so-called democratic governments, and sometimes without it. Aid Spain centres were set up in various countries. In order to stimulate and co-ordinate the activities of these centres the first European Conference in Defence of the Spanish Republic assembled in Paris in August 1936. It set up the International Co-operation and Information Committee for Aid to the Spanish Republic.
Communists, Socialists, Social-Democrats, the League of Human Rights and various movements in the Protestant Church, people of the Anglican Church, world-famous representatives of the Catholic religion and numerous public figures in science and culture actively joined in organising aid for Republican Spain.
It can be justly asserted, as was stated authoritatively by Stalin at the time, that the Spanish cause had become the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.
The working people of Spain answered the revolt of the generals and the treachery of whole sectors of the traditional state machine by taking upon themselves the task of saving the democratic freedoms of their country. The struggle in defence of the Republic assumed above all a deeply national character. It was the people who initially offered resistance to the rebel generals.
The war in Spain was a conflict between the alliance of reactionary forces and the bloc of popular forces that had taken shape in the struggle against the regime of the so-called ``Black Two Years".^^1^^ This clash made still more urgent the necessity for providing the republican state with a democratic and socially advanced substance.
_-_-_~^^1^^ From the autumn of 1933 to late 1935, when the country was ruled by the bloc of reactionary and pro-fascist parties and groups that had won the elections to the Cortes.---Ed.
11
Soviet volunteer airmen at Karl Marx's grave. London, 1938
Thus there emerged a deep connection between the crisis of the social and political structure of Spain and the hopes that had arisen in the popular mind after the proclamation of the republican system. This connection explains not only the enthusiastic and militant participation of the people in the defence of the Republic, but also the profound democratic character of the armed struggle of 1936 to 1939.
This connection also explains the unity of the democratic forces, which survived the whole course of the war. Popular initiative made it possible to overcome the disorganisation caused by the revolt and to create the basic---administrative, economic and military---elements of the new state and lay the foundation of a society that would differ fundamentally from its predecessor. Finally, the above-mentioned connection between the crisis of the whole previous system and the hopes of people was also to a considerable extent characteristic of the activity of the most progressive political forces of the Republic.
``We,'' said Jose Diaz, Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, a few days before the decisive victory in the elections to the Popular Front in 1936, ``are the continuators of those who have given their lives for the freedom of Spain. All that is progressive in Spanish history belongs to the people."^^1^^ Diaz demanded satisfaction _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, Tres anos de lucha, Ediciones Europa-America, Paris-- MexicoNueva York, 1939, p. 89.
12 of the most urgent and specific needs of the poor people, and provision of human conditions of life for the dispossessed. Here he found arguments for a broad mobilisation of the masses to solve both immediate, pressing problems and the most general structural questions determining the democratic, progressive character of the Republic.``We don't want the peasants to go on eating grass,'' Diaz continued, ``we want them to be fed by what is produced in the fields that they till, we want them to be able to exchange their surpluses with the workers of the cities for the goods that they produce. We want a Spain in which the intellectuals, the doctors, the men of science and art can serve the people and not a clique of exploiters. We want the universities to open their doors to the workers, to the people.. . . We want the doctors to treat the workers and all poor people. We want to have a Spain where it is impossible for such crimes and cruelties to be committed as were committed against our brothers in Asturias, whose only fault was that they wanted to build a just Spain. We want a Spain where the working people have bread, work and freedom."^^1^^
The battle that in this situation the mass of the people continued urgently required that they should be united at a higher level and that a more effective social and military organisation should be set up. This problem was complicated by the diversity of the forces taking part in the Spanish popular movement and by the influence of specific national factors due to differences in the processes of historical development and the specific features of the formation of separate national groups (Basques, Catalonians, Galicians). The difficulties were also due to the uneven development of various political forces taking part in the popular movement and the wholly understandable hostility of the masses (for centuries they had experienced the harshest types of government) to any forms of discipline that remotely suggested the oppression from which they wished to liberate themselves.
In the face of all these difficulties it was essential to win massive support for the united front and to rally all anti-fascists. ``You wonder what can be set against an armed and crafty enemy with all the cruel machinery of suppression at his disposal,'' Jose Diaz asked at one of the meetings. ``Is enthusiasm alone enough? This enthusiasm must be embodied in a strong organisation that can develop the struggle and bring us to victory over reaction and fascism. Mere wishes and enthusiasm are not enough. There must be organisation and still more organisation.''
The dilemma that confronted Spain was clear: ``Either democracy would conquer fascism or fascism would destroy democracy; either the revolution would triumph over counter-revolution or _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., pp. 90--91.
13
Each time I speak in
Geneva or elsewhere
supporting the Spanish
Government's stand on
the recall of the
non-Spanish combatants,
I emphasize the difference
between the one kind of
``volunteers'' and the
other. Some invaded
Spain on orders from
their rulers, others came
to defend it, deeply
convinced that a
decisive battle for
democracy and for peace
in Europe was developing
in Spain.
Comrades from the
International Brigades, the
glorious vanguard of
world anti-fascism,
honorary citizens of
heroic Madrid and
Spain that will be
victorious tomorrow,
there are no words in the
Spanish language, capable
of expressing the subtlest
shades of feeling, that
can convey our admiration
for you and our
gratitude!
Julio Alvarez del Vayo
Address of Foreign Minister Julio Alvarez del Vayo, Commissar General of the
Republican Army, to volunteers of the International Brigades
14
counter-revolution would turn Spain into a country of poverty,
starvation and terror.'' ``We want to avoid this,'' said Diaz on the
eve of the February elections of 1936, ``this is why we propose
setting up a popular bloc now and preserving it after victory at the
elections so that the bourgeois-democratic revolution will develop
consistently and lead---at this first stage---to something that has not
yet been realised in our country and that the French revolution
achieved in 1789---to the abolition of the feudal survivals that are
still one of the material pillars of reaction."^^1^^
As we know, as soon as the results of the Popular Front victory in the elections on February 16, 1936 were published, the reactionaries began preparing a coup d'etat that would have nullified the expression of the people's will. Reaction steered a course towards overt fascism and sought to achieve its ends with the help of the military, including a group of generals, the so-called Africanists.^^2^^
The victory of the Popular Front in Spain was followed a little later by its victory in France. It was becoming clear that this was an upsurge of the mass of the people capable of barring the road to fascism in Europe and promoting the policy of collective security which the Soviet Union was at the time pursuing in the name of peace.
Reinforcement of the front of anti-fascist democracy could have become a sound bulwark of peace in Europe, a counterweight to Hitler's revanchism, which constituted the greatest threat to world peace, and a counterweight to the military adventures of Mussolini in Africa and the Mediterranean area.
The reactionary Spanish oligarchy chose the path of fascism. To save the Republic and democracy in Spain it was essential to thwart the conspiracy of reaction, to widen the mass base of the republican system, to disarm the reactionary forces and to strike at the very foundations of their influence and power.
This made it urgently necessary to implement in full and as quickly as possible the most important demands of the programme of the Popular Front: uncompensated confiscation of the estates of the big landlords, the church and the monasteries, and their immediate transfer free of charge to the poor peasants and agricultural workers; liberation of the overseas territories oppressed by Spanish imperialists; the rights of self-government and self-determination for Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia; and a general improvement of living and working conditions for the working class.
In the complex and eventful situation of those days the vanguard of the working class made use of the experience it had acquired in the battles of the Black Two-Year Period and in the process _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, op. cit., p. 118.
~^^2^^ Africanists---the most reactionary section of the officer caste of the Spanish army, which had made their career during punitive expeditions against the population of the Spanish colonies in Africa.---Ed.
15
__FIX__ Caption text starts at NEWLINE + When the time came to fight for the Republic it was the working class that gave the people unity and that braced their fighting spirit, their determination and inherent sense of organisation. The people were well aware of the aims of the struggle: the Republic was not a mere fetish or label for them; despite all its serious shortcomings, it was not only the sum total of their democratic gains _-_-_
~^^1^^ Milicianos---soldiers of the People's Militia; volunteer armed detachments set up by political parties and trade unions to defend the Republic from the military-fascist insurgents. The most numerous, disciplined and efficient fighting force of the People's Militia was the famous 5th Regiment, formed by the Communist Party of Spain. The ranks of the 5th Regiment produced many talented organisers and leaders of the Republic's armed forces, and its numerous battalions formed the nucleus of the regular units of the new Republican Army.---Ed.
16 but also the point of departure for the waging of more decisive social and political battles.The counter-offensive against fascism followed immediately thanks to the vigilance and initiative of the alerted masses of the people. The people answered the fascist revolt by an immediate general political strike, by universal arming of the masses on their own initiative (later legalised by the republican authorities), by lightning assaults on the fascist barracks and strong points, by street demonstrations and establishment of control over populated areas.
The long and persistent struggle for unity during the period preceding the fascist revolt resulted at the dramatic moment of the Franco attack in joint action in response to appeals by the Communist and Socialist parties. There was an obvious continuity between the phase before July 18 and the new phase that began with the struggle by the republican and anti-fascist forces.
Jose Diaz in one of his radio speeches generalised the objectives of the struggle as follows: ``What is the Spanish people fighting for? It is defending its freedoms and democratic rights against fascism, against the military traitors who wish to condemn our country to barbarity, poverty and starvation. The Communist Party is in the front rank of this struggle for defence of the democratic Republic. In face of the fascist threat we have risen to defend our right and the people's right to life. We are determined that our people shall not experience the disgrace of a fascist regime. We want to live in peace with the peoples of the whole world."^^1^^
The counter-offensive of the people's united forces prevented the fascists from achieving their planned objectives. The navy remained almost totally on the side of the Republic. A large part of the African army was stranded on Moroccan territory. Of the four columns detailed for an assault on Madrid only two were able to move, but even they were halted at the Sierra Heights. Santander and Vascongadas on which the insurgent generals had placed their hopes remained in the hands of the people.
Eight days after the revolt had begun the German diplomatic representative in Madrid informed Berlin on the situation stating that unless something unexpected happened there was little hope that the military revolt would be successful. It was then that the Italian fascists decided to launch their mass invasion of Spain. Italian ships and aircraft transported the main forces of the insurgents from Morocco to the metropolis. Then came the invasion by regular fascist divisions from Italy, the special nazi Condor Legion, the Heinkels and Junkers of the German air force.
The civil war in Spain assumed a different character. The war unleashed by world fascism against the Spanish people now _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, op. cit., pp. 260--61.
__PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---781 17
Thus the organisation of the International Brigades began as an expression of the idea of the Popular Front. They put themselves at the disposal of the Spanish people and its government agencies.
From the very outset it was decided that the international military formations would be part of the regular Spanish Republican Army and come under the command of its General Staff, that their commanders and commissars would be enlisted in the Spanish army and that its discipline would apply to them, that the banner of the International Brigades was the banner of the Spanish Republic. At the same time the International Brigades were allowed to carry also a red banner as a symbol of international solidarity.
The International Brigades fought valiantly in defence of Madrid and afterwards took part in all the main battles on Spanish soil. Their heroism was an inspiration to the world.
At the mustering point of the International Brigades in the town of Albacete volunteers arrived at the rate of about six hundred to seven hundred per week. The total in the period from autumn 1936 to summer 1938 exceeded 30,000, who came from nearly all the 18 countries of Europe, from North and South America and even from Africa, India and China.
This book provides yet another affirmation of the valuable contribution that the International Brigades made to the struggle of the Spanish people; when the new Republican Army was formed out of the detachments of the People's Militia the international units set an example of order and discipline. But the main service and fundamental role in the cause of defending the Republic against the aggression of the insurgent generals, Italian fascism and German nazism belong, of course, to the Spanish people themselves---at the beginning, to the detachments of the People's Militia, and later to the Republican Army.
When the Republican Government under pressure from the socalled democratic governments and the League of Nations decided in September 1938 to withdraw from the front all non-Spanish soldiers, the population of Barcelona mounted a massive demonstration of welcome in the name of the whole Spanish Republic for the volunteers who had come to defend Spain and who were now bidding her farewell, leaving forever on her soil many of their best comrades who had fallen in battle.
On this occasion Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria, addressed all women of Spain: ``Mothers! Women! When the years pass and the wounds of war are staunched; when a present of freedom, peace and well-being dispels the memories of the sorrowful and bloody days of the past; when feelings of rancour are dying away and all Spaniards feel equal pride in their free country---then speak to your children. Tell them of the men of the International Brigades!
``Tell them how, coming over seas and mountains, crossing frontiers, bristling with bayonets and watched for by ravening dogs thirsty to tear at their flesh, these men reached our country as Crusaders of Freedom, to fight and die for the freedom and independence of Spain over which hung the threat of German and Italian fascism. They gave up everything: love, country, home, fortune, mothers, wives, brothers end children and came to say to us: 'We are here! Your cause, the cause of Spain, is ours; it is the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind'."^^1^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ Dolores Ibarruri, En la lucha. Palabras y hechos, 1936--1939, Vol. I, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1968, p. 355.
[19] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE WAR IN SPAIN AND THE STRUGGLEThe valiant struggle of the Spanish people for freedom and independence against the military-fascist revolt and the intervention of the fascist states---Germany and Italy---roused an unprecedentedly broad movement of solidarity. Millions of people in various countries contributed their mite to the cause of aid for the Spanish Republic.
The tremendous scope of this movement had been prepared by years of active anti-war and anti-fascist struggle by the working people in many countries, developed on the initiative of the Communist parties united in the Communist International. The historic service performed by the Comintern lay in its timely noting of the growing danger of a new imperialist war and its accurate indication of the sources of this danger---European, particularly German, fascism and Japanese militarism. On the other hand, the reformist leaders of Social-Democracy, like the liberal groups among the democratic public, persisted for a long time in denying the danger of war.
On January 1, 1933, a conference of Communist parties of nine European countries---Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Luxembourg---was held in Essen, in the centre of the Ruhr. It passed important decisions on organisation of joint action by the proletariat of individual countries. Specifically, it recommended that there should be "general anti-war demonstrations by people who have suffered from war, women, young people, athletes, writers, artists, actors, doctors, engineers and other workers in the intellectual field''. International campaigns were to be organised against the white terror, against the punitive expeditions, executions and physical extermination of revolutionary fighters. The resolution stressed the significance of the Amsterdam anti-war movement and Communists were called 20 upon to take an active part in it.^^1^^ So the Communists sought and found general democratic, mass forms of struggle against the threat of war.
In 1933 alone, on the initiative of the International Committee Against Imperialist War, set up by the Amsterdam anti-war congress, several impressive international gatherings were held that placed the struggle against war and fascism in the focus of public opinion and rallied all fighters for peace, from Communists to pacifists, from proletarians to British Tories.
The European anti-fascist congress in Paris, the Latin American anti-war congress in Montevideo, the anti-war conference of the Scandinavian countries in Copenhagen, the US anti-war congress in New York, the Asian anti-war congress in Shanghai, the international congress of youth against war in Paris---such is a by no means complete list of the anti-war forums of 1933.
Right up to the outbreak of war in Spain the anti-war movement marched from strength to strength. It spread from the congress halls to the streets and squares of cities. The anti-war slogans merged with demands to bar the road to fascism, with campaigns in defence of the victims of fascist persecution and murder. In 1935 and 1936 May Day demonstrations were held in many countries under the slogans of struggle against war and fascism. The events in Spain endowed this movement with new strength and extended its influence on the broad masses.
By this time the international communist movement in the shape of the decisions of the 7th Congress of the Comintern (1935) completed the work of formulating a strategic and tactical policy suitable to the new conditions. The struggle against fascism as the main task, defence of democratic regimes, alliance with all political and social forces opposing fascism and war---such were the main features of this policy. As history has shown, the decisions of the 7th Congress helped to bring together the democratic forces in a number of countries in an anti-fascist Popular Front.
In France, owing to the joint efforts of the Communists, Socialists and Radicals, the attempt at a fascist coup d'etat in February 1934 was defeated. The Communist Party of Spain by its consistent adherence to the policy of the Popular Front promoted the victory of democracy over the forces of reaction and fascism at the general elections in 1936, the crushing of the military fascist revolt of July 18 in the main centres throughout the country, and later the organisation of popular resistance to the Italo-German invasion.
The international communist movement did everything possible to help the working people of Spain in dealing with the complex _-_-_
~^^1^^ Rote Fahne, January 10, 1933. The anti-war movement dates its history from the Amsterdam international congress held on August 27--29, 1932.
21 problems of consolidation of the Popular Front and organisation of the defence of the Republic, and in protecting the democratic system in Spain. Prominent figures in the communist movement--- Palmiro Togliatti, Victorio Codovilla, Maurice Thorez, Jacques Duclos, Wilhelm Pieck, Harry Pollitt, Tim Buck and many others ---made a great contribution to the struggle of the Spanish people and its vanguard, the Communist Party of Spain.The principal role in the formation and fighting leadership of the International Brigades, the pride and fighting force of the international solidarity movement, was played by well-tested members of the Communist parties: Luigi Longo, Andre Marty, Franz Dahlem, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, Karlo Lukanov, Ferdinand Kozovsky, Ralph Fox, John Cornford, Ferenc Miinnich, Mate Zalka, Karol Swierczewski, Vladimir Copic, Veljko Vlahovic and others. The revolutionary experience and Marxist-Leninist training of these Communists helped them, together with the anti-fascists of various other parties, to deal with a difficult and historically unprecedented task, that, of welding together tens of thousands of enthusiastic volunteers without military training, speaking different languages, differing in nationality, social status, cultural level and political beliefs, to form the regular military units of the Republican Army---the International Brigades that were models of organisation and discipline, capable of fighting the regular army of the insurgents and interventionists and inflicting upon it heavy defeats.
As the valiant struggle of the Spanish people developed, the masses in the various countries became increasingly aware that in Spain not only the fate oi the Spanish people but that of all progressive humanity was being decided.
The Soviet Union, which rendered all-round political, material and military aid to the Spanish Republic, once again showed itself to be the bastion of all forces of freedom and world peace. At the same time the participants in the international movement of solidarity saw more and more clearly that at this crucial moment the Spanish people needed not only aid in the shape of food, clothing and medical supplies. Confronted with a cruel and ruthless enemy---fascist Germany and Italy who without hindrance and in unlimited quantities were sending military equipment and troops to Spain---the Spanish people could win through only if the legitimate right of the government of the Republic to purchase arms abroad was restored. A strong arm was needed to stop the governments and ruling classes of a number of countries from pursuing a policy of appeasing the aggressor.
The mass of the people in the non-fascist countries, particularly Britain and France, and also the U.S.A., demanded a change of policy from their governments. But to achieve success, to set up an unbreakable peace front in all countries, there had to be unity of 22 working class action in every country and on an international scale, and this was the task that was set by the Communist International.
In the autumn of 1935, after the 7th Congress of the Communist International, at which Georgy Dimitrov proved the need to bring together in a Popular Front all the forces defending democracy and freedom, the Comintern made a proposal to the Labour and Socialist International that there should be joint action in every country and on an international scale against the threat of aggression by fascist Italy in Ethiopia.
In his letter of September 25, 1935, Dimitrov wrote to the Secretariat of the Socialist International that what had been done so far was still not enough in the face of this grave danger. The efforts of both Internationals to save peace must be united. Both Internationals should act in concord and by their joint efforts thwart the plans of the fascist warmongers.
Joint action by both Internationals would rouse the working class, which would also bring in its train peace supporters from other classes of the population. It would rouse whole peoples to take part in the struggle for peace. It would call to life such a powerful movement against war that its impact would compel the League of Nations to take more effective action against the aggression of Italian and German fascism.
It was still not too late to prevent the terrible disaster towards which the fascist criminals were pushing humanity.
Only on October 15, 1935, after the second letter from the Comintern, of October 7, was an answer received. Friedrich Adler, the Secretary of the Socialist International, wrote: "With reference to the proposal of the Communist International for a conference with four of their representatives, the Socialist parties of Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Czechoslovakia have declared that they cannot agree to accept this proposal, first, on account of the composition of the delegation of the Communist International and second, because they renounce all joint action with the Communist parties of their countries and all joint action of the two Internationals.
``Since the Executive Committee of the LSI is bound to consider the point of view of these powerful parties of the working class, it cannot accept the proposal of the Communist International.''
The only result of Dimitrov's letters was a message from Adler
to the effect that the Chairman and the Secretary of the Socialist
International were prepared to meet representatives of the
Comintern for an exchange of information. The meeting which took place
between Emile Vandervelde, Friedrich Adler, Marcel Cachin and
Maurice Thorez came to nothing. Nevertheless Dimitrov in his
letter of October 27, 1935 to the leaders of the Socialist
23
Dr. Barsky addressing an international conference on medical aid to
Republican Spain in Paris in July 1937
International again declared ``the readiness of the Comintern to begin
negotiations on joint action at any moment".
Thus the socialist leaders sacrificed the general interests of the working class and all working people to anti-communist prejudices and, in some countries, to a policy of co-operation with the bourgeoisie.
__*_*_*__When the fascist revolt broke out on July 18, 1936, a dangerous situation was created for the Republic and in view of the insurgents' advance on Madrid Marcel Cachin and Maurice Thorez demanded, in the name of the Comintern, a meeting with the representatives of the Socialist International. On October 14 they met Louis de Brouckere, Chairman of the Socialist International, and Friedrich Adler. But the Socialist leaders refused to accept the Comintern's proposal to call an international conference on measures to be taken by all working-class organisations to help Spain.
In the final months of 1936, when the fascist assault columns had already penetrated the Madrid city boundary and the fate of the Republican capital hung by a thread, the Comintern three times--- October 25, November 7 and December 28---appealed to the leaders of the Socialist International proposing joint action for urgent assistance to the Republic. But the leaders of the Labour and Socialist International stubbornly maintained their position of renouncing joint action.
24On March 11, 1937 an international conference of the Socialist International on the question of Spain was held in London. Three days before the conference---March 8---the Italian interventionists had launched a major offensive on the Guadalajara sector. Flushed with their first successes, the fascist aggressors were advancing on Madrid. The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julio Alvarez del Vayo, a Socialist, appealed to the conference to help Spain. The Socialist Pascual Thomas, speaking on behalf of the Spanish trade unions, proposed the calling of a world conference with the participation of the Socialist International, the International Association of Trade Unions, the Comintern and the trade unions of the Soviet Union and the United States. Leon Jouhaux read out a resolution of the French General Confederation of Labour which stated: ``Unity of action of all organisations of the working class must be ultimately realised on an international scale.'' In reply to the speeches of his colleagues Walter Citrine, the leader of the British trade unions, declared that a united front would be `` undesirable''. Another labourite, Ernest Bevin, said even more bluntly that the British labour movement would not allow the war in Spain to exert any influence on its decision or tactics. Because of the labourites' negative position the conference passed a useless, vacuous resolution. The Spanish walked out of the conference, stating: ``We asked for arms and they gave us a slip of paper.'' If the fate of Spain had depended on the decision of the Labour and Socialist International, the Spanish Republic would even then have ceased to exist. But the young Republican Army and the international volunteers in its ranks won at Guadalajara the first major victory over Italian and world fascism.
At that time even the members of the Socialist International who were in Spain---Pietro Nenni, Julius Deutsch, Jean Dalvigne---began to act with the Communists---Luigi Longo and Franz Dahlem---in making joint appeals for resolute international measures in aid of the Spanish Republic.
The Communist International mobilised an active movement of solidarity in all countries. Representatives of 21 Communist parties gathered for the conference of April 21, 1937 in Paris and took specific decisions on joint organisation of measures to aid Spain. They discussed how joint measures could be carried out in each country. These decisions were in line with the ardent desire of the popular masses for unity. The Socialist leaders could not ignore this desire and also the popularity that the international volunteers had won throughout the world. In April 1937 Walter Schevenels and Friedrich Adler visited Spain. As guests of the International Brigades they were ungrudging in their praise and promises. Friedrich Adler, welcoming the 14th International Brigade, declared that ``the international volunteers have 25 set an example of a united front that is worthy of imitation. And Schevenels, on learning of the lack of arms in the Franco-Belgian battalion, exclaimed: ``Comrades, I promise you you will get arms.'' But these words were not borne out by deeds.
In May 1937 the savage bombardment of Almeria by the German navy and the declaration of the nazi leaders that they reserved freedom of action in regard to Spain showed the whole world that the intervention of German and Italian fascism in Spain was assuming an even greater scale. World indignation was aroused by the criminal acts of the fascist gangsters, who had destroyed a peaceful city and murdered thousands of women and children. In France and Britain mass protest against the policy of ``non-intervention'' gathered stength.
Under these circumstances the Spanish Communist and Socialist parties and the Spanish General Union of Workers appealed to both Internationals and also to the International Trade Union Association for assistance. Georgy Dimitrov immediately suggested to Chairman of the Socialist International de Brouckere that they should meet and agree to set up a committee of the three international organisations for joint action to prevent the military intervention of Germany and Italy against the Spanish Republic. De Brouckere in his reply to this proposal asserted that neither he nor Adler had powers to set up such a committee. Dimitrov repeated his proposal in a telegram, pointing out the inconsistency of de Brouckere's motives. Finally the latter agreed to meet the delegates of the Comintern for an exchange of opinion. The meeting took place on June 21, 1937 in the French town of Annemasse. It was attended by Luigi Longo, Pedro Checa and Franz Dahlem from the Comintern and de Brouckere and Adler from the Labour and Socialist International. This event awakened hope in the hearts of millions of working people. The Comintern representatives made concrete proposals for joint action by both Internationals in defence of the Spanish Republic. At Annemasse an agreement was reached containing the following three points: first, it was established that both Internationals advanced similar demands; second, it was acknowledged that at the present moment more than at any other time action in defence of Spain should be taken in every possible field, by general agreement, in order to avoid friction; third, both delegations recognised the need for discussions on specific measures to render moral and material support to the Spanish people.
It appeared that at last a foundation had been created for united action by the working class, but once again the old enemies of unity appeared on the scene. The labour leaders dissociated themselves from de Brouckere and Adler with the result that both of them resigned. Subsequently they were recalled to their posts but, 26 as the facts showed, at the price of renouncing the joint action agreed upon in Annemasse.
On June 26, 1937, after the fall of Bilbao, the Basque capital, Dimitrov again appealed to the Socialists, pointing out the danger that threatened Asturias and suggesting practical measures to accelerate joint aid. He proposed:
Communists and Socialists should jointly appeal or in some other form to the governments of their countries, demanding support for the Annemasse Agreement;
both Internationals should jointly appeal to the League of Nations, demanding that the Charter of the League should be applied to Spain;
both Internationals should mobilise all international proletarian organisations and world public opinion in support of these demands.
On July 9 de Brouckere and Adler met Cachin and Thorez. The Comintern representatives developed and further defined Dimitrov's proposals as follows: = (1) both Internationals should support action to be organised by the International Committee for Aid to Republican Spain (ICARS) and the International Youth Committee for Republican Spain on July 18, the anniversary of the fascist revolt; = (2) both Internationals should in future support the activities of the ICARS; = (3) they should send a joint deputation to the League of Nations with a demand for recognition of Spain's rights as a member of the League of Nations; = (4) both Internationals should agree at once to joint, co-ordinated measures for increased aid to the Spanish people, evacuated women and children, and for the further evacuation of women and children, particularly from Northern Spain.
The communique on this meeting stated: as a result of an exchange of opinion both sides have reached agreement regarding measures to be taken for the benefit of Republican Spain.
In July the Republican Army launched a big offensive operation at Brunete with the objective of helping Asturias and the whole Republican North. At that time de Brouckere visited Spain. He took part in many meetings held in the battalions of the International Brigades and gave many assurances and promises, but his deeds were not as good as his words.
In October the North fell in spite of the Republican Army's diversionary offensive which liberated Quinto and Belchite. Now the fascists' northern forces constituted an additional threat to Madrid and the whole Republic. In this situation the Communist and Socialist parties of Spain once again appealed to the two Internationals for joint action in the spirit of Annemasse under the slogan of ``Stop Aid to Franco''. Both working-class parties demanded help to prevent the brutal fascist terror in Asturias; they proposed a general boycott of goods exported from territory occupied 27 by the fascists and intensification of the campaign for the recall from Spain of all foreign troops, including the Moroccans and the Foreign Legion. But this appeal, like all the other appeals of the Spanish fighters and the efforts of the Communist International to reach agreement on joint action by the international centres of the working-class movement, achieved no results. The negative position of the leaders of the Social-Democratic parties did tremendous harm to the cause of the Spanish Republic and the whole anti-fascist and anti-war movement. Moreover, in rejecting all proposals for international agreement the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International and the International Association of Trade Unions sought to destroy the co-operation of all proletarian and democratic forces that had been achieved within the framework of the Popular Front in Spain.
The Spanish Republic was able to wage a prolonged struggle lasting almost three years in the relatively small area of the Pyrenean Peninsula under conditions of blockade and the enemy's tremendous superiority in arms mainly because unity of action was achieved in the Spanish working class and a close alliance was formed between the working class and the peasantry, because the masses were united within the anti-fascist Popular Front and cemented by the Communist Party of Spain. For this reason attempts to undermine the unity of the Popular Front in Spain, and particularly the co-operation between the Socialist and Communist parties, attempts made by the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International, were equivalent to aiding the enemies of the Spanish Republic. The wavering and capitulatory elements in the ranks of the Spanish Popular Front, to be found among the bourgeois Republicans and Right-wing Socialists, gained support in the splitting policy of the leaders of the French Socialist Party, which at the end of 1937 virtually tore up the agreement on joint action with the Communist Party, thus bringing about the collapse of the Popular Front in France.
Toeing the line of the bourgeois governments of their countries, the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International supported the Munich agreement of September 1938, which sanctioned the enslavement of the peoples of Czechoslovakia by nazi Germany and helped the strangling of the Spanish Republic by GermanItalian fascism.
Six months later, in March 1939, these leaders welcomed the
capitulatory conspiracy against the government of the Republic, led
by the Right-wing Socialist Besteiro and Colonel Casado. Thus
the line adopted by the Socialist International of stubborn refusal
to take joint action with the revolutionary vanguard of the
antifascist and anti-imperialist forces---the Communist International---
for aid to the Spanish people and its struggle against fascist
aggression culminated in what amounted to solidarity with the aggres--
28
Louis de Brouckere, Lulgi Longo and Franz Dahlem at a meeting of
international volunteers in Albacete
sors and their accomplices. This anti-working-class and
antidemocratic position hastened the collapse of the Socialist
International. A few weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Republic the
Chairman and Secretary of the Socialist International, de
Brouckere and Adler, resigned their posts.
The Communist International rendered active support and assistance to the fighting Spanish people to the very end of the national-revolutionary war. After its tragic outcome the efforts of the Communist parties were transferred to helping refugees from Spain, former fighters in the Republican Army and the International Brigades interned in French camps, and to mobilising world opinion against the terror campaign in Spain.
The efforts of the Communist International to achieve unity of action of the whole international working-class movement in the struggle against the fascist military aggression in Spain were not fruitless. Joint action was achieved in practice in many countries, where on the initiative of the Communists all workers and progressive organisations mounted a united front in defence of the Spanish Republic. This brought into being a broad mass movement of solidarity embracing nearly all countries of the globe. It was the most powerful expression of solidarity since the time of the imperialist intervention against the Land of Soviets and the ``Hands off Soviet Russia!" movement.
29This experience of a policy of unity and also the positive results of the Communist Party of Spain co-operation within the framework of the Popular Front were widely used in organising resistance to fascism during the Second World War and in the struggle for the democratic development of the world in the post-war period.
Thus the events of 1936 to 1939 went down in the history of the international proletarian and democratic movement as an important stage in the development of the spirit of solidarity, of effective proletarian internationalism, and of enriching the methods and forms of struggle for unification of all anti-fascist and antiwar forces.
[30] __ALPHA_LVL1__ ARGENTINAA few days after the beginning of the fascist generals' revolt against the Spanish Republic a committee of aid for the Government of the Popular Front was set up in Argentina. The committee immediately launched a vigorous campaign throughout the country. One of its founders had been the Spanish Patronate for Aid to the Victims of Fascism (PEAVA)---an organisation set up during the Black Two-Year Period of the temporary triumph of reaction in Spain after the uprising of the Asturian miners had been suppressed in October 1934. In the summer of 1936, a weekly magazine La Vox de Esfiana, subsequently called La Nueva Espana, which gave a truthful account of Spanish events, began to appear in Argentina.
The working people of Argentina felt deeply committed to the struggle of the Spanish Republic for freedom and independence. In the first days of August 1936 the citizens of the small town of Coronel Dorrego, southwest of Buenos Aires, and the poor peasants of this province assembled at the Spanish Consulate and decided to set up a junta to help the Spanish Republic. Because the poor peasants who constituted the majority of the population of Argentina would find it difficult to make monetary contributions, it was decided that a collection of farm produce should be organised. The campaign was so successful that large sheds were needed to store the grain and cereals that were delivered to the aid fund not only by peasants but also by workers, bakers and shop-keepers. In the Chaco province, and also in the poorest districts of Argentina, Santiago del Estero and Misiones, people also collected wool and cotton.
The broad movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic and help for the Republic was headed by the Communist Party of Argentina. On its initiative in August 1936, 212 local Aid the Spanish People committees were set up, including committees in Santa Fe, Mendoza, Bahia Blanca and other towns. One of the 31 forms of activity of these committees was the collection of food rations for the men of the Republican Army. In February 1937, 5,804 collectors gathered 52,080 rations to a value of 16,144 pesos; in March of the same year 18,306 people gathered 114,480 rations to a value of 34,558 pesos, and six months later the number of collectors had increased to 36,995, and the number of rations collected, to 328,406, valued at 101,805 pesos.
On March 7, 1937, the first consignment was sent to the fund of the International Trade Union Committee for Aid to the Spanish People (Paris). It consisted of eighteen bales of clothing, four crates of food and a ton of flour. Regular deliveries continued. By April 1938 the total value of material help for Spain amounted to six million pesos, or 2.5 million dollars. By November 7, 1938 thirty tons of dried and condensed milk had been sent to Spain and money for the purchase of another thirty tons of milk had been sent to France.
The workers' May Day demonstration in 1937 was held under the slogan of Aid for and Solidarity with Spain. Besides the red flag and national Argentina flag the banners of the Spanish Republic flew over the columns. Ambulances that were to be dispatched to Spain drove in front of the demonstrators. A big meeting was held to welcome the Spanish Ambassador, Dr. Angel Osorio y Gallardo. Five thousand people met him at the port and accompanied him to the embassy. On the first anniversary of the defence of Madrid a meeting was held in the Luna Park and a collection was made to buy food for the figliters of the Republican Army and their children.
A year after the outbreak of the fascist revolt in Spain hundreds of committees were active in Argentina: women's, youth, ambulance, and also emigre Spanish organisations, etc. They were united in their hatred of fascism and boundless admiration for the valour of the Spanish people. Help for fighting Spain had to be increased at all costs. The communist and progressive press called for increased aid and this was the subject of discussion at provincial Aid Spain congresses in Cordoba and Mendoza (May and July 1937) and finally at an illegal national congress held between the 7th and 9th of August, where unity of organisation was achieved.
More than ten public organisations approved the decision of the congress to set up a Federation for Organisation of Aid to the Spanish Republic (FOARE) whose function would be to co-ordinate the activity of all committees. The agreement to set up the federation was signed by three organisations of the Spanish emigres, four provincial organisations (Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Bahia Blanca) and four national organisations. After a time the Argentinian Junta for Medical Aid to Republican Spain and the repatriation centre of the Spanish republicans joined the federation. 32 Later, in January 1939, it was decided at a plenary assembly of the organisations of the Buenos Aires province, united under the title of ``Friends of the Spanish Republic'', that they should also join the FOARE. Many political and trade-union people took an active part in the federation's work.
The magazine La Nueva Espana became the organ of the FOARE. It had a circulation of 40,000 copies, which sometimes rose to 90,000. Its reports gave reliable information on the military operations in Spain. The radio station ``Radio Mitre" in Buenos Aires broadcast a daily bulletin of news from this weekly magazine. Later such broadcasts were banned by the government.
In the first months of the federation's activity over 167,000 pesos were collected in cash and 18,000 pesos worth of food supplies. On behalf of the International Co-operation and Information Committee for Aid to the Spanish Republic the federation used the money to purchase pencils and exercise books for Spanish schoolchildren and for the ``abolish illiteracy" brigades, and also tobacco for the fighting men. About 114,000 packets of cigarettes were sent to the Republican Army.
On the anniversary of the Spanish Republic, April 14, 1938, the federation sent the fighting people of Spain 500,000 francs.
In January 1938 a campaign for the collection of gifts for orphans whose parents had been killed during the war was launched. In April of the same year a large meeting to honour the Republic's anniversary was attended by the Spanish ambassador. Many prominent Argentinian cultural celebrities took part in the meeting. The arrival in Buenos Aires of the Spanish theatre company directed by the famous actress Margarita Xirgu with a repertoire containing plays by Federico Garcia Lorca was yet another opportunity for the expression of solidarity with Spain.
In the autumn of 1938 meetings dedicated to the situation in Spain were held and special stamps were issued in aid of the Republic that sold quickly among the people of Argentina. October 12 (the day of the discovery of America by Columbus) was celebrated in Argentina as a National Aid Spain Day, which started the third winter campaign of help for the Republic. Over 50,000 people marched past the General Consulate of Spain in Buenos Aires on that day. The consul had to receive delegations and individual visitors expressing their solidarity with fighting Spain from eight in the morning to eleven at night. On the same day a large meeting organised by the Republican Spanish Club in Argentina was addressed by the Spanish ambassador. People sacrificed their last pennies for Spain. There were even cases when unemployed workers took off their coats and gave them in for dispatch to Spain. The day's collection came to more than 10,000 pesos. Between the 1st and 22nd of October, 1938, a sum of 620,000 French francs was collected for Republican Spain and a big transport of food, clothing __PRINTERS_P_33_COMMENT__ 3---781 33 and footwear was dispatched. On the average the Argentinian people, who then numbered only 12 million, contributed 3 million francs a month. From the outbreak of hostilities in Spain to October 1938 fifty million francs were collected.
The activity of the FOARE was highly appreciated by the Spanish people and the international Aid Spain movement. Expressions; of gratitude were received from members of the Republican Government, generals, outstanding figures among the intelligentsia, the International Red Aid people, youth associations and Aid Spain organisations in various countries.
On July 29, 1936, ten days after the outbreak of hostilities, a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) of Argentina took place with the participation of the trade-union secretaries of Buenos Aires. It sent a telegram of welcome to the General Union of Working People (UGT) of Spain as a sign of solidarity with the trade unions' struggle against fascism. "The CGT declares,'' the telegram stated, "that it has begun collecting funds throughout the country. The money collected will be handed over to the UGT of Spain.''
The first contributions from the trade unions and donations from workers and office employees at factories and commercial firms started coming in at the beginning of August. On August 10 the CGT handed over to the UGT of Spain the first contribution of 20,000 francs.
Under the leadership of the CGT a Central Aid Commission was set up that included three sub-commissions: food and medical supplies, clothing and footwear, propaganda and collection of funds.
On January 15, 1937, the consignments for Spain comprised: 10 tons of condensed milk; 1,000 cases of corned beef (amounting to 144,000 soldiers' rations); 100 cases of lamb (or 1,400 soldiers' rations); 100 cases of tinned meat (or 1,400 soldiers' rations); 100 large crates of clothing and footwear; 50 kg of sweets for the children. Later another 1,100 cases of corned beef (13,200 tins) were sent off. The total value of aid rendered by the CGT to Spain up to April 1937 amounted to 366,715 pesos.
All rank-and-file members of the trade unions took an active part in collecting funds, but the reformist leaders of the CGT failed to attach due importance to this campaign. On April 30, 1937, the National Labour Federation of Builders and the Union of Construction Workers of the Federal Capital organised a fete in the Luna Park as a sign of solidarity with the Spanish Republic. It was attended by a huge number of people. The appeal to contribute a day's wages for the Spanish working people was greeted with enthusiasm. Another 100,000 pesos were added to the Aid Fund. But through the fault of the reformist leadership of the CGT this money was not passed on to the People's Government of Spain.
34The organisations of the Spanish emigres in Argentina were also active in helping the Republic. Mention must be made of the Federation of Galician Societies, which was exceptionally united in spirit and had ten branches. The Asturian and Valencian committees of aid for the legitimate Spanish Government, the so-called Catalan House, the Friends of the Spanish Republic organisation and others.
The valiant struggle of the Spanish people for their independence helped to initiate a broad and well-organised women's movement in Argentina. The constituent assembly of the Argentinian Women's Committee for the protection of Spanish orphans, the first women's organisation in the country to take an active part in helping the Spanish people, was held in March 1937. During the fighting for Madrid the committee collected money to purchase an ambulance and provided it with personnel and medical equipment. Another five ambulances were sent later. In dozens of workshops, organised by active members in their apartments, diligent women's hands darned old clothes and made new ones, and knitted children's sweaters and socks. Women and children collected money to buy food for soldiers' rations. At the end of 1938 five thousand children's outfits made by women anti-fascists were sent off to Spain.
The women took an active part also in the work of the provincial committees. Quite often they were threatened by the police and the authorities. In the township of Algarrobo, for instance, despite constant police threats, the women took a particularly active part in the Aid Spain movement and organised a Committee of Aid for Spanish Children.
The Argentinian Junta for Medical Aid did a lot of work to provide the Republican Army with medical supplies. With the support of the workers and other employees of the pharmaceutical industry, and of doctors and nurses, medical posts and laboratories for making medicines were set up in Spain. The Junta also helped to provide the army and rear medical institutions with ambulances. Forty fully equipped ambulances costing 5,000 pesos, i.e., more than 2,000 dollars each, were sent to Spain. The last of them, after the defeat of the Republic, was transferred to Chile to care for the Spanish refugees who had arrived there on the S. S. Winnipeg.
Spurred by hatred of fascism, the young people of Argentina showed active solidarity with the Spanish people. The organisation of Young Friends of Republican Spain in Buenos Aires comprised Communists, Socialists and young people of other political trends, including many children of Spanish emigres. The young men and girls, schoolchildren, many of whom were for the first time taking part in the social life of their country under the banner of solidarity, enthusiastically collected money in city streets, organised wheat sheaf and carnation processions, and distributed thousands 3* 35 of badges, post cards, leaflets and brochures exposing the crimes of fascism against the Spanish people.
On November 7, 1938, in the central cafes specially hired by Argentinian students anyone who liked could drink ``a cup of the coffee that Mola had been going to drink in Madrid on November 7, 1936''. The reference was to the boastful declaration of the fascist General Mola in October 1936 that Madrid was just about to be captured and he would order himself a cup of coffee there.
At the Avellaneda Club an auction was arranged for the ``broom that will sweep Franco out of Spain": it brought in 500 pesos for Republican Spain. The 5th, 6th and 7th of November, 1938 were declared donation days for the Spanish Republic. This campaign was conducted under the slogan of youth unity.
In the Rosario province the Aid the Republic Junta produced a newspaper, Espana Republicana. The Jewish community organised a commission of help for the Spanish people, which published bulletins in two languages with a circulation of 16,000 copies. The money from the sale of the bulletin went to the aid fund. The newspapers Galicia, Espana Republicana and Correo de Asturias, organs of the provincial committees of the FOARE, were widely distributed.
The FOARE publishing house La Nueva Espana, and also the houses of other progressive organisations, put out a series of books about Spain with a special stress on the national-revolutionary war. The most famous of these were: / Testify. ... One Year of Struggle in Free Spain by the Spanish lawyer Antonio Ruiz Vilaplana; Peasants of Spain in the Struggle for Land and Freedom by B. Minlos; Spain in Struggle: A History of the Civil War of 1936 and an Investigation of Its Social, Economic and Political Causes by Jarry Gannes and Theodore Repard; The Armoured Rose by Raul Gonzalez Tufion; Spain Versus Fascism by Bernardo Edelman; Spain, Its Struggle and Ideals by Angel Osorio y Gallardo, etc. Each of these books had a printing of between five and ten thousand copies, which for those days was an unusual event in Argentina.
On the initiative of the La Nueva Espana publishing house there were showings of the films 'The Heart of Spain, Children of Spain and Land of Spain. Displays of photographs of battle episodes and views of cities reduced to rubble by the Italian and German air forces and photographs of homeless hungry children were organised in the capital and other cities.
Thousands of people responded to an appeal by the Spanish
Patronate for Aid to the Victims of Fascism. It received postal
orders for 50 centavos, 80 centavos and 1 peso. People gave what they
could afford. The Argentinians also responded to the patronate's
appeal to help the Spanish sailors charged with mutiny by the
36
Graves of volunteers of the International Brigades in Fuencarral, Madrid
Argentinian authorities; these sailors had taken over the ship Cabo
San Antonio to stop it from going to Franco Spain.
The Italian community also took an active part in the solidarity movement. Many Italians then living in Argentina went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades.
The help that Argentina gave the Spanish people in money, clothes, food, medical supplies and medical equipment amounted to more than 4,000,000 dollars or 1,400 million Argentinian pesos at the present-day rate of exchange. The Argentinian Republic held a leading place in the amount of aid that it sent to Spain.
After the defeat of the Spanish Republic the FOARE and the Argentinian Union of Aid for the Victims of the Spanish War, along with democratic forces in Chile, its trade-union centre, the Chilean Committee of Aid for the Spanish People and the political parties in the Popular Front obtained permission for two thousand refugees to enter Chile. For each of them a surety of 3,000 francs had to be deposited. At the same time an agreement was achieved with the Chilean Aid Committee to set up a reserve fund for supporting the refugees until they could find work.
Nearly 2,200 refugees arrived on the S. S. Winnipeg and the FOARE, in accordance with its promise, transferred to the Chilean Aid Committee more than 1,000,000 Chilean pesos.
In the first months of 1940 a solidarity congress, organised by 37 the Argentinian Union of Aid for the Victims of the Spanish War, was held in Buenos Aires. The congress had to be conducted illegally. Its chairman was the outstanding representative of the Cuban intelligentsia, the writer Juan Marinello, and there were delegates from nearly all countries of Latin America and the United States. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda spoke at the congress. A decision was taken to continue the campaign in support of the Spanish Republic, to strengthen the movement of solidarity with the victims of fascism, to help the refugees and devote every effort to struggle against fascism, which had by then unleashed the Second World War.
The Argentinian patriots, particularly the Communists, were eager to help Spain in the International Brigades. More than 500 Argentinian volunteers, including many emigres from other countries---Italian building workers; Ukrainians and Poles from the Avellaneda and Beriso refrigerator plants; Yugoslavs from the oilfields of Comodoro Rivadavia; Spaniards, Bulgarians and Germans from other industrial areas of the country---made their way to Spain illegally, at the risk of their lives.
Argentinian volunteers fought in the units of the Republican Army and the International Brigades: in the Thaelmann, Dabrowski, Garibaldi and other battalions.
The volunteers included the Communist Ortiz, commander of the 24th Brigade of the Republican Army; the Communist Jungman, a company commissar in the 13th International Brigade; Fanny Edelman, an active member of the Spanish section of the International Red Aid (IRA), at present a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Argentina; Jose Belloqui, a lieutenant in the Republican Army, later Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Argentina and secretary of the district party committee of the Buenos Aires province, Angel Ortelli, a commissar in the famous llth Division, former leader of the Builders Trade Union; Elguer, a commissar in the medical service; Fierro, Raquel Levenson, Bernardo Edelman, Jose Manzanelli and many others.
The emigres who left Argentina for Spain include Max Doppler, who was killed in action commanding the famous Thaelmann Battalion; Captain Sieloff, one of the leaders of the Builders Trade Union; the Italian Bonano, a commissar in the Giuseppe Garibaldi Brigade, the Spaniard Manuel Seoane, a commander in one of the Galician guerrilla detachments, a former printer, who was shot by Franco's men. Among the Latin Americans who had emigrated to Argentina and then made the journey to Spain were the Bolivian Valenzuela and his wife, the Argentinian Communist, both of whom were killed during the defence of Madrid.
A group of Argentinian doctors worked in the medical service of the Spanish Republican Army right up to the last day of the war.
38There is not sufficient space here to name all those who fought in Spain and held high the banner of anti-fascist solidarity of the Argentinian people and its working class. Many Argentinian volunteers honourably preserved the fighting traditions of the International Brigades in the concentration camps of Gurs and Argeles and continued them by taking part in the French Resistance.
The splendid mass movement of solidarity of the Argentinian working people with the Spanish people during the national-- revolutionary war remains to this day a fine example to the young generation in the struggle for the national independence of Argentina.
[39] __ALPHA_LVL1__ AUSTRIAGeneral Franco, who led the revolt against the Spanish Republic, represented reactionary forces of the very same kind that in February 1934 had destroyed in Austria the last vestiges of democracy, relying, like him, on the support of foreign fascist powers. On February 12, 1934, the workers of Austria tried to put up armed resistance to the advance of fascism. But the Schutzbund^^1^^ detachments and also the Communists who fought with them were weakened by the fact that the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party and the trade unions did not participate in the struggle. The uprising was defeated and the Communist and Social-Democratic parties banned. Yet the workers' fighting spirit was not broken. When the great battle against fascism flared up in Spain, many Austrian anti-fascists, and particularly those who had taken part in the February fighting of 1934, saw it as a long-awaited chance of again taking up arms to defeat fascism---this time on Spanish soil. They joined the ranks of the fighters of the International Brigades.
``Learn from Spain!" was the title of an article about the Spanish events published in the March issue (1936) of Rote Fahne---the central organ of the Communist Party of Austria. The paper stressed the vital importance of the unity of action achieved between the Socialist and Communist parties of Spain on the basis of the revolutionary struggle against fascism, because it had become ``the central factor that has united all true democrats and friends of freedom in a single anti-fascist Popular Front''. The significance of the Popular Front in Spain, the role of unity, were also understood by some of the Social-Democrats.
On July 11, 1936, a week before the Franco generals' putsch, the Chancellor of Austria Schuschnigg concluded an agreement with Hitler. As the Austrian Communist Party's theoretical _-_-_
~^^1^^ Schutzbund was an armed organisation of the Austrian Social-- Democratic Party. It was set up in 1923 as a means of defence from fascist military detachments.---Ed.
40 magazine Weg und Ziel noted in March 1937, while formally recognising the state independence of Austria, German fascism used this agreement to gain virtual control of its foreign policy. The plans that Germany and Italy had by that time already worked out for Spain had made it necessary to obtain as soon as possible a modus vivendi in respect of Austria.When General Franco, who was acting in collusion with the fascist powers, attacked the Spanish Republic, bourgeois Austria took the side of the insurgents. Admittedly, the Austrian Government officially declared its non-intervention in Spanish affairs, but the bourgeois press from the first days of the fascist revolt set out to smear the Spanish Republic. In mid-August 1936 the government-inspired newspaper Weltblatt expressed its indignation that "in the last few days some papers have been publishing in a more or less veiled form statements expressing sympathy for the Popular Front'', and demanded an effort to find "ways and means of putting a stop to this''. For publishing truthful reports from Spain on the situation at the fronts the Vienna bourgeois-liberal newspaper Tag was fined by the Polizeiprasidium five hundred schillings and given a warning.
Information on Austrian military aid to Franco---for understandable reasons, far from complete---appeared only in the illegal working-class press. For example, the newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung reported on September 4, 1936 that the Vienna firm Graf und Stift had sold the insurgents a consignment of 40 tanks and loaded them in Trieste for shipment to Spain. On November 19, 1936, the bulletin Pressedienst der Roten Fahne wrote: ``We are informed by reliable sources that at the arms factory in Hirtenberg they are working three shifts of eight hours each. Forty per cent of the output goes to the Spanish insurgents. Ammunition is being sent to Portugal through the Hamburg transport firm Mathias Rothe.''
The Austrian Government also facilitated recruitment of Austrians for Franco's army. The insurgent troops included Austrian nazis recruited in Austria itself as well as those who went to Germany and enlisted there in the Condor Legion. The Pressedienst der Roten Fahne of December 23, 1936 reported that on the initiative of the Aktion katholischer Adeliger (Aristocratic Catholic Action) nearly 200 Austrians joined the insurgent army in Spain. An officer of the fascist Heimwehr from Innsbruck Rudolf Penz returned from Spain to Austria to enlist new mercenaries there. Every recruit received 100 schillings and a free railway ticket (to Genoa, rest of the journey by ship), and in addition the members of his family were presented with a life insurance policy.
Big industrialists and financiers were approached to contribute funds to purchase arms for the insurgents.
Most of the 1,700 anti-fascist Austrians who fought in Spain arrived direct from Austria. Many of them had acquired the 41 rudiments of military training in the Schutzbund detachments and in the Communist worker self-defence groups; those who had participated in the street battles of February 1934 had a certain amount of fighting experience.
As soon as the Spanish people rose up in arms, many of the Schutzbund fighters, who after the suppression of the February uprising had found political asylum in the Soviet Union, hastened to their aid.
The overwhelming majority of the Austrian volunteers were members of the Austrian Communist Party or the Communist League of Youth; there were also Revolutionary Socialists^^1^^ and non-party people from Austria in the International Brigades.
Doctor Julius Deutsch (a member of the Board of the SocialDemocratic Workers' Party, in the past a leader of the Schutzbund, who arrived in Spain from emigration in Czechoslovakia and soon became a general of the Republican Army) wrote in the newspaper of the International Brigades Le volontaire de la Liberte: ``In this great struggle it has come about of itself that the contradictions that up to now existed between anti-fascists have disappeared. Whether a man was in the past a Socialist or a Communist, here in Spain it is of no significance, which is something that would be hard to imagine in the rest of Europe."^^2^^
Of course, some disagreements and difficulties arose between Communists and Socialists when it came to taking practical action. Serious contradictions appeared after the POUM putsch in Barcelona in May 1937 over the question of the attitude to be adopted to Trotskyism, but this had no effect on the relations between the members of the International Brigades.
In Austria itself the illegal working-class organisations---- revolutionary Socialists, the Communist Party, the Austrian section of IRA and the Free Trade Unions---invariably came out on the side of the Spanish Republic and their unity of action continued. A joint declaration of the Communist Party of Austria and the Party of Revolutionary Socialists, passed at the end of 1936, stated: ``The central committees of both parties are unanimous in continuing to support the struggle of the Spanish people ... and increasing aid. They welcome all acts of solidarity on the part of the international working-class movement ... particularly the political, moral and material assistance rendered to the Spanish people by the Soviet Government and the peoples of the Soviet Union-----"^^3^^
In September 1936 the Communist Party began sending groups _-_-_
~^^1^^ After the Schutzbund was defeated in February 1934 and the SocialDemocratic Party banned, illegal Social-Democratic organisations assumed the name of ``Revolutionary Socialists".
~^^2^^ Le volontaire de la Liberte, March 17, 1937.
~^^3^^ Pressedienst der Roten Fahne, December 3, 1936.
42 of volunteers to the International Brigades. Johann Koplenig undertook the organisation of this difficult task. The police and border guards were arresting anyone they found crossing the frontier whom they thought suspicious, and usually put them in concentration camps. Many volunteers made their way across the mountains into Switzerland disguised as mountaineers or skiers. Anti-fascists who were under police surveillance and had no passports had to be provided with forged papers. To reach Spain the Austrian volunteers were ready to make any material sacrifices and many of them sold their property to do so. For example, the young Tyrolese farmer Max Bair, whose story has been told by Egon Erwin Kisch, sold his cattle in order to obtain funds for himself and his friends for the journey to Spain.In the conditions of fascist terror the mass international solidarity of the Austrians could find expression in few other ways except illegal collection of funds for aid to Spain, which also demanded considerable efforts, self-sacrifice and courage. It must be stressed that mass unemployment and low wages naturally limited the size of contributions.
Here is one fact that shows how the authorities persecuted those who expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Spanish people. On August 24, 1936, Thomas Hofer of Knittelfeld, unemployed, was denounced for collecting money for Spain. The accused confessed to having collected 2.6 schillings (at that time this sum amounted to payment for three hours' work at a low rate). A military court in the town of Leoben condemned him to two years of strict imprisonment ``for state treason''. The sentence contained the following motivation: ``Inasmuch as Hofer was collecting money for Spain, it is obvious that he was doing this on the instructions of the Communist Party. Such collection is to be regarded as propaganda of communist ideas in Austria, which is state treason."^^1^^
``Not a single event since February 1934 has roused such a deep response at factories as the movement of solidarity with the Spanish people,'' wrote the newspaper Tribunal, the organ of the Austrian section of IRA (Nos 9 and 10, 1936). ``The Austrian workers are performing in practice true miracles of solidarity.'' It gave the following example. At automobile and arms factories in Steier the workers had refused to collect funds for a squadron of the Austrian army and had taken a decision that everyone should contribute one schilling in aid of the Spanish Popular Front. The money was collected at almost all the factories in the district of Floridsdorf, Vienna, and also at all factories of the metal-working industry of the capital. The Vienna tram workers collected a considerable sum. In the district organisations of the Communist Party of Austria the collections were made under _-_-_
~^^1^^ Arbeiter-Zeitung, October 18, 1936.
43
SPANISH
The government's answer was police persecution. On September 15, according to the Arbeiter-Zeitung of September 27, 1936, the police arrested for fund-collecting twelve trade-union officials and eighteen other workers at the Siemens-Schuckert factory in 44 Engerthstrasse and at the cable factory in Leopoldau (a district of Vienna.---Ed.). The workers went on strike. The police surrounded these factories and made fresh arrests. The workers of the AustroFiat works then declared a two-hour solidarity strike and some of the arrested men were released. On October 4, 1936, the same newspaper reported arrests at the Shuttleworth works, at a Vienna milk-processing factory, at the main tram depot Vienna-Simmering, in Trauzl, at the railway in Floridsdorf and at the Alpine-- Donawitz works. On November 2, twenty-eight tram workers were arrested in the Brigittenau district.
International solidarity, however, was not to be broken by police persecution. The constant explanatory work carried on by the underground working-class organisations kept up a high level of anti-fascist consciousness. There was not a single illegal central or local or factory newspaper that did not devote considerable space to reports about Spain, the solidarity movement and the letters of the Austrian volunteers. Even the harsh sentences passed by the Austrian courts could not stop the movement of solidarity. Here is an example of such a sentence, quoted from the ArbeiterZeitung of October 18, 1936: ``A cabinet-maker's apprentice from Miirzzuschlag, Peter Draxler, has been sentenced in Leoben to five years' strict imprisonment for being in possession of a pamphlet against Franco. There was not a word about Austria in the pamphlet, it was written against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini! But this was enough to earn him a sentence of five years in gaol!''
Mention must also be made of the great help rendered by Austrian anti-fascists to the internationalists of other countries who were making their way across Austrian territory into Spain.
Even before the creation of the International Brigades Austrians were fighting the fascists on Spanish soil as part of the Thaelmann Centuria. One of them was the young Viennese Communist Franz Hrejsemnou, who succeeded in reaching Spain in the first days of the Franco putsch; later he took part in the defence of Madrid, served in a ski reconnaissance detachment, then joined a tank crew and was killed in action at Brunete in the summer of 1937. The Viennese medical student Pepi Schneeweiss also fought in the same centuria and had been one of the first to set out for Spain at his own risk.
Later the volunteer anti-fascists started going to Spain in groups, usually through Paris, where their further transportation had for long been managed, on the instructions of the Communist Party of Austria, by the well-known Austrian writer Otto Heller (who afterwards died in a nazi concentration camp).
In October 1936 the fnst organised groups of anti-fascists from
various countries, including Austria, began to reach Spain. One
of them was Adolf Reiner (real name Anton Dobritzhofer), a
Viennese mechanic, and former company commander of the
45
A group of Austrian volunteers of the Thaelmann Battalion, May 1937
Schutzbund Karl Marx Regiment. In December 1936 he took part in the
defence of Madrid as a machine-gunner, and during the operation
on the River Ebro in the summer of 1938 commanded the llth
International Brigade in the rank of Major.
The first commander of the llth International Brigade, General Kleber (Manfred Stern), who played a prominent part in organising the defence of Madrid in autumn 1936, was also born and brought up in Austria. From 1936 to 1938 Major Kurt (Josef Dycka) fought in Spain, having been one of the leaders of the illegal Schutzbund organisations in 1934 to 1935. During the Brunete offensive he was the chief of staff of the 35th Division; he was killed during the Second World War, fighting the Hitler troops in a Soviet partisan detachment.
Most of the Austrian volunteers in Spain fought in the Chapayev Battalion of the 13th International Brigade and in the llth Brigade. They were particularly good machine-gunners. They were to be found in all arms of the services except the navy, and in every kind of unit. The former Schutzbund men, fighter pilots Hans Dobias and Walter Korous helped to defend Spain in the air; Major Walter Fischer was a doctor in the llth and 15th brigades, and later in the 3rd Division. Major Fritz Jensen was at first brigade surgeon of the 13th Brigade, and later in command of the medical centre in Benicasim. Many Austrian doctors and nurses served in units of the Republican Army.
46Major Adolf Fischer (Hugo Muller) commanded a battalion of machine-gunners of the 33rd Division; Laurenz Hiebl, a Spanish battalion of the 35th Division; Engineer Leopold Knopp, a battalion of the 14th Brigade; Major Fritz Trankler, an engineer unit; Doctor Heinz Diirmayer, one of the commanders of the illegal Schutzbund, was commissar of a 15th Brigade unit; Captain Franz Willinger served in the 16th Corps; the former Schutzbund man, Rudolf Had was commander of the Thaelmann Battery; Franz Hirschmann, an instructor in the 3rd Division; Ferdinand Erb fought in the 122nd Brigade; Leopold Mallina was chief of staff of the 86th Brigade, which included an international battalion.
The Austrians made up the largest national group in the international armoured vehicle company. It was commanded by Linzer Sepp Mittermaier from Linz. Nearly twenty Austrian mountaineers commanded by Hias Hitzenberger fought in a guerrilla group in the Don Benito area, near the Portuguese frontier. The officers Toni Sandmann, the brothers Franz and Willy Etz and Alfred Ruzicka served in a light-tank regiment, in which Leo Dank (Hermann Neissl) was battalion commissar. In the booklet The February Fighting, published in Spain, Ruzicka wrote about one of the Austrians of the International Brigades: ``Comrade Josef Kavka, whom we used to call Joschka, was 25 years old. He came from a family that had been working class for generations. For the last two years he had been serving in the Austrian army. He left for Spain in November 1936. On the 3rd anniversary of the heroic February fighting in Vienna he was killed defending the Spanish people and international democracy.''
Other Austrian anti-fascists whose names are not mentioned here, fought valiantly in the International Brigades. Nearly 700 Austrian volunteers lie buried in the soil of Spain. Many of them who survived the fighting there later gave their lives in active struggle against the nazis or perished in Hitler's concentration camps.
On November 11, 1936, 625 internationalists arrived in Albacete. They were formed into the Chapayev Battalion which became part of the 13th Brigade. After a brief period of training the brigade was sent to the Teruel Front to take part in an offensive. Seven attacks and a 24-day defence of the positions captured--- such were the first operations of the Chapayev Battalion, a baptism of fire for many of the Austrians, particularly the men of the machine-gun company. During the fighting the battalion's standard bearer was Franz Luda, of Vienna; he was badly wounded and had to have both legs amputated.
On February 13, 1937, after the fall of Malaga, the 13th Brigade
was sent to reinforce the Southern Front. Doctor Fritz Jensen
described the road to the front as follows: "The 180 kilometres from
Almen'a to Adra were covered very slowly. The road was blocked
with people: milicianos, old men and children. ... Then we entered
47
Austrian volunteers of an armoured car company
Adra. The population were piling their belongings on to donkeys.
Our first lorries drove in. ... The men jumped out, formed up and
started singing. . . . Everyone's spirits rose. Not only the population,
but also the milicianos. We proposed that anyone who wanted to
could join the Chapayev Battalion. More than 250 people
responded. . . .''
From the end of February to the end of June 1937 the Chapayev Battalion fought in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada (at a height of 3,000 metres above sea level) at Valsequillo, La Granjela and (in terrible heat) at Penarroya.
``The Chapayev Battalion occupied positions in the difficult terrain of the Sierra Nevada mountains,'' wrote Julius Schacht (Heinrich Fritz), the commissar of a machine-gun company. "Many of the Austrian comrades were accustomed to mountain country and this was a great help. . . .
``One day at six in the morning a platoon commander and I set out to inspect machine-gun nests high in the mountains. We were mounted but only at noori did we spot the machine-gun crews. . . . They had no tents and we could only promise to try to obtain blankets, greatcoats and ponchos for the men in the nearby villages. A few days before they had endured a snowstorm. There were no shelters. Their clothes and blankets were wet through. . . . In these conditions the men had a whole week to wait before they would be relieved.''
48After four and a half arduous months in the front line the 13th Brigade was relieved, but instead of resting it was sent to the Central Front to take part in the offensive on Brunete. On July 7 the Chapayev Battalion participated in the assault on Villanueva de la Canada. Later the 13th Brigade crossed the River Guadarrama and captured fascist positions on the heights of the eastern bank. During this operation it suffered heavy losses and was later reformed. The Austrian volunteers were put into the 4th Battalion of the llth International Brigade.
Austrians fought in this brigade from the moment of its formation. One of them, Gustav Szindo who later became its commander, described two episodes of the battle for the Jarama in his book The llth Brigade: ``On February 15, 1937, the fascists attacked in the sector held by the Thaelmann Battalion.... Many of the men who were bringing up ammunition were wounded, others could not get through because the fascists had mounted a heavy fire curtain. A 24-year-old Austrian farmhand Johann Mayer then volunteered to deliver the ammunition. He managed to supply one machine-gun and two infantry companies with cartridges and hand grenades... . He saved the lives of many wounded comrades by carrying them off the field of battle.... The outcome of the engagement of February 15 depended on Mayer because on that day ammunition was the key factor. Johann Mayer fell in March of the same year in the fighting at Brihuega.
``Johann Mayer was the hero of February 15, and a few days later his fellow countryman Adolf Reiner (later brigade commander) also performed a feat of valour. During a fascist tank attack he crawled a distance of 100 metres with a rifle and armourpiercing bullets towards the advancing tanks and put two of them out of action. This created panic among the crews of the other tanks and they retreated.''
At home the Austrian anti-fascists were supporting their fellow countrymen fighting on the Spanish fronts. The central committees of the Communist Party of Austria and the organisation of Revolutionary Socialists appealed to the Austrian people that, in honour of the anniversary of the February fighting in Austria, February should be made a month of collection of funds for the International Brigades.
After the Jarama the Austrians in the ranks of the llth International Brigade fought against the motorised Italian divisions at Guadalajara, both in defence and in the counter-attack during which the Republican Army routed four Italian divisions. Later the Austrians took part in the fighting at Utande. In July 1937 they had a red-letter day: an Austrian battalion was formed as part of the llth Brigade. This was not only an acknowledgement of the fighting services of the Austrian volunteers; it was also of great importance to the anti-fascist struggle in Austria.
__PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---781 49
The Austrian fighters decided to name their battalion ``The 12th of February, 1934''. They all made a sacred vow to fight to the last drop of blood for freedom and independence of Republican Spain, realising that this would serve as a noble example for the liberation struggle of the Austrian people. A few days later the Republican troops launched an offensive against the fascists in the Brunete area. In this operation the Austrian battalion received its baptism of fire. Owing to lack of weapons, particularly machine-guns, it was at first in the reserve, but when the attacking battalions were held up in front of Quijorna the 12th of February Battalion was ordered to ioin the offensive. After a successful third attack on a cemetery held by 600 Moroccans, more than 100 prisoners were taken along with many rifles and other trophies, including much needed ammunition. The division command officially thanked the fighters of the llth Brigade who had liberated Quijorna and proved their worth in combat.
In August 1937 the 12th of February Battalion once again distinguished itself, this time on the Aragon front. In the assault on Quinto the Austrian volunteers captured a fascist artillery battery and won yet another message of thanks from the command. When the fascists made desperate efforts to relieve the garrison of Belchite which had been surrounded by Republican troops, the 12th of February Battalion and other units of the llth Brigade blocked their path and beat off all attacks at Mediana.
Right up to the end of the war there was not a single major battle in which the llth Brigade, and with it the 12th of February Battalion, did not take part. During the second operation at Teruel in January 1938 the battalion held out for weeks, repulsing the attacks of numerically superior fascist forces. On the sector held by 50 the Austrian volunteers the continuous fascist attacks were supported by tanks and aircraft, but the volunteers withdrew from their positions only after receiving orders from the superior command.
The battalion suffered heavy losses. During the assault on Quinto its commissar, Willi Soukup, a favourite with everybody, was killed. At Teruel the deputy commissar of the battalion, Communist Paul Zimmermann (Karl Kaspar), and many other comrades laid down their lives.
The battalion also fought valiantly during the enemy breakthrough on the Aragon Front and in the Levante. In March 1938 during the heavy rearguard actions of the retreating Eastern Front the Austrian brigaders heard the sad news of the occupation of Austria by nazi Germany. "All the more reason for us to fight against fascism and smash it here, in Spain,"---such was the reaction of the volunteers of the 12th of February Battalion.
Spaniards, Germans and men of other nationalities also fought in the 12th of February Battalion. It was commanded at various times not only by Austrians---Majors Karl Bauer, Emil Reuter, Franz Berger, Adolf Reiner and Captain Karl Rimbach---but also by Germans---Captain Harry Hellfeld and Major Willy Benz. Its other commissars were the Austrians Leo Wurzel (Lorenz Mraz) and Paul Steiner (Peter Hofer), the German Walter Knobloch and the Spaniard Vincente S. Bordes. A sound international fighting friendship grew up in the battalion.
In the middle of October 1937 a battalion meeting was held in a small village on the Aragon Front. Battalion Commissar Paul Steiner described it as follows: ``We held our meeting by the walls of a church on a hill. Five hundred comrades of different nationalities stood shoulder to shoulder.... While a letter addressed home appealing for unity of the anti-fascist forces in Austria was being read out, it grew dark and we had to light candles. This gave the meeting even greater seriousness and solemnity. In answer to the question, who would vote for the letter, five hundred clenched fists went up. The letter was accepted unanimously. The Spanish comrades shouted, ``Long live unity!" and the meeting ended with the singing of the Internationale...."
When Hitler's army occupied Austria in March 1938, some of the anti-fascists succeeded in leaving the country. The flow of Austrians into the International Brigades once again increased. They included activists from the Communist Party. Fighting in the ranks of the Austrian battalion they took part in the last major offensive of the Republican Army on the Ebro.
Lieutenant Julius Schindler, the battalion adjutant, wrote in his memoirs: ``On the night of July 24, 1938, the battalion crossed the river near the village of Vinebre and in the morning occupied the township of Asco. From there it advanced on Fatarella, routing __PRINTERS_P_51_COMMENT__ 4* 51 isolated fascist groups on the way. On July 28 we attacked the Gandesa-Batea heights but without success. The next day Brigade Commander Otto Flatter (Ferenc Munnich) was wounded. He was replaced on August 12 by Major Adolf Reiner and the command of the battalion was taken over by a German, Major Willy Benz.''
On the 17th and 18th of August the 12th of February Battalion attacked Height 481 in the Sierra Pandols five times. Though they failed to capture it, the brigade considerably improved its positions on the Tortosa-Gandesa road. Between September 7 and 23 at Height 565 the brigade beat off incessant attacks of the fascists, who were massively supported by artillery and tanks. On September 12 the Austrian battalion relieved the Thaelmann Battalion and held the front line from early morning to late at night under constant bombardment and repulsed all attacks.
On September 24 the llth Brigade was withdrawn to the reserve. The 12th of February Battalion suffered heavy losses on the Ebro. It started the operation with 500 officers and men of various nationalities and ended it with only 122. Losses included the former editor of the newspaper Rote Fahne, Fabian (Rudi Auerhan), Schutzbund Lieutenant Franz Zartl, Captain Fritz Mitter from Upper Austria, Sergeant-Ma j or Hans Wagner and Victor Lenhardt from Styria.
The withdrawal of the battalion from the front line coincided with the order issued by the Spanish Government to demobilise the internationalists in the Republican Army. It was very sad to part with the Spanish comrades. The Austrians, like the other international brigaders, were determined to continue the struggle against fascism. Brigade Commissar Ernst Blank wrote in the newspaper Pasaremos: ``Yesterday I was in the 12th of February Battalion when our comrades gave their fraternal promise to fight as they had been fighting for the cause of Spain, for peace and the freedom of the peoples. Such a promise is no empty phrase for our people.''
The demobilised Austrians from the llth Brigade remained until January 1939 in a small township near the River Ter in Catalonia. They could not return home and not a single `` democratic" country of the West was prepared to accept them. The Republic had recalled the internationalists from the front at a time when Hitler and Mussolini, in violation of their promises, were strengthening their troops operating in Spain. At the end of January the Italian motorised divisions with Franco's troops behind them approached Barcelona. Tens of thousands of women, children, old men and wounded crowded the roads leading to the French frontier.
On January 23, 1939, the demobilised brigaders again took up arms. They had to cover the retreat of the Republican troops. The 52 Austrians were commanded by Major Adolf Fischer. On January 24 fascist aircraft bombed the battalion's positions and on February 3 the last battle was fought against Italian troops at the town of Gerona. A group of 28 Austrians commanded by Lieutenant Hans Hertl defended the railway bridge over the Ter until it had to be blown up to prevent the Italian advance. On February 9, these 28 Austrians, having done their duty, crossed the French frontier near Port-Bou.
At the end of the Spanish war some of the international brigaders were given refuge by the Soviet Union, some of them succeeded in obtaining permission to enter Britain and the Scandinavian countries, but the majority remained in France and were later put into the concentration camps of St Cyprien, Gurs, Vernet and Argeles. Some of them escaped from these camps and lived illegally in France. In the camp at Gurs the 450 Austrians who remained there set up a school to improve their general and political education which was attended by 300 people.
The French authorities tried to get rid of the international brigaders and demanded that they should go either to North Africa or back to their own country, which had now become part of the ``Third Reich''. The Austrians were transferred to Argeles, where their barracks were surrounded by two companies of mobile guards. The members of the International Brigade were forced to go to Africa for the alleged purpose of building a railway, but in fact when they got there they were pressed into the Foreign Legion. The Austrians resisted and some of them were arrested.
After the fall of France the officers of the German armistice commission offered the Austrians repatriation with the assurance that they would not be persecuted on their return. The fighters of the 12th of February Battalion had no illusions on this score, but they wanted to continue the fight against Hitler in their own country and not be sent away to Africa. Faced with this choice, most of the internees in Argeles, and also some of the prisoners of the Vernet camp, decided with the consent of the leading organs of their parties to accept repatriation. Few, however, succeeded in retaining their freedom.
On May Day 1941 nearly all the repatriates entered the Dachau concentration camp. Even in the concentration camps they continued the fight against fascism. Thanks to their unity and high morale a relatively large number of fighters of the International Brigades succeeded in surviving the terrible conditions of their imprisonment. Of those who perished in this struggle mention must be made of the former Schutzbund battalion commander of Favoriten (a district of Vienna), Rudolf Friemel, who represented the Revolutionary Socialists in the 12th of February Battalion. The Gestapo arrested him in Auschwitz during an attempt to establish contact between the International Resistance Centre, of which 53 he was a member, and the Polish partisans. He was brutally tortured and hanged on December 30, 1944.
On the day of the liberation of Dachau the Austrian international brigaders Anton Hackle and Erich Hubmann (Lustig) were killed in a fighting with SS men. Sepp Plieseis, who had fought in a guerrilla detachment in Spain, succeeded on August 20, 1943, in escaping from a gang working outside the camp near the town of Hablein. In the Alt Aussee mountains he formed a guerrilla detachment, which gave the SS a great deal of trouble, and saved seven thousand unique paintings plundered by the nazis in various countries of Europe.
The Austrian international brigaders who reached the Soviet Union fought in the Red Army and in partisan detachments. Others displayed great courage in the struggle against the Hitler occupation forces as members of the French Resistance.
Communist Fritz Lettner of Salzburg, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was in a French hospital under police surveillance. In 1943 he and other prisoners escaped and got through to the French guerrillas. He fought with them till the liberation of France and returned home as an officer of the French Resistance forces.
Richard Sdolsek, who beginning with the defence of Madrid in 1936 took part in all the engagements of the llth Brigade, escaped from a French camp and went underground for a time, then made his way to Vienna. The Gestapo did not know that he had taken part in the Spanish war. In 1943 he was called up for the Wehrmacht. With another comrade he escaped to the Italian guerrillas with whom he fought until the liberation of the Reggio Emilia province.
The Austrian emigre Communists and participants in the fighting in Spain took an active part in the French Resistance and showed no less heroism there than in armed guerrilla warfare. They brought out pamphlets and newspapers for the Austrians serving in the Wehrmacht and distributed them in the German garrisons of Paris, Bordeaux, Nancy, Lille and other cities. The antifascist newspapers Soldat im Westen and Soldat im Mittelmeer, which were aimed at the men in the German army, were also published by the Austrians. The first of them was founded by the Austrian international brigader Viktor Milliner (Hans Zipper), who was later murdered by the nazis in the Grossrosseln concentration camp. Austrian women, including nurses who had taken part in the fighting in Spain, helped to distribute illegal publications and arms for the guerrillas.
In 1943 the Austrians adopted a new method of underground
struggle. Pretending to be French, they enlisted for work in the
``Reich'' as foreign workers, so that when they got to Austria they
could organise resistance groups at factories and in towns and
villages. This was done, for example, by two nurses, former
54
The banner of the llth International Brigade
participants in the Spanish
war, Mara (Frieda
Ginsburg) and Anni
Peczenig (her
husband, a former
volunteer, had been taken
from the French camp
and murdered in
Auschwitz). These brave
women were tracked
down by the Gestapo
and shot in the
women's concentration
camp of Ravensbruck.
The Austrian Freedom Battalions were of special significance in the ranks of the Yugoslav NationalLiberation Army and the Styria fighting group, in which the former international brigaders played a leading part.
In the autumn of 1944 Franz Honner, one of the organisers of the 12th of February Battalion and several other comrades parachuted from a Soviet aircraft over the frontier between Slovenia and Croatia. This group was joined by Resistance fighters and Austrians who had deserted from the Wehrmacht. Thus was formed the first Austrian Freedom Battalion. This battalion, which was engaged in heavy fighting right up to the unconditional surrender of Hitler Germany, had as its commanders and commissars former participants in the fighting in Spain---Max Bair, Romen Fiichsel, Leopold Stanzl and Franz Gebhart.
Towards the end of spring 1944 twenty-five parachutists landed in a liberated part of Slovenia. Of these fifteen were international brigaders, including eleven Austrians, two Spaniards and two Italians. One of the Spaniards was Americo Brizuela, commander of the llth Brigade (after the recall of the internationalists from Spain). This unit, which called itself the Styria fighting group, conducted major military and propaganda operations. In the heavy fighting the group, which was often left to act on its own for weeks 55 on end and had to operate in any weather, suffered substantial losses. Of the Austrian international brigaders, Leo Engelmann and Karl Sattler (Prater) were killed, and the former signals chief of the llth Brigade, Captain Sepp Spanner, was gravely wounded. But this fighting group achieved considerable success. Just before the end of the war it captured the town of Schwanberg in Southern Styria and by this time it had grown to five hundred strong.
At the beginning of January 1945 about twenty-five Austrian Communists made their way from France to liberated Belgrade, where out of former prisoners of war they formed the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Freedom battalions. They were commanded by the international brigaders Peter Hofer, Zalel Schwager, Max Goldberger and Laurenz Hiebl. Immediately after the German surrender the 2nd Battalion moved from the Croatian front to Vienna, where it arrived on May 12, 1945. Here it formed the nucleus of the new police force.
The former fighters in Spain did a lot for the restoration of the Austrian Republic. Many of them were in responsible positions in the Communist Party; fifteen former international brigaders were at various times, or still are, members of the Central Committee of the CPA.
The fate of the banner of the 11th Brigade, which was entrusted on April 17, 1938 to the 12th of February Battalion is worth recording. After the battalion resumed military operations in Spain in January 1939, the battalion's machine-gun company entrusted the banner to Ferdinand Barth, of Vienna. He wrapped it round his body and carried it safely under his uniform across the French frontier. In the St Cyprien camp he sewed it between two blankets. The banner then passed from camp to camp until Otto Glaser (Max Stern) ``disappeared'' with it for four weeks to conduct talks with the Austrian Party Committee in Toulouse. He returned without the banner, which had been left in the care of Mali Fritz, a Vienna-born woman. In the autumn of 1940, during a big terrorist sweep against the Austrian participants in the Resistance movement Mali was arrested, but she succeeded in taking the banner, sewed into a blanket, with her to a prison cell where she was kept with Gerta Schindel, a former worker for the Paris Aid Spain Committee. From there the banner went with them to a concentration camp in the Lozere department.
After her escape from the camp Gerta informed the comrades where the banner was. On Christmas Eve 1941, in a snowstorm, Mali passed the brigade's banner through the barbed wire to an Austrian participant in the Spanish fighting, Fritz Weiss. Meanwhile the Germans had occupied the whole of France and the banner of ten had to be moved to new hiding places. Finally it came to Paul Kessler in Lyons. In June 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo but would not speak even under brutal torture. During 56 transfer to the Buchenwald concentration camp he escaped from the train. In October 1944 Kessler travelled to liberated Lyons to search for the banner. His flat had been ransacked but in one corner he found the cherished blanket---the Gestapo had never guessed what a treasure it concealed.
In January 1945 the Austrian international brigaders brought the banner with them to Yugoslavia and from there along with the Austrian Freedom Battalions it arrived in Vienna. Here the banner of the llth Brigade is kept by the Communist Party of Austria as a fighting symbol of anti-fascism and the international solidarity of those who fought for the freedom of Spain.
[57] __ALPHA_LVL1__ BRITAINWhen the military rebellion broke out in Spain in July 1936, there already existed in Britain a broadly-based organisation, the Relief Committee for the Victims of Fascism, which had done much to arouse public opinion, especially working-class opinion, to the dangers of fascism and war. Outstanding among this Committee's activities had been its holding in London of an international legal enquiry into the Reichstag Fire trial; its fight for the lives of Ernst Thaelmann, Edgar Andre and other German anti-fascists; the sending of a delegation to Brazil to intervene on behalf of Luis Carlos Prestes; and its actions in 1934 on behalf of the Asturian miners in Spain.
The existence and lively activity of the Relief Committee for the Victims of Fascism made it possible to move quickly in support of the Spanish people. On July 31, 1936, the Committee initiated a meeting which formed the Spanish Medical Aid Committee: the first British ambulance unit with its accompanying doctors, nurses and other medical personnel left Britain on August 10, less than four weeks after the start of the revolt. A stream of ambulances, medical supplies and personnel was sent by this committee right up to the end of the war.
Meanwhile the Relief Committee for the Victims of Fascism sent a delegation to Spain to investigate the role of German and Italian fascism, whose help to the insurgents was being denied by the Conservative British Government. The delegation, consisting of two Labour members of Parliament, one Labour member of the House of Lords and one Communist, brought back to England copious evidence in the form of German bombs, Italian parachutes and other captured equipment which was presented at the Labour Party's conference at Edinburgh in September 1936.
A wider committee was next formed, the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief. It consisted of representatives from every political party, from the trade-union movement, from various religious denominations and from existing committees. Its chairman 58 was the Conservative Duchess of Atholl, its joint secretaries a Labour, a Liberal and a Conservative member of Parliament. It is worthy of note that though the Conservative Government backed the insurgents throughout the whole period of the war, there was a substantial group of Conservatives who supported the campaign on behalf of the Spanish Republican Government, chiefly because of their recognition of the danger to Britain's imperial trade routes and national interest of a Spain in fascist hands.
It is also noteworthy that in the interests of the broadest possible unity of action, the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief never asked its constituent members for a formal declaration of support for the Republican Government, agreement being founded on the proposal to send aid "where the need was greatest''. Members of the Communist Party, always in a minority on local or national committees to aid Spain, adhered loyally to this agreement and did not press for the adoption of their full political programme with regard to Spain, for which they worked outside the broad "Aid Spain" movement. An outstanding contribution was made in this respect by Isabel Brown, a leading Communist whose powerful oratory and deep political understanding made her name nationally known and respected.
The broad united struggle on behalf of the Spanish people had its basis first and foremost among the organised workers, already alerted to the dangers of fascism by the growth of nazism, the destruction of the German working-class organisations, the fascist putsch in Austria and their own street battles against the fascist gangs of Oswald Mosley. They recognised the class character of the war in Spain, and saw with clear vision that the bombs which fell on Barcelona, Guernica and Malaga were a rehearsal for London, Clydebank and Coventry.
Along with the workers were the intellectuals, who saw the menace which fascism presented to their interests and to the whole fabric of European culture. Religious bodies recognised the fascist threat to religious freedom and were moved by their humanitarian beliefs to help the sufferers. Leading Labour politicians were urged forward by pressure from the rank-and-file of their party; Clement Attlee, leader of the Labour Party, was photographed on the terrace of the House of Commons giving the "Red Front" salute, and in December 1937 visited the British Battalion of the International Brigades, one of whose companies was named after him. Liberal politicians came forward to help in defence of bourgeois democracy. Conservatives in defence of British trading interests---a separate Committee of British Shipowners Trading to Spain was formed to combat the government's refusal to protect British shipping; these shipowners bought a whole page of advertising in the London Times to protest against the policy of ``non-intervention''.
59Following the destruction of Guernica, when Mola threatened to ``raze Bilbao to the ground'', in May 1937 the British people opened their doors to 4,000 Basque children. A miracle of voluntary organisation transformed bare fields outside the port of Southampton into a well-equipped transit camp from which the children were sent to various homes organised to welcome them by trades councils, trade union branches, religious bodies and Basque children's committees where they were taught in their own language and enabled to cherish their own national culture, songs and dances as well as to grow up strong and healthy and free from fear. Over two thousand children returned to their homes and parents at the end of the war in Spain; many of the remainder have continued in Britain and now have families of their own.
The whole period of the Spanish struggle was marked by great public demonstrations, meetings and marches. Workers straight from their factories marched down Whitehall demanding ``Arms for Spain!"---not once but many times. Traffic at London's central ``hub'', Piccadilly Circus, was held up by people demonstrating with the same demand. London print workers formed a permanent organisation---the Printers' Anti-Fascist Movement. Mass meetings were held in Trafalgar Square; thousands of meetings, great and small, took place up and down the country. Scarcely a town in Britain lacked an Aid Spain Committee; several cities sent their own ambulances, provided through local collections. Unemployed workers, of whom there were over two million in Britain at that time, gave from their meagre resources tins of milk, clothing and whatever they could spare.
In all, over £2 million worth of cash and goods were contributed to help the people of Spain. Convoys of food and medical supplies were driven across France and over the Pyrenees. Twentynine ``foodships'' sailed into ports of the Spanish Republic, not counting the commercial vessels which continued to trade with Republican Spain despite the fascist blockade: a notable figure in this traffic was the well-known Captain ``Potato'' Jones of Cardiff, who sailed time and again to Spain's northern ports.
Within a few hours of the arrival, in February 1939, of the first refugees from Catalonia across the Pyrenees into France, a British committee had set up its headquarters in Perpignan to bring them aid. In June 1939, the S.S. Sinaia, chartered by the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, sailed for Mexico with 1,200 Spaniards aboard, whole families having been reunited with the help of the Perpignan committee. The British Committee for Refugees from Spain, formed after the end of the war to assist those Spaniards and international brigaders who succeeded in reaching England, remained in existence until the livelihood of every refugee was assured.
The movement of solidarity with the Spanish people was
60
An appeal for funds by Britain's National Joint Committee of Spanish Relief
without doubt the broadest and most widespread movement of
international solidarity ever seen in Britain up to that time, uniting the
most diverse sections of the whole population in support of the
heroic fight of the Spanish people against fascism.
How, then, in face of this great campaign of solidarity and aid for Republican Spain, were the governments of Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain able to pursue, from the beginning of the Spanish war to the end, a policy which ultimately ensured the military victory of Franco in Spain?
Bitterly anti-communist, the dominant section of the British ruling class was behind a policy of striving for agreement with the fascist dictators and of making concessions to them in the hope that the armed forces of Hitler Germany, in particular, would be launched towards the East in a ``crusade'' against the Soviet Union. That policy was given most shameful and dramatic expression in the Munich betrayal of Czechoslovakia, but it also ensured the equally infamous betrayal of the Spanish Republic. The second factor was the attitude of the Right-wing leadership of the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress, which prevented the mobilisation of a great united movement, led by the working class, of such strength that the reactionaries would have been compelled to give way before it.
From the very beginning of the Spanish war the rebel generals enjoyed the warm support of the reactionary forces in Britain and 61 a massive Conservative majority in Parliament. A person like the Duchess of Atholl, who was prepared to jeopardise a political career in the Conservative ranks in order to stand up for the Spanish Republic and principles of justice and decency, was a notable exception in the circles in which she moved.
While strangling the Spanish Republic with the noose of `` nonintervention'', the governments of Baldwin and Chamberlain pretended to be neutral. Some reactionary members of Parliament, however, disregarded the fig-leaf of ``neutrality'' and openly proclaimed their full support for Franco. Sir Henry Page Croft, for instance, said on March 23, 1938: ``I recognise General Franco to be a gallant Christian gentleman, and I believe his word.'' Speaking at the same London meeting, Captain Victor Cazalet described General Franco as ``the Leader of our cause today''. ``I hope to God Franco wins in Spain, and the sooner the better,'' exclaimed Sir Arnold Wilson.
Many, many other examples could be given of the deep devotion of many Conservative M.P.'s to that ``gallant Christian gentleman" who drowned Spain in blood. Churchill referred to this warm sympathy for Franco among the wealthy and privileged in Britain when he wrote at the end of 1938: ``Nothing has strengthened the Prime Minister's (Chamberlain's---Ed.) hold upon well-- todo society more remarkably than the belief that he is friendly to General Franco and the Nationalist cause in Spain."^^1^^
Sympathy for Franco---and for Hitler and Mussolini---went hand in hand with a fanatical hatred for the Soviet Union. Describing the instructions which he gave Foreign Secretary Eden shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish war, Baldwin said: ``On no account, French or other, must he bring us into the fight on the side of the Russians.''
For Baldwin (and for General Franco) the Spanish Republican Government, which consisted entirely of moderate bourgeois republican democrats, was Red, and the refusal of Manuel Azana and Jose Giral to let fascism enslave the country was nothing but ``Russian intrigues''. The suppression of Spanish democracy was the only outcome of the Spanish war, acceptable to British ruling circles. They saw the non-intervention policy, serving as a disguise for their true aims, as the means towards achieving the desired outcome. The policy of bogus neutrality was ``sold'' to the British people with the big lie that it was a policy of peace, that the only alternative was a European war. With this argument of ``peace in our time'', Parliament and people were expected to swallow the intervention of Italy and Germany in Spain, the sinking of British merchant ships carrying goods and foodstuffs to Republican Spain, the growing threat to British communications in the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Winston S. Churchill, Step by Step 1936--1939, London, 1942, p. 304.
62 Mediterranean and the pro-Franco acts of the British Government which became increasingly shameless as the Spanish war approached its conclusion.The official policy of encouraging fascism met with no resistance from the parliamentary opposition represented by the Labour Party.
The Right-wing leaders of the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress were more concerned with waging a battle against their own Left wing, and the Communist Party in particular, than with mobilising the people of Britain for militant action on behalf of the Spanish Republic. In fact the very idea of such action was abhorrent to them; moreover, they did their utmost to prevent anyone else from giving the leadership which they themselves refused to provide. On January 18, 1937, the Socialist League ( consisting of Left-wing members of the Labour Party), the Communist Party and the Independent Labour Party announced that they were going to launch a united campaign. On January 27, the Socialist League was expelled from the Labour Party.
There was a neat division of labour. The British Government brought pressure to bear on the French Government to ensure the continuation of the ``non-intervention'' policy, while Right-wing Labour leaders in Britain excused their own prolonged support for discredited ``non-intervention'' by pointing to the example of the French Government headed by the "tried Socialist" Leon Blum. Speaking at the 1936 Congress, Walter Citrine, then General Secretary of the TUG, tried to intimidate the delegates saying that a European war would break out if the munitions supplies needed by the Spanish Government were continued. This was a specious argument because Hitler Germany was not ready for war at the time. But it was appreciated by the Chamberlain Government, too.
Not until July 27, 1937, did the National Council of Labour (on which the Labour Party, the TUG and the Co-operative Movement were represented) finally dissociate itself officially from ``non-- intervention''. But even after that the many proposals for industrial action of one kind or another---protest strikes, refusals to handle goods destined for the Franco zone, etc.---were rejected one and all by the Right-wing leadership as ``impracticable''.
What many members of the Labour Party thought of the policy which had been pursued by their Right-wing leaders, however, was made clear in their speeches at the Labour annual conference in May 1939. When discussing a resolution moved by the party leadership, in which they expressed their hypocritical ``admiration for the heroism of the Spanish people" and censured the British Government for rendering aid to the insurgents, Delegate J. Poole told the conference: ``Those of us who have been tied up with the Spanish struggle the last two and a half years cannot allow that the conscience of the Party shall be finally appeased, or that the 63 sacrifices of the Spanish people shall be written off in a resolution and a few complacent paragraphs of the Executive's report.'' Delegate Sybil Wingate spoke out even more strongly: ``Lord Halifax has told us recently that this Government has no Spanish blood on its hands.... We know what to think of that Pontius Pilate, but what are we to say of ourselves, our own movement, of our National Executive who by their betrayal during the first terrible year, and their obstinate refusal to take any effective action worthy of the situation afterwards, have cost us the key position in the fight against fascism and sacrificed the lives of so many of our best and bravest comrades?''
The honour of the British labour movement was vindicated by the men and women who went to Spain to fight alongside their heroic Spanish brothers and sisters.
Eighty per cent of the 2,000 British volunteers came from the working class; the majority of them were Communists and members of the Labour Party.
The first British life to be given on behalf of Spanish freedom was that of Felicia Browne, a young woman artist. Felicia Browne was in Barcelona when the revolt broke out; she had travelled there, to attend the People's Olympiad, and immediately enrolled in the militia. She was shot on August 25, 1936, while rescuing a wounded comrade, Paolo Comida, after her patrol, engaged in a night operation on the Aragon Front, had been attacked and outnumbered by the enemy.
First move to organise a group of British volunteers was initiated by Sam Masters and Nat Cohen, two young London clothing workers, who were on a cycling holiday in France at the time or the revolt and at once crossed the frontier into Spain. In Barcelona they founded the Tom Mann Centuria from among the handful of British volunteers who had begun to arrive. When news came of the gathering of all the international volunteers at Albacete this group, now numbering 18 men, went to the newly-formed base and were attached to the Thaelmann Battalion. A dozen other Britishers who had by this time reached Albacete formed a machine-gun group and were enrolled in the French Battalion. Both these groups took part in the defence of Madrid.
Meanwhile in Britain the call had gone out for the formation of a British Battalion, and hundreds of volunteers had come forward. A tremendous lead in this campaign was given by Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of the Communist Party. Recruiting was carried on more or less openly until, on January 9, 1937, the British Government decided to make the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 applicable to Spain, and threatened those guilty of an offence under this Act with imprisonment up to two years or a fine, or both. Still more difficulties were encountered when the Non-- intervention Committee on February 20 enforced its ban on 64 volunteers and announced a system of control. But these obstacles only made the British anti-fascists more determined. A weekend ticket to Paris permitted exist from Britain and into France without a passport. They set out as ``tourists'', went to Paris and then, with the magnificent help of the French comrades, crossed the Pyrenees on foot or made the journey by sea, sometimes in small open boats.
During November and December 1936, nearly 500 British volunteers arrived at Madrigueras near Albacete, an assembly point for other English-speaking volunteers---Irishmen, Canadians, Cubans, Cypriots, etc. It must be remembered that Britain at that time did not have compulsory military service; only a small proportion of the volunteers (mostly veterans from the First World War) had had any military training or experience, and they were needed to help in the training of the younger men.
In late December the command of the Republican Army ordered the Albacete base to form a new International Brigade to be sent to the Southern Front. It was to check the insurgents' offensive in the Cordoba-Andujar sector. The new, 14th Brigade was formed in a matter of few days. The first to be sent to the front, on December 24, 1936, was the Marseillaise Battalion with a 145-strong company composed largely of British volunteers. Commander of the company was Captain George Nathan, a retired British Army officer; its political commissar was the Communist Ralph Fox, author, journalist and historian. The 14th Brigade, together with the Spanish units, fulfilled the task of checking the fascist breakthrough. But it lost many of its fighters. Ralph Fox lost his life in the battle for Lopera. This battle was the last for the gallant brigaders Lorrimer Birch, scientist and Oxford University graduate; John Cornford, Cambridge University graduate, Communist student leader and a poet of considerable promise; Joe Gough, unemployed worker from Luton; ``Tich'', formerly a sergeant in the British Army; McLaurin, a native of New Zealand who had come to Spain from England, and many others.
After nearly one month's fighting the company---by this time only 67 strong---returned to Madrigueras, where the work of training and organising the new recruits was going on steadily.
By the end of January 1937 the British Battalion, six hundred strong and composed of four companies with auxiliary units, was organised and ready. The leading part in its organisation was played by D. F. Springhall, who became battalion commissar, and Peter Kerrigan, who later took his place. It was incorporated into the newly-formed 15th Brigade along with the Franco-Belgian, Dimitrov and American battalions. The 15th Brigade went into battle on the Jarama in February.
On the 12th, 13th and 14th of February, 1937, the British Battalion underwent its "baptism of fire'', in position between two of __PRINTERS_P_65_COMMENT__ 5---781 65 the advancing fascist columns (Moroccans and the Foreign Legion mercenaries) who were the spearhead of the attack. By the morning of the second day its numbers had been reduced to 225. During; the first half of that day it repelled a fascist attempt to advance. Later the Moroccans broke through on the battalion's right flank and the entire machine-gun company was captured. Shortly afterwards the battalion commander, Tom Wintringham, was carried off with a wound in his thigh. The men stuck tenaciously tothe sunken road which was now their front line. On the morning of the 14th they were still there, tired, hungry, but undaunted. Commanded now by the Scotsman Jock Cunningham, who had ``escaped'' from hospital, they prepared to attack, but were surprised by enemy tanks followed by Moroccans. Without anti-tank guns or hand-grenades, small groups continued to fight on, but soon the tanks were on the road and the Republican line began to retreat. But then the retreating troops rallied. With Cunningham at their head, the 140 British survivors marched back to their positions. The line was held again. By nightfall the men who had been routed a few hours before settled down on the ground they had recaptured. In subsequent days the British beat back a series of minor attacks, and went into action again on February 27, when the Republican forces, attacking along the entire front, finally brought the battle to a close. The Jarama battle took heavy toll among; the British Battalion and particularly among its leadership. On the first day, the battalion lost two-thirds of its political and military commanders, and the next day practically the remainder. Newleadership sprang from the rank and file to replace the fallen and the wounded. Company Commander Briskey was one of the many competent and modest leaders of the British working class. Under his guidance, his company held a practically untenable position throughout February 12. He died as he wished to die, in action with his men. Ken Stalker, assuming command of a company in the thick of battle and disdaining to retreat, died at his post. Clem Beckett, famous in England as a ``dirt-track'' rider, was one of a group which held out for hours against superior forces. He and C. St. John Sprigg (the Marxist writer Christopher Caudwell) died side by side.
In those first days there fell too, Jim Wash from Birkenhead,
Leonard Bibby from Liverpool and Clifford Lawther from
Durham. George Bright was killed as he was bringing up much--
needed ammunition. Outstanding among the British comrades was;
Londoner Ralph Campeau, political commissar of No. 1
Company, whose organising ability and comradeship marked him as SL
leader among men. On February 12, in the thick of battle, his voice
could be heard singing the ``Young Guardsman" as he rallied and
steadied the men. Severely wounded by machine-gun fire, he died
some days later. M. Davidovitch of London, leader of the first-aid
66
A grave of British volunteers killed in action near the River Jarama in
February 1937
section showed great bravery throughout the terrible day of
February 12. Up and down, across bullet-swept slopes, he and his men
carried the wounded. He escaped death a hundred times until in
the late afternoon, when running to help another wounded man,
he was himself fatally wounded. As he lay dying he told those
who came to succour him to leave him there and attend to men
whose lives might be saved.
In March the battalion, together with the whole of the 15th Brigade, settled down to trench life, which continued until June 17, when it said goodbye to the Jarama and was then under marching orders for the great offensive at Brunete.
Meanwhile, in March, a group consisting of new British recruits and some men who had recovered from wounds received at Cordoba and Madrid were enrolled in the 20th Battalion of the 86th mixed Spanish Brigade to take part in the defence of Pozoblanco. Led by the Irish Lieutenant Paddy O'Daire, the British and Irish, some 40 in all, formed No. 1 Section of the Anglo-American company. After nearly four months on the Southern Front, this company returned to Albacete for the purpose of joining the 15th Brigade.
Between July 9 and 18, the British Battalion was in the thick of the fighting at Brunete. Major George Nathan was chief of operations, Jock Cunningham was in command of three of the six battalions of the 15th Brigade, and the British Battalion was led by Fred Copeman. On July 6 the British Battalion was ordered to __PRINTERS_P_67_COMMENT__ 5* 67 approach the town of Villanueva de la Canada, in order to cut the road leading to Brunete. There the fascists attempted a sortie using civilian men, women and children as their screen---an incident none of those present will ever forget.
The battalion remained in action for eight days and suffered heavy losses, many of its leading men being killed, including George Nathan, Bob Elliott, a Communist councillor from Durham, Bill Meredith, one of the heroes of the Jarama, Alex McDade of Glasgow (who wrote the words of the song ``Jarama'' which became the song of the British Battalion), and George Brown, a leading Communist from Manchester. Both Fred Copeman, the commander, and Bert Williams, the commissar, were compelled to leave the front line due to sickness; their places were taken by Joe Hinks and Walter Tapsell. The commander of the newly-formed anti-tank battery, Malcolm Dunbar, was wounded and his place was taken by Hugh Slater.
Slater (in The Book of the 15th Brigade] described an incident on the third day of the Brunete offensive in these terms: ``... Malcolm Dunbar and I were walking back from our most forward gun, over one of the undulations in the hills. We saw that our base was being violently bombarded. Some cases of ammunition were exploding in howling syncopation with the screaming of the enemy shells. The grass all round the guns and Cunningham's dugout was on fire. The whole area was a private little inferno.. . . Behind the smoke, moving about, we could see four or five grey, ghost-like forms. It was hardly believable that there could be men out in the open in the middle of crashing shells.. .. The members of the battery had been beating out the blazing grass with blankets. They had by their really magnificent nerve prevented further supplies of shells, and even the guns themselves, from being destroyed. The members of our anti-tank battery who were concerned in this splendidly courageous incident were Arthur Nicholl of Dundee, Geoffrey Mildwater of Finchley, Otto Estensen of Ormesby, Jimmy Arthur of Edinburgh, Jack Black of Dover, and Cooperman of the Brigade Staff. Black, our second-in-command, was killed after he had made two journeys to the ammunition-dump, pulling out cases.. .. This is simply one of the innumerable heroic actions which happened during those days.. ..''
On July 22, the British were ordered to hold a key position at the end of the line which ran south from Villafranca at the point where it turned west towards Brunete. After two days they were ordered to retire to defensive positions, but the order did not reach them for several hours, and they were in danger of being cut off. In the later afternoon, with only 42 men remaining out of the original 300, they advanced again and occupied a new position. The following day the fascists made several attempts to advance but were repulsed by the American Battalion. Only by July 26 had 68 the enemy's counter-attack spent itself. The 15th Brigade was moved into a reserve position.
After a few weeks' rest in the village of Mondejar, the British Battalion, now under command of Paddy O'Daire with Arthur Ollerenshaw, a former pilot in the Royal Air Force as his adjutant, took part in the capture of Quinto and Belchite, being given the task of defending Mediana, ten miles north of Belchite, in order to hold back a fascist force marching to the relief of the besieged town. When Belchite fell, the British Battalion went into reserve for a period, after being assured by General Walter ( Karol Swierczewski), in command of the 35th Division, that "in these operations the British Battalion fully justified its role and maintained the traditions of worthy and often outstanding effort which it has established in Spain''. Proudly inscribed in the records of the 15th Brigade is a copy of the telegram sent by the Commander of the Army of the East to General Walter:
``I send my most enthusiastic congratulations to all the commanders, officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of that brave Division, and especially to yourself and the llth and 15th brigades for the heroism and fighting spirit shown in brilliant action of the taking of Quinto ... an episode of great importance for the triumph of our cause.''
In October, the British Battalion moved back to the lines facing Fuentes del Ebro, where all battalions of the 15th Brigade were engaged, the major role in this operation being played by the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and a tank task force of the Spanish Battalion. The British suffered the loss of their commander, Harold Fry, and their commissar, Eric Whaley, fresh from England.
The 15th Brigade at the end of October went back to a group of villages near Madrid for reorganisation and renewed military and political training. In November, the battalion received from Britain a richly-embroidered banner, which was presented at a special parade attended by the commander of the 15th Brigade and the Mayor of Mondejar. Before Christmas came, two visitors had brought immense encouragement and stimulus to the British lads: Arthur Horner, later to become General Secretary of the Welsh Miners and of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of the Communist Party, who visited not only the British Battalion but every hospital and convalescent home where his compatriots were lying.
Teruel was taken by Spanish troops on December 22, 1937. In the first days of January 1938, the British Battalion, commanded by Bill Alexander, with Walter Tapsell as political commissar, began a period of service which was to last three months, 69 marking some of its best and most heroic actions but costing the lives of some 200 valiant comrades.
Half way through January the Brigade Headquarters was moved out from a railway-arch a few kilometres north-east of Teruel and established in the town itself. The four battalions moved into position facing the expected fascist counter-attack. This began on the morning of January 19. The Spanish, Canadian and British comrades smashed the fascist attempt to advance down the valley leading directly into Teruel. On the evening of January 20, the commander of the 5th Army Corps, Juan Modesto, specially commended the British Battalion on its stand, and its commander, Bill Alexander, was promoted on the field to the rank of captain.
In February the British Battalion was again in action, this time in the vicinity of Segura de los Banos. ``The 15th Brigade again stole the day.. . . We took prisoner a whole company with its commander, a captain; captured nine machine-guns, three mortars and more than a hundred rifles. On the following day, February 16, the 15th Brigade inflicted heavy losses on the two fresh counter-attacking enemy battalions,"^^1^^ wrote General Walter, commander of the 35th Division. Here the battalion successfully routed superior fascist forces and was again commended by General Walter. Casualties in this action were somewhat lighter than before; this can perhaps be attributed to the increased military efficiency and battle-training of the battalion. But Bill Alexander was wounded and became so seriously ill that he was finally invalided back to England in July. Sam Wild, who had formerly served in the Royal Navy, became commander of the battalion.
March and April of 1938 were the days of trial for the British Battalion and the entire 15th Brigade; the fascists had succeeded in breaking the Aragon Front, and the Republican troops were retreating in disorder. As soon as the first reports on the enemy offensive were received, the 15th Brigade was ordered by the divisional command to move to the front line. But it was not yet known that the front line had been left behind by the retreating Republican troops.
Marching towards Belchite in the early hours of March 10, the British Battalion entered an olive grove some two kilometres north of the town, where they found themselves in the immediate vicinity of the enemy. Subjected to heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, the battalion held on until they were literally blasted out. Sam Wild ordered each company to march down the road and take up positions for covering the retreat. During their retreat through the ``dead'' town, the British took up positions five times and combated the enemy. The last of the Republican forces to leave _-_-_
~^^1^^ Historical Archives, No. 2, 1962, p. 175 (in Russian).
70 the town were 90 Britishers who kept up a brilliant resistance to the last moment and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.On March 11, still withdrawing, the battalion found itself almost encircled, but after a night's forced marching, it broke out and reached the Brigade Headquarters at Vinaceite. The British reached Caspe on March 15 and fought a heavy rearguard action there in the course of which, due to the infiltrating tactics of the enemy and the difficulty of telling friend from foe, Battalion Commander Sam Wild and three others were captured---but smashed their way through their captors, one of the four using a tin of corned beef as a club!---and escaped. The commander received orders to occupy a new position on the fringe of the town and did so, but during the night the position was encircled and the British had to retire again. They retired through Caspe, taking up every position into which they were ordered and holding it until ordered to move. For this work Sam Wild was promoted to the rank of captain.
On March 31, 1938, the British Battalion, marching through Calaceite = __SPOT_CHECK__ Was a 8226 before "Calaceite" ... cannot find book. 2007.11.14. on its way to the front, marched into an enemy ambush. A fierce struggle ensued in which they put several enemy tanks out of action. But 140 men were taken prisoner that morning. Among those captured was the popular commissar of the battalion, Walter Tapsell, who later was shot by the fascists.
After the next 24-hour fighting, during which a further 150 men were killed and wounded, the battalion was regrouped under Captain Malcolm Dunbar, and Bob Cooney as commissar. Crossing mountainous country under heavy fire, they took up position on the high ground commanding the two roads to Tortosa and Mora del Ebro. For twelve hours they prevented a large fascist column from moving down the road, giving the Republican forces time to blow up the bridge across the Ebro. By nightfall their position had become untenable, and the following morning they crossed the river in small boats and rejoined the main body of their division.
During the next eight weeks, while the enemy was concentrating on Valencia, the Ebro Front was quieter. The time was spent in regrouping, reorganising and preparing for the crossing of the Ebro. It was at this time that Pandit Nehru and Krishna Menon visited the battalion.
At midnight on July 25, the battalion received its long-- awaited orders for the crossing of the Ebro.
The 15th Brigade crossed at Mora del Ebro; the first of its battalions to cross was the Canadian. But they had been preceded by Spanish troops from other brigades which had mopped up all resistance. The British followed the Canadians, some in boats and some on the first pontoon bridge. They advanced quickly in the direction of Corbera and by late afternoon were outside the town 71 and attacking the hills on the left, which were occupied by Moroccans. In an all-night battle the Moroccans were driven off and the Dabrowski Brigade was able to advance and occupy Corbera.
It was in the fight against the hill protecting Gandesa that the British fought their toughest action in this campaign and won the title of "shock battalion''. This high fortified hill, known as Hill 481, resisted all attacks. Collaborating on different occasions with their Canadian and American comrades and with the Spanish units of the 5th Corps the British and Irish attacked the hill for five successive days. On August 1, they flung themselves into the final and most furious assault, which lasted twelve continuous hours. At one time the leading men were within 20 metres from the fascist positions, but were driven back by fire from three directions---from the hilltop, from Gandesa and from a valley on their right flank. At 10 o'clock that night they were ordered to stop, though they were preparing---and prepared---for yet another attempt.
On the night of August 6, after thirteen days' continuous action, the battalion went into reserve. After eight days it went back into the line and fought in the defence of the famous Hill 666 in the Sierra Pandols. It was here that Battalion Commander Sam Wild was wounded in the hand. He refused to leave the line. For his leadership in the Ebro battle he was awarded the Medal of Valour and, before his departure from Spain, was raised to the rank of major.
On August 26 the battalion went into rest, but was back in the line on September 6, acting as shock troops wherever necessary. On September 22 the 15th Brigade was ordered to relieve the 13th Brigade and move into action. By this time it was known that the Republican Government had decided to withdraw the International Brigades. The battalion's last fight on the Ebro was as fierce as its first fight on the Jarama in February 1937.
On September 23, they crossed the Ebro once more---to take leave of their comrades of the Republican Army and prepare for their return to England. Their ranks were sadly depleted. Harry Dobson, Lewis Clive, David Guest, Morris Miller, Jack Nalty, Liam McGregor---all commanders or commissars, were among those who had fallen in the last battle. British volunteers were returning home having trained many young Spanish fighters to take their place. The British Battalion, like other international units, had long been replenished by Spanish fighters, and the 15th Brigade was lately commanded by a Spaniard.
War was not over for all of the volunteers. British medical personnel continued to save the lives of the wounded and convalescing Republicans. Several of the medical volunteers remained with their patients during the retreat from Catalonia into France and continued to care for them in the French camps. Eleven doctors and 29 72 nurses, with some 35 ambulance drivers, administrative workers and other personnel, took part in the Spanish war alongside the British volunteers. One doctor, Sollenberger, was killed at Brunete. The British medical personnel served on all fronts, and British funds were contributed to the upkeep of two base hospitals, at Huete and Ucles, and one convalescent hospital at Valdeganga.
Dr R.S. Saxton continued the work begun by the Canadian -Dr Norman Bethune, and his mobile blood-transfusion service played an important part in the Ebro campaign. Dr L. Crome became divisional medical officer of the 35th Division. The British nurses were highly-esteemed for their excellent training, their courage and devotion to duty. Among the medical and other personnel sent to Spain was a group of highly-skilled motor-mechanics led by Harry Evans whose superb work in repairing and refitting damaged ambulances and other vehicles was of tremendous help.
British volunteers took part in the unforgettable farewell parade in Barcelona. Owing to difficulties caused by the hostile attitude of the British and French governments, the British Battalion did not arrive back in London until December 7, 1938. They were received at Victoria Station by a vast crowd which completely dislocated the traffic and broke through the police cordons which were attempting to control the situation. After welcoming speeches from Clement Attlee, Sir Stafford Cripps, Tom Mann, the trade-union leader, William Gallacher, Communist member of Parliament and the President of the Mineworkers' Federation, Will Lawther (whose brother had been killed in Spain), Sam Wild replied in these words:
``We intend to keep the promise we made to the Spanish people before we left---that we would change our front but continue to fight in England for the assistance of Spain.''
The International Brigade Association was formed immediately after the return of the British Battalion to England and has remained in active existence ever since. It did not have to undertake the task of caring for the disabled fighters or the families of the fallen, because this task had already been undertaken by the Dependents' Aid Committee of the International Brigade, formed in June 1937, which raised well over £50,000 to meet these needs.
The Association entered the political struggle for continued support to the Spanish Republic, its members going on speaking tours throughout the country to enlist further aid and support for Spain. It also began to raise funds and to campaign on behalf of the less fortunate comrades-in-arms of the International Brigades who could not return to their homes---those in the camps of southern France and those still in prison in Spain.
After the outbreak of the Second World War the Association
conducted a vigorous campaign on behalf of those international
volunteers who were in prisons and concentration camps in France
73
Welcoming British volunteers of the International Brigades at London's
Victoria Station, 1938
and North Africa; a highlight of this campaign was the collection
of hundreds of signatures of notable people on behalf of Franz
Dahlem, Heinrich Rau and Luigi Longo after the German
occupation of France. The Association also called a conference of exiled
governments in London to urge these governments to demand
the release of their nationals from Spanish prisons and camps and
allow them to proceed to England to take part in the war against
fascism.
The great majority of the British volunteers entered the armed forces---though some, because of prejudice in high places, were refused and many were denied promotion. A number of outstanding anti-fascist fighters gave their lives in this continuation of the struggle.
The Association itself published a monthly journal, first called The Volunteer for Liberty and later Spain Today which continued to give news of the struggle of the Spanish people and to rally support for it for fifteen unbroken years until it was compelled by rapidly rising printing costs to stop publication. The Association never ceased to campaign on behalf of the Spanish people and their Republican leaders, rallying great support on behalf of such noted figures as Santiago Alvarez, Sebastian Zapirain, and Gregorio Lopez Raimundo, and raising large sums of money to send British lawyers to attend trials of Spanish political prisoners; 74 tribute has been paid over and over again to the effectiveness of these campaigns and to the presence of British legal observers at Franco trials---though in some lamentable instances such as the trial of Julian Grimau, the protest and the presence of international lawyers were not sufficient to prevent disaster.
Basing itself always in the British trade-union and labour movement, the Association has continued, and still continues, to rally support for the Spanish people's struggle for freedom. Under its four successive secretaries, Bill Rowe, Jack Brent, Alec Digges and Nan Green, it has won and kept its high standing among the British working class and people. It has issued thousands of pamphlets and leaflets, protest cards and posters; to this day scarcely a week goes past without its members going out to address meetings of trade-union branches, youth groups and other organisations. It has held great public rallies and demonstrations. Every leading representative of the Franco regime visiting England---- Castiella, Fraga Iribarne and so on---has been met by demonstrations of workers and trade unionists carrying banners and shouting slogans on behalf of Spanish democracy and against Franco and his regime.
Former British volunteers have won leading positions in many trade-union organisations, notable among these being Will Paynter of the National Union of Mineworkers and J. L. Jones of the Transport & General Workers' Union, both highly respected national figures.
The Association's activity has helped to keep fresh in people's minds the memories of the heroic anti-fascist struggle of the Spanish people in the thirties.
Today solidarity with the Spanish people and support for their struggle against the Franco regime remains, as in the thirties, part of the peace movement of the working class and progressives in Britain.
[75] __ALPHA_LVL1__ BULGARIAIn the years 1936 to 1939, when the great fight of democracy against fascism was being waged in Spain, the Bulgarian people were being held down by a monarchical fascist dictatorship. The Communist Party had gone underground back in 1923. After the military fascist coup d'etat of May 19, 1934, all political parties had been banned. By means of fascist terror and social demagogy a handful of big capitalists and bankers under the aegis of the monarchy had the power firmly in their hands. The anti-national foreign policy of the ruling clique drove Bulgaria into the embraces of the Hitlerite aggressors. But Bulgarian fascism, unlike German, was incapable of gaining wide support among the masses. The revolutionary traditions of the armed uprisings of 1918 and 1923 were still strong among the people. Mass sympathy was on the side of the forces opposing fascism.
The most active of these forces was the Bulgarian Communist Party which, although operating illegally, had a powerful influence in town and country. The Bulgarian Popular Agricultural Union (BPAU), the mass peasant party, also played a big part in the struggle against the monarcho-fascist government. The opposition included also the petty-bourgeois political organisation Zveno (Link), which had considerable influence among military circles and the democratic-minded intelligentsia, the Social-- Democratic, democratic and radical parties, and other political groupings. The Communist Party made every effort to build up a Popular Front uniting all the country's anti-fascist forces for the overthrow of the monarcho-fascist regime. An intense struggle between democracy and fascist reaction was developing in Bulgaria.
Naturally enough, the events in Spain, where this struggle had flared up into civil war roused a widespread response among Bulgarians. The attitude of the political parties and the masses to these events diverged sharply from the position of official circles. The government of Georgy Kyoseivanov joined the ``non-- 76 intervention" agreement and declared a position of neutrality in relation to the belligerents---Republicans and Francoists. In practice it did everything it could to support the insurgents and undermine the interests of the legal Spanish Government. In August 1936 the Bulgarian Government not only prohibited the export and transit of arms to Spain but also virtually stopped all trade with the Spanish Republic. On April 9, 1937, it published the Decree on Non-Participation of Bulgarian Subjects in the Spanish Civil War. This created a barrier only for the departure of antifascist volunteers because hardly anyone wanted to fight on the side of Franco.
Although Bulgaria still had official diplomatic relations with the Spanish Republic, the Bulgarian Government allowed a representative of the Spanish insurgents to stay in Sofia and granted him freedom of action, while interfering with the normal work of the Spanish Republic's mission in a variety of ways.
The government censorship restricted publication of truthful information on the events in Spain, while the yellow pro-fascist press, using all the tricks of corrupt bourgeois journalism, tried to smear the government of the Popular Front. It was particularly zealous in denigrating the idea of solidarity with the Spanish Republic, and also in arguing that the Republicans' struggle against the insurgents had no real backing and was therefore hopeless. Slanderously accusing the USSR of one-sided intervention in internal Spanish affairs and intimidating the ordinary public with talk of a military threat, the reactionary papers pumped the idea that all resistance to German-Italian intervention in Spain would lead to war in Europe.
The semi-official newspaper Ones (Today), organ of the fascist Popular Social Movement, the paper Slovo (Word) and other similar publications conducted a frantic campaign against the Spanish Popular Front and praised Franco to the skies. For them the insurgents were ``courageous'', ``patriotic'' Spaniards rebelling against the ``regime of terror'', against ``unprecedented violation of individual freedom and private property".
The attacks on the Spanish Repubic came not only from the right but also from the ``left'', from numerically small groups of Bulgarian anarchists, and also Trotskyites who called for a `` proletarian revolution" against the government of the Popular Front.
In contrast to these forces that were hostile to the Spanish people, the overwhelming majority of the democratic public and bourgeois anti-fascist opposition, despite differences of opinion and some wavering (particularly over the question of non-- intervention), was in sympathy with the Spanish Republic and the cause that it was defending.
The consistent defender of the Spanish people was the vanguard of the working class---the Communists. They were joined by 77 the Left-wing Socialists, the Left-wing majority of the Agricultural Union and members of the Zveno organisation.
The Communist Party launched a big propaganda campaign in defence of the Spanish Republic, published illegal newspapers and leaflets. It also used the pages of the legal democratic papers and magazines (for example, the weekly Zarya (Dawn), Stranitsy (Pages) and Globus (Globe) which continued to appear despite the strict censorship and frequent government bans. The Communists also brought a large quantity of progressive literature from abroad that gave an objective account of the situation in Spain. The Soviet and Spanish broadcasts in Bulgarian were an effective form of propaganda in defence of the Spanish people.
The communist and democratic press exposed the insurgents as being directly responsible for the civil war and stressed the terroristic nature of Spanish fascism. ``The medieval Spanish Inquisition pales in comparision with the white terror sweeping through the provinces captured by the insurgents'', stated the leaflet Spain in the Struggle Against Fascism that was illegally distributed by the Communists. ``In Spain people are fighting against wild beasts,'' wrote the newspaper Zashchita (Defence), the illegal organ of IRA in Bulgaria, on June 15, 1937. These papers reported the heroic exploits of the Spanish anti-fascists and expressed admiration for their selfless struggle.
The revolutionary poet Nikola Vaptsarov devoted to the heroism of the Spanish people several of his poems---``Spain'', ``Dream'', ``Song to a Comrade'', ``Song to Wife" and ``Letter''--- considered by progressive literary critics to be some of the best and most impressive works on this subject in world poetry.
The courage of the defenders of Madrid was hailed by the writer Svetoslav Minkov in his book Madrid Is Burning. ``These people,'' he wrote ``deserve all admiration, and their great feat---our profound respect."^^1^^ The same feeling (although in a more veiled form because of the harsher censorship) was expressed by the poet Mladen Isayev in his book The Unquiet Planet, published in 1937.
In her articles What I Saw in Spain the writer Maria Grubeshliyeva had high praise for the valour of the Spanish people, particularly the people of Madrid, selfless defenders of their home city. She wrote: ``Madrid has displayed remarkable staunchness and steadfastness. Never before has a city, in conditions of modern warfare and under continuous bombardment, been able to resist with such heroism and resolve."^^2^^
The Communist writer Krystu Belev in his book Spain Calls, published in Paris in the autumn of 1937 and later illegally _-_-_
~^^1^^ S. Minkov, Madrid Is Burning, 2nd ed., Sofia, 1945, p. 101 (in Bulgarian).
~^^2^^ Maria Grubeshliyeva, What I Saw in Spain at the Writers' Congress in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, Sofia, 1938, p. 44 (in Bulgarian).
78
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the civil war the newspaper Zarya of July 27, 1938, wrote: ``It would be hard to find in human history a more heroic epic of the struggle of a whole people against enslavers and aggressors.''
The communist and democratic press produced a mass of evidence to show how the fascist powers were helping the insurgents and severely criticised the policy of ``non-intervention''. ``It is only neutrality' that helps the Spanish insurgents to crucify the Republic, to undermine the foundation of world democracy,'' wrote the newspaper Tribuna published by Communists and Left-wing Socialists^ on October 10, 1936. ``Raise the blockade of the Spanish Republic!" demanded the democratic newspaper Vedrina ( Freshness) on September 18, 1936. ``The London Non-intervention Committee is a piece of terrible and cynical hypocrisy,'' stated the weekly Stranitsy on October 27, 1937.
In the conditions created in Bulgaria by the monarcho-fascist police regime it was very difficult to express sympathy for the Spanish Republic by organising conferences, meetings and demonstrations. The Bulgarian anti-fascists showed their solidarity mainly by sending messages of greetings from the workers, peasants, young people and soldiers. ``We shall never stop thinking for a moment about the valiant struggle of the Spanish people against 79 the insurgent generals,'' wrote a group of soldiers of the Sofia garrison in a letter to Largo Caballero, Premier of the Spanish Republic. The illegal All-Bulgaria Conference of the Trade-Union United Front sent a message to the heroic Spanish workers. In the summer of 1937, sixty-nine prominent Bulgarian doctors in a letter to Lord Robert Cecil, Chairman of the International Peace Committee, presented a protest against the fascist terror in Spain and expressed their solidarity with the Spanish democrats.
One concrete result of the activity of the Communists and all anti-fascists in support of the Spanish Republic was the collection of means of material assistance. Money, clothing, medicines and food supplies were collected all over the country illegally.
The Bulgarian Government was forced in some measure to heed the voice of the people. Neither the head of the Bulgarian Government Kyoseivanov nor any of his ministers, although entirely on Franco's side, dared to come out openly in his support. Despite the fact that it allowed an unofficial representative of the insurgents to reside in Sofia as early as 1936, the Bulgarian Government did not recognise the Franco regime in November 1936, as did the other fascist states, but only in March 1939, that is, after the ``democratic'' governments of Britain and France had done so.
As in other countries, many anti-fascists in Bulgaria were keen to go and fight for Spanish freedom. In January 1937, a Bulgarian delegation, including YCLers and members of the socialist and agricultural youth unions, visited the USSR. A report presented to the Communist Youth International stated that thousands of Bulgarian young people wanted to fight for Republican Spain, but that the government was putting all kinds of obstacles in their way and the majority were unable to carry out their wish. All the same despite the obstacles and restrictions, nearly 460 Bulgarian volunteers fought in Spain. More than two-thirds of the Bulgarian volunteers were Communists. Nearly all the rest were non-party or sympathisers of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The volunteers also included a few anarchists, Social-Democrats and members of the Agricultural Union.
Many Communist volunteers were active members of the Party
and the Young Communist League, and some of them were
members of their central committees (Sybi Dimitrov, Ruben Avramov,
Spas Georgiyev, Dimitr Papajakov, Kosta Penev, Blagoi Ivanov,
Raiko Damyanov). These well-tried members of the Communist
Party had much practical experience of setting up illegal
organisations among the civilian population and in the army in
conditions of harsh fascist dictatorship, experience of leading mass armed
struggle against reaction. They had been through all the
horrors of the fascist prisons and faced death more than once. The rich
80
Bulgarian volunteers.
First row left to right: engineer Zhecho Gyumyushev (Raiko Gryncharov),
Ferdinand Kozovsky (Colonel Petrov), Karlo Lukanov (Colonel Belov),
engineer Ivan Shcherev (Jaroslav Tasek)
experience of the Bulgarian volunteers in political and armed
struggle was of significant help to them in the tasks they had to
perform in Spain.
Most of the Bulgarian volunteers had a good mastery of military and technical skills. Their best military experts were the Bulgarian political emigres who had lived in the USSR. There were about a hundred of them. They had taken part in the September uprising of 1923 and in the guerrilla movement in Bulgaria from 1924 to 1925; they had also served at some time in the Bulgarian Army, and during their stay in the USSR, in the Red Army. They included highly qualified engineers and doctors. All those with a sound military, political and professional background were appointed to responsible posts by the Spanish Government or given commands in the International Brigades. Ferdinand Kozovsky (Colonel Petrov) and Tsvyatko Radoinov (Colonel Radionov) were military advisers on sectors of the Madrid Front. Pyotr Panchevsky, who had graduated a military engineering academy in the USSR, was adviser to the chief of the engineer corps of the Spanish Republic. He was involved in the preparation and conduct of a number of major operations. Ruben Avramov (Miguel Gomez) worked at the central school for commissars and helped to edit the magazine El Comisario, organ of the General Military Commissariat.
__PRINTERS_P_81_COMMENT__ 6---781 81A group of Bulgarian volunteers took an active part in organising and operating the international brigade base at Albacete. In the second half of 1937 Karlo Lukanov (Belov) was chief of the base. Under his leadership much was done to strengthen the apparatus and organise schools for training volunteers in various military skills. Georgi Mikhailov (Zhelezov) was in charge of the personnel department of the International Brigades from 1937 to 1938. Bulgarian officers took part in the formation and work of training centres in Pozorrubio, Casas Ibanez, Cambrills, Figueras, Olot, and elsewhere. Lyubomir Todorov (Karbov), Doncho Dyankov, Iliya Balev and others were of great help in organising the central supply service in Albacete catering for the International Brigades. Its chief from December 1936 to June 1937 was Karbov, under whose direction supply services were set up in the brigades.
There were twenty-five Bulgarian officers working as military instructors, mainly in the Spanish units, where officers as well as soldiers often lacked sufficient military training. They taught the Spaniards and officers and men of other nationalities weaponhandling and the tactics of modern warfare. This work continued even during military operations and at the front line in the heat of battle.
The Bulgarian volunteers worked and fought as instructors or advisers in many Republican formations and units---in eight corps, 14 divisions and more than 20 brigades. In the medical service of the International Brigades, its central and lower echelons, there were fifteen Bulgarians working alongside doctors of other nationalities in organising and administering medical aid: Tsvetan Kristanov (Oscar Telge), Peter Kolarov (Franek), Konstantin Michev (Minkov), Simeon Grozev, killed at Brunete, Georgi Dobrev Stoyev (Schwarz), Raiko Radevsky (Rodez), and others. Doctor Kristanov was for a long time chief of the medical service of the International Brigades, and Kolarov and Michev his deputies.
The following figures show the scale of activity of the Bulgarian and other doctors in the international medical service. At the beginning of 1938 it had 240 doctors of various nationalities, more than 800 people with intermediate medical qualifications and about 1,500 junior medical assistants and helpers. They served seventeen permanent hospitals with five to six thousand beds. In addition, in 1937 nearly forty mobile field hospitals, that were either closed down or passed on to the medical services of the Spanish units when the International Brigades were moved to another front, were organised on the fighting lines. Its ambulances and transports made a total of 170 vehicles. All together in 1937, 27,015 wounded soldiers, internationalists and Spaniards, passed through the permanent hospitals.
There were twenty Bulgarian engineers and several technicians working in the war industry of the Spanish Republic, sharing 82 their experience and knowledge with Spanish experts and helping to arrange the production of arms and ammunition. Engineer Stoiko Marinov (Paul Samter) was appointed chief of the artillery section of the Arms Commissariat on February 1, 1937. Engineers Nikolai Vasilev Kolarov and Nedelcho Chobanov were working on orders from the Ministry of Defence. Kolarov was an adviser to the engineering units of the Central Front. He took an active part in building the railway that joined Madrid with the Valencian line and facilitated the transportation of supplies to the capital and the Central Front and also the strategic movement of troops. Chobanov taught at a sapper school and at the same time supervised the building of roads and fortifications on the Ebro sector.
Engineers Ivan Shcherev (Tasek) and Zhecho Gyumyushev (Gryncharov) and Spanish engineers organised production of searchlights for anti-aircraft defence in Madrid. The greater part of the Bulgarian volunteers were in the field army, mainly in the infantry and artillery units, and they fought on nearly all fronts of the Republic.
Some individual Bulgarian volunteers took part in the fighting against the fascists as early as the summer of 1936, and also in the first regular international unit---the llth Brigade, which was formed at the beginning of November 1936. On November 9, 1936, it counter-attacked the fascists in the Madrid park Casa de Campo, in the University City, and threw them back beyond the River Manzanares. It was here that the Bulgarian Ferdinand Kozlovsky (Petrov) began his military service and was appointed second-- incommand of the newly organised 12th International Brigade, under the Hungarian Mate Zalka (Lukacs).
This brigade received most of the Bulgarian volunteers arriving in Spain at that time. They were all enlisted in the Balkan company of the Thaelmann Battalion, which consisted of volunteers of Balkan and Slav nationalities. The company took part in all the glorious campaigns of the 12th Brigade, from the first attack on the Cerro de los Angeles Height on November 13, 1936, and the fighting in the University City to the triumphant defeat of the Italian intervention forces in March 1937. In April and May 1937 the Balkan Company became the nucleus of the reformed battalion named after the Yugoslav Communist revolutionary Djuro Djakovic; this battalion was commanded by the Bulgarian volunteer Nikola Marinov (Khristov), who had formerly commanded the Balkan Company.
During the heavy fighting in the University City the 12th Brigade relieved the llth, which had been exhausted by the ten days' battle and heavy losses. On November 19 to 20 the Balkan Company occupied the building of the Agricultural Science Faculty but was attacked by fascist tanks from the rear. Withdrawing to __PRINTERS_P_83_COMMENT__ 6* 83 new positions in the University City and suffering heavy losses, it held up the further advance of the fascists who were trying to break through to the districts of Madrid proper. The next day the company counter-attacked under the command of Captain Khristov.
After stubborn fighting in the University City in the western sector of the Madrid defences the 12th Brigade launched a successful offensive on the Guadalajara sector along the Zaragoza highway at the beginning of January. As part of the Dabrowski Battalion the Balkan Company stormed the village of Almadrones, taking prisoners and equipment. Other battalions of the brigade liberated the populated areas of Algora and Mirabueno.
Two months later the Balkan Company was once again on the Guadalajara sector. Two international brigades---llth and 12th--- and other shock units of the Republican Army faced up to an attack by four divisions of the Italian expeditionary corps at the beginning of March. Captain Khristov was put in charge of this sector of the front with the task of securing the brigade's right flank and the whole group of Republican troops. The Balkan Company with the Spanish units attached to it carried out this task. On March 18 the Republican front launched a counter-offensive and the Balkan troops and other attacking units of the 12th Brigade entered Brihuega that evening.
In the battle on the Jarama in February 1937 two groups of Bulgarians fought as part of the Balkan Company and in the ranks of the Georgi Dimitrov Battalion of the newly formed 15th International Brigade. This battalion included twenty Bulgarian volunteers. The commander of its first company, where the Bulgarians were concentrated, was Mavrodiyev (Ivan Tsipurkov); the commissar of the company and later of the whole battalion was Dobroyev (Miron Georgiyev). The battalion was commanded by Ivan Ivanov Paunov (Grebenarov), an outstanding figure in the military organisation of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the twenties, who had received his military training in the Soviet Union. A highly skilled officer, devoted and extremely brave, warm-hearted in his relations with his subordinates and much loved by them, Grebenarov was for all a splendid example of courage and resolve in battle.
In The Book of the 15th Brigade, published by its commissariate in Madrid in 1938, the Dimitrov Battalion was described as follows: ``They had justifiably earned a record as our crack battalion. At the Jarama . . . they were the core of resistance in every defence, the spearhead of every attack."^^1^^
The battalion went into action on February 12 in the sector where the main forces of the fascists tried to break through. For many _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Book of the 15th Brigade, Madrid, 1938, p. 299.
84 days the Dimitrov men fought off several attacks every day by Moroccans and frequently counter-attacked themselves. The battalion commander, the company commanders and all other officers and commissars of the battalion were always in the front ranks of the fighting men in these engagements, encouraging them and leading the attacks. Grebenarov, Mavrodiyev, Pyotr Aleksiyev and other Bulgarians died heroically in these battles. The casualty lists testify to the self-sacrifice and heroism of the volunteers in the bloody fighting on the Jarama: after five days---from February 12 to 17---only 215 men were left out of the 565 of the Dimitrov Battalion. Other battalions of the 15th Brigade suffered similar losses.Nearly all the Bulgarian volunteers in the Djakovic and Dimitrov battalions, the Vasil Kolarov Battery and the tank units took part in the next big battle on the Madrid Front, the Brunete operation in July 1937.
The Djakovic Battalion consisted of volunteers from the Balkan countries and Spaniards. Bulgarian officers and instructors took an active part in organising and training the men of the battalion. Besides the battalion commander, Khristov, and several staff officers, two of its company commanders and a number of platoon and section commanders were also Bulgarian volunteers. This battalion, which was part of the 45th Division, arrived at the front near Brunete on July 14, 1937, when the Republican Army's offensive had halted and it took up defence, beating off fascist attacks. The battalion engaged in heavy defensive fighting and launched several counter-attacks. During one of them Georgi Zhulev, one of the battalion's staff officers, Captain Todorov, a company commander, and other Bulgarian volunteers died heroically.
The Dimitrov Battalion, which had not yet rested after four months of positional warfare on the Jarama, marked the first day of the Brunete operation by successfully attacking the enemy position at Villanueva de la Canada and took part in the Republican Army's seizure of the town. For three weeks the Dimitrov men were in the field, inflicting heavy losses on the fascists, and losing a larger part of their own men. By the end of the operation only 143 were left out of 445. The Bulgarians, like the other Dimitrov men under the command of the Hungarian volunteer Mihaly SzaU vai, known under the pseudonym of Chapayev, devoted every effort to make the operation successful in the unbearable July heat and under a murderous enemy fire. They were set a fine example by the battalion commissar, the Bulgarian Prodan Tabakov, who more than once led the men in attack, organised fighting reconnaissance and led units of the battalion out of encirclement.
Nine Bulgarian tank officers, who arrived in Spain in March 1937, received their baptism of fire at Brunete. Commanding 85 tanks and tank platoons, they took part in offensive and defensive operations. The Bulgarian tank men formed part of the tank unit which on July 23 to 25, at the Republican Army's gravest hour, counter-attacked the enemy infantry that had broken through, and helped to restore the position at the front.
In October of the same year on the Aragon Front the Bulgarian tank men took part in an abortive tank attack at Fuentes del Ebro. In the extremely difficult conditions of this battle, which took place over marshy ground, the Republican tank crews, including the Bulgarians, showed heroism and self-control. For example, tank commander Georgi Toshev (Khristo Doichev), after successfully disengaging, returned to help his comrades whose tanks had been bogged down or were crippled by the enemy. The platoon's second-in-command Georgi Yankov (Mirko Stankov), whose tank caught fire and whose gun and machine-gun were put out of action, was surrounded by fascists but did not lose his self-control, broke through the enemy ring and brought his tank out of battle. Boris Shishkov (Spas Belkov Filippov), second-in-command of a tank regiment, chose to die in a burning tank rather than surrender to the fascists. G. Toshev and V. Kunchev came out of battle badly wounded.
During the Republican Army's offensive operations on the Aragon Front, which began on August 22, 1937, the Djakovic and Dimitrov battalions also took part in the assault on and liberation of the towns of Quinto and Belchite, which the nazi military engineers had turned into fortresses. The Dimitrov Battalion displayed splendid fighting qualities in desperate street fighting.
After the Aragon operations the Dimitrov Battalion and the Djakovic and Masaryk battalions became part of the newly organised ``Slavonic'' International Brigade, which was given the number 129. In March and April 1938, when the insurgents and intervention forces broke through the Aragon Front and struck eastwards, cutting the territory of Republican Spain in two, the 129th International Brigade held up the enemy on the main breakthrough sector, and then became part of the Levante Front, at which Franco struck his next blow. For successful fulfilment of these missions the 129th Brigade received a commendation from the corps commander and was awarded the Medal of Valour by the Spanish Government.
A group of Bulgarian volunteers (forty men) was put into the separate battalion of the 45th Division (the so-called Divisionario), which was operating on the northern flank of the breakthrough. Most of them were killed or wounded in the exceptionally stubborn and bitter fighting during the last major operation of the Republican forces on the River Ebro. The Bulgarian gunners of the 45th and 35th divisions also took part in this action.
86This brief account of the operations of the Bulgarian volunteers should be concluded with a mention of the Kolarov Battery and the Bulgarian airmen.
The battery was formed in March 1937 as a unit of the Slavonic heavy artillery battalion. The forty Bulgarian volunteers who served in this battery and battalion fought for over a year on the Southern Front.
Three Bulgarian pilots, Zakhary Zakhariyev, Kirill Kirillov and Nikolai Vatov, arrived in Spain with other internationalist airmen in August 1936, when the Spanish Republic had only a few pilots and old-fashioned aircraft. The Italo-German air force was in command of the air. In this difficult situation the Bulgarian airmen in September and October bombed enemy targets and engaged in combat with the fascist aircraft. For their exploit in Spain Vatov and Kirillov were decorated with the Soviet Orders of the Red Banner and Zakhariyev became Hero of the Soviet Union.
On September 23, 1938, after the withdrawal of the international brigaders from the front, the volunteers from countries ruled by reaction and fascism, including the Bulgarians, could not return home. Because the government of Bulgaria had deprived them of citizenship, the Bulgarian volunteers remained in Spain while waiting permission to enter some other country. Together with other international brigaders they again took up arms to check the invasion of Catalonia by the Franco troops and Italian interventionists and to cover the evacuation of the civil population. On February 8, 1939, the volunteers, along with the last Spanish units crossed the French frontier maintaining strict discipline. The French authorities put them in concentration camps.
This was the beginning of a long and persistent struggle for the liberation of the Bulgarian volunteers. Bulgarian public opinion succeeded in gaining permission for some of them to return to their homeland. Many of them went to the USSR and other countries or returned to Bulgaria illegally. Others succeeded in escaping from the camps and later joined the French and Belgian Resistance movements. The Bulgarian brigader Todor Angelov became one of the outstanding leaders of the anti-fascist Resistance in Belgium and died a hero. Grateful Belgium erected a memorial to him in Brussels.
In rendering the Spanish Republic moral, material and military assistance, the Bulgarian anti-fascists performed their internationalist duty and made a modest contribution to the struggle of the Spanish people against the onslaught of internal and world fascism.
It must be noted that the movement in aid of the Spanish Republic was of considerable help to the policy of the Bulgarian Communist Party for the setting up of a Popular Front in Bulgaria itself.
87The Spanish events exerted a positive influence on the Bulgarian anti-fascist movement and enriched it with fighting experience for further armed struggle against fascism from 1941 to 1944. Immediately after Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union the BCP steered a course towards armed uprising. The former fighters of the International Brigades who had been living in emigration in the Soviet Union returned to Bulgaria (in submarines or by air). On arriving in their country, they immediately joined with other international brigaders in organising armed anti-fascist Resistance in Bulgaria. In this tough period its leaders included the former volunteers Sybi Dimitrov, Tsvyatko Radoinov, Dimo Dichev, Spas Georgiyev, Avgust Popov, Vlado Trichkov, Sybi Dichev, Vlado Georgiyev, Raiko Damyanov, Boris Popov and Kirill Khalachev. During the popular uprising of September 9, 1944, a former international brigader Blagoi Ivanov was deputy commanderin-chief of the rebel forces. Sybi Dimitrov, Tsvyatko Radoinov, Yordan Kiskinov and many other international brigaders gave their lives for the victory of the Bulgarian people.
After the triumph of the popular uprising the great majority of former volunteers took responsible posts in the Party, the army, the economy, the administrative apparatus and in mass public organisations. The former international brigaders who became prominent figures in the state and Party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria include ministers Dimo Dichev (Yanov), Ruben Avramov (Miguel Gomez), Karlo Lukanov (Belov) and Pyotr Panchevsky and generals Ferdinand Kozovsky (Petrov), Blagoi Ivanov, Zakhary Zakhariyev and Kirill Kirillov.
Socialist Bulgaria has high regard for the heroism of the international brigades. The Presidium of the People's Assembly of Bulgaria expressed this nation-wide recognition when it decorated the former fighters of the International Brigades with the Order of "People's Freedom. 1941--1944'', First Class.
[88] __ALPHA_LVL1__ CANADAMore than 1,200 Canadians crossed the Atlantic to help resist the fascist invasion which proved to be the prelude to World War II. Like all the members of the International Brigades from many lands, the Canadian volunteers understood that on those Spanish battle fronts the readiness of mankind to defend democracy and human freedom was being put to the test and that the fundamental interests of their own country were at stake. This is why the 600 Canadians who lost their lives fighting the fascists in Spain are worthy of their country's honour and respect as true patriots and heroes.
The idea of a Canadian contingent to fight in defence of the democratically established Republic of Spain arose in the early days of October 1936. It was obvious that Spain was the victim of foreign invasion. The insurgent generals were landing Moroccan troops on the peninsula. Under the guise of giving aid to their fellow fascist Franco, Hitler and Mussolini had embarked on their joint invasion of Spain.
In October 1936 the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Canada, Tim Buck, was visiting Spain to get acquainted with the situation in the country on the spot. He was at a sector of the front near Aranjuez (45 kilometres from Madrid), when he received an invitation to attend a meeting in Madrid at which it was planned to discuss the setting up of International Brigades of volunteers to defend the Spanish Republic. Jose Diaz, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, and a representative of the Communist Party of France put forward a concrete plan.
According to this plan, foreign volunteers fighting in the 5th Regiment and other militia units and columns, who numbered more than 2,000 in all, and also the new volunteers who were arriving from abroad, were to be organised as special military units known as International Brigades. Depending on the number of volunteers of different nationalities, they would be organised as units of one 89 nationality or of mixed nationalities. But the main aim was to organise the foreign volunteers into an armed force sufficiently powerful to make a substantial contribution to the military defence of the Republic and to provide a powerful demonstration of military support for the Spanish people from world democracy. When asked about arms and equipment, the representative of the Communist Party of France replied that the Mexican Government would sell arms to Spain, while the Soviet Union had agreed to supply the Republic with all the necessary military material, in particular, planes and tanks.
Immediately upon his return to Canada Tim Buck reported on his visit and the plan to set up International Brigades to the Political Committee of the Canadian Communist Party, which decided at once to mobilise the entire party membership and the widest possible circles of Canadian democrats in a campaign to aid the Spanish Republic.
This decision, incidentally, was prompted by a number of events.
Earlier on Dr Norman Bethune, a member of the Communist Party from Montreal, had suggested to the Quebec Party Committee that it should send him to Spain in his professional capacity and organise a Canadian mobile blood transfusion unit to serve the Republican forces at the front. The organisation of the Blood Transfusion Unit was well under way. Other measures were also being taken, including the raising of funds to buy an ambulance for the Republican Army. These facts, together with the active participation of the public in the subsequent financing of Canadian medical establishments in Spain, show that the movement to aid Spanish democracy had broad support. The Blood Transfusion Unit (which included Dr Norman Bethune and his colleagues Hazen Sise, Ted Allan, and later Allan May and Doctor Hene, as well as the interpreter Henning Sorensen and Miss Jean Watts, who drove an ambulance) were an integral part of that movement.
Dr Bethune sent the Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy regular reports on the work of his unit which convey the atomosphere of the heroic struggle of the defenders of Madrid. The following is an extract from a letter which he sent in January 1937:
``As you know, we have withstood the most serious attempt by the fascists to take Madrid by storm since the first and second weeks of November. Their losses have been terrific. They attacked in dense lines like the Germans in France in 1917. Our machineguns simply mowed them down. Our losses were one to five of theirs.
``The International Brigades have suffered badly, of course, as they act as shock troops. But large reinforcements of French, Germans, English, Polish, Austrians and Italians, with some Americans and Canadians, are arriving.
90``We have been having two to four raids a day for two weeks now, and many thousands of non-combatants, women and children, have been killed.
``Yesterday we did three transfusions---this is about the average daily, besides the blood we leave at hospitals for them to use themselves. . . .
``This is a grand country and a grand people. The wounded behave wonderfully.
``After I had given a transfusion to a French soldier who had lost his arm, he raised the other to me as I left the room and with his raised clenched fist exclaimed: 'Viva la Revolucion!' The boy next to him was a Spaniard---a medical student shot through the liver and stomach. When I had given him a transfusion and asked him how he felt, he said: 'It is nothing---Nada'. He recovered--- and so did the Frenchman.
``We all feel enormously encouraged by your grand support. You may rest assured and give our assurance to the workers of Canada that their efforts and money are saving many Spanish, French, German and English lives. We will win! The fascists are already defeated. Madrid will be the tomb of fascism!''
The Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, which assumed responsibility for financing and maintaining the Canadian Mobile Blood Transfusion Unit, was an expression of the depth of Canadian popular sympathy with the democratic Spanish Republic and of the fruitful activity of the united front in Canada which led the campaign for the defence of the Republic. The popularity enjoyed by Dr Bethune's unit and the activity of the Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy greatly promoted the success of the campaign to set up a military contingent of Canadian volunteers in Spain.
Along with the capitalist press and the fascist elements in Canada and the United States, the government at Ottawa did its best to counteract the wide democratic sympathy felt in Canada for the Spanish people. Having proclaimed a policy of neutrality, the government took all manner of measures to prevent Canadians from taking part in the war, including the promulgation of an Orderin-Council making it illegal for Canadians to serve as belligerents ``on either side" in Spain. Fortunately the Blood Transfusion Unit had gone overseas before the Order was promulgated, but the threat of persecution hanging over the Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy inevitably restricted the scope of its activities.
As a result of the Order young Canadian patriots fighting
against the nazi-fascist invasion of Spain were compelled to do so in
defiance of Canadian law. Young men whose departure for Spain
should have been an occasion for public demonstrations
emphasising the unity of democratic internationalism and true
patriotism had to leave their homes and country on the pretext of a ``visit
91
Canadians of the Lincoln and Washington battalions. June 1937
to Europe''. They travelled to Spain illegally and risked becoming
the victims of the perfidy of ``non-intervention'' even before they
set foot on Spanish soil.
The leadership of the Communist Party of Canada decided that true patriotism required that the Foreign Enlistment Act imposed by the Order-in-Council should be ignored. Whatever restrictions the legislation imposed, the Party should appeal publicly to antifascist Canadians to give military aid to the embattled Republic of Spain which had become the front line in the world struggle to maintain democracy against the fascist offensive.
The public campaign to raise a Canadian contingent was launched at a great mass meeting in Toronto at which Tim Buck reported on the position in Spain to more than four thousand people. He argued convincingly the need for organising a Canadian contingent and urged anti-fascists who were young and in good physical condition to volunteer. He then toured the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific repeating this appeal.
The response was tremendous. Militant young Canadian antifascists came forward at meeting after meeting to answer the call of Spanish democracy. The fact that the number of volunteers was so large even caused some organisational difficulties at the beginning. More and more set out for Toronto under their own steam from such distant parts as the Pacific coast, the prairie and maritime provinces, northwestern Ontario and Quebec.
The organised selection of men for the Canadian contingent began at a meeting of the first volunteers to arrive from other 92 parts of the country and volunteers of the City of Toronto and its environs. It was these men who proposed that the Canadian contingent should be called the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion after two great leaders of the Canadian liberation movement, and that the battalion's colours should bear the two dates 1837 and 1937, the first to commemorate the glorious days of the national liberation movement.
Acting on the proposals made by these first volunteers, the Communist Party of Canada leadership established a special national subcommittee to be responsible for all the work in connection with volunteers, and called upon provincial party committees to set up corresponding bodies in all the main centres. The local subcommittees were charged with ensuring that each volunteer had a medical examination before leaving the area, raising money for his fare, supplying him with temporary accommodation, and so on. Thanks to the tireless work of these local bodies, the stream of volunteers to Toronto was co-ordinated with the availability of steamship tickets to France via Montreal, Quebec City and New York. The fact that, with very rare exceptions, doctors all over Canada performed medical examinations free of charge for the volunteers was an indication of the wide sympathy with Republican Spain.
In defiance of the will of those governments which, because
they were dominated by monopoly capital, were indifferent to the
Dr Bethune makes blood transfusion to a patient. He is assisted by Henning
Sorensen
[93]
fascist onslaught against Spain and thereby enticed bourgeois
democracy further down the path of acquiescence in the victory of
fascism, the volunteers from other countries, including the
Canadians, stepped into the breach and changed the words ``No
pasaran" (``They shall not pass'') from a purely Spanish slogan into the
slogan of world democracy.
In proving the oneness of democratic internationalism and true patriotism, they wrote a glorious page in the history of Canada.
Arriving in Paris, the first groups of Canadian volunteers went to the headquarters of the Communist Party of France, explained that they were members of the Canadian Battalion and asked advice on the best way for them to get to Spain. After 200 such callers, at the rate of forty to fifty per week, the Paris organisation of the French Communist Party invited the MackenziePapineau Battalion to post a representative permanently in Paris to meet volunteers and to arrange through the French Communists for temporary accommodation and the final stage of their journey to Spain.
The last lap of the volunteers' odyssey was always exhausting and nearly always very difficult. The ``non-intervention'' policy of the French Government made it impossible for volunteers to cross into Spain by ordinary commercial transportation. Lionel Edwards, one of the volunteers, recalls his journey from New York to Spain via France:
``The S.S. Roosevelt was in luck. Prosperity must surely have returned. Ninety-six passengers and all booked for France! Among them were three elderly ladies who, on hearing that there were 93 raving Bolsheviks aboard, sought sanctuary in their cabins and did not surface until the liner docked.
`` 'Ou allez-vous, Monsieur?' The Surete official was polite.
`` 'We are going to Paris to study art.'
``The official smiled slightly.
``The strange French train was crowded as it sped its way through the green meadows of Normandy. Paris. A few days later, away to be billeted in Alais, twin community of the nearby and more famous Aries.
``Bill was called away for a conference. When he returned he briefed the group.
`` 'We take a bus from the town square at six and we ride for about 20 kilometres; then it will be dark. Then we hit the ditch. The border troops will be strung out, so we'll have a good chance to get through. The smugglers will guide us.'
``The sun was setting as the convoy got under way. The vehicle stopped; it was late twilight now. Quietly they got off, ran to the ditch and waited until the black night had set in. Through the gloom small figures appeared carrying bundles of rope sandals known all over Catalonia as alpargatos.
94`` 'No smoking, no lights and no talking! They are watching for us, but if we obey instructions, we will get through. The border is at the top of the mountain. It will take all night to get there.'
``The night march began and for those still living it will never be forgotten. 'Voila la frontiere de 1'Espagne!' were the shouts from the van. ``jSalud, companeros! Miren la casa blanca es Espana!' said a rifleman.
``The scholar and historian may tell of Xenophon's Greeks, Caesar's legions and the Old Guard of Bonaparte, but these young men from far-off Canada were to be fighters of a different breed. Their lineage was to be traced back to trie Ironsides, the tattered band at Valley Forge, Jemappes, the Paris Commune and the barricades of old Petrograd. They were not soldiers yet; but they would learn the trade and apply it well."^^1^^
Some Canadians fought in the Spanish national-revolutionary war right from the time in November 1936, when the international volunteers rushed into action in the University City, in the suburbs of Madrid, and stopped the fascist onslaught which threatened to sweep right into the city.
In that crucial battle the international volunteers were a `` brigade" only by virtue of their elan. They had never engaged in military exercises as a brigade, or even drilled together as units. They came from a dozen different countries and spoke a dozen different languages, and their commander had never seen them all together at one time. He himself had lived in many countries, including Canada, as a political refugee from fascism. But, because the volunteers knew what they were fighting for, they stopped the fascist regulars and inflicted heavy losses on them.
The first Canadian unit, a section of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, of the 15th International Brigade, received its baptism of fire in the desperately-fought battle of the Jarama.
It was with the same brigade in the Brunete offensive that the Canadian volunteers distinguished themselves in the attacks upon the fascist strong point of Villanueva de la Canada. It was then that their American comrades-in-arms bestowed the nickname of ``the fighting Canucks" on them as a tribute to their audacity in attack and their tenacity in defence.
Canadians were to be found in other battalions of the 15th Brigade, namely, the George Washington and Dimitrov battalions, and in the English company of the 14th Brigade, anti-aircraft, artillery and anti-tank units, guerrilla detachments, transport, armories and medical service of the Republican Army.
At the request of the Canadian Communist Party, Bob Kerr of Vancouver was taken out of the front line early in the summer of 1937 and attached to the Brigade Cadres Department in Albacete, __FIX__ How to cite this good Quarterly for constructing acq. list? _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Marxist Quarterly, No. 18, 1966.
95 with the special task of keeping incoming Canadian volunteers together at the base and helping to sort out Canadians from other units to constitute the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.When the new battalion took its place as a unit of the 15th Brigade, it was decided to reorganise the brigade so that English should be the language of command throughout. To the regret of all the members of the brigade, the Canadian volunteers who had fought in the ranks of the Dimitrovs stayed with them and became separated from the main body of Canadian volunteers.
The first major engagement that the Mac-Paps fought in as a Canadian Battalion was at Fuentes del Ebro in October 1937. Their commander was Robert Thompson, an American who later became Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States. Their commissar, Joseph Dallet, was killed on the fifst day of the battle. His place was taken by Saul Wellman of Detroit. The following extracts from the reminiscences of two Canadians who fought in this hard battle describe individual incidents from it. Ronald Liversedge writes:
``At noon on the dot the Republican aviation zoomed in from behind the brigade, and the fascist anti-aircraft guns frantically went into action. There were about 50 planes---light bombers. They swerved to the right, came round in a half-circle, and, strung out in a line, came in for a run over the fascist lines. It was the largest number of Republican planes I ever saw in the air at one time all through the war.
``We were ready to jump off, and we waited for the tanks for one-and-a-half hours. The fascists repaired their lines. At onethirty p.m. we heard the tanks roaring towards us from behind. Seventy-five^^1^^ of them, they roared over the top of our trenches. We were amazed to see about a dozen men of the 24th Battalion (Spanish) riding on the top of each tank. Very few of the men returned.
``We scrambled out of the trenches to follow behind the tanks. The Lincolns were on our right. The British were further right. Thus the whole brigade was stretched out in a long line across the plain. The tanks spread out and started for the town at about thirty miles an hour. At the same time the fascists opened up with hundreds of machine-guns, mortars and artillery. In less than 15 minutes our company's strength was reduced by half. There was no cover.
``We advanced very slowly. Wherever there was a little hummock in the land I would set up my machine-gun and rattle off a few rounds. There was not much direction being given. Most of the officers were killed or wounded.
_-_-_~^^1^^ The number of tanks was actually forty-three.---Ed. (see Karol Swierczewski, W bojiach o wolnosc Hiszpanii, Warsaw, 1966, p. 124).
96``Ahead of us we saw the tanks grinding to a halt in front of the town. Twenty-five of them were on fire.^^1^^ We could see the tank men jumping out of the burning tanks and being shot as they jumped out. The advance was slowed down to a crawl. We were trying to dig in wherever we could.
``At dark our company got word to work our way a few hundred yards back on the plain. As the firing started to abate a little we made our way back. I was ordered to take my machine-gun, a loader and a few pans of ammunition and to accompany some tank engineers who were going to try to repair some of the tanks and get them back. The night was dark. The tank men were making a hell of a lot of noise working on the tanks. I heard men across the ravine. They were running towards the tanks. They were Moors and not very careful about concealing themselves. The tank men said they could not fix the tanks. They promised to whistle when they were ready to go. Before they started whistling, however, I had to open fire as the Moors were now coming up the slope."^^2^^
William Kardash, a tank lieutenant, describes the battle as follows.
``A runner brought instructions from the colonel in command of the regiment. Our company was to break through the fascist lines, destroy the machine-gun and anti-tank gun nests, fire along the fascist trenches and thus enable the Republican Army to advance.
About ten infantrymen mounted the top of each tank. Two other tank companies moved up, one on each flank. Clouds of dust rose as we advanced at a high speed. The heat inside the tank was terrific. The sound of machine-gun bullets hitting the tank resembled hail on a tin roof.
``I was observing the territory ahead, trying to locate the machine-gun nests. The driver slowed down, shouting: 'There is a deep ravine in front of us!' I ordered the driver to go ahead if the tank could make it. The tank climbed the hill and reached the fascist trenches. An incendiary bomb set fire to the tank, but it was able to advance some thirty-five yards into the rear of the fascist lines.
``The motor stopped. Smoke and flames came into the turret where I and my assistant sat. The driver attempted to restart the motor, but in vain. Some fascists stood up in the trenches watching the burning tank. The first shell I fired landed right in their trench. I continued firing at their trenches.
``Meanwhile, the fire spread into the tank, and the danger of an explosion both of the gasoline and the ammunition was becoming _-_-_
~^^1^^ Eighteen tanks were lost in this battle.---Ed. (D. Sirkov, In Defence of the Spanish Republic, Sofia, 1967, p. 164, in Bulgarian).
~^^2^^ The Marxist Quarterly, No. 18, 1966.
__PRINTERS_P_97_COMMENT__ 7---781 97 great. To stay inside meant certain death; to jump out into the open behind the fascist lines in broad daylight was almost as dangerous. But while there is life there is hope! Some other tank might come to our assistance.``The driver and my assistant jumped out. That was the last I saw of either of them. I kept on firing. When the gun was jammed I switched over to the machine-gun. The heat was becoming unbearable. Revolver in hand, I jumped out.
``Several hand grenades exploded at my feet. A bullet went through my leg. I fell some five yards away from the fascist trenches. I did not see much hope for myself. I kept on firing my pistol until I had one bullet left. There was one thing I knew---the fascists would not get me alive. I raised the pistol to my head and was about to fire the last shot when I saw a Republican tank speeding towards me. I waved my hand and the tank immediately came up.
``With a final effort I crawled to the tank. My right hand was hit by shrapnel from another hand grenade. I climbed on the tank which quickly sped to the Sanitary Service point."^^1^^
The next military operation in which the Canadians took part was the battle of Teruel.
On December 15, 1937, the Republican Army mounted an offensive against this heavily fortified town of considerable strategic importance. Several days later they took the city. Early in January 1938 Franco launched a massive counter-attack. The llth and 15th brigades were called in to defend the approaches to the city. The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, together with the other battalions of the 15th Brigade, took up positions two-three miles north of Teruel, where they occupied several hillocks and a valley.
Led by Captain Edward Cecil Smith, a Toronto journalist, and by Commissar Saul Wellman, the Mac-Paps, together with the other battalions of the 15th and llth brigades and a brigade of Spanish marines, stood up to large-scale savage attacks by the fascists. For over two weeks Franco dispatched large numbers of fresh troops into battle daily supported by heavy artillery and aircraft.
Two of the Mac-Pap companies were commanded by Canadians (Niilo Makela from Timmins, Ontario, and Lionel Edwards of Vancouver). Another company was headed by a Spaniard, Ricardo Bias. The machine-gun company was led by Jack Thomas, an American. Niilo Makela, one of the battalion's bravest and most beloved officers, was killed two months later during the defence of Caspe.
Captain Lionel Edwards gives the following description in _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Marxist Quarterly, No. 18, 1966.
98
``Out on patrol on the eve of the attack, we got close enough to hear the enemy leaders giving pep talks; and by risking our necks a little we found out what units were against us: the Requetes, Franco's most fanatical followers. Hooded, like monks, in their woollen panchos and wearing the red beret of Navarre, these clerical maniacs were there to implement the gospel of Torquemada and restore the royal line of Carlos to the throne. Behind them was an Italian division, and manning the artillery were the German nazis.
``Early the next day the show was on. Squadrons of bombers appeared and dropped their loads. Artillery opened up. And soon I had a new conception of hell. Smoke shrouded our hill; we soon became black and grimy; and our ears did not respond to ordinary sounds like people talking or laughing. The barrage went on and soon the wounded were moaning. It was difficult getting them out as the line of escape was under terrific rifle fire. During the afternoon the shelling ceased and we knew at once that this was the signal for assault.
``Then they came shrieking and waving their rifles, in V-- formation. We let them come close and then let them have it. They broke at first but then re-formed. We could clearly see these 'fearless soldiers of God' being urged on by officers with __PRINTERS_P_98_COMMENT__ 7* 99 __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.02.13) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ nil revolvers. We scattered them a second time. Night came on and the barrage began again.
``The nights and days that followed were a nightmare. I remember chiefly the spirit that animated us. Who were some of the men? There was a first-aid man named David who came from Southern Alberta; he always wore a belt like those you see at Stampede time in Calgary and always hummed a cowboy song ``Empty Saddles in the Corral''. There was Jack Thomas, an immigrant Welsh coalminer. There was an American college student who had won notice back in the States with his research on light-rays; soon he was killed.
``The end had to come. Mechanised might and overpowering numbers finally told. Our machine-guns were blown to pieces. We were under fire from nearly every side, and no more reinforcements could reach us as the hill to our right had been taken. There was only a handful of us left and our only arms were rifles. We had to make a decision. It was time for retreat.
``Carrying a wounded man, five of us, the last living, stumbled out to make a run for it. One of us was killed, and with him the wounded man. We four finally made it. We took up a position well to the rear of the hill and waited for the enemy to take over. But we waited for a long time. He was taking no chance that some of us might still be there. But he occupied the hill at last and with that ended the defence of outer Teruel.''
Another heroic episode of the defence put up by the Mac-Paps at Teruel is described by Lieutenant Percy Ludwick, chief of the 15th Brigade's fortifications. He recalls the attempt of a large body of Moroccan cavalry to cut through to the rear of the Mackenzie-Papineau positions. Captain Edward Smith, displaying personal courage and coolness, quickly ordered his small staff to set up several heavy machine-guns, and they opened fire, mowing down men and horses. The rest of the Moroccans retreated panicstricken.
The Command of the Republican Army commended the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion for the part it played in the defence of Teruel and a number of Canadians were promoted. Captain E. C. Smith was made a major, for example.
During the breakthrough by Franco and the Italian interventionists to the Mediterranean in the spring of 1938 and the heavy rearguard fighting of the Republican Army on the Aragon Front, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, like the other battalions of the 15th Brigade, retained its fighting spirit despite heavy losses.
When the Republican Army forced the Ebro on July 28, 1938, the Mac-Paps were the first battalion of the 15th Brigade to cross the river. Under the leadership of Major Edward C. Smith and Commissar Frank Rogers the Canadians quickly freed two towns from the fascists---Asco and Flix---and, after a successful advance 100 on Corbera, advanced closer than any of the other Republican troops on Gandesa.
The success of the Ebro operation forced Franco to halt his offensive against Valencia and to divert his divisions to stem the offensive of the Republican Army. During the extremely hard fighting in the Sierra Pandols and the Sierra Caballs to preserve the territory gained during the Ebro operation, the ``fighting Canucks" displayed their bravery and valour yet again.
In September 1938, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, like the other battalions of the 15th Brigade, was withdrawn from the front in accordance with the decision of the Spanish Government to evacuate all foreign volunteers from the country. The Canadians handed over their weapons to their Spanish comrades and prepared to return home.
But before the ``fighting Canucks" left Spain they were again to demonstrate their oneness with the Spanish people in its fight for democracy. Towards the end of January 1939, when the Franco hordes were threatening Barcelona, a large body of Mac-Paps volunteered to fight for the Republic.
To sum up the role of the Canadian volunteers in Spain, one can rightly say that the officers and men of the MackenziePapineau Battalion were the true representatives of Canadian democracy in Spain. History has shown that they were in fact the advance guard of the army which the Canadian Government eventually sent over to Europe during the Second World War to help their allies in the anti-Hitler coalition defeat the fascist attempt to enslave mankind. The glory won at great cost by the Canadian volunteers in Spain is inseparable from the history of the Canadian people.
[101] __ALPHA_LVL1__ CUBAFrom the first to the last day of the national-revolutionary war in Spain the Cuban people regarded the struggle of the fraternal Spanish people as their own sacred cause.
The solidarity movement with Republican Spain had its own specific features in Cuba, which were determined both by the traditional links between the two countries and by the political situation obtaining in Cuba in the thirties. A little over a year before the beginning of the fascist revolt in Spain the Cuban revolutionary movement was dealt a severe blow. March 1935 saw the suppression of the last significant political action by the masses that followed the overthrow of the Machado regime. The reprisals inflicted on the strikers and the murder of Antonio Guiteras in May of the same year ensured a complete victory for pro-- imperialist reactionary forces. Hundreds of workers were sacked and the trade-union committees were taken over by reactionaries. It was in this situation of a temporary setback in the revolutionary movement and at the same time unceasing revolutionary ferment that the solidarity movement with the Spanish people's struggle developed.
Certain definite conditions existed in Cuba for the public expression of this solidarity: in the first place, some semi-legal progressive organisations continued to operate, and diplomatic relations were retained with the Republican Government of Spain.
In Cuba the movement to defend the Spanish Republic was initiated by Spaniards who lived on the island and were members of various democratic organisations such as the Circulo Republicano Espanol and the Circulo Socialista Espanol. Broad sections of the Cuban people soon began to take part in it.
The first stage of the struggle to defend the Spanish Republic took the form of raising funds to supply Republican troops with food, clothing, cigarettes and tobacco, etc. On pay days factory workers gave up part of their wages ``for Spain''. Mass meetings were held attended by representatives of the Spanish Republic--- 102 Fernando de los Rios and Vicente Uribe. The meetings were organised in parks and attracted vast crowds. The usual attendance was over 100,000.
The second stage of the struggle began when many Cubans expressed their desire to go to Spain and join the ranks of those who were defending the Republic. Their numbers increased as it became obvious that the insurgent generals were waging a war against the legal government of Spain with the help of Moroccan mercenaries and Italian and German expeditionary forces.
At the head of the movement of militant solidarity with the Spanish people stood the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC). The Cuban Communists regarded participation in the movement of ``freedom volunteers" as their internationalist duty. They also realised the importance of the anti-fascist war in Spain for the development of the revolutionary movement in Cuba.
The reactionary Cuban Government sympathised with the insurgents, and all activities connected with giving military help to the Spanish Republic were made illegal and had to be carried on underground.
On the initiative of the CPC a special committee was set up to select and dispatch volunteers to Spain. The committee's membership included representatives from various political parties: the Communists---Victor Pina (now a captain in the Revolutionary Armed Forces), Doctor Luis Alvarez Tabfo and Ramon Nicolau Gonzalez; Left-wing nationalists---Officer Jose A. Martinez Mendez and Emilio Laurent; some members of the Liberal and Conservative parties, for example, Enrique Llaka Argudin, a former captain, and Ramon O'Farrill, a former major. It also included people who subsequently became members of the Partido Autentico and the Young Cuba movement.
The development of the volunteer movement was greatly assisted by the Cuban people's revolutionary and internationalist traditions and the memory of their own struggle for independence. In the Cuban people's first war of national liberation, which began on October 10, 1868, under the slogan "Independence or death!'', Russians, Chinese, Poles, Dominicans, Venezuelans and other foreign volunteers fought side by side with Cubans. In this war the army was commanded by General Carlos Roloff of Polish descent, and in the second war of independence Generalissimus Maximo Gomez, born in Santo Domingo, had command of the combined forces of the liberation army.
The first large contingent of Cuban volunteers arrived in Spain on April 15, 1937, and the last (73 people) at the end of February 1938. In all 850 Cuban volunteers fought in the Spanish Republican Army.
The departure of Cuban volunteers for Spain was accompanied by considerable difficulties. As well as selecting volunteers, it was 103 necessary to supply them with sufficiently reliable documents and all the other essentials. Not all the volunteers left for Spain directly from Cuba. Some were already living in the United States, others in Mexico or Venezuela, and some were in Spain itself at the time of the fascist revolt. Nevertheless they all represented the Cuban people.
The Cuban volunteers in Spain were to be found in various units of the international and Spanish brigades. Most of them fought in the 59th Battalion of the 15th International Brigade.
The exploits of workers, intellectuals and students on the battle fields of Spain are a glorious page in the revolutionary struggle of the Cuban people. Among those who laid down their lives for the freedom of Spain were the journalist Pablo de la Torriente Brau, a fine representative of the Cuban intelligentsia, a Communist and one of the leaders of the struggle against the Machado dictatorship, who was killed during the battle of Madrid in his post as commissar of the First Shock Brigade of the Republican Army and later made a national hero of Cuba, and Policarpo Candon, a brigade commander in the Republican Army, who was also killed in action.
An article published in the Republican press said: "Policarpo Candon, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Alberto Sanchez and others are the most vital expression of the help of Cuban anti-fascists in the great struggle which we are waging in Spain against world fascism.... We fought side by side in dozens of battles, and Candon always remained the same---calm, firmly confident of victory, and anxious to study in any lull in action. He always inspired the respect and affection of his fellow men and officers. With the death of Comrade Candon the Spanish Army has lost one of its best leaders, and the Cuban people and the anti-fascists of the whole world a steeled fighter. ...''
We should like to recall other, less celebrated men, who performed their internationalist and revolutionary duty to the bitter end on Spanish soil (unfortunately many of whose names have not come down to us).
There was Julio Valdes Cofino, a member of the Young Cuba democratic organisation and artillery lieutenant in the Cuban Army, who arrived in Spain with the first group of volunteers. Here he was promoted to the rank of major and put in command of a sector of the front of the 101st Brigade. He died in the battle of Brunete together with the staff of his unit during an artillery raid.
The courageous Cuban army officers Enrique Montalban and Fernandez Marthen also lost their lives in Spain, the former at Brunete and the latter at Belchite.
Homero Meruelos Bartarrain, an active fighter against the Machado dictatorship and commissar of a unit in the Abraham 104 Lincoln International Battalion, was killed while resisting an enemy counter-attack on the Zaragoza Front.
Lino Garcia, an airman, Major Alberto Sanchez, commissars Efalio Goach Leon, Armando Torres, Manuel Alonso Barroso, Roberto Bruzon Neira and many others perished in heavy fighting with the fascists.
Side by side with the other defenders of the Republic Cuban volunteers fought bravely: artillery captain Pedro Dalmau Naranjo, commissars Oscar Hernandez and Pablo Porras, Major Maidagan, captains Andres Gonzalez Lanuza, Miguel de la Llera Gafas, Viciedo and Joseito Rodriguez Valdes, lieutenants Leopoldo Lanier Sobrado and Roberto Casals, sailors Waldo Martinez and Jose Agostini, doctors Rafael de la Vega and Luis Diaz Soto, medical corps officers Jose Campos Cuina and Mario Sanchez Diaz, nurse Pia Martelar, men and officers Humberto Alvarez, Carlos M. Parra Sarmiento, Julio Guevas, Grenet, Palacios, Manuel, Madariaga, Manolo Cueira, Landeta, Primo, Evelio Aneirps Subirat, Luis Peraza, Orlando del Real, Rodriguito, Brito, Mario Morales, Manuel Gonzalez and many other ``freedom volunteers".
When they were leaving Spain during the withdrawal of foreign volunteers from the Republican Army, the Cuban antifascists held a meeting at which it was resolved to address the following letter of farewell to the Spanish people:
``Spanish brothers,
As we depart, we are taking with us the most precious treasure, of which all true anti-fascists must be proud: a sense of unity, a readiness to sacrifice oneself and the will to victory. Three unforgettable and invaluable lessons. From now onwards they shall be our motto.
Manuel des Peso (Chairman) J. Agostini (Secretary).''^^1^^
The widespread movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic also affected the course of events in Cuba and helped the Cuban revolutionary movement to recover from the setbacks which it had suffered as a result of the defeat of the working people in March 1935. Under pressure from the masses the Cuban Government was forced to make concessions, in particular, the dismissal of the ultra-reactionary General Montalvo.
In spite of the resistance of the reactionaries, the Communist Party of Cuba managed to secure the legalisation of party and trade-union organisations, turning the latter into bases for its revolutionary activities. The establishment of a powerful tradeunion centre, the Confederation of Cuban Workers, was a great victory for the working people. Publication began in Cuba of _-_-_
~^^1^^ Frente Rojo, November 18, 1938.
105 communist and democratic newspapers and the works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism. The programme of the Communist Revolutionary Union was promulgated at the Constituent Assembly of 1939, Communists were permitted to take part in drafting the Constitution of 1940.The defeat of the Spanish people's national-revolutionary war in March 1939 did not weaken the solidarity movement in Cuba. The fraternal links between the Spanish and Cuban peoples became even stronger. Hundreds of Spanish fighters found refuge in Cuba and took part in its revolutionary movement. Volunteers who returned from Spain immediately joined in the fight against fascism and imperialism on their native soil. Many of them played an active role in the struggle against the Batista dictatorship.
Jose Agostini, Cuervo, Humberto Alvarez and the Communist leader Cardenas, who had all distinguished themselves in Spain, were executed by the Batista police. Noberto H. Nodal lost his life during the storming of Batista's palace on March 13, 1957.
Inspired by the heroic example of Spain, the Cuban people carried on the cause of the Spanish revolution. Cuba was the first of the Spanish-speaking countries to have a victorious socialist revolution. The first but, as Fidel Castro said, not the last. It is highly symbolic that Alberto Bayo, the Spanish war veteran, went on to become the military instructor of Fidel Castro and his heroic band from the Granma. The events in Spain moulded the political consciousness of the young Ernesto Che Guevara. The slogans of the heroic battle of Madrid "They shall not pass!" and "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees!" became the symbol of revolutionary Cuba's confidence in victory during the days of the Bay of Pigs.
Today the Cuban people, separated from the main imperialist power by only ninety miles of sea, are building a new society.
The Cubans, who are so greatly indebted to the heroic struggle of the Spanish people, firmly believe that they too will win their struggle for freedom.
[106] __ALPHA_LVL1__ CZECHOSLOVAKIAThe heroic struggle of democratic Spain in 1936--39 found complete understanding and all-round support on the part of the progressive Czechoslovak public, which quickly realised the possible consequences of the fascist generals' revolt and the armed intervention of fascist states. One of the two main allies of the insurgents---Hitler Germany---was at that time posing a direct threat to the territorial integrity and state sovereignty of Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia herself, the ruling circles were working towards the limitation of democratic freedoms and the fascistisation of the state structure. Under these conditions, the progressive forces in the country and, above all, the working class, could not remain indifferent to the intervention of Italian and German fascism and to the policy of ``non-intervention''.
In the autumn of 1936, the Committee for Aid to Democratic Spain was founded in Prague, in which anti-fascists of diverse political convictions, religious views, and occupations co-operated. In addition to individual members, it had about 50 group members representing approximately 750,000 persons. By the end of the following year, the number of individual members of the Committee was already 1,136, and the number of group members had grown to 184. At the same time, 64 local solidarity committees had been formed. All the nationalities then inhabiting Czechoslovakia were represented in the Committee (that is, not only Czechs and Slovaks, but also Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Poles).
The activity of the Committee for Aid to Democratic Spain and its affiliates was varied. They devoted much attention to the dissemination of truthful and timely information about the events in Spain, explained their meaning and significance, and tirelessly called for moral and material aid to the Spanish anti-fascists. An invaluable role in this effort was played by the illustrated monthly, Spanttsko (Spain), published in Prague between April 1937 and 107 September 1938, with a circulation of 20,000 (5,000 copies of which were in German), and also the rotoprint bulletin, Spanelskd Korespondence (Spanish Correspondence). Appealing for aid to the Spanish people were many posters (the designer of one of them was Oskar Kokoschka), post cards and leaflets. Many brochures about fighting Spain were published at the Committee's expense (``The Struggle of Spanish Democracy'', ``Durango'', ``Fighting Spain'', ``Spain Is in Our Hearts'', ``Spain'', and others). Exhibitions and lectures were organised, and large audiences gathered to listen to political and cultural figures who had been to Spain, while theatrical performances and films about Spain enjoyed wide attendance.
The central and local aid-to-Spain committees conducted extensive campaigns to collect money for buying food, medicine and clothing. The organisers of these campaigns displayed much inventiveness. For example, 110,000 badges with the colours of the Republican flag and the inscription in Spanish, ``Viva la Libertad en Espafia" were made and sold.
The following figures give some idea of the results of the aid campaigns: before the end of 1937, a total of over 1,000,000 korunas worth of parcels had been sent; in November and December 1937, a collection of Christmas presents was made, and parcels valued at 145,000 korunas were sent. An especially important measure was the establishment of a field hospital, named after Jan Amos Komenski, which cost 500,000 korunas to set up. Its maintenance costs after that were covered exclusively by voluntary contributions. Czechoslovak doctors received the first wounded and sick defenders of Republican Spain in that hospital as early as May 1937. The hospital was headed at first by surgeon J. Holubec, and later by Dr B. Kisch. A children's village for evacuated Spanish children was established and maintained in Southern France through the efforts of the Committee.
Organisations and people of good will all over Czechoslovakia took part in the search for ways to help Republican Spain. But the best results came from collections in the industrial and mining regions. The workers of some enterprises even assessed themselves several per cent of their monthly wages. Unquestionably, the greatest support for Spanish democracy came from the working class. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was the most active political force to come out in defence of the fighting Spanish anti-fascists. And it was the Party that in those days advanced the warning and mobilising slogan: ``At Madrid they are fighting also for Prague!''
In an address to the citizens of Prague on August 12, 1936,
General Secretary of the CPCz Klement Gottwald explained the
meaning of the Spanish people's struggle and the significance of
international solidarity. "Spain's cause is our cause,'' he said. ``The
108
One of the ambulances sent by the Prague Committee for Aid to
Republican Spain
insurgents would have been smashed long ago, and the blood--
letting stopped, if they had not received assistance from abroad. They
are backed by world reaction, and Hitler and Mussolini supply
them with arms.... Thus, the cause of Spain has become the cause
of an international struggle between fascism and anti-fascism,
between the dark forces of medieval barbarity and the forces of
progress, between the forces of war and the forces of peace,
between fascist tyranny and democracy, between reactionary decay
and civilisation."^^1^^
The Communists took the initiative and assumed the leading role in establishing and developing the activity of the committee for aid to democratic Spain. To increase aid to Spain was the purpose for which the Party mobilised all means of influence: the press, meetings at factories and in the streets, conferences of public organisations, speeches of Communist members of Parliament.
It is impossible, for lack of space, to list all public groups and organisations in Czechoslovakia which took part in the Aid Spain Movement. However, mention should also be made of the role of the progressive Czechoslovak intelligentsia, many members of which contributed all of their talent and organising abilities to this noble cause. Even before the emergence of the Committee, they had formed a society for the defence of rights and social progress, called ``Solidarity'' (later to become a group member of the Committee), which conducted a successful collection _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ziv\'e tradicie, Prague, 1959, pp. 59--60.
109 campaign. In the summer of 1937, Czechoslovak writers sent delegates to the 2nd International Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers whose sittings were held in Valencia, the temporary capital of the Spanish Republic, and in Madrid, the frontline city at the time. The Czechoslovak delegation visited the positions of the Republican Army during the fighting at Brunete. The famous publicist and anti-fascist, Egon Erwin Kisch, spent several months among the internationalists.The solidarity movement grew. At the end of 1937, the Committee was transformed into the Society of Friends of Democratic Spain. The new organisation continued the work with doubled energy, collecting money and conducting mass meetings. For example, 3,50® persons attended a meeting of the Society in January 1938, in one of the biggest halls in Prague, and similar meetings were held in other cities. Such meetings passed resolutions denouncing the Italo-German aggression and the policy of `` non-intervention'', and called on the public to render even greater and more effective support to the Spanish Republic.
However, the practical results and the moral effect of the Aid Spain campaign might have been much greater, had the public initiative not been restricted by the official reactionary policy and had all democratic forces achieved unity of action.
The Czechoslovak Government continued to recognise the Spanish Republic, which had an officially accredited representative in Prague. But also staying on there as a "private party" was the former Spanish charge d'affaires, who had betrayed the Republic and now acted as a representative of the ``nationalists'', that is, the fascist insurgents. The Prague authorities closed their eyes to his activities directed against the legal Spanish government. Like all the other bourgeois European states, Czechoslovakia pursued a policy of ``non-intervention'' in its Anglo-French interpretation, that is, in the spirit of ill will to the Spanish Republic. Therefore, the government, after formally banning the export of arms to Spain and Portugal, sold them readily to other countries, under whose flag agents of the Spanish insurgents operated. At the same time, the authorities prohibited banks from transferring money to the Spanish Republic, confiscated funds collected by the Committee for Aid, and even held up parcels with medicines.
In the London Non-intervention Committee, the Czechoslovak
representative, Jan Masaryk, supported a proposal made by fascist
Italy to ban all public collections for aid to the Spanish people
and to prohibit the shipment of food and medicines. And in the
League of Nations, the Czechoslovak delegation voted against a
motion by the Spanish Republic calling for an investigation of
the facts on German and Italian intervention in Spain. Such was
the essence of Czechoslovakia's policy of ``non-intervention'' as
pursued by the reactionary political parties, headed by the
110
A poster issued by the Society of Friends of Democratic Spain with an appeal
to help the Spanish people
111
bourgeois-landowner agrarian party that held the key positions in the
government.
The various ``Socialist'' parties in the government, and especially the Social-Democrats, supported the Spanish Republic in word, and their newspapers even wrote about the events in Spain and condemned the insurgents and interventionists. However, fearing that they might spoil their good relations with their reactionary partners in the government coalition, the Social-Democrats avoided any real political struggle in support of the Spanish people and against the one-sided policy of ``non-intervention'' that was actually aimed at strangling the Republic. The Czech Social-- Democrats were hostile to the Spanish and French Popular Front, and their leaders declared that they would sooner withdraw from the Second International than agree to joint actions with the Communists.
Under the circumstances, any manifestation of solidarity with Spain on the part of workers, peasants, the intelligentsia and other democratic forces was greatly hampered. People openly supporting Republican Spain were frequently persecuted by the authorities. At the same time, the government encouraged the activities of the small but highly influential bloc of pro-Franco parties, including such separatist organisations as the party of Hungarian landowners in Slovakia, or the party of Sudeten Germans headed by Konrad Henlein---an overt Hitler agent.
The Right-wing press daily poured out torrents of malicious fabrications about the Spanish Popular Front, in every way trying to whitewash and justify the actions of Franco's junta and to defame the Czechoslovak movement for solidarity with the Spanish Republic. Hypocritically citing the agreement on non-intervention and demagogically bemoaning the fate of the poor, whom the solidarity movement allegedly milked of their last means of subsistence for the sake of helping ``Red'' Spain, the reactionaries called on the authorities to use police and court action to suppress the ``criminal'' activity of the aid committees.
There was only one social force that could be capable of giving a resolute rebuff to the intrigues of the reactionaries and to influence a change in the government's policy with respect to the Spanish Republic. That force was a united working class. That is why the Communists of Czechoslovakia, like the Comintern in the international arena, championed the idea of proletarian unity. In the beginning of August 1936, the CPCz turned to the leadership of the socialist parties with a proposal to organise joint action to help the Spanish people. The proposal was rejected, but the Party repeatedly advanced new proposals, pointing to the facts of the widening Italo-German aggression and the worsening position of the Spanish Republic, caught in the vice of a diplomatic and economic blocade.
112
skozanas,
_____ ,^ ^ ....,..,.'. .::,-.-.„, 11 i mif iii^^j^&'i <$f
my za Spane
jg 10 mfscu besiti faStemus ve'SpaneWcu. Jii 10 mfejcfi se
bije nejen $ najatymi vrahy.z cirinecke legie a Marokanci.-ale se statiticovyroi anfiidanri .
nemeckeho a italsksho fasismu. Bombardovani civilniho ofeyvatetetva, ien a dgti, flusio- <»
ten! mist, barbarske niiem oejkraantjsich vytvorfl lidskeho ducha a mkou, jim& s*-&*v, ;, I
Ssmus jproslavuje* ve gpartelsku, vj-plni-prorvzdy nejtetnnJJSi stranky Kdskych d*jiW. J'ij
LIDBOJUJEZA
Lidova armada, WezinarodBt hrigada, SpartSjiky, katafinsky a baskitfcj lid nezapssf
leu o svou svobodu a nezavirfiwt. ale poklada svi zivoty ra zajnty vieho pokrt*t>v4ho
bdstva. N&necky a italsky JaSismus potozily podkop pod svftovy mir. Chtfji si
jtodnunft nejen Spaneteko, ale vScchny demokratickc a male staty Evropy, PfepfaHy Sp»-,
nasko bez vypovezenj valky, vyuiivje spiknuti nekolika zradnych generild. Cely
mfrumilavny sviH. vSechny demokrattcki staty a zvlaste Spolefnost nirodfi, m&y
vtomtookaflg&n litocniky ztrestat tak, jak je k toffiu zavazuji jejich podpfey rva rmmvtm paktu
i tlenstvi ve Spofcfnosti narodu. Vsechny demokraticke staly mely, jak to odpovfda
mezinarodnimu pravu, poskytnout vsechnu ponicic span^Iske repuhtice. Ale zbabflost
demokralt'i posffila zasa jednnu fasistickc dobyvatelc a podnjcovatete vK*y, povzbttdila
jctich zpupnost a iroufalost. Svoji vahavosti a slabosti je spiSe pobkJU k pc&rajcxvini
v jejich zkrfinu.
Mezmarodni pravo, Were upravnje styky mezi civHisovajiymi nirody, viechny zi-
«ady Spolefnosti narodfl, zavazwaly k toimi. aby Spanelsko byto povaiovino za oMf.
podleho liloku, aby povstalci byti p<K«aveni mimo mezinanxtni privo * mocnostem,
ktere do Spanekka vresly valku, miHo byti tlano najevo, ie poruSHy mezinirodni privo
* vvstavtly s« raslcdkem toho sankctm, kleti jsou urieay proti utoinikum. To se vide
ntstalo. Jeite hflfe:
.,
.
IVe- skuteinosti bylo pouiKo sankci proti Span«ske repuWtc* « byte profi al
provadena neslychana btokada. zatim co taSisticky titoCnik shromaicTovji ttft If*
nOakt piuK obrovsky valeiny material a vellke vojenskft focmace.
Vie se deje tak, jakoby Spanelsky lid by] vkmikem, protoie brini ww nirodnl
neiavtelost a svou svobodu. Merinarodni pravo je itapano. Svobod* Je otfOteau
nejen ve Spanelsko, ale viod*. Mir sveta je ohroien tim, ie aepMtde
repubHkta«keJx> Spanelska jsou za svuj lib* odnt«novani.
SPANELSKY LID BOJUJE ZA ZAJMY CSR.
N«pfatdi Jpantlskcho Mdu jsou i nepMWi CSR.
Bezpeinoet republiky je ohrozena, protozc kazdf, kdb by fi eMH napadnoiiti, male
se domnivat, Je n»u jeho zlofin projde prave tak beztrestne, jako ve Spanelsku. A ie staii
vyvolat vnitfni nepokoje pomoci henlcinovcu, aby hyla ospravedlnena intervence
bitterovSkych armad v Ceskostovensku. Na Spanclskych frontach ge rozhoduje i o oaSeni
osudu, o nezjSvislos* Ccskoslwenska. o svobodc jfho nSrodfl,
Ctay poOt'kkych rozhodajicich kruM repuWiky podle toho Of nevyfuOtf. Mtoto toboy
aby republika okamtSte pSspechata <temokra«ck4 vBde Spanetoka na pomoc vSestrannoo
podporou. prihlizi irpne k dobyvainym podnikum faibmu. Be co vice: U nas Jaou *»
konce zakazovariy projevy solidarity a sbirky pro Spanetako, atffcaal« odtczovaoi dtti
id, ktefi chtos sptnit to, co by!? povinnosti vlady.
However, all these appeals remained a voice in the wilderness. Although in individual cases representatives of local socialist organisations engaged in joint actions with the Communists, an agreement on united action on a national scale was never achieved. The leaders of the socialist parties continued to adhere to the principle of ``everyone on his own" and preferred a split in the workers' movement to a break with the reactionary bourgeoisie. But overcoming all the hostile measures taken by the government and the ill will of the reformist parties, the campaign of solidarity with democratic Spain went down in the history of Czechoslovakia as one of the broadest popular movements since the founding of the Czechoslovak state in 1918. The democratic forces regarded aid to the Spanish people as one of their most important tasks, an essential part of their struggle to preserve peace and to safeguard the independence of Czechoslovakia.
In nothing else, perhaps, did the militant anti-fascist spirit of the working people of Czechoslovakia, their internationalism and their solidarity with democratic Spain manifest themselves so strongly as in the resolve of many to defend the Spanish Republic on the field of battle. Class hatred of fascism, anxiety for the fate of their country over which the fascist threat also hung, the feeling of international brotherhood of working people---these were the main motives prompting many Czechoslovak anti-fascists to take arms in hand. In taking this decision they were influenced by the Communist Party and the Young Communist League which for many years were educating the working people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The example set by Communists inspired their non-party comrades and members of other political parties.
In the very first detachments of the Spanish People's Militia, along with Frenchmen, Germans, Italians and other foreigners, were Czechs and Slovaks who happened to be on Spanish soil for various reasons at the time of the fascist revolt. At the present time, it is impossible to determine how many of them there were. The names of only five have been preserved in the records: Milos Brozek, Roman Krobs, Milos Sedlak, Eduard Strof and Jaroslav Dula.
The first volunteers to leave Czechoslovakia for Spain did so in the middle of August 1936, after the CPCz created a special organisation to help volunteers to reach France and then to proceed to their place of destination. The socialist parties, however, adhered strictly to the position taken by the government coalition, that is, one of hostility to the volunteer movement.
While any manifestation of international solidarity met with official resistance, the task of organising the volunteer movement involved even greater difficulties. The reactionary press supported government repression and launched a hysterical campaign 114 against ``the Communist recruitment of volunteers''. Citing a decision of the Non-intervention Committee, the authorities refused to give volunteers passports for going abroad. The police periodically searched the building of the secretariat of the CPCz and arrested several Party workers on suspicion of organising the departure of volunteers.
The volunteers were forced to leave for Spain illegally or to give the authorities false reasons for wanting to go abroad (to work in France or Belgium, a business trip, a visit to the World Fair in Paris, etc.). But such tricks did not always work, especially for those who were known to the police as Communists or supporters of the Spanish Republic.
The volunteers' route to Spain as a rule went through Austria, Switzerland and France. The assembly point was Paris. Some preferred to go through Germany and Belgium, others chose a longer and more complicated route through Poland and from there, depending on circumstances, by sea to France, or through Scandinavia to Holland. No route was easy.
Before leaving the country, the volunteers usually came to Prague, where they received instructions regarding their journey. Then, individually, or in small groups, they would set out on a journey that demanded courage, discipline and, most importantly, the inflexible will to reach their goal. Many were detained en route by the police in neighbouring countries and returned to Czechoslovakia, while others never even got across the border. On a second attempt to leave the country for Spain, it was always advisable to choose a new route. Whenever a large number of volunteers gathered at one time in Prague, they would leave in small groups or individually in different directions in order to avoid attracting the attention of the police and border authorities.
Among the volunteers leaving Czechoslovakia were many antifascist emigres, especially Germans who had found refuge in Czechoslovakia. In addition, many volunteers from Eastern and Southeastern Europe also passed through Czechoslovakia on their way to Spain. To all of them, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, working closely with the Communist parties of the neighbouring countries, especially Poland, gave the necessary assistance for continuing on to Paris, and from there to Spain.
All in all, over 2,000 Czechoslovak volunteers, including emigres from other countries, went to Spain. No less than 1,300 of these came from Czechoslovakia herself. In addition to Czechs and Slovaks, there were hundreds of Germans and Hungarians, and dozens of Ukrainians and Poles who were citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic. Workers, miners, handicraftsmen, merchants, doctors, engineers, students, peasants and office workers left their peaceful labour to become volunteer soldiers.
__PRINTERS_P_115_COMMENT__ 8^^*^^ 115
Many of the volunteers were Communists, but even more were non-party people. However, after going through the crucible of combat, a considerable part of the non-party people and members of other political parties joined the Communist Party. Indeed by the beginning of 1939, over half of the Czechoslovak international bngaders were already Communists. Of the remainder, a small group belonged to the Social-Democratic and other parties. They were all united by their anti-fascist convictions and the common will to fight.
In selecting volunteers for the International Brigades from among those wishing to go to Spain, the CPCz attached great 116 weight to their military training, since the Republican Army was in serious need of military specialists. Preference went to those who had gone through active military service, above all in the air force and in specialist units. Because of this, the Czechoslovak volunteers turned out to be especially helpful in the formation of the Republican military-technical fighting units.
There were small groups of Czechs and Slovaks in the first two International Brigades that were formed in November 1936. One group of ten volunteers, in the Rakosi Company of the Edgar Andre Battalion, included the Slovaks, Juraj Petrocek and Ondrej Sima, and the Czech, Jan Krejci. Another group, which included Laco Holdos and Jozko Majek, went into the machine-gun company of the Thaelmann Battalion.
At the end of 1936, 40 Czechs and Slovaks and 3 Poles made up a platoon in the Mickiewicz Company of the 13th International Brigade. They became known as the Klement Gottwald Platoon. Formed at almost the same time was a Czechoslovak platoon, under the command of Gustav Lohn, in the Slavic company of the 14th International Brigade. Soon thereafter, in the Georgy Dimitrov Battalion of the 15th International Brigade, a machine-gun company made up of Czechoslovak volunteers was formed and named in honour of the renowned national general, Jan 2izka. The company commander was Kazimierz Gede, a Pole, and its political commissar was the Czech, Jaroslav Tichy. Among the company's platoon commanders and political delegates were Antonfn Kobylak and Antonin Kymlicka, Josef Kalas and Jaroslav Hosek, and in the third platoon, where there were Hungarians, Mate and Stefan Fabry. At first, the Jan 2izka Company was a machine-gun company in name only: because of.a shortage of arms and ammunition, it functioned in the first battles as an ordinary infantry unit.
The military knowledge of Czechoslovak volunteers was fully utilised in another branch of the service---the artillery. Twelve Czechoslovak artillery men were with the Karl Liebknecht Battery from the first days of its formation. In a few months' time, Czechoslovak volunteers made up its largest national group---43 men.
When the Gottwald Platoon (under the leadership of Lorenc Lajdl and Commissar Vendelin Opatrny) together with the Liebknecht Battery were fighting at Teruel, new groups of volunteers from Czechoslovakia were gathering in the artillery barracks at Albacete. They were led by Bohuslav Lastovicka, editor of the communist newspaper, Rude prdvo, and a former regular officer in the artillery. Thus, at the end of January 1937, a new international artillery battery was born, made up of Czechs and Slovaks and named after Gottwald. The history of the new group began in much the same way as that of many other units being formed 117 at the time. Its ``arsenal'' consisted of obsolete weapons of various systems and calibres, but the volunteers went about the task of learning to handle their weapons and instruments and studying artillery theory with great zeal. A strict daily routine was established, and political studies began.
In the beginning of February 1937, the battery was converted into an anti-aircraft battery after receiving modern military equipment---Soviet 76-millimetre anti-aircraft guns, 1931 model. The period of intensive study ended in the middle of February, and the battery, under the leadership of the Soviet instructor, Captain Semyonov, set out for the Central Front.
In June 1937, new Czechoslovak volunteers were organised to form the Majek Battery, which became part of the 1st Slavic Heavy Artillery Battalion. The battery got obsolete 150-millimetre guns (apparently of French origin), and after accelerated training, was sent to the front. Because most of the volunteers had been in the artillery during military service at home, the battery was able to fulfil its combat mission successfully. The battery commander was J. Douda, and the commissar was B. Machacek.
A year after the first Czechoslovak unit---the Gottwald Platoon---was organised a Czechoslovak battalion, named after the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, T. G. Masaryk, was formed and trained, albeit with a shortage of guns as usual, in the village of Fuentealbilla, not far from Albacete. The commanders, all graduates of international officer courses in Pozorrubio, were frontline soldiers with fighting experience. The first commander of the Masaryk Battalion was Stanislav Riha, and its commissar was Milos Nekvasil. Although the battalion was manned with newly arrived volunteers, its nucleus consisted of experienced Dimitrovites who had been through the fire of battle. By the end of January 1938, there were 700 men in the battalion, one half of whom were Czechs and Slovaks, and the rest Spaniards. Later, like other international units, it was reinforced with Spanish soldiers.
There were some Czechs and Slovaks also in the Dimitrov and Djakovic battalions of the 45th Division. Although most of the Czechoslovak volunteers served in the units already mentioned, many also fought in other units of the Republican Army. In particular, Czechoslovak volunteers who belonged to national minorities, such as the Hungarians and Germans, were assigned, on a language basis, to German and Hungarian units of the Thaelmann and Dabrowski brigades, etc.
Defending the Spanish Republic in the air, along with Spanish, Soviet and other foreign flyers, were Czechoslovak volunteer pilots Rudolf Bolfik, Jan Ferak, Rudolf John, Karol Gabula, Kfiz, Karel Krai, Zdenek Talas and Karel Vejvoda.
Czechoslovak volunteers also fought in the armoured tank units, 118 some having come to Spain from the Soviet Union (Oldfich Haken, Josef Hruska, Jan Mrkva, Bfetislav Skarvada), and others from Czechoslovakia (Ladislav Pfskovsky, Bruno Pitha and others).
In the spring of 1937, a number of Czechoslovak volunteers (Vendelin Opatrny, Alois Samec, Alois Sobeslavsky, Kamil Kozderka, Josef Bartos from the Gottwald Platoon, and Milos Knezl and Karol Matych from the 2izka Machine-Gun Company) were included in a guerrilla group operating in Estremadura in the enemy's rear. Later, they were joined by Pavel Antos, Stanislav Sedlak and Oskar Vales.
Beginning in March 1938, some Czechoslovak artillery men served in the Rosa Luxemburg Battalion (Karel Stefek, deputy commander of the battalion; Eugen Stern, chief of staff; Geza Krsak, battery commander; and Karel Dufek, deputy battery commander).
About 15 Czechoslovak volunteers fought in the ranks of the international battalion of the 86th (mixed) Brigade, and two of them, Adolf Rach and Odpadlik, commanded other battalions of that brigade.
About 120 volunteers from Czechoslovakia were members of a separate battalion of the 45th Division that took part in the operation on the Ebro. Company commanders there were A. Sobeslavsky, G. Lohn and A. Kobylak.
Individual Czechoslovak volunteers fought in the cavalry, worked in the defence industry, made international broadcasts over the Madrid radio, served in the base apparatus of the International Brigades and in medical sub-units, where besides the staff of the Jan Komenski Hospital, Dr D. Talenberg and other Czech doctors worked. Gustav Simovic, who was commander of an infantry battalion of the llth Division, and Frantisek Knezl, commander of a combat-engineer battalion, fought in Spanish units of the Republican Army.
Czechoslovak volunteers took part in all the major battles of the war. They fought in the defence of Madrid, in the first offensive at Teruel, in the fierce battles at Brunete, in the Zaragoza operation, and on various sectors of the Southern Front. Their guns defended Madrid, Valencia, Sagunto and other important Republican points. The mountains of Levante and the banks of the Ebro were witness to their courage, valour and steadfastness. '
The volunteers of the Gottwald Anti-Aircraft Battery and the Jan 2izka Machine-Gun Company distinguished themselves in the fierce battles on the Jarama. The Gottwaldites shot down three enemy airplanes in the first days of fighting. The Jan 2izka Company carried out its task successfully, although at the price of heavy losses. In the first week of fighting, the company's strength was reduced from 162 to 38 men. The battalion commissar, the Bulgarian volunteer P. Tabakov, stated that "in courage, and what 119 is more important, in military skill, discipline in battle, and expert handling of arms, the first place in the heroic Dimitrov Battalion unquestionably belongs to the machine-gun company".
In the summer of 1937, most of the Czech and Slovak volunteers entered the battle of Brunete with combat experience behind them. The Gottwald Platoon, for example, had been through heavy fighting at Teruel, in the mountains of Sierra Nevada, and at Pozoblanco in Andalucia. The Dimitrov Battalion came to Brunete after a 100-day positional defence on the Jarama. The artillery men of the Liebknecht Battery had supported the Republican infantry at Teruel, on the Southern Front and in Aragon near Huesca. It was the first combat action only for the Majek Battery.
The Brunete operation brought the Republic a limited success and marked the end of a definite stage in the development of the regular Republican Army, including its international formations. The relationship between the volunteers and their Spanish comrades-in-arms and the civilian population had developed into one of strong fraternal friendship. The internationalists readily passed on their military experience and knowledge to young Spanish soldiers and served as an example to them in battle. During pauses in the fighting, the volunteers helped peasants gather the harvest, put on children's plays, and distributed presents to children. They were invited into homes as especially dear guests.
In this period the ties between the volunteers and their homeland also strengthened. The self-sacrifice and heroism of the international brigaders was regarded by the working people of Czechoslovakia as the highest expression of international solidarity, and lent impetus to an even greater development of the movement to help the Spanish people. Various progressive organisations and individuals corresponded with the volunteers, supported their families both materially and morally, regularly supplied the volunteers with newspapers and magazines, and sent them presents. Organisations of the CPCz were especially active along these lines.
In the summer of 1937, a Czechoslovak delegation of Communist parliamentary deputies, headed by Jan Sverma, went to Spain to visit the International Brigades in which Czechoslovak volunteers were serving.
All these expressions of sympathy and support strengthened the morale of the volunteers and gave them the feeling of close ties with their people. They themselves closely followed the political situation at home and even took part in it. In open letters published in Rude prdvo and other democratic newspapers, they expressed indignation over the policy of ``non-intervention'', protested against the arrests of Communists allegedly for recruiting volunteers, and called for the unification of Czechoslovak anti-fascist 120 forces into a Popular Front and for stronger support of the Spanish people.
With the aim of providing the Czechoslovak public with truthful information about the events in Spain and about the life of the internationalists, the magazine Salud, with a supplement called Uojdk svobody (Soldier of Freedom), began to be published in October 1937. At the same time, a group of Czechoslovak volunteers compiled and published in Barcelona a collection called For Peace and Freedom, while in Czechoslovakia, a booklet entitled Slovak Heroes in Spain was published. All such publications were distributed in Czechoslovakia by the solidarity committees and enjoyed wide popularity.
A glorious page in the combat history of the Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain was their participation in August-September in the Aragon offensive, especially in the battles to liberate Quinto and Belchite.
In the meantime, far from Aragon in the southern theatre of operations at Cordoba, the Majek Battery was heroically repulsing an enemy onslaught. In the unequal ten-day battle of Los Blasques, all the guns were destroyed, and the men had to fight their way out of enemy encirclement.
Also in the south in the winter of 1937/38, the 129th International Brigade was formed out of the Djakovic, Dimitrov and Masaryk battalions. It saw its first action in the spring of that year in Levante., where its task was to hold back the advance of fascist forces to the Mediterranean Sea.
After the fascists succeeded in dividing the territory of the Spanish Republic into two parts, the 129th Brigade was the only one of the International Brigades to remain in the Central-- Southern zone, where it became part of the Levante Front. Also located there were the international Gottwald Battery, under the command of Laco Holdos, one of the first Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain; the Majek Battery and the Liebknecht Battery, whose commissar was Alexandr Bubem'cek, member of the CC CPCz. Bubenicek was killed in action; his replacement was K. Kubin. In the exhausting defensive battles on the Levante Front, the men of the Liebknecht and Gottwald anti-aircraft batteries fought on the same sector of the front as did their comrades from the infantry units. The Gottwalds distinguished themselves in the defence, of Sagunto, an important industrial centre of the Republic. For almost two months their guns defended that city and its steel plants, repulsing 51 air raids and downing 10 enemy planes. The battery saw its last action in Valencia, and while it was there, enemy planes did not succeed in damaging a single ship coming to that port.
The participation of Czechoslovak volunteers in the fighting
in Spain drew to a close basically with the battles on the Levante
121
The banner of the Gottwald Battery
Front. Despite the heavy fighting in the mountains and the
constant shortage of weapons, ammunition, clothing and food, the
men staunchly withstood the onslaught of the well-armed and
superior forces of the enemy. In that fighting, the 129th Brigade
lost many brave men, both internationalists and Spanish soldiers,
who made up two-thirds of its personnel. The 129th Brigade was
awarded the Medal of Valour by the Spanish Government. And
there is this final fact that speaks eloquently of the fighting
qualities of the brigade: The Spanish Government's decree withdrawing
all foreign volunteers from action was carried out in Catalonia
on September 23--25; however, the 129th Brigade stayed on because
the command of the Levante Front considered it impossible to
replace it in this sector. It was withdrawn from the front only on
October 10.
The news from home was not good in those days. The dark clouds of fascism had gathered over Czechoslovakia. The front pages of the International Brigades' newspaper, Volunteer of Freedom, dramatically underscored the fact that the defence of Czechoslovakia was taking place on the fields and mountains of Spain. Their own country's tragedy, the realisation of the 122 importance of their international mission in Spain, and the deep sense of common ties with the heroic Spanish people, made the Czechoslovak volunteers all the more determined to continue the struggle. They regarded their withdrawal from the fronts and the coming departure from Spain only as a brief breathing spell before new battles against fascism.
The Czechoslovak internationalists were withdrawn from the front to the outskirts of Valencia, and later transferred by sea to the North, to Catalonia. The ruling circles of Czechoslovakia were categorically against the repatriation of the volunteers. Negotiations dragged on and were still in progress when General Franco's and the interventionists' divisions tore into Catalonia.. The volunteers decided to return to the front.
Thus, once again a Czechoslovak Battalion, consisting of about 450 men, and an artillery battery came into being. At the village of Llagostera, not far from Gerona, the Czechoslovak volunteers joined their last battle with the fascists on Spanish soil. After firing their last cartridges fighting off the advance guard of an Italian division, they retreated into France. No one knows how many Czechs and Slovaks were killed in that action. Among them, however, were former men of the Jan 2izka Machine-Gun Company Pavel Antes and Kagan; Jan Eisner and Stanislav Krejci were captured by the fascists. In the two and a half years of the war in Spain, more than 400 Czechoslovak volunteers lost their lives.
On March 15, 1939, Czechia was annexed by fascist Germany. A puppet clerical-fascist government was set up in Slovakia. Soon the fascist occupation embraced almost all of Europe. All the thoughts of the Czechoslovak anti-fascists were directed towards further struggle with the sworn enemy.
Despite the years of heavy fighting in Republican Spain and the moral and physical suffering endured in concentration camps after evacuation from Spain, the Czechoslovak international brigaders, never losing their steadfastness and resolve, again took up arms to fight against fascism. They fought in partisan detachments on their native soil, in Czechoslovak units formed in France and England, in detachments of the Resistance in occupied France, and in the Chinese National Liberation Army. Those of them who managed to get to the Soviet Union took part in the liberation of their country in the ranks of the Czechoslovak Corps under the command of Ludvik Svoboda. In the post-war years, the Czech and Slovak veterans of the International Brigades were in the first ranks of the selfless builders of their people's socialist Czechoslovakia.
Decades have passed since the time that the Spanish people put up their heroic resistance to fascist aggression, since the days of that unparalleled international movement of solidarity of 123 which the International Brigades were part. But the events of those years and their lessons have not been forgotten. Klement Gottwald was perfectly right when in 1937 he wrote to the Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain: "You are writing pages into the history of the peoples of our country which future generations will be proud of.''
[124] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FINLANDFinland in the 1930s was more like a fascist than a bourgeoisdemocratic state. The social and political life of the country was dominated by organisations with marked chauvinistic, fascist leanings: the para-military Suojeluskuntalaisel, the Lotta Svard women's organisation, the Academic Karelian Society, the Patriotic National Movement, and others.
Official representation of the working class was monopolised by the Social-Democratic Party, then controlled by a Right-wing reactionary leadership. The party's position was strengthened by harsh government repression of all Left working-class organisations.
Finland's 100,000-strong revolutionary trade-union organisation was disbanded in 1932, while the Communist Party had been outlawed from the moment it was founded in 1918. The upsurge of the anti-fascist movement in Europe after German fascism came to power was also felt in Finland, stimulating a nation-wide discussion of the question of a united workers' and people's front. Some legal possibilities even opened up for the Left forces to work for peace and democracy and against war and fascism.
The events in Spain following the fascist revolt enhanced these new trends in the political life of Finland. Although the bourgeois press presented a distorted picture of the situation depicting the government of the Spanish Republic as despotic, and the reactionary revolt as a national liberation movement, Finnish workers were nonetheless able to grasp the real meaning of those events thanks largely to the efforts of the Communists and certain progressive magazines. Workers were everywhere .discussing the latest news from Spain and collecting money for the Spanish people. Local Social-Democratic organisations where Left elements were in the majority collected contributions and arranged lectures and concerts in behalf of the Spanish Republic. At the initiative of its chairman, Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi, the Social-Democratic Women's Union organised aid to Spanish children. However, the Social-- 125 Democratic leadership, fearing the growing influence of Left elements in the workers' movement, tried to inhibit all mass forms of solidarity. The Women's Union conducted its collection campaign as a neutral, charity project. Moreover, it avoided publicity and tried to keep people with Left views from active participation in it. The Finnish Committee for Aid to Spanish Children sent 100,000 francs, as well as food and clothing, to Spain through the International Committee in Paris.
The only political force in the country to work vigorously and consistently for all-round assistance to the Spanish Republic was the Communist Party. Its attempts to create a united front of all democratic forces were continually hampered by the leadership of the Social-Democratic Party. Although denied the right to use the press and verbal propaganda and agitation, the Communist Party nonetheless worked hard to turn the aid-to-Spain campaign into a broad public movement and to connect it with the movement for a united Popular Front.
__FIX__ also do URL tags for collecting data while editing: www.DaCamera.orgHigh on the list of measures taken by the Communist Party to support the Spanish Republic was its selection and dispatching of volunteers. The Comintern's appeal found favourable response in Finland; there were many who were ready and willing to take up arms to stop fascism. But the government repression and the fact that the Party had to operate underground prevented the movement from assuming mass proportions.
The government used the pretext of Finland's ``neutrality'' to prohibit volunteers from leaving Finland, and the political police kept a vigilant eye out for violations of the ban. It required great resourcefulness on the part of the volunteers and organisers to avoid police surveillance. Anyone caught trying to leave for Republican Spain could be tried on charges of "intention to commit treason''. Any worker expressing a desire to leave the country was suspected of intentions to join the International Brigade and was subjected to stern questioning. Most left the country by illegal means.
The volunteers preferred the route via Sweden. They travelled singly and often without money to the assembly point in Stockholm, from where they usually proceeded in groups by sea to France.
Overcoming obstacles connected with their lack of documents and their unfamiliarity with the language, and running into French gendarmes as they crossed the Pyrenees, or the fascists in the Mediterranean between Murcia and Barcelona (as was the case, for example, with the Spanish Republican merchant ship, the Ciudad de Barcelona, which the fascists torpedoed on May 30, 1937), the volunteers ultimately reached Spain.
Of the 300 to 350 Finnish volunteers, about 60 came directly
from Finland, primarily from Helsinki, Vyborg, Turku,
126
Finnish volunteers at Albacete, July 1937
Pietarsaari and Kemi. The others came from countries like the United
States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Sweden, to which they had
earlier emigrated. Seamen made a considerable group. Most were
workers, the youngest of whom was 16, and the oldest 40. Some
had gone through military service in the Finnish army, while
others had either taken part in the Finnish civil war of 1918, the
Russian civil war, or in the First World War. Most of the
volunteers who came from Finland were Communists, but there were
also some Social-Democrats and some who belonged to no party.
Differences in political views, however, did not interfere with
the militant camaraderie of the volunteers in the ranks of the
International Brigades.
Finnish volunteers began arriving in Spain in groups in the beginning of 1937. Prior to that a few had come singly from other countries. One of the first was Tuure Lehen, a Communist who came from the USSR. In September 1936, he was in Madrid in the ranks of the famous 5th Regiment, training soldiers of the People's Militia. Later he was in Albacete helping to organise the International Brigades, and since the spring of 1937 he was an instructor in the international and Spanish formations.
When the Finnish volunteers began arriving in Spain, they were assigned to various units of the International Brigades, which made it difficult for those who knew no other language but Finnish. Later, in the course of the war, it became possible to bring 127 Finns together, primarily into units of the 15th International Brigade. In the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of that brigade, a machine-gun company, named after Jaakko Ilkka (leader of the Finnish peasant uprising of 1597--98), was formed and placed, under the command of Captain Niilo Makela, a Finn from Canada. Among the other commanders in the battalion were Finns from the United States, Canada and Finland. Finns also served in the machine-gun company of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion of that same brigade, one machine-gun platoon of which was named after the Finnish revolutionary, Toivo Antikainen. About 20 Finns fought in the llth International Brigade. Small groups of Finns served in rifle companies, guerrilla detachments, the artillery and various army services and medical units.
The combat history of the Finnish volunteers began in February 1937, when in the ranks of the llth International Brigade Finns took part in repulsing an insurgent offensive at the Jarama river. Next, Finnish machine-gunners took part in the fighting against Italian interventionists near Guadalajara. There, machine-- gunner Paavo Pajunen fought with outstanding courage as in the course of the battle he replaced the wounded M. G. platoon commander, Henry Maki, a Finn from Canada.
The Toivo Antikainen M. G. Platoon, commanded by Niilo Kruth, a Finn from the U.S.A., saw its first action in the Brunete operation in July 1937. In command of machine-gun teams were the Finns, Toivo Suni from Canada, Henry Bushka from the U.S.A. and Frans Pakkala from Finland. Finns participated in the attacks and counter-attacks at Villanueve de la Canada and at Mosquito Crest, where they suffered their first casualties in killed and wounded. Sergeant Suni's machine-gun group distinguished itself in the fighting to repulse an attack by the Moroccan cavalry.
But the largest and most difficult military operation in which the bravery, steadfastness and fighting qualities of the Finnish volunteers were displayed in full measure was the retreat of the troops of the Eastern (Aragon) Front in March and April 1938. On March 9, the insurgents and interventionists suddenly attacked the Republican troops with several infantry corps supported by tanks after devastating artillery and aerial barrage. The Republicans hastily retreated. Their communications were cut, and a wide breach was made in their line of defence. The iob of closing the breach, into which four enemy divisions were pouring, was assigned to three incomplete International Brigades of the 35th Division. The forces were too uneven, and the most the internationalists could do was to try to prevent the enemy's motorised columns, which were now moving fast over every road towards the Republican rear, from surrounding them. The men of the 35th Division selflessly repulsed the enemy wherever the locality permitted.
128
At that time, the Mackenzie-- Papineau Battalion almost always acted as the 15th Brigade's rearguard. Time after time, units of the battalion, and above all the machine-gun company, clashed with fascist troops pressing in from the rear and the flanks. The constant skirmishes with the enemy and the latter's frequent air attacks, during which the roads were bombed and strafed, disrupted the Republican columns, caused units to become confused, and took a heavy toll in lives.
On its very first day on the front, on March 10, after an all-night march, the Canadian Battalion ran into advanced detachments of the Italian Black Arrows and Blue Arrows divisions. The machine-gun company took up convenient positions on a hill north of the village of Azuara, near Belchite. The platoon under the command of Henry Bushka dug in on the northern slope and Lt. Gunnar Ebb's (Paavo Koskinen's) platoon, on the southern. Skilled machine-gunners Kauko Nihtila, the Finnish sailor who had distinguished himself in the battle of the Jarama, Villi Paakko and Sergeant Toivo Suni, hero of the battle of Brunete, had their machine-guns trained on the two roads to Lecera over which the enemy was trying to break through to the 15th Brigade's rear. The hill was bombarded by fascist artillery and bombed from the air. Among those killed was Yrjo Kyyny, a Finnish volunteer from Canada. But the machine-gunners kept up their fire throughout the day.
At nightfall, the battalion was ordered to retreat to new positions beyond the Aguas river, two kilometres from its former line. They dug trenches all the night. At that place, the only highway to Lecera passed through a gorge, which provided a good vantage point for keeping the entire area occupied by the fascists under __PRINTERS_P_129_COMMENT__ 9---781 129 fire. A group of machine-gunners was positioned on the top of a sheer and nearly inaccessible cliff directly above the highway.
At daybreak, the superior enemy forces renewed their offensive, but were met with heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. At that moment, the battalion received orders from the divisional command to retreat in the direction of Lecera, and immediately began carrying them out. But the order never reached the machine-gun group on the cliff: the messengers had been killed. After covering the withdrawal of their comrades-in-arms, the men on the cliff kept up the fight to their last cartridge, whereupon they were surrounded and brutally murdered by the fascists. Among those brave internationalists were Group Commander Nihtila, Platoon Commander Bushka, Commissar Aarne Mynttinen, and machine-gunner Villi Paakko.
In the meantime, fighting was going on south of Belchite, where the llth Brigade's infantry and a Finnish machine-gun group, in which Eero Lojander served, were caught in an encirclement. Italian tanks had blocked the group's retreat route. Putting up a fierce fight, the machine-gunners helped their unit break out of the encirclement, but by then they themselves were cut off and lost all contact with the other units of their brigade. Only upon reaching Hi jar were they able to rejoin the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.
As it retreated towards Lecera, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion's machine-gun company learned that the fascists had already occupied the town and that the only road leading from it to Albalate was under enemy artillery fire. There was only one way out---to bypass Lecera and to reach Albalate in a roundabout way. Late in the evening of March 12, after travelling by country roads, hunted down by fascist planes, and having lost contact with the Brigade HQ, the men of the Canadian Battalion came out onto the highway about two kilometres from Albalate. The commander of the machine-gunners, Gunnar Ebb (Paavo Koskinen), had orders from the division commander, General Walter (Swierczewski), to set up a line of defence. But in a few hours the order was given to continue retreating towards Hijar, because the enemy, flanking the brigade on the right, was approaching that town. Under heavy enemy fire, the machine-gunners drove headlong through Hi jar, now enveloped in flames, and came out onto the road leading to Alcaniz. The other units of the Canadian Battalion were forced to turn off the highway and to move towards Alcaniz in roundabout ways, often losing contact with each other.
Six kilometres from the city, a Republican artillery battery, without infantry cover, bombarded the advancing fascists. Then the commander of the Ilkka M. G. Company, Captain Makela, ordered his men to take up defensive positions on the closest hills. 130 Coming up to join the company at that point were riflemen from the 15th Brigade and machine-gunners from the Lincoln Battalion who had lost contact with their units. Thus a composite detachment was formed, consisting of a group of heavy machine-guns with Finnish machine-gunners Eero Hautojarvi and Lojander, a group of light machine-guns under the command of Asser Mantere (also a Finn), a rifle unit and one tank. This detachment, headed by Ebb (Koskinen), joined battle with two squadrons of the Moroccan cavalry and thwarted their attempt to flank the Republican column on the left.
Ebb's detachment held its position for a day and a half, but when on the morning of March 15 it became known that the fascists had accomplished the flanking manoeuvre and taken Alcaniz, the detachment moved northward, taking back roads, in the direction of Caspe. Towards evening the soldiers were already engaging the enemy at the approaches to Caspe, the first town along the six-day line of retreat that had not yet been taken by the enemy. The composite units of the 15th and llth International brigades, 1,200 men in all, took up defensive positions on the hills west of Caspe.
For two days the internationalists put up a stubborn fight against the fascist Navarre Division which was advancing against them with the support of 30 guns and 30 tanks. The first enemy attacks were repulsed. In the afternoon of March 16, the fascists, bringing in fresh reinforcements, succeeded in breaking through to the town, but the internationalists, with the help of units of the 14th Brigade that had come up in the meantime, threw them back. Casualties in the battle at Caspe included Aulis Taivanen, killed, and M. G. Company Commander Makela and Platoon Commander Hugo Lehtovirta, both mortally wounded. Machinegunners Eero Hautojarvi, Eero Lojander, Asser Mantere and Olavi Ohman distinguished themselves in the fighting, as did Kaarlo Siskonen, who knocked out an enemy tank with a hand grenade.
On the night of March 16, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, along with the entire 15th Brigade, was withdrawn to an area around Batea for rest and reinforcement. But the breathing spell was not long-lived. In the last days of March the battalion was again in the thick of battle, this time countering a renewed fascist attack at Gandesa. A rifle company under the command of I. Paivio, a Finn from Canada, along with Ebb's machine-gun platoon which was attached to it, took up a position by the CalaceiteGandesa road east of the river Algas. Another detachment, under the command of Henry Maki, was reinforced with the machinegun teams of Walter Forsman, Asser Mantere and Tauno Hermans. Its job was to occupy positions at the Algas along the BateaMaella highway. At dawn, Paivio's detachment was attacked and __PRINTERS_P_131_COMMENT__ 9* 131 surrounded by units of the Italian division, and in the uneven battle Paivio was captured. Hautojarvi's machine-gun group, occupying a separate position, held off enemy tanks trying to break through to Gandesa. By nightfall, however, they had used up all their ammunition, whereupon they withdrew through a ravine to the crossroads leading from Batea to Calaceite.
M\"aki's detachment, in the meantime, which was fighting between Batea and the River Algas, was forced to retreat to avoid being surrounded. But even so, the fascists succeeded in encircling Tauno Hermans' machine-gun team. All the men, including Team Commander Hermans and orderly Syvert Virtanen from Helsinki, were killed.
In the beginning of April the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, together with the entire 15th Brigade, was pulled back for regrouping and reinforcement. The ordeals of the March retreat had not shaken the morale of the Finnish internationalists; they were all eager to get back into action. In the course of reorganising the Canadian Battalion, Finnish volunteer Frank Rogers was appointed commissar, Henry Maki, commander of the second company, and Gunnar Ebb, commander of the machine-gun company.
In the summer of 1938, the Finnish volunteers took part in their last action---the Republican Army's drive to the Ebro. On the night of July 24, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion took up initial positions for making a forced crossing of the river in a sector between Flix and Asco. Ebb's machine-gun company moved at the head of the battalion. At 5 hours 40 minutes the machine-gun groups climbed into the boats and the crossing began. The first to reach the opposite shore of the Ebro was Hautojarvi's machine-gun group.
A substantial role in the battalion's successful crossing was played by the sailors found among the Finnish volunteers, men who were excellent rowers. A correspondent for the American newspaper, The Daily Worker, wrote in glowing terms about the feats of sailor Kaarlo Siskonen, Boris Karlenius, a leader of Canadian unemployed Walsh Castello, and Tauno Erkkila during the crossing which proceeded under continual artillery fire and attacks from the air. Olavi Suhonen was killed and Tauno Erkkila was wounded.
As soon as it reached the other side, the machine-gun company was caught in the enemy's artillery fire. The battalion suffered casualties in killed and wounded, among whom were some Finns. The enemy battery was neutralised only after the battalion had advanced five or six kilometres into the territory occupied by the fascists. The sudden strike by the Republican forces caught the fascists unawares. Many surrendered, and the battery that was bombarding the battalion was captured.
132Towards morning on the following day, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion reached the outskirts of Corbera. The men, who all this time were wearing alpargatos (Spanish sandals), had barely time enough to get leather shoes from captured fascist supply depots when the town was subjected to heavy bombing that lasted all day and night. The battalion was ordered to quit the burning city and to head for the road going south from Gandesa. There, enemy resistance was particularly fierce.
The machine-gun company was given the task of advancing to the south of Gandesa. Walter Forsman's team, which was in the lead, got caught in a heavy cross fire. Forsman was mortally wounded, and machine-gunner Sulo Tourunen, from Canada, was killed. The major obstacle to the advance was Hill 368, held and fortified by the fascists. The fighting for this hill went on for three weeks, but because of the lack of artillery it was unsuccessful. Among those who fell in these battles was the activist in the Communist Party of Finland, Kalle Manninen, and the machinegun company's messenger, Arvi Myllykangas, who came from Canada.
After being pulled back for a few days' rest, the MackenziePapineau Battalion was sent into the Sierra Pandols south of Gandesa to replace units of the glorious llth Division. The positions there were on bare cliffs, with no possibility of digging in, and there was no water available anywhere nearby. Shell, mine and bomb splinters took a heavy toll in casualties. The bombardment continued for days on end. It was there that Arvi Mikkolo was killed and Eero Hautojarvi and Kaarlo Siskonen were wounded.
After heavy, exhausting battles, the men of the battalion, tortured by heat and thirst, were withdrawn. But soon they were taking part in a new offensive northeast of Gandesa, in the Sierra Caballs. Just before the offensive, the battalion commander fell ill, and Captain Ebb was appointed in his place. Ebb's command of the machine-gun company was given to Karl Syvanen, a Finn from the U.S.A. who had taken part in the Brunete operation.
On September 21, after a short rest, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion returned to its former positions to repulse a major offensive begun by the fascists. Fascist infantry and tanks, moving on in the wake of a heavy artillery barrage, squeezed off the battalion's right flank. At the same time, the fascists cut off the battalion from neighbouring units on the left. Trapped in a pocket, the battalion began a fighting retreat. M. G. Company Commander Henry Maki from the U.S.A. was wounded, and the machine-- gunner Viljo Siltanen from Canada was mortally wounded. This was the battalion's and the Finnish volunteers' last battle. The Spanish Republican Government issued a decree withdrawing the International Brigades from the front.
133
Two-thirds of the Finnish anti-fascists who had served in the battalion returned home. The remainder were either killed in action or murdered by the fascists after being captured. Those of the volunteers who survived remember with affection and respect their comrades-in-arms who gave their lives for the freedom of Spain.
In the first half of 1937, the Republican Command had begun forming small guerrilla detachments to be sent into action in the enemy's rear. They were made up primarily of Spaniards, but some internationalist volunteers were also accepted into their ranks. A group of Finnish volunteers was among them.
A guerrilla detachment usually operated in the fascists' rear for three or four days, and then returned through the front lines, using local inhabitants as guides. The guerrillas were armed with light machine-guns, submachineguns, Mausers, hand grenades, and mines that worked on a flashlight battery. The favourite weapon of the Finns was the submachine-gun, since it was very convenient in close combat. There was a shortage of weapons, and they had to be gotten mostly from captured fascist arms depots.
In western Andalucfa a guerrilla detachment, which included five Finns, used an estate near Blazquez as an assembly point. From there the guerrillas would go out in groups to make raids along the Azuaga-Penarroya sector. In one of their operations they blew up an enemy train carrying fascist troops from Pueblonuevo to Belmez. Republicans keeping an eye out for the train from observation points in the hills reported that many fascists were killed in the explosion. In operations such as this, the explosives were usually placed by the Finns, Onni Hukkinen and Kallas Laakso.
At the height of the fighting for Penarroya in the spring of 1937, a 100-man strong guerrilla detachment, which included eight Finns, penetrated to the fascists' rear and blew up their headquarters. At Ovejo, five Finns took part in a guerrilla attack on a fascist caravan in which four lorries with foodstuffs were 134 destroyed. In a railway tunnel, that same detachment blew up a train carrying Italian soldiers.
Six Finns were sent from a base in Ja6n to join a guerrilla detachment operating in the Segovia-Avila area. During the Brunete operation, this detachment, under the command of Ebb, kept the enemy's communications under constant harassment. Among the Finns there were Reino Keto and Yrjo Korpi from Canada.
Another guerrilla detachment, this one under the command of Lieutenant Eino Laakso, was sent to the mountain village of Lanteira in the Sierra Nevada. Operating from positions atop Mulhacen peak, the guerrillas made raids into enemy territory. The fighting went on there for two months, in the course of which the guerrillas blew up a hotel located on the slope of Mulhacen peak, in which high-ranking officers of the fascist army were quartered. Eino Laakso's detachment accomplished raids on Guadix, just outside Granada, in Granada itself, and along the road to Malaga. During one of their sudden attacks, in which the Swede, Venberg, and the Finn, Vattulainen (both of whom were ultimately killed in Spain) took part, the guerrillas succeeded in freeing 200 prisoners of war.
Four Finns served as miners in a guerrilla detachment that operated in the Broto-Fiscal (Upper Aragon) sector from their base in Boltana. Near Jaci a troop train was blown up, a mission in which Liimatainen and Hukkinen took part along with their Spanish comrades.
During the battle of Belchite, the guerrillas, seven Finns among them, were very active, continually harassing the enemy's troops and supply transport. In those operations Kallas Laakso and Ahti Lassila displayed outstanding courage and daring. Kallas Laakso, for example, burst into a room in which there were 20 fascists and destroyed them all with a burst of machine-gun fire.
The Finnish volunteers fought valiantly and selflessly in the first big battle against the fascists in Europe. Their feat still serves as an inspiring example to all democrats and anti-fascists in Finland.
[135] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FRANCEThe broad democratic movement in France had scored great victories by 1936. The resolute rebuff given by French workers to the attempted fascist coup in February 1934 had demonstrated that fascism was neither inevitable, as some people were saying, nor an invincible force. Communists, Socialists and Radicals united in the anti-fascist struggle. The proposals for united action advanced by the French Communist Party, but initially rejected by the Socialists, finally received a favourable response, and on July 27, 1934, representatives of both parties signed a pact. In October of that year, Maurice Thorez proposed on behalf of the Communist Party that, to countervail reaction and fascism, a Popular Front of Liberty, Labour and Peace be established^^1^^---a broad popular movement based on the alliance of all proletarian and democratic forces. The idea soon gained mass support.
The formation of a broad Popular Front was also enhanced by the fact that joining the Communist and Socialist parties was the party of the Radicals, which had a great deal of influence among the middle strata and which had, on July 14, 1935, taken part in joint demonstrations by thousands of working people demanding the formation of a new, democratic government.
Adding their voice to this demand were many outstanding members of the French intelligentsia, who had united in the Paris Anti-Fascist Committee of Action and Vigilance: Paul Langevin, Romain Rolland, Jean Perrin, Frederic Joliot, Paul Rivet, Henri Wallon, Jean-Richard Bloch, Andre Malraux, Jean Cassou, Louis Aragon, Henri Barbusse, Marcel Cachin, Paul Vaillant-Couturier and many others.
At the same time, the working class repulsed an offensive by the capitalists, who had been encouraged by decrees issued by Laval's _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Comintern and Its Revolutionary Traditions, Moscow, 1969, p. (in Russian).
136 government reducing wages of government employees and cutting expenditures on social insurance. The number of strikes against the wage cuts and the number of ``hunger marches" by the unemployed rapidly grew.An important stage in mobilising and strengthening the unity of the working class was the merger in March 1936 of two major trade-union associations---the Confederation Generale du Travail Unitaire and the Confederation Generale du Travail---to form a single organisation to be known as the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT). Two months later, the Popular Front won a victory in the parliamentary elections. The Communist, Socialist and Radical parties won a total of 337 of the 559 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The result was the formation of the first Popular Front government under the Socialist Leon Blum. The working class, now fully conscious of its strength, began a vigorous struggle against low wages, unemployment and violation of tradeunion rights by employers. As a result of the powerful strike movement, employers were forced to sign the Matignon Agreements with the trade unions, in which a number of concessions were made to the working people: substantial wage increases, a 40-hour week, a two-week paid vacation, and a commitment to respect the rights of trade unions.
However, the French bourgeoisie, forced to retreat under the pressure of the workers' movement, was determined to get its revenge at any price. The trusts refused to honour the Matignon Agreements, disorganised production and undermined the value of the franc. They openly supported fascist groups, financed their newspapers, and brazenly lauded nazism. Under their pressure, the government, on March 7, 1936, embarked on the road of encouraging fascist aggression by failing to take any retaliatory action in response to the German occupation of the Rhineland and refusing to apply sanctions against Italy, as proposed by the League of Nations in connection with Mussolini's predatory war against Ethiopia.
Such was the situation in France at the time that the Spanish generals instigated a mutiny against the Republican Government.
The working people of France were full of admiration for the heroism of the Spanish people fighting to defend the Republic. In 1934 they displayed their solidarity with the fighters in Asturias, and followed with great sympathy the upsurge of the workers' movement in Spain which had developed at the same time as the French movement for a Popular Front victory. Now, in July 1936, it became clear to many Frenchmen that the revolt of the fascist generals, organised with the blessings of Hitler and Mussolini, posed a threat not only to the Spanish people, but to the security of France. For in the event of a fascist victory in Spain, to two borders with fascist states---Germany and Italy---a third would 137 be added---in the Pyrenees. The words of Manuel Azana, President of the Spanish Republic---``In defending Madrid on the heights of the Guadarrama, we are at the same time defending Paris"--- found deep understanding in France.
The newspaper, L'Humanite, on whose pages Marcel Cachin, Gabriel Peri, Paul Vaillant-Couturier appeared, and the newspaper, Ce Soir, on which Louis Aragon and Jean-Richard Bloch worked, waged a relentless campaign for aid to the Spanish people. On August 27, 1936, L'Humanite published an article by the General Secretary of the French Communist Party, Maurice Thorez, in which he demanded that the Spanish Government be given "the possibility of freely procuring airplanes, guns and ammunition in France''. The article ended with a warning that the solution of this question had important meaning not only for Spain but also for the future of the peoples of Europe. "Tomorrow it will be in Czechoslovakia that Hitler will throw his agents against the Republican authorities. Tomorrow the same thing may happen in Rumania, where the Iron Guards, paid by Hitler, have been activated. The same may happen to Yugoslavia. The same may happen to Belgium. Tomorrow it may happen to France herself!''
The great French writer, Remain Rolland, addressed an impassioned appeal to all the peoples of the world:
``Humanity! Humanity! I call upon you! I call upon you, the people of Europe and America! Help Spain! Help ourselves! Help yourselves! It's you, it's all of us who are menaced!"^^1^^
Many other French writers and journalists were ardent supporters of Republican Spain. Among them were Andre Viollis, Georges Bernanos, Georges Soria, Simone Tery, Andre Wurmser, Madeleine Braun, Andre Malraux, Francois Mauriac, Paul Claudel, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and also Louis Delapree and Gerda Taro, both of whom were later killed in Spain while working there as correspondents for French newspapers.
The national interests of France and the anti-fascist programme of the Popular Front demanded giving the legitimate government of Spain immediate aid. Insisting on this was the French Communist Party, the CGT, the Left wing of the Socialist Party, headed by Jean Zyromski, and all consistent democrats.
However, as early as July 25, 1936, Leon Blum decided to pursue a policy of "strict neutrality'', and under this pretext, in violation of agreements signed previously, banned the export of arms to Spain and proposed to other powers that they do the same. Two days earlier, he had gone to London with his foreign minister, Yvon Delbos, where he easily acceeded to demands by British conservative circles who were advocating an agreement _-_-_
~^^1^^ L'Humanite, November 22, 1936.
138 with Germany and Italy. On his return to France, Blum came out flatly against rendering aid to the Spanish people. Influential French big business circles, in turn, pushed the government towards a policy of betraying the Spanish democratic republic. On August 1, Blum proposed that all major European powers collectively adopt the principle of ``non-intervention'' in the affairs of Spain. Despite the clear violations by Hitler, Mussolini and Salazar of the ``non-intervention'' agreement, the Blum government and subsequent French governments pursued this policy right up to February 27, 1939, the day that France and Britain broke off diplomatic relations with the Spanish Republic and recognised the government of General Franco.The policy of ``non-intervention''---which in fact encouraged fascist aggression---was instrumental in the disintegration of the Popular Front, in whose ranks a fierce struggle took place between the advocates of aid to the Spanish people and supporters of the government's policy of appeasing fascism. The constant concessions made by the French Government to fascism and big capital created favourable conditions for a new offensive by the reactionary forces. Under pressure from the big bourgeoisie, the government in February 1937 suspended the implementation of economic and social reforms called for in the Popular Front programme. This so-called breathing spell proclaimed by Blum's government and supported by the Socialist and Radical parties, undermined the militant spirit of the working people and helped the big bourgeoisie to launch its counter-offensive.
In June 1937, instead of taking decisive action against the trusts, the government resigned. The government of Radicals Chautemps and Daladier which replaced it continued and stiffened the policy of attacking the economic and political rights of the popular masses, to the extent that in 1938, on the basis of "emergency powers'', it liquidated the main gains won by the working class in 1935. At the same time, the policy of ``non-intervention'' turned more and more into open encouragement of the Hitlerite aggression in Spain and into compact with the fascist states.
In those years of fierce class battles, victories and defeats for the French working people, an outstanding place in the political struggle of the working class and of the popular masses belonged to the broad movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic, which the French working people had launched at the very beginning of the fascist revolt. The people demanded that arms and food be sent to the Republic and that the policy of "non-- intervention" be abandoned.
On September 3, 1936, at a mass meeting in the Paris Winter
Cycle Track, Dolores Ibarruri said: ``We are defending the cause
of liberty and of peace. We need planes and cannon for our
struggle-----We need arms to defend liberty and peace! And do
139
This money went to buy medicines for Spain
not forget---let no one forget!---that while it is our lot to resist
fascist aggression today, the struggle is not going to end in
Spain!" The slogan, "Planes and Gannon for Spain!" advanced
at that meeting of 40,000 working people was enthusiastically
picked up on the following day during a huge demonstration at the
Place de la Republique in Paris, and then throughout the country.
At the initiative of the French Communist Party, the CGT and
the French section of the IRA, numerous organisations were
formed: the Committee for Aid to Refugees from Northern
Spain, the Committee of Solidarity with the Spanish People, the
Committee for the Care of Spanish Children, the Committee for
Aid to Families of French Volunteers in the International
Brigades, the National Committee of Women and Girls of France.
Aid to Republican Spain was expressed in tens of millions
of francs and in thousands of tons of goods. The Young Women's
Alliance of France, for example, collected 300,000 tins of
condensed milk for Spanish children; the French section of the IRA
collected 24,000,000 francs and, together with the trade unions,
organised the work of sending all contributions to Spain. They
invited 10,000 Spanish children to France and arranged for them
to stay with French families, thus saving them from bombings by
fascist airplanes and the privations of war time. In November
140
1936, a CGT congress proposed that all CGT members be assessed
an hour's wages monthly for the Aid Spain fund.
Paris was the headquarters of the International Committee for Co-ordinating Aid to Republican Spain. Its honorary presidium included such outstanding figures as physicist Paul Langevin, writer Jean-Richard Bloch, Francis Jourdain, Marcel Cachin, Jean Longuet, Jean Zyromski, Pierre Cot, Edouard Herriot and others. Also in Paris was the International Medical Centre, uniting antifascist doctors of the most diverse political convictions. With the active participation of Dr Pierre Rouques and his colleagues, the Centre organised the collection and shipment of medicines and medical equipment to Spain. It also formed teams of volunteer doctors, surgeons and nurses to serve in the medical services of the International Brigades.
Solidarity with the Spanish people manifested itself in many different ways. Workers in the aircraft industry, for example, caught up the national slogan, ``Planes for Spain!'', and were prepared to work extra time without pay. Another example was the setting-up of a company called France Navigation to ensure sea shipping to Spain despite the blockade and ``non-intervention''.
But the most brilliant and unparalleled page in the history of French democracy's solidarity with the Spanish people was written by the French volunteers who took a direct part in the armed struggle against fascism. The movement began on the personal initiative of French anti-fascists, acting alone or in small groups, who felt that the fascist menace must be thwarted. But soon the French Communist Party gave the movement an organised form. As a result, 8,500 French anti-fascists---not only Communists, but also Socialists, syndicalists and non-party people---were given the opportunity of going to Spain to fight in the ranks of the Republican Army.
Despite the fact that the French Government and the Nonintervention Committee sought to turn the Franco-Spanish border into an insurmountable barrier, France, due to the efforts and help of the French Communist Party, became a bridge to Spain for many thousands of volunteers from all over the world.
At the very outset of the fascist revolt, many Spanish emigrant workers living in France returned home to defend their native country from fascism. And with them came their friends---French workers and anti-fascist emigrants from other countries. In Barcelona they met with athletes who had come in July 1936 to the People's Olympiad, and in the first days of the revolt took part in the fighting in the Catalan capital. These were the first volunteers. Some of them fought in the North, defending Irun, others saw action on the island of Mallorca, where the heroic battles of the Republican landing force ended in a forced retreat and evacuation of the island because of insufficient arms and 141 ammunition. The foreign volunteers who survived the battle of Irun retreated into France, but again crossed the border to form the Paris Commune Centuria in Barcelona. The centuria went to Madrid, was reinforced with new volunteers from France, and took part in the fighting under the command of Jules Dumont, a former officer of the French Army.
In October, when by decree of the government, the Republic began forming a regular army, the men of the Paris Commune Centuria became part of the first regular battalion (which was given the same glorious name) made up of French and Belgian volunteers. Jules Dumont and Commissar Pierre Rebiere headed the Paris Commune Battalion, which along with the other battalions of the llth International Brigade---the German Edgar Andre Battalion and the Polish Dabrowski Battalion---arrived at the front on November 8 to help the heroic people of Madrid repulse a violent fascist assault on the city.
French volunteers coming to Spain in the autumn and winter of 1936/37 formed several other battalions that became part of various International Brigades: the Franco-Belgian Andre Marty Battalion of the 12th Brigade; the Henri Vuillemin Battalion and the Franco-Belgian Louise Michel Battalion of the 13th Brigade; the 10th (Domingo Germinal) Battalion, 12th (Franco-English) Battalion, and 13th (Henri Barbusse) Battalion of the 14th Brigade; and the Sixth of February Battalion of the 15th Brigade. In addition to this, French volunteers were also in the ranks of the engineer troops, in the cavalry, the tank units, and in various anti-aircraft and field artillery units. The international artillery battery of the Anna Pauker Battalion was commanded by Gaston Carre, and its political commissar was Paul Richard.
There were also Frenchmen among the many pilots who fought against Franco's air force. Some of them were in the Espana Squadron, under the command of the famous French writer, Andre Malraux. French volunteers served as drivers of military vehicles, worked on vehicle repairs at the plant in Albacete, and served in the First Transport Regiment of the 5th Army Corps. Many French doctors, doctor's assistants and nurses fought for the lives of the men of the Republican Army in mobile field hospitals at the front and in stationary medical installations in the rear.
The postal service of the International Brigades, with its centre in Albacete, was organised by Jean Grandel, former General Secretary of the French Postal Workers' Union.
The French volunteers represented all of the political trends
included in the Popular Front. The largest contingent was made
up of Communists and non-party men who sympathised with them.
A considerably smaller number were members of the Socialist and
Radical Socialist parties. Among the Socialists (former participants
in the French Popular Front) who fought in the ranks of the
142
Captain Jacquot (centre) and Marcel Sagnier (right). February 1937
French volunteers of the 10th Battalion of the 14th Brigade on the Jarama.
February 1937
[143]
International Brigades were battalion commanders Major Fort and
Major Bernard (shot in 1944 by the nazis for taking part in the
Resistance movement), Major Agard (in the artillery) and Major
Gabriel Hubert.
The French Communists in Spain were headed by members of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party Andre Marty, Francois Billoux and Henri Janin. Leon Mauvais and Cathala regularly fulfilled party assignments. In the spring of 1937, a group of 30 men, all members of the Central and regional committees of the Alliance of the Communist Youth of France, came to reinforce the cadres of the International Brigades. Among them were Louis Perrot, who was later killed in action in 1938; Jean Hemmen and Lafond, who were later shot during the nazi occupation; Henri Tanguy, who became commissar of the 14th Brigade; and Charles Escure and Andre Gregoire, the latter becoming a battalion commander in the 12th Brigade. Leaders of the French Communist Party, including Maurice Thorez, Jacques Duclos, Marcel Cachin, Eugene Henaf, and Florimond Bonte, made frequent trips to Spain to meet with the men of the International Brigades and inspire them to further struggle against the fascists.
People of different generations fought in the ranks of the International Brigades: veterans of the 1914--18 world war and former participants in the colonial wars in Morocco, Syria and Indochina; somewhat younger men who had only recently come out of the service; and finally, some very young men, such as 17-year-old Pierre Georges (Fabien), who was later to become a hero of the French Resistance of 1940--45. However, neither differences in age or nationality, nor differences in views or social origin prevented them from understanding each other and fighting together against the common enemy.
On November 6, 1936, the fascists came up to the gates of Madrid. The city was subjected to heavy artillery bombardment. On the evening of November 8, the volunteers of the Paris Commune Battalion occupied positions for a counter-attack in a suburban park, Casa de Campo, on the west bank of the Manzanares river. This was where the main thrust of the fascist storm columns--- Moroccans and mercenaries of the Foreign Legion---was directed.
In the first battles on the Manzanares, in the sector between the
San Fernando Bridge and the French Bridge, the internationalists
suffered heavy casualties. The second company of the Paris
Commune Battalion lost two-thirds of its men, and only thanks
to the fact that the Edgar Andre Battalion joined the battle in
time was the enemy assault repulsed. A week later, the llth
Brigade received orders to counter-attack the Foreign Legion and
Moroccan units which had broken through to the University City
on November 15 and 16. There the men of the Paris Commune
Battalion and Asturian demolition men, the ``dinamiteros'',
144
Colonel Fabien (Pierre Georges)
recaptured the buildings of the
faculties of philosophy,
literature, pharmacology
and medicine.
In the meantime, at the approaches to the capital, the Franco-Belgian Battalion, together with the Garibaldi and Thaelmann battalions of the 12th International Brigade, launched an attack, with tank support, against the fortified Cerro de los Angeles hill south of Madrid. This operation weakened the insurgents' onslaught on the Manzanares. A few days later, the 12th Brigade also moved into the University City. In the
several days of heavy fighting in the second half of November in the University City and in the Casa de Campo, the internationalists of the llth and 12th brigades, together with Spanish ``milicianos'' and regular units of the Republican Army, repulsed the violent attacks of the enemy and depleted his shock columns.
In December 1936 and January 1937, when the insurgents changed the direction of their thrusts, both of these brigades took part in the fighting west of Madrid at Boadilla del Monte. It was there that the commander of the Franco-Belgian Battalion, Bernard, was wounded. At Majadahonda, volunteers fought jointly with the battalions of the militia---``Asturias'', the 1st Madrid and ``Pacifico'', and the 3rd (Jose Galan) Brigade, and took part in the defence of the northwestern sector of Madrid, which included Villanueva del Pardillo, Las Rosas, Pozuelo de Alarcon, Humera and Aravaca. The Paris Commune Battalion came under heavy bombardment, but did not retreat. Battalion Commander Jules Dumont was wounded, Marcel Sanier took his place. The Thaelmann Battalion, in which about 100 Frenchmen fought side by side with their German comrades, held its positions at a high price---out of 600 men, only 32 survived.
Also taking part in the fighting on the northwestern sector in the defence of Madrid were the men of the 14th International Brigade. Made up primarily of French volunteers, this brigade was __PRINTERS_P_145_COMMENT__ 10---781 145 sent in December 1936 into Andalucia to stop the advance of a large enemy force that had broken through the Republican front. After fulfilling this mission, the brigade was transferred to Madrid, to a sector of the front where the fate of the capital was being decided for the second time. As before, the insurgents failed to achieve their main objective. They could not take Madrid.
At the time when this decisive fighting was going on, two battalions of French and Belgian volunteers, as part of the 13th International Brigade, were engaged in the Republican offensive on Teruel in December 1936 and January 1937. The operation was not successful, the battalions suffering heavy casualties.
The third large battle for Madrid began in February 1937, on the east bank of the Jarama. It lasted for three weeks, during which the best formations of the Republican Army, including four International Brigades, each with battalions of French volunteers, displayed remarkable steadfastness and heroism. The hopes of the insurgent generals to take Madrid were shattered once again. It was on the Jarama that volunteers of the Franco-Belgian Sixth of February Battalion of the newly formed 15th International Brigade saw their first action.
The casualty figures tell the story of the fierceness of the battle of the Jarama and the steadfastness of the volunteers: of the 800 men of the Sixth of February Battalion who had come to the Jarama positions, only 150 remained in action after ten days of fighting. Similar large losses were incurred by other battalions of the 15th and llth brigades, which repulsed the fascist advance at Morata de Tajuna, the main objective of the enemy attacks in those days. Most of the commanders of the sub-units of these brigades were killed or wounded. Large losses were also suffered by units of the 12th (Andre Marty) Brigade, which prevented the enemy from reaching his second objective---the village of Arganda on the Madrid-Valencia highway. One company of this battalion, protecting the Pindoque Bridge, was suddenly attacked by Moroccans at night and completely wiped out. Another company, which was sent in to close the breach, also suffered heavy losses.
When at the end of February the front began to stabilise, the International Brigades, exhausted from constant battles, were in sore need of rest and reinforcement. But there was no time for this: in March, a fresh fascist offensive began.
In the first days of March, an expeditionary corps of Italian
fascists under the command of General Roatta (Mancini) suddenly
went over to the offensive. Two International Brigades---the llth
and 12th---were the first Republican units to whom the command
of the Madrid Front assigned the task of blocking the road to the
interventionists. In the evening of March 9, the Paris Commune
Battalion and the entire llth Brigade arrived at the Zaragoza
highway east of Guadalajara. In the preceding two days the
146
French and German volunteers of the 10th Battalion of the 14th Brigade.
Madrid, March 1937
The men of the Republican Army, exhausted from the heavy fighting, understood what great international significance their success had, and rejoiced at the victory won.
A few weeks later, as part of the reorganisation of the International Brigades along language lines, the Paris Commune Battalion was transferred from the llth Brigade to the 14th, in which French and Belgian volunteers were brought together. In the village of Ciruelas near Guadalajara, a touching farewell took place between the French and German internationalists from the Thaelmann and Edgar Andre battalions.
__PRINTERS_P_147_COMMENT__ 10* 147The 14th International Brigade, which from then on was called the Marseillaise Brigade, had as its commander Jules Dumont, and its commissar was Francois Vittori. It consisted of four international battalions, commanded by the Frenchmen, Marcel Sagnier, Boris Guimpel and Grignier, and the Englishman, George Nathan, the latter to be later replaced by the Algerian, Rabah Oussidoum. The 5th Battalion of the brigade consisted of Spaniards only. Like all International Brigades, the 14th reinforced its ranks not only with newly arrived internationalists, but also with Spaniards, who by the summer of 1938 made up nearly 85 per cent of its personnel.
After the reorganisation, French volunteers still remained in battalions of the 13th, 15th and 150th brigades, but subsequently they too were transferred to the 14th (Marseillaise) Brigade.
From May 29 through June 3, 1937, the 14th Brigade of the 35th Division, together with the 31st and 69th Spanish brigades, took part in an offensive in the Sierra de Guadarrama area. They attacked Balsam at night and waged stubborn battles against the enemy's fortified position at Cerro del Puerto. The aim of this operation was to create a threat to the city of Segovia, and thus relieve the situation of the Republican forces on the Northern Front, at Bilbao. ``The 14th Brigade... at Segovia deserves high praise for its heroic action in the battle of Balsam,"^^1^^ wrote the commander of the 35th Division, General Walter. In the course of this operation, Battalion Commander Boris Guimpel was wounded, and his replacement, Captain Rasquin, a Belgian, was killed.
In July 1937, the Republicans launched a big offensive at Brunete, in which many French volunteers took part. These were men in the Henri Vuillemin Battalion; the Sixth of February Battalion, under the command of Gabriel Fort who had returned to service after being seriously wounded on the Jarama; and the Andre Marty Battalion, under the command of Emile Boursier (deputy commanders, Fernand Belino and Francois Ruiz). There were also Frenchmen in the Anna Pauker Artillery Battalion, which supported the Republican troops during attacks against Villanueva de la Canada. In that operation, Fernand Belino was seriously wounded, and Gabriel Fort lost his sight as a result of a serious head wound.
In October 1937, the 14th Brigade took part in the big defensive battle of Cuesta de la Reina, south of Madrid. The fighting there was extremely heavy. In three days, the brigade lost more than 1,000 men in killed and wounded. Dying the death of the brave were company commanders Aurele Vittori and Rene Angel, captains Clerc and Louis Boujard, commissars Francisco Terroba and Blondeau. Among the wounded was Battalion Commander _-_-_
~^^1^^ Istorichesky Arkhiv, No. 2, 1962, p. 188.
148
In March 1938, the fascists undertook a major offensive in Aragon, an operation in which they used five army corps, including an Italian corps supported by many tanks, artillery (up to 600 guns) and air power (600 airplanes). In an attempt to close the breach made by the enemy in the first days of the offensive, the Republican Command brought in reserve Spanish units and five International Brigades. By March 12, however, the International Brigades of the 35th Division were almost completely encircled by four enemy divisions in the Hijar-Alcaniz-Ebro sector. Only after extremely heavy and difficult fighting to repulse fascist attacks from the front and flanks, did they succeed in breaking out of the encirclement. On March 15, the fascists broke into Caspe, but a battalion of the 14th Brigade, the 45th Division, moved up in time to throw them back.
Emile Boursier's battalion moved to the outskirts of Caspe in a series of counter-attacks. The commander of the 14th Brigade, 149 Marcel Sagnier, took command of a force made up of his own brigade, two battalions of the 12th Brigade, one Spanish battalion and two batteries. For 24 hours the group waged a stubborn battle for Caspe against the fascist Navarre Division, but threatened with complete encirclement, it retreated on the night of March 16, taking up positions at the Guadalupe river. Commissar Haudecoeur, a member of the Central Committee of the French Young Communist League, arrived at the front from Albacete at the head of a new French battalion, the Vaillant-Couturier Battalion, which immediately went into action. However, despite the remarkable feats of heroism performed by the volunteers and other Republican units, the enemy forces pushed through to the Mediterranean, cutting off Catalonia from the rest of Republican Spain. Many French volunteers fell in these battles, including Rabah Oussidoum and Gabriel Hubert, who was seriously wounded. Commissar Haudecoeur successfully avoided capture when, with grenade in hand, he broke through a group of fascist soldiers.
The heavy casualties suffered by the Republican troops during their retreat on the Eastern Front did not break their fighting spirit. In less than three months, the Republican Army would accomplish the most daring of all operations in the war---the crossing of the river Ebro and the deep breakthrough of the enemy front.
The 14th Brigade played an important part in this operation. Its task was to divert the enemy by crossing the Ebro near Amposta---a point far from the place where the main Republican forces were preparing to cross. This operation, which took place on the night of July 24, was an unforgettable episode in the war, and one in which the men of the Paris Commune Battalion displayed outstanding courage and valour. First an advance team swam silently across the river under the cover of darkness, showered the enemy trenches with grenades and captured them. Then the rest of the battalion crossed the river on boats and rafts, now under heavy enemy fire. They fought their way deep into enemy defences for several hundred metres. The fascist command, finally realising what was happening, concentrated its artillery fire on the river, thereby preventing the other units of the brigade from crossing.
For a day the Paris Commune Battalion stalwartly repulsed
attack after attack by the large enemy forces, mainly Moroccans
who were supported by both artillery and tanks. By the end of
the day, having lost more than three-fourths of its men and almost
all of its officers, the battalion, on orders from the command, and
under heavy enemy fire, crossed over to the left bank. In this
phase of the operation, Battalion Commander Cazala and
Commissar Lopez were killed. But the 14th Brigade had accomplished
its mission. By drawing considerable enemy forces to itself, it
150
The Certificate of Honour the Spanish Government presented to members of
the International Brigades leaving for home
ensured the successful crossing of the river by units of the 5th
Corps of the Ebro Army.
Beginning on September 8, French volunteers took part in the second phase of Operation Ebro, in the defensive battles to hold the territory liberated from the fascists. In the number of artillery pieces, airplanes, tanks and other military equipment used by the enemy, these battles surpassed all previous operations of the Spanish war. From the day that the 14th Brigade occupied positions on the heights of Sierra Caballs till September 23, when the foreign volunteers were withdrawn from action by a government decree, attacks by the enemy and counter-attacks by the Republicans did not cease for a single day. The commander of the Paris Commune Battalion (which had been reorganised and reinforced after the battle of July 25), Captain Roll, his commissar, and Rene Hamon, commissar of the Henri Barbusse Battalion, were killed.
On the last day of action, September 23, the 14th Brigade found itself in a particularly grave situation. A storm of artillery and machine-gun fire forced Republican units to retreat, and the command posts of the 14th Brigade and the 45th Division suddenly turned out to be in the main line of resistance. Brigade Commander Marcel Sagnier and Commissar Tanguy led a counterattack, as a result of which the brigade re-established its former positions, and the fascists, who had already hoisted their flag on the hill where the brigade C.P. was located, were sent running. 151 Thus, the French volunteers waged their last battle with fascism on the Spanish soil with flying colours.
It was with heavy heart that the French volunteers parted with their Spanish brothers with whom they had fought for two years in battles that had already then decided the fate of Europe. And it was with great emotion that just before their departure from Spain they listened to an address by Vice-President of the Cortes of the Republic, Dolores Ibarruri, in which she expressed the profound gratitude and unbounded love of the Spanish people.
__*_*_*__Once the Spanish war was over, the French Government began to round up soldiers of the Republican Army and foreign volunteers of the International Brigades and to confine them to concentration camps. All former French volunteers considered it their sacred duty to launch a broad campaign to help their comradesin-arms who were being held in camps at Gurs, Vernet, St Cyprien and elsewhere, and also the hundreds of thousands of Spanish refugees---men, women and children---who had been driven into camps guarded by the police and gendarmes. The betrayal of Spanish democracy by the Western powers soon bore its bitter fruit. The policy of ``non-intervention'', after a series of capitulations to fascism, led to the shameful Munich agreement, then to the partition of the Czechoslovak Republic, Austria's loss of independence, and finally to the Second World War.
Less than one year after the return of the French volunteers to their homeland, they again became soldiers, ready to defend France from her enemy, fascist Germany. When, as a result of the inability and unwillingness of the French bourgeoisie and the army high command to offer resistance, Hitler's troops occupied France virtually without a fight, the veterans of the International Brigades showed up in the front ranks of the Resistance, in the forefront of the fight for their country's freedom.
In September 1940, former commissar of the Paris Commune Battalion and member of the CC FCP, Pierre Rebiere, headed the anti-fascist struggle in five departments of Central France, showing himself to be an able and courageous leader. Later, in the rank of Lt. Colonel, he was appointed member of the National War Committee. In October 1942, Rebiere was captured by the nazis, subjected to brutal torture, and shot.
Pierre Georges, who had been one of the youngest volunteers in the Spanish war, became almost a legendary figure in the French Resistance. Even before Hitler's troops invaded France, he was thrown into a camp for his anti-fascist activities. He escaped and immediately began organising groups of young anti-fascists around Marseille. Later, under the name of Fabien, he became 152 one of the founders and leaders of the French organisation of francs tireurs and guerrillas. In 1941 he gave the signal for the beginning of armed resistance to the occupation by assassinating a nazi officer in Paris. During the fighting to liberate Paris, Pierre Georges headed a large formation called the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) of the Resistance. At the head of the first Paris Brigade which he formed, he took part in the pursuit of the retreating Hitlerite troops to the very Rhine. Pierre Georges was killed in December 1944 on the Alsace Front, together with Pimpeau, the former commissar of the international battalion in which he fought in Spain.
The former commissar of the 14th International Brigade, Tanguy, began organising Resistance committees in the Paris area as early as 1940, and in 1941 he joined the ranks of the franc tireur and guerrilla organisation. Among his fighting comrades were former Battalion Commissar Haudecoeur, former major in the artillery in Spain Carre, and former participants in the Spanish war Epstein and Georges Vallet. From 1941 through 1944, Tanguy held various command posts in the franc tireur and guerrilla organisation. In June 1944, he took command of the FFI of the Isle de France province. On August 25, 1944, Colonel Rol-Tanguy, together with General Leclerc, received the capitulation of General von Choltiz and the German garrison of Greater Paris.
Francois Vittori, former commissar of the 45th International Division, organised the Resistance movement on Corsica, and later directed the liberation of the island.
Doctor Pierre Rouques, former chief of the medical service of the Internationl Brigades, together with other veterans of the Spanish war---Dr Reboul, Dr Chretien and his assistant, Fanny Bre---organised the medical service of the Resistance. They hid wounded francs tireurs and guerrillas and gave them medical attention.
Andre Breton, Fernand Belino, Honore Galli, Yvonne Robert and many others joined the ranks of the Resistance fighters from the first days of the occupation. Even those who came back from Spain wounded or sick, as for example, the author of this article, also took part in the struggle by doing such things as writing leaflets and setting up communications between the participants of the Resistance.
Colonel Jules Dumont, organiser of the first armed anti-fascist groups, was arrested and shot by the Hitlerites. The Spanish war veteran Tourne, who was one of the leaders of the Resistance in the Lyons region, was seriously wounded and remained an invalid for the rest of his life. One of the leaders of the FFI, Boris Guimpel, together with Gaudefroy, led operations against the fascists in the southern part of the country. Jacquet represented the National Committee of Francs Tireurs and Guerrillas in the 153 headquarters of the French Armed Forces. Louis Blesy in Provence, and Delcamp in Toulouse, commanded units of francs tireurs and guerrillas. Spanish war veterans Taddee Oppmann, Jean Baillet, Appere, Fongarnard, Jean Hemmen, Just Heras, Lafond, Carre, Schmidt, Champion and Bessieres were, along with Beaulieu, Clouet, Lemaitre, Cotille and many others, among the organisers of the first armed Resistance groups. Many were killed in action, shot, locked up in prisons, or taken to Germany and thrown into concentration camps. Among these were Grandel, Jean Cathala (the Hitlerites guillotined him), Marcel Langer, Epstein, Hapiot, and Georges Vallet.
Even in the gaols the struggle went on. For example, veterans of International Brigades Bernard, Marc Perrin, Henri Neveu and Jourdan were in the forefront of a prisoner revolt in the central gaol at Eisses. After the revolt was suppressed, Bernard was shot. In the liberation of the Buchenwald death camp, former international brigade officers Belino and Lagunas formed two companies out of prisoners who had risen up against their executioners.
Former French volunteers in Spain often fought shoulder to shoulder with Spanish comrades in the ranks of the Resistance movement. Many soldiers and officers of the Spanish Republican Army who had to retreat into France ended up in concentration camps and so-called work companies. During the fascist occupation thousands of them joined francs tireurs and guerrillas and fought heroically side by side with Polish, Italian, German, Jewish, Hungarian and other former international brigaders who had also, in one way or another, gotten out of concentration camps. The names of Christine Garcia, hero of the French Resistance who was shot in Spain by the Franco police in 1946 along with eleven other Spaniards who had fought for the freedom of the French people; General Evaristo Luis Fernandez, commander of the first formation of Spanish guerrillas in France; Celestino Alfonso and the 23 heroes of Manusian's group, among whom were five veterans of the International Brigades---all symbolised the indissoluble brotherhood-in-arms that had for all time united the fighting men of Republican Spain and the fighting men of the French Resistance in the common battle against fascism and for the freedom of all peoples.
After the victory over fascism in May 1945, the veterans of the International Brigades formed their own association. L'Amicale des anciens volontaires franc.ais en Espagne republicaine (AVER). By that time, of the 8,500 Frenchmen who had left France to fight in the International Brigades, 3,000 had been killed on the fields of battle in Spain, and another 3,000 had perished fighting in the Resistance or in nazi concentration camps.
From the first days of its existence, the AVER set about
154
The unveiling of a monument to heroes of the International Brigades at
the Eaubonne Cemetery
organising a broad programme of material aid to the many French
veterans of the Spanish war who had come back sick or disabled and
were still receiving no help whatever from the state. The AVER
received help in this complex undertaking from trade-union
organisations, municipalities headed by members of Left parties,
the French Popular Aid Society (Le Secours Populaire Fransais),
the IRA and numerous local Spanish war veterans' associations
both in France and in the socialist countries.
The former volunteers in the Spanish war still feel profound respect and sympathy for the Spanish people, and in many ways continue to express solidarity with the tens of thousands of Republican soldiers who were forced after Franco's victory to seek refuge in France. Many of these emigrants have married and now have families of their own; they take part in the French democratic and anti-fascist movement. In the beginning of the 1950s, during the most difficult period of the cold war when successive reactionary French governments persecuted Spanish anti-fascists living in France, who as a rule had fought in the Resistance, the AVER, together with all democratic organisations, waged an extensive campaign of protest against their arrests and expulsion from France. The AVER also came out against the brutal repressions in fascist Spain, and was one of the organisers of mass meetings of protest against the murder of Julian Grimau. In recent years, the AVER has been taking an active part in international 155 meetings in defence of the Spanish people and demanding amnesty for political prisoners.
There are not many veterans of the International Brigades still alive today, but they are always among the first to show a readiness to resist whenever fascism again tries to raise its head. During the attempted counter-revolutionary coup in Hungary in 1956, fascist groups in France, protected by the police, made a raid on the editorial offices of the newspaper, L'Humanite, and tried to set fire to the building. Former Spanish war volunteers were in the forefront of the popular demonstration that upset the plans of the fascists. During that confrontation two workers were killed, and one of them, Ferrand, was a veteran of the Spanish war. In exactly the same way, during the war in Algeria, when the fascists tried to accomplish a coup d'etat and visited bloody reprisals upon democrats, former Spanish war veterans again fought in the ranks of the working class against fascism. In February 1962, during an anti-fascist demonstration in Paris, nine persons were killed by the police, and Fernand Belino, the President of the AVER, was seriously wounded.
Today, the surviving veterans of the Spanish war, although much older, have not withdrawn from the struggle. On the contrary, their long experience has made them into tempered and courageous fighters for democracy, for peace, for a better life for the working people. Many of them are eminent political and public figures, such as, for example, Francois Bilious, member of the Political Bureau of the CC FCP; Henri Rol-Tanguy, member of the CC FCP; Andre Tourne, former deputy of parliament and now president of the Republican Association of War Veterans; Fernand Belino, general councellor of the Department of Seine, and the AVER Chairman; Andre Gregoire, Mayor of Montreuil-sur-Seine, a large suburb of Paris; Honore Galli, one of the directors of the France-Spain Association. Former Resistance fighters Gaudefroy, Blesy and Rol-Tanguy are on the board of the National Association of the Veterans of the French Resistance.
The veterans of the International Brigades remain true to the ideal for which they and their fighting comrades spilled their blood in the ranks of the Spanish Republican Army.
[156] __ALPHA_LVL1__ GERMANYThe Popular Front victory in the elections to the Spanish Cortes in February 1936 alarmed the German monopoly bourgeoisie. German imperialism at once gave its backing to the Spanish reactionaries, who, after recovering from their first fright, set about organising a military conspiracy against the Democratic Republic. Hitler wanted a fascist Spain not only because the German military and monopolies sought control of that country's mineral wealth, particularly her strategic raw materials. That had been their goal earlier. German capital had begun penetrating the Iberian Peninsula at the turn of the century and by the mid-1930s it had seized a considerable portion of the Spanish production of zinc, copper, silver and mercury. But with the establishment of a regime in Spain subservient to Berlin German imperialism would complete the strategic encirclement of France and be in a position to threaten the sea lanes linking Britain with her colonies. As conceived by the nazis, Spain would be a bridgehead in a future war for domination in Europe. Further, the nazis feared that a strong Popular Front regime in Southwestern Europe would inevitably foster the growth of anti-fascist forces in other European countries, including Germany.
Hardly a month passed after the February elections than Pravda, the central newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, reported that the notorious Spanish monarchist General Sanjurjo was in Berlin negotiating for aid to the counterrevolutionary military organisations in Spain that were again plotting against the government.^^1^^ This report was fully consistent with the facts. Hitler, Goering and representatives of Metall-AG, one of the largest monopolies, promised Sanjurjo German assistance for a counter-revolutionary revolt.
The smoothly functioning nazi machine in Spain was put into high gear. In Madrid the German General Faupel was Hitler's _-_-_
~^^1^^ Pravda, March 12, 1936.
157 liaison man with the Spanish conspirators. When the rising started Admiral Canaris, the chief of the German military intelligence, made sure that General Franco was put in command of the revolt in place of Sanjurjo, who died in an air crash. On July 27, 1936 the nazis sent 20 Junkers-52 transports to Morocco to help Franco rush troops to the south of Spain and thereby avert the destruction of the isolated centres of the revolt during the first days of the civil war.In 1939, recalling this first act of open intervention in Spain, the nazi Air General Sperrle, who commanded the Condor Legion in 1936--37, said: ``Within a few days German pilots airlifted by J-52s 15,000 Foreign Legionnaires and Moroccan troops and also military equipment to Jerez."^^1^^ German warships, including the torpedo-boat Leopard, escorted transports that carried insurgent troops and military equipment from Africa. The nazi intervention in Spain mounted with the spread of the war.
On July 25, after armed workers and loyal troops had crushed the fascist revolt in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities, Karl Schwendemann, counsellor of the German Embassy in Madrid, telegraphed to Berlin: ``Unless something unforeseen happens, it is hardly to be expected that in view of all this the military revolt can succeed."^^2^^ These words contained not only alarm and a sober assessment of the situation but also a plea for assistance for the Spanish putschists. This SOS signal was heard in Berlin. The secret ``Sonderstab W'', which took charge of the organisation of direct military intervention in Spain, was set up on Hitler's orders. On July 31, 1936, six days after the receipt of the SOS signal, the nazi General Milch sent the first units of the Condor Legion to Spain. Dressed in civilian clothes, army pilots secretly sailed to Cadiz in the S. S. Usaramo, whose holds carried aircraft, bombs and anti-aircraft guns.
This and all subsequent acts of intervention were doggedly denied by the German authorities. In August, when Franco already had most of the Condor Legion and German military supplies, Dr Bielfeld, the German charge d'affaires in London, glibly assured the British Foreign Office that Germany was giving no assistance to the insurgent Spanish generals, that she had not and would not send them military supplies.
At the Nuremberg trial, Hermann Goering, chief of the nazi Air Force, admitted: "With the permission of the Fuhrer, I sent (to Spain.---Ed.} a large part of my transport fleet and a number of experimental fighter units, bombers, and anti-aircraft guns.... In order that the personnel, too, might gather a certain amount _-_-_
~^^1^^ Die Wehrmacht, May 30, 1939.
~^^2^^ Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918--1945, Series D (1937--1945), Vol. Ill, Germany and the Spanish Civil War, 1936--1939, Washington, 1950, p. 13.
158 of experience, I saw to it that there was a continuous flow, that is, that new people were constantly being sent and others recalled."^^1^^As soon as the fascist-led revolt started, the real, people's Germany sided with Republican Spain. Led by the brutally persecuted Communist Party, which operated deep underground, the working class and other democratic and progressive elements went to the assistance of the Spanish people. ``We admire the courage of the fighters for a free and happy Spain, against fascist barbarism,"^^2^^ the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany wrote in a telegram to the Spanish Government.
When the German intervention in Spain had become a fact, the CC CPG declared that solidarity and the struggle of Germans who opposed Hitler for the freedom of Spain were not only a manifestation of proletarian internationalism but the national duty of every German patriot, for the only way to save the German people from the threat of another world war was to defend the Spanish Republic. In a document of the CC CPG of November 26, 1936 it was stated: ``Hitler's role as the chief warmonger in Europe and in the whole world places with us, German anti-fascists, an immense responsibility. We have to do everything we can to help smash Hitler in Spain. For this there are two ways: direct assistance to the Spanish freedom fighters and a broad movement of the people in Germany."^^3^^
Speaking to the German people over Radio Barcelona on December 20, 1936, Walter Ulbricht, member of the Political Bureau of the CC CPG, outlined a programme of struggle against the Hitler regime. His concluding words were: ``Honour and glory to the Spanish fighters, who have gallantly defended Madrid against the enemy! Honour and glory to the International Brigades, the Thaelmann, Edgar Andre and Chapayev battalions that stood their ground at Madrid with the battle-cry The fascists shall not pass!' We shall pass. We shall defeat Hitler and Franco at Madrid in the name of peace, liberty and democracy.''
The new conditions of the anti-fascist struggle created by Hitler's intervention in Spain and the international movement of solidarity with the Spanish people thus added a new content to the programme for the overthrow of the Hitler regime and to the Popular Front policy that had been charted at the Brussels Conference of the CPG in October 1935. The heroic resistance of the Spanish people and the participation of German volunteers in the fighting in Spain raised the morale of the anti-fascists in Germany _-_-_
^^1^^ Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Vol. IX, 1947, p. 281.
~^^2^^ Der Freiheitskampf des spanischen Volkes und die Internationale Solidaritat, Berlin, 1956, p. 62.
~^^3^^ Zeitschrift fur Militdrgeschichle, Berlin, 1965, Vol. 1.
159 and stimulated the fortitude and confidence of factory, mine and dock workers. On October 18, 1936, the Social-Democratic newspaper Neuer Vorwdrts carried a banner headline reading ``Unrest at the Factories''. The German people's indignation was aroused by the sending of German troops to Spain. Protest leaflets were circulated in Duisburg and Diisseldorf in southwestern Germany. In Munich the wives and mothers of soldiers sent to Spain staged a protest demonstration in front of the nazi party headquarters. Throughout Germany---in Berlin, Bavaria, Silesia, the Rhineland, Saxony and the Ruhr area---action by the workers mounted steadily, and money was collected secretly for Spain. Communists, SocialDemocrats and non-party people frequently took joint action urging solidarity with the Spanish people. Many pamphlets containing speeches by Wilhelm Pieck, Walter Ulbricht and other leaders of the Communist Party were disseminated through underground channels all over the country.German Radio Freedom, founded near Madrid by the German Communists with the help of Spanish comrades, was also an organ of the Committee for the Creation of a German Popular Front. This station, which operated on 29.8 metres, kept the Hitlerenslaved German people abreast of political developments and broadcast practical advice for the illegal anti-fascist organisations. Its guest speakers included Georg Branting, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Arnold Zweig, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Robeson, Frans Masereel and other leading personalities of the German and foreign anti-fascist movement.
There was a quick response in many towns and factories in Germany to the call for a united Popular Front. Communists and Social-Democrats formed Popular Front groups in Berlin, the Saar region and other parts of the country. This was soon brought to the notice of the Gestapo. In a report from Wilhelmshaven it was stated: ``The Popular Front idea has certainly caught on among the former members of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (at the navy yard). It is easy to note that in many cases they openly show their sympathy for the Bolsheviks in Spain and hope for their victory."^^1^^
The successes of the Popular Front in Spain also influenced the attitude of some Social-Democratic leaders---Erich Kuttner, Paul Hertz and Erich Ollenhauer---inducing them to visit the Spanish Republic. They toured the International Brigades and spoke favourably of the Popular Front. Addressing the llth International Brigade in May 1937, Erich Kuttner said: ``We hope that Spain may be and will become the bridge that will reunite the sundered forces of the German proletariat.'' Paul Hertz, who _-_-_
~^^1^^ Institut fur Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK der SED, ZPA D.F. IX/7. Fond 237.
160
The German people's sympathy for the struggle of the Spanish people was evidenced by the growing Gestapo terror. In a single day 70 workers were arrested in Aachen at the Talbot-- WaggonAG and Gerbe und Lohmeyer factories for collecting money for the Spanish Republic. Twenty-one workers of the Aachen power station were sentenced to prison for terms ranging from two to eight years. At the Weser-AG works the Gestapo seized many workers for collecting signatures in support of the Spanish freedom fighters: two of these workers were shot without trial. Large-scale arrests were made by the Gestapo also at the IG Farbenindustrie factories and at the automobile factories in Frankfurt-On-Main. At the close of 1936 it arrested 90 workers of the Adlerwerke in Frankfurt and 40 at the Rodelheim factories, sending many of them to concentration camps. Himmler himself admitted that up to 3,000 persons had been arrested for showing sympathy for the Spanish Republic.
__PRINTERS_P_161_COMMENT__ 11---781 161Despite persecution by the Gestapo, active groups of anti-- fascists, notably the Communists, did not confine themselves to moral and material support for the Spanish people. They rendered direct support to the Spanish people, organising sabotage at munitions factories and disrupting supplies for the insurgents. Juli Jiirgensen, an underground official, reported to the anti-fascist centre in October 1936: "Ships are being loaded at Hamburg. Cranes are filling the holds of vessels with mysterious crates. The work is proceeding day and night. The docks are guarded by the police and the Gestapo. The dockers have found out that this freight is bound for Spain-----They know that their brothers are fighting in Spain. Disturbed by the news they are determined to disrupt the loading."^^1^^ In Hamburg and Bremen the seamen and dockers set up a communication system that kept them informed of the movement of military supplies to Spain.
The crews of the ships sailing to Spain informed the branch offices of the International Transport Workers Federation in foreign ports of suspicious freight in their ships. Protest actions were staged on freighters in the second half of 1936 on the initiative of anti-fascist groups. The crews of the German ships Henrika, that put in at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the Konigstein refused to transport arms for the insurgents in Spain. The crews of the ships Melilla, Lasbek, Poseidon and Preussen went on strike. Each of these actions was followed by arrests and other repressions.
The highest form of aid by the German anti-fascists for the Spanish Republic was their direct participation in the armed struggle against the insurgents. At first this aid was episodic and unorganised. Some German political emigres with Reinhold Hoffmann at their head helped to defend Irun as members of the Republican Militia. Other German anti-fascists, resident in Spain, and Germans who had come for the People's Olympiad (among them were Max Friedemann, Werner Hermlin and Franz Lowenstein) helped to crush the rising in Barcelona. Within a few days, joined by volunteers of other nationalities, they formed the Thaelmann unit of the People's Militia and on July 24 fought their first battle against the fascists near Huesca.
The formation of the Thaelmann International Centuria was started in Barcelona on August 7 on the initiative of the German Communists Hans Beimler, Albert Schreiner, Hermann Geisen and Willi Wille with the assistance of the United Socialist Party of Catalonia.
Meanwhile the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Germany appealed to all German anti-fascists living abroad and _-_-_
~^^1^^ Institut fiir Marxismus-Leninismus bein ZK der SED, ZPA D F IX/7, Fond 237.
162
Volunteers arrived in Barcelona from different countries singly and in groups. On August 29, the Thaelmann Centuria was sent to the Aragon Front. Commanded by Albert Schreiner and Hermann Geisen, this unit of over 100 men distinguished itself in the battles at Huesca, Tardienta and Alcubierre.
For the courage and valour displayed by its men, the Thaelmann Centuria was presented with a banner by the Catalonian Government. In the course of two months' fighting the centuria lost nearly half of its strength. The first casualties included the German Social-Democrat Wilhelm Pfordt and a young Frenchman named Robert Vigier. Sepp Hirsch, Rudolf Gemmel, Wilhelm Engelmann and many others lost their lives during an assault on a hill near Tardienta.
In the first issue of their newspaper Die Rote Sturmfahne on October 15, 1936, the German volunteers wrote: ``We are a fighting unit of the German Popular Front. Among us there are Communists, Social-Democrats and non-party men. All are united by the great goal of completely smashing fascism.''
A steady stream of freedom volunteers hastened to the assistance of the Spanish people. Most of the German volunteers were political emigres, but many managed to come from nazi Germany __PRINTERS_P_162_COMMENT__ 11* 163 despite the obstacles and the torture chambers of the Gestapo prisons. After untold suffering and humiliation in hard labour prisons and concentration camps they were determined to fight fascism till their last breath.
The German volunteers went to Spain by different and often tortuous roads. The assembly point was in Paris, from where the further transportation to Spain was arranged by the Central Committee of the CPG with the active assistance of the French Communist Party.
During the early stages of the war the volunteers had little difficulty in leaving Paris for Spain in large groups. One of these groups of German volunteers was headed by Gustav Szinda, who was later Chief of Staff of the llth International Brigade (today he is a Major-General of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic), and a worker named Albert Denz, who was a Party official in Hagen. Subsequently, when the French police set up check-points on the frontier with Spain it became much more difficult to send volunteers across the frontier. They now had to go to Perpignan by train, then travel by bus to the foothills of the Pyrenees and cross the frontier by foot along steep mountain trails in order to avoid encountering French frontier guards. Tired but happy in the knowledge that they had reached their destination, they came down the mountains to the fortress of Figueras, where the reception centre for foreign volunteers was situated.
On October 9, 1936, the ship Ciudad de Barcelona brought 650 anti-fascists from many countries to Alicante, from where they were sent to Albacete where a headquarters had been set up to organise International Brigades. Among the newly-arrived Germans there were many experienced Party functionaries and activists, including Hans Kahle, Fritz Rettmann, Heinrich Wieland, Josef Zettler, Wilhelm Bahnik, Artur Becker, Christian Wolf, Hermann Gartmann, Richard Gladewitz, Albert Hossler, Heinz Hoffmann, Erich Hoffmann, Gustav Gundelach, Fritz Dickel, Arthur Dorf, Walter Sehlmann, Franz Klamm, Erwin Kramer, Bruno Kuhn, Otto Kiihne, Erich Mielke, Ewald Munschke, Alfred Neumann, Heinrich Rau, Max Roscher, Gustav Szinda, Karl Thoma (Ernst Blank), Paul Verner, Kurt Hager, Wilhelm Zeisser, Richard Staimer, Richard Stahlmann, George Stibi, Erwin Strohmeier and Hermann Schuldt.
Along with Communists and non-party men there was a small group of Social-Democrats, who included Paul Bergmann, Ernst Braun, Kurt Braun, Kurt Brottinger, Kurt Garbarini, Hermann Drumm, Herbert Seifert, Hans Martens, Franz Schneider, Paul Feller and Otto Jiirgensen. Unlike the evasive official leadership of the German Social-Democratic Party, they joined in the struggle for the Spanish Republic without hesitation.
164
The volunteers were representatives of all strata of Germany's working population. Intellectuals fought shoulder to shoulder with workers. Many eminent authors, poets, composers, painters and sculptors went to Spain where they placed their talent in the service of the Spanish people. Among them were Willi Bredel, Ernst Busch, Erich Weinert, Walter Gorrisch, Peter Kast, Heinz Kiwitz, Hans Marchwitza, Maria von Osten, Ludwig Renn, Bodo Uhse, Eberhard Schmidt, Jeanne Stern and Kurt Stern. The songs written by Erich Weinert and sung by Ernst Busch rallied the international volunteers. To this day they are a revolutionary call in all the countries of the world.
Dedicated German women contributed to the cause of the Spanish people. Among them were the doctors Ursula Aman and Rosa Coutelle, the nurses Elisabeth Bier, Emmy Dorfel, Anni Schmidt and Olla Ewert, the courageous anti-fascists Kathe Wohlrath, Kathe Dahlem, Lotte Moller, Golda Friedemann and Sabine Hager, who worked in the Commissariat for International Brigades or in the editorial offices of radio stations. Young Gerda Taro, a photoreporter from Leipzig, died in Spain.
.
Altogether there were nearly 5,000 German volunteers in bpain.
Most of them were in the llth International Brigade that was formed on November 1, 1936. At first the brigade consisted of_ the Edgar Andre, Paris Commune and Dabrowski battalions. These 165 battalions were usually called German, French and Polish, after the nationality of the bulk of the men in them, but in each there were men of different nationalities. For instance, in the Edgar Andre Battalion, in addition to Germans there were Hungarians, Poles, Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Englishmen, Czechs, Slovaks and Irishmen. Men of the Thaelmann Centuria, who arrived in Albacete from Catalonia with Hans Beimler, formed the nucleus of the Thaelmann Battalion, which was first part of the 12th International Brigade and then transferred to the llth. There were German groups and units in the 12th and 13th brigades and in other international units. Franz Dahlem, member and representative of the Central Committee of the CPG and an authorised representative of the Comintern Executive, was a member of the political leadership of the international units from December 1936 onwards.
There were German volunteers in special units of the Republican Army: in a tank brigade, in anti-aircraft and field artillery units, in guerrilla detachments and in transport and medical units. A large group of doctors, among them Walter Blank, Giinter Bodeck, Heilbrunn and Feldmann, who gave their lives in the struggle, fought for the lives and health of the men of the Republican Army in hospitals and directly at the firing lines.
The llth International Brigade engaged the enemy for the first time on November 9, 1936. Confident that the regular units of the Foreign Legion and the Moroccan battalions would have an easy victory over the inexperienced and poorly armed detachments of the People's Militia, the fascists, supported by nazi and Italian aircraft, tanks and artillery, began the assault of the Spanish Republic's capital in early November 1936.
The International Brigades, welcomed by the people of Madrid, went to the assistance of the capital's heroic defenders. In the Casa de Campo and in the University City volunteers from many countries shed their blood together with the Spanish freedom fighters. In a battle lasting many days the 11th Brigade lost nearly half its strength. Many Germans fell in that battle. The following is only one of the innumerable acts of heroism by the freedom volunteers.
During one of the murderous attacks of the fascists in the University City the commander of a machine-gun team Fritz Dietrich, a metalworker from Wuppertal, went from floor to floor, from window to window of a ruined building, firing his machine-gun at the enemy troops that had surrounded the building. Hand grenades and shells exploded around but he held his ground. When a part of the building collapsed, he dragged his machine-gun out and opened fire at the attacking groups of fascists from the flank. The assault was beaten back. Fritz Dietrich fell in this battle, but the company's positions were saved.
166
On December~1, 1936, enemy bullets cut down Hans Beimler and the commander of the Thaelmann Battalion, Franz Vehlow (Louis Schuster). The men who were killed in the first battles at the walls of Madrid included the German Communists Kurt von Appen, Georg Meyer, Paul Baumgarten, Philipp Mayer, Josef Graf, Richard Wagner and Willi Wille, the Social-Democrats Otto Volkmann, Paul Lose and Hans Schwindling and the non-party men Maslow and Karl Katz.
The blood of the fallen cemented the unity of the anti-fascist front that had become a reality in the trenches in Spain. Wide sections of the public in the Spanish Republic saw in the death of Hans Beimler a symbol of the anti-fascist unity and self-sacrifice of the men of the International Brigades. The hero's funeral was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. The poet Rafael Albert! conveyed these feelings of the Spanish people and their grief for the fallen freedom volunteers in a poem entitled Hans Beimler, Communist and Defender of Madrid.
In early January 1937 the International Brigades halted an enemy offensive and destroyed two fascist battalions at Villanueva del Pardillo, northwest of Madrid. This victory was followed by a tragic day: in a battle against an overwhelmingly superior enemy force of infantry and tanks on the fringe of a forest at the village of Remis on January 7 the Thaelmann Battalion suffered heavy losses. Only 30 men remained but they held their positions.
During a short rest at Murcia at the close of January, the llth
Brigade, which had lost 1,230 men since November 9, 1936, received
167
Hans Kahle, Ernest Hemingway, Ludwig Renn and Joris Iwens at the
Guadalajara Front. March 1937
replenishments---international volunteers and Spaniards, most
of whom were People's Militia volunteers with combat experience.
Now almost half of the brigade consisted of Spaniards.
On February 6, 1937 the fascists mounted an offensive with the objective of cutting the Madrid-Arganda-Valencia motor road. The llth Brigade went into action on February 11. In the difficult conditions caused by the cold weather and the rough terrain it fought a well-armed enemy continuously until February 27. One of the objectives of the furious attacks of the Moroccans and the counter-attacks of the volunteers in the sector of the llth Brigade was the Casa Blanca, a solitary white house in an olive grove.
Company Commander Ernst Womper and Hermann Drumm, both of the Saar region, distinguished themselves in the fighting for the Casa Blanca. Leading a counter-attack, they fought their way into an enemy trench and silenced a fascist machine-gun with hand grenades. The enemy fled in panic, but the two friends were killed during the pursuit.
A week after the battle of the Jarama, where the insurgents' plan of encircling Madrid from the southeast was wrecked, the llth Brigade was one of the first units of the Madrid Front to re-- engage the fascists. On March 8, 1937, an Italian expeditionary corps consisting of three Italian and a mixed Spanish-Italian division started an offensive in the direction of Guadalajara along the Zarogoza-Madrid highway. At Torija the llth Brigade joined the 168 Spanish brigades and the 12th International Brigade, said supported by Soviet volunteers---airmen and tankers---it brought a motorised Italian corps to a halt. The roles were now reversed: the boastful conquerors of defenceless Ethiopia had to go over to the defensive. After bitter fighting at Brihuega, Trijueque and Torija, during which the llth Brigade alone lost 220 men, the defenders of the Republic mounted an offensive. For the Italian fascists March 18 was a day of catastrophe: for some time their expeditionary corps ceased to exist as a fighting unit.
In Spain nazi Germany committed one crime after another. Aircraft of the Condor Legion reduced two peaceful Basque towns to ashes: Durango on March 31, 1937, and Guernica on April 26. In Durango the raiders killed 248 women, children and old people. In Guernica, which was bombed for three hours, the casualties were 1,654 dead and 889 wounded. On May 31, 1937, the world was shocked by yet another crime: the battleship Admiral Scheer, escorted by four torpedo-boats and two submarines, shelled and destroyed the coastal town of Almeria. Thousands of people were killed. Expressing the indignation of the German people with the atrocity, Wilhelm Pieck sent a telegram to the Spanish workers on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPG, writing: ``We shall redouble our efforts so that the anti-fascist front in Germany ... in its unremitting struggle against the brown dictatorship should be worthy of the glorious feats of heroism of the Spanish Popular Front and its gallant Army."^^1^^
The German volunteers of the llth Brigade and other international units took part in the first large-scale Republican offensive on the Central Front. The offensive commenced on July 6 and continued until July 28. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Spanish and international units, they displayed indomitable courage in the fighting for Brunete, Quijourna and Villanueva del Pardillo. The 'l 1th Brigade alone lost 600 men.
A few days after that offensive all the International Brigades, except the 14th, were rushed to Aragon, where the Republican Command started a major offensive in the direction of Zaragoza. This offensive was spearheaded by Modesto's 5th Army Corps, of which the llth and 15th International Brigades and the famous 11th Division were a part.
In the sweltering heat the llth and 15th brigades stormed and liberated the towns of Quinto and Belchite, which had been powerfully fortified by nazi engineers. They captured many prisoners and large quantities of weapons.
Superior skill and courage were displayed by the men of the llth Brigade in the next major operation of the Republican Army: the defence of Teruel in early 1938.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Rundschau (Basel), June 10, 1937, p. 895.
169
``The llth Brigade,'' wrote Karol Swierczewski, commander of the 35th Division of which the llth Brigade was a part, ``had a particularly difficult assignment. From January 4 through 14 it fought at a hill named Concud, and then for six days, from January 17 through 22, withstood the furious attacks of the Navarra Division in the vicinity of the El Muleton hill. There ... the brigade displayed such daunless self-sacrifice and heroism that the Spanish Command acknowledged that in that period the division had held Teruel, and General Sarabia, commander of the Levante Front, promised to request Barcelona to institute a special badge for the participants in that battle."^^1^^
In March 1938 when the Franco troops broke through the Aragon Front and the Republican forces began a disorderly retreat, the llth and other International Brigades and picked Spanish brigades were ordered to contain the assaults of an enemy that was vastly superior in numbers and armaments and thereby enable the front command to bring up the necessary reserves. The brigade carried out this task under extremely difficult conditions: communication with the division and the battalions was frequently broken, and time and again it fought its way out of encirclement, using mountain trails. In less than a month the llth Brigade lost over a thousand officers and men. After the battle at Gandesa only 80 of the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Istorichesky arkhiv, No, 2, 1962, p. 174.
170 450 men remained in the Thaelmann Battalion. Among the killed were Artur Becker, Chairman of the Communist Youth League of Germany. Seriously wounded, he was captured by the fascists and executed in Burgos. Also killed were Battalion Commander Wilhelm Pinnecke, Hans Erbe (Fernando), who was personnel department chief at Albacete, and Commissar Wilhelm Glaser (Richard Schenk).The struggle, which cost so many lives, failed to halt the enemy advance towards the Mediterranean. In early April the llth Brigade together with the entire 35th Division occupied defensive positions on the left bank of the Ebro, receiving replenishments and reforming their ranks.
The united front of the German Communists and Social-- Democrats in the International Brigades was tempered in the flames of battle. On December 14, the Unity Committee of German Communists and Social-Democrats, that was set up in Albacete in November 1937, wrote to the Social-Democratic leadership in Prague and to the Central Committee of the CPG calling for joint action by the leaders of the two parties.
A committee of German workers, consisting of the SocialDemocrats and Communists of the llth Brigade, was formed in February 1938. A conference of German volunteers, held in Valencia on March 13, 1938, adopted a manifesto, in which it was stressed: ``We shall win if we are never again split, if we are always united. Then the days of the Hitler dictatorship will be numbered, and together we shall build a free democratic Germany, a Germany of peace, a Germany of freedom, a Germany of prosperity and social reform."^^1^^ Regrettably, the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party remained deaf to the appeals of the antifascists of all parties who were fighting in Spain.
The war continued. On July 25, 1938 the Republican Army with the participation of five International Brigades launched one of its biggest operations, the battle on the Ebro. Two army corps under the overall command of Juan Modesto crossed the river at many points under cover of night. Before the enemy could recover from surprise, the battalions of the llth International Brigade headed by a Scandinavian assault group were on the right bank of the river, and with cries of "Long live the Republic!" they broke into the fortified positions of the fascists and captured the town of Asco. Within 48 hours the Spanish Republican Army liberated a territory of 600 square kilometres on the right bank of the Ebro.
This was a major victory. The fascists had to halt their offensive on the Levante Front, where their objective was the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Institut filr Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK der SED, ZPA, 3/1/421, Bl. 108--09.
171 provincial centre and important port of Valencia. This victory was of immense significance in Spain itself and abroad. It dispersed the assertions of fascist propaganda that the Republican Army was utterly helpless after the catastrophe of March and April on the Eastern Front. Crossing the Ebro and holding the bridgehead on the right bank of the river for three and a half months, the Republicans displayed exceptional valour, courage and will for victory. The command of the insurgents and interventionists concentrated against this bridgehead a powerful artillery force and its entire air force, using a huge quantity of ammunition, showering virtually every metre of the Republican positions with steel. In its counter-offensive it used 15 infantry divisions, including four divisions of the Italian expeditionary corps. But it took them over 100 days of bitter fighting to recover the territory which Modesto's army had captured in two days. For its action in the Ebro operation the llth Brigade was decorated with the Order of Valour, the highest military award of the Republic.On September 23, when the fighting on the Ebro was at its height, the Government of the Republic decided to withdraw the volunteers from the front. They left the field of battle with heavy hearts, taking away with them the memory of the touching farewell that was given them by the people of Barcelona.
While some volunteers were returning home and others ( including Germans), whose homeland was ruled by tyrannical fascist regimes, remained in demobilisation camps in the north of the Republic, Hitler and Mussolini continued stepping up military supplies to Franco and reinforcing their troops in Spain. On September 30, Chamberlain and Daladier signed a disgraceful agreement with Hitler in Munich, throwing Czechoslovakia into the jaws of the German imperialists. The Munich deal was a heavy blow to the Spanish Republic. Fifth column activities were intensified, and capitulationist feeling mounted among the unstable elements in the Popular Front---the Right-wing Socialists, the bourgeois Republicans, the anarchists, and also among regular officers.
On January 23, 1939, after Catalonia was invaded by a huge Franco army supported by interventionists, the volunteers who had not left Spain requested the Spanish Government to give them the possibility of engaging the fascists in battle again.
Barcelona, capital of Catalonia, fell on January 26. In heavy rearguard fighting the volunteers covered the flow of refugees, who were fleeing to the French frontier. In this fighting the German volunteers again suffered large casualties. Karl Thoma (Ernst Blank), the last German political commissar of the llth International Brigade was killed. The last roll call of the international brigaders on Spanish soil was held on February 8 and 9. They crossed the French frontier at Perthus and Port-Bou.
Of the 5,000 German anti-fascists who fought in Spain, 3,000
172
A part of the monument in Berlin to German members of the International
Brigades killed in Spain
did not return. They sacrificed their lives for Spain and for a truly
democratic Germany. Those who survived continued the struggle
wherever life took them.
With the help of French patriots nearly 200 German international brigaders escaped from the concentration camps and the "labour companies''. After the nazi invasion of France they joined the French Resistance. Among them were Otto Riihne, Max Friedemann, Norbert Kugler, Ernst Buschmann, Werner Schwarze, Heinz Priess, Hans Kukowitsch, Kurt Weber, Fritz Fugmann, Max Brings, August Mahnke, Heinrich Schurmann, Walter Vesper and Franz Blume.
Some of the German internationalists were sent to North Africa by the French authorities and held in a camp on the border of the Sahara. Later the Petain Government agreed to turn the internationalists in French concentration camps over to the nazis. Franz Dahlem and Heinrich Rau were among the first in the Vernet camp to be turned over to the Gestapo. When the nazis occupied Southern France the Gestapo put many of the Germans who had fought in Spain in concentration camps.
173After enormous difficulties some of the German internationalists managed to reach the Soviet Union, where they continued the anti-fascist struggle on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War as soldiers of the Soviet Army or in partisan units. Among them were Erich Weinert, Willi Bredel, Gottfreid Griinberg and Giinther Tenner.
Otto Heppner, Hermann Massinger, Richard Hoffmann, Hermann Salinger, Bruno Kiihn, Albert Hossler, Josef Zettler, Hermann Kramer, Ferdinand Greiner, Heinrich RoGkampf, Vincenz Porombka and Franz Zielasko fought the enemy in Poland and Germany. Most of them were seized by the nazi police or the Gestapo and executed. Josef Zettler did not lose his life only thanks to the solidarity of the prisoners in the concentration camp. Ferdinand Greiner and Vincenz Porombka were among the few that the Gestapo failed to find.
Germans who had fought as members of International Brigades joined partisan units in Yugoslavia, Greece and other nazi-- occupied countries. Among them distinction was won by Kurt Lobberger, who had been turned over to the Gestapo from a French internment camp. He was sent to Greece as a soldier of the 999 penal unit, went over to the partisans and became the commander of a German anti-fascist detachment in a regiment of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS).
In many European countries and overseas (for instance, in Mexico) Germans who had fought in Spain took part in the Free Germany movement.
Former members of the International Brigades Hermann Geisen and Kurt Garbarini, who in 1941 conducted anti-fascist agitation in the Wehrmacht in Belgium, were seized by the Gestapo, taken to Germany and beheaded in the Plotzensee prison in Berlin. Herbert Tschape escaped from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the spring of 1944 and worked in an underground organisation of the German Resistance under Anton Salfkow. He was captured by the Gestapo and executed. The same fate overtook Reinhold Mewes, a member of Beppo Rb'mer's underground group.
Wherever they found themselves---in the underground organisations of the Resistance, in hard labour prisons or in concentration camps---German international brigaders fought the nazi tyranny with selfless courage.
After the nazi regime was smashed by the victorious Soviet Army, the former brigaders joined the ranks of the First Hour Activists.
The men who fought the fascists in Spain may be proud of their contribution to the development of the new society. Today some of them are members of the Central Committee and Political Bureau of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany or hold posts 174 in the GDR Government. The National People's Army of the GDR is headed by Heinz Hoffmann, veteran of the battles in Spain. Many of the generals and other senior officers of the GDR Armed Forces were members of International Brigades. Internationalist veterans hold leading posts in the national economy, the health service and cultural life in the GDR. The Committee of German Anti-Fascist Resistance Fighters and the Committee for Solidarity with the Spanish People support the fighters against the Franco regime morally and materially.
The true Germany fought, is fighting and will always fight on the side of the magnificent fraternal people of Spain, for the lofty ideals of humanity, national independence, peace, democracy and progress.
[175] __ALPHA_LVL1__ HUNGARYThe freedom struggle of the Spanish people and their call for assistance in the summer of 1936 found a response among the oppressed people of Horthy-ruled Hungary. The developments in Spain were eagerly discussed at factories and in workers' neighbourhoods, above all in the underground Communist and legal Social-Democratic organisations. Reports were read at trade-union meetings, talks on Spain were held at factories, and Spanish songs were sung in the workers' clubs. Books about Spain and Spanish dictionaries were sold out virtually within a few days.
In the course of several months the Social-Democratic newspaper Nepszava gave a wide and unbiased coverage of the events in Spain. However, the Minister for Internal Affairs soon ordered it to stop printing these reports. News from Spain first disappeared from the front page, then it was shortened and finally ceased altogether. But the authorities were powerless to prevent the illegal activity of the Communist Party and the SocialDemocratic workers' organisations, who appealed to all progressive people for support for the selfless struggle of the Spanish people. ``For every person who prizes peace and freedom,'' said one of the appeals of the Communist Party of Hungary, ``it is a matter of honour to support the Spanish people, who have been attacked and are defending the peace and freedom of all peoples."^^1^^
Under the Horthy dictatorship, solidarity with the Spanish Republic, as any other progressive movement, could be manifested only deep underground. The collection of money was one of the forms of international support. Cells of the International Red Aid began to collect donations. It is indicative that within a month following the outbreak of the war in Spain a sum of 5,000 pengos (according to incomplete data) or nearly $ 1,000 was collected and sent to Spain.
What the Hungarian working people really felt and thought _-_-_
~^^1^^ Munkds, August 30, 1936.
176 at the time could be freely expressed only outside Hungary. The Aid Spain Campaign therefore assumed a large scale only among Hungarians living abroad. It will be recalled that after the Hungarian Soviet Republic was crushed in 1919 nearly 100,000 Communists and other progressives had to leave Hungary. They formed the nucleus of the political emigres. In subsequent years hundreds of thousands of Hungarians left their country in search of work.The Hungarian emigres living in France, Belgium and Canada were particularly active in helping Spain. Lectures, film shows and literary evenings devoted to the struggle of the Spanish people were organised in workers' neighbourhoods where Hungarians resided, and placards and maps showing the course of the fighting were hung on the walls.
The collection of donations was one of the major activities in the Hungarian emigre movement of solidarity with Spain. The tiny donations grew into a considerable aid fund. This was due in large measure to the efforts of women, whose husbands, fathers and brothers were fighting in Spain. They took part in agitation and organised shows, thereby drawing attention to and sympathy for the fighters for the Spanish Republic. Widespread popularity was won by two Hungarian dancers, Anna Poor and Klara Tarr, whose husbands fought and died in Spain. In Paris there was hardly a trade-union or workers' club where they did not stage a performance in aid of the Spanish people. A particularly deep impression was made on audiences by their dance, Children of Madrid, which conveyed the horrors of the bombing of the Spanish capital.
In Belgium the Hungarian solidarity movement was headed by party groups of Communists and Social-Democrats, who worked in close unity following the formation of the Belgian United AntiFascist Front. In Brussels the Communists and Social-Democrats took turns in arranging lectures devoted to the events in Spain. The evenings organised to increase the Spanish aid fund were attended also by those Hungarians who usually shunned political activity and held aloof from the working-class movement.
Some 40,000 Hungarians, among whom substantial influence was enjoyed by the Communist Party of Canada, were resident in Canada in the 1930s. Despite the hardships multiplied by the economic crisis, the Hungarian emigres collected large sums in aid of the Spanish people. They sent many parcels with cigarettes, tobacco, soap, clothes, bandages and medicines, and set up blood donation centres in Canada. During the first months following the fascist revolt the Hungarians, together with their Canadian comrades, bought and sent two ambulances to Spain. To collect funds the Hungarian organisations arranged shows, dances and concerts.
The finest representatives of the Hungarian intelligentsia took __PRINTERS_P_177_COMMENT__ 12---781 177 part in the mighty solidarity movement that embraced the whole world. The writers Emile Madarasz, Lajos Kassak, Zseni Varnai, Gyorgy Balint, Imre Forbath, Antal Hidas, Gyula Illyes, Laszlo Herebejos, Attila Jozsef, Miklos Radnoti, Mihaly Andras Ronai, Miklos Veto and Aladar Komjat devoted their works to the developments in Spain and inspired Hungarians to fight fascism, which was the common enemy of the Spanish and Hungarian peoples. In this connection mention must be made of Aladar Komjat's poem March of the International Brigade, which was put to music by the Hungarian composer Paul Armand, who was living in Paris at the time. For nearly three years this song put heart into the Hungarian volunteers in Spain and to this day it resounds as an ardent appeal calling for the fulfilment of the proletarian internationalist duty.
In September and October 1936, when it became apparent that material assistance was not enough for the Spanish Republic, nearly 1,000 Hungarians went to Spain. Volunteers came not only from Hungary but also from France, Belgium, Canada, the Soviet Union, the USA, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other countries.
In Hungary itself many who wanted to join the Republican Army were unable to do so. The Horthy regime raised every possible obstacle to prevent volunteers from leaving for Spain. In the instructions of January 16, 1937 from the Minister for Internal Affairs to the frontier authorities it was stated: ``Without exit permits and in most cases by foot, persons with Bolshevik sympathies and also jobless are fleeing to Czechoslovakia, and from Czechoslovakia they are being smuggled to Spain... . Persons crossing the frontier illegally shall be closely questioned and, having in mind the above-mentioned circumstance, every effort shall be made to ascertain and register every case pointing to the activities of recruiting agents or showing that the defector secretly intends to join the Spanish Red Army.... With reference to these instructions every such person shall be taken to the political department of the Central Police Administration in Budapest."^^1^^
Despite stringent police measures, the attempts to leave for Spain illegally did not cease. But only 120 persons managed to reach Spain. The others were seized at the Hungarian frontier or detained in neighbouring countries and returned to Hungary. For instance, during the first weeks of the civil war a group of 40 building workers crossed the frontier into Czechoslovakia, but only a few of them reached Spain.
The trade unions and the Communist Party organised the selection of volunteers in Hungary. The largest contribution to this _-_-_
~^^1^^ Magyar Szocialista Munkdspdspdrt KB, Parttortdneti Intezet, Archivum, A/VII.1/20.
178 work was made by the building workers', metalworkers' and bakers' trade unions. Matyas Kronovitz, a leader of the bakers' union, who subsequently volunteered to Spain and died the death of a hero, was particularly active in this work.The money for the travelling expenses of the volunteers was donated by their work-mates. Some went to Spain by foot with only a few pengos in their pockets. They included Vilmos Zsinko, member of the Central Committee of the Young Workers' Communist League, Laszlo Humhal and Laszlo Teke, who headed the League's Budapest organisation, and Istvan Bakalar, an active member of the YWCL. Before they reached Spain many volunteers spent months in prison in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France or other capitalist countries.
The journey from Budapest to Madrid took Ferenc Kerekes five months. In reminiscences written in 1938, soon after the events, he gives an account of this journey:
``I was working in Budapest when I heard that the fascist generals had risen in revolt against the lawful democratic government of Spain.
``I took my wife and son to my parents in order to be able to leave for Spain at once. I was denied a passport, but that did not discourage me. I did not abandon my intention and on December 25,^1936,1 set out for Madrid.
``I had no money and knew no foreign language. I reached Austria and from there I headed for Switzerland across the snowbound Alps. The difficulties were formidable. Four times I was caught on the frontier and turned back. The fifth attempt was successful. No less difficult was my journey to France. From Lyons, where I was held in prison for thirty days, I travelled to Marseilles, counting on boarding a ship and sailing secretly to Barcelona. But I was caught again and they wanted to force me to join the Foreign Legion. But I managed to escape. In Perpignan I landed in prison again, for twenty days. Upon my release I set across the Pyrenees.
``On May 17 I reached Figueras, and from there I went to Albacete. Finally, my wish came true, and I set out for Madrid, where I got the opportunity of fighting for a noble cause."^^1^^
For Hungarians living abroad the journey to Spain was not so arduous. However, they had to make large sacrifices. Many left wives and children without a breadwinner or kin.
In Uruguay nearly 50 Hungarian volunteers signed up as soon as it became known that International Brigades were being formed in Spain. The Hungarian Communist organisation checked with the families of the volunteers and decided to approve the departure only of bachelors or married men who had no children: the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Spanyol foldon a Rabads>rt, Barcelona, 19S8, p. 17.
__PRINTERS_P_179_COMMENT__ 12* 179 organisation was unable to support the families of the volunteers. Gyula Kovacsik, secretary of the Hungarian Party group, was the first to sign up. He was wounded at Brunete in July 1937, and although he was crippled, he rejoined the ranks. While he was in hospital he had written to the Hungarians residing in Uruguay, calling upon them to take his place in his unit. Many responded to this letter. The Party group sent six volunteers to Spain. Kovacsik fell in action at Lerida in 1938.In the Spanish Republican Army two of the Hungarian volunteers held the rank of general. One of them was Mate Zalka, a Communist, soldier and author. He had been a prisoner-of-war in Russia, and after the Great October Socialist Revolution he joined the Red Army, becoming an officer and fighting till the end of the Civil War (1919--22). In October 1936, he went to Spain from Moscow under the assumed name of Pal Lukacs. He was in command first of the 12th International Brigade and then of the 45th Republican Division. The second Hungarian general in Spain was Janos Gal. Like Zalka, he had been taken prisoner on the Russian Front during the First World War. He had taken part in the socialist revolution in Russia and fought in the Red Army during the Civil War. Later, as a regular officer, he had graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. In Spain the Republican Government promoted him to the rank of general and appointed him commander of the 15th International Brigade. Later he was in command of the 15th Republican Division.
Nine of the Hungarian volunteers held the rank of major. One of them was Ferenc Miinnich, a veteran internationalist, who had taken part in the Great October Socialist Revolution and been a leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He went to Spain under the assumed name of Otto Flatter. He held various command posts, and in the period from April to the end of August 1938 he was in command of the llth International Brigade.
Dezso Jasz, who had been a regimental commissar in the Red Army of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, fought in Spain under the assumed name of Juan de Pablo. As a colonel he held various high posts, including that of Operations Chief at the HQ of the Northern Army.
Among the other Hungarian volunteers whose names are known, 99 were officers and 47 were non-commissioned officers. In the Spanish Republican Army there were 15 Hungarian doctors and 10 nurses.
The first Hungarian volunteers arrived in Spain in early August 1936. Among them was Mihaly Szalvai, who had joined the Hungarian Communist Party as soon as it was formed. A Horthy counter-revolutionary court sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment for being a soldier of the Hungarian Red Army. He escaped 180 from prison and after long wanderings in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France he finally reached Spain. The first group of volunteers included Endre Keszocze, who had been in the working-class movement from the age of 14. In Paris he had worked at the Renault car factory and in 1927 joined the French Communist Party.
At the close of September 1936 there were 45 Hungarian volunteers in the Republican Army. On October 11, 1936, over 600 volunteers, of whom 46 were Hungarians, arrived in Figueras, a Spanish border town. One of them was Istvan Stechmayer, who became widely known among the volunteers by the name of Stefi. In Spain he graduated from an officers' school, following which he was put in command first of a platoon and then of a company. In February 1938 he was killed in Estremadura.
In the same group were Hungarians who had come from Belgium. They included Endre Basch, who had been a leader of the Hungarian emigre Communist organisation in Brussels. He went to Spain with his wife and son, and with them he was active in the anti-fascist struggle. Holding the rank of lieutenant he was in charge of the Salamanca Army Barracks in the town of Albacete, and then until the end of the civil war he was in command of an artillery unit. During the nazi occupation of France the Gestapo arrested him as a leader of the underground anti-fascist movement, and his life was cut short in a death camp.
A Hungarian unit of 91 men was formed in Albacete on October 17, 1936. This unit became the third company of the Edgar Andre Battalion of the llth International Brigade. The Hungarian Company included a Yugoslav Platoon. On November 9, the Hungarian Company received its baptism of fire on the Madrid Front on the Manzanares river. Despite heavy casualties the Hungarian Company stood firm and justified the trust that was placed in it by the people of Madrid. Three years later one of the Hungarians who had been in this battle wrote:
``We had been up early that morning. After breakfast we were ordered to prepare for battle. Soon we heard rifle fire---it was the People's Militia courageously fighting the fascist mercenaries at the Casa de Campo.... The company moved toward its position at 11 o'clock. But we had hardly covered 800 metres across the park than we ran into a hail of fascist bullets.
``The company deployed within a few minutes and quickly advanced in the direction of the French Bridge. We soon saw the bridge and the Manzanares. On our side of the river several militiamen with one machine-gun were guarding the bridge behind a barricade of sandbags.
`` 'The internationalists have come,' the militiamen said to one
another. Some of them thought we were Russians. The company
commander ordered the first and second platoons to a position
181
Mate Zalka (Pal Lukacs), commander of the 12th International Brigade, and
members of his staff
to the left of the bridge. The third platoon and the machine-guns
were sent across the river to the far side of the bridge.
``These orders were carried out immediately. Paying no attention to the bullets whistling through the air we waded into the icy water. A hard-fought battle began. Our small unit fought numerically superior forces. The machine-gunners under Chapayev (Szalvai's pseudonym) and Keszocze sowed death among the advancing close ranks of fascists, Moroccans and cutthroats from the Foreign Legion. I could hear the rattle of Ferenc Kovacs' 182 submachine. The fascists were not more than 30 metres away from us. The commander ordered the fourth platoon into battle. ... The enemy tried to force us back with hand grenades, but we held our ground.''
The commander of the Hungarian Company was wounded at the French Bridge. His place was taken by Mihaly Szalvai, commander of the machine-gunners. As an officer he was brave, levelheaded and exacting. He was on friendly terms with his men and they loved him for it. A few weeks later, at the close of November, he was wounded. He returned to the front at the close of January 1937 with the rank of major and was appointed commander of the Edgar Andre Battalion, llth International Brigade. He lead the battalion in the fighting on the Jarama and Guadalajara fronts. At the end of March he was appointed commander of the Dimitrov Battalion, 15th International Brigade.
A Hungarian volunteer named Rezso Szanto distinguished himself during a critical moment of the fighting at Guadalajara as commander of an artillery battery of the 12th International Brigade. The Italian fascists had broken through the lines at the junction between two International Brigades and there was a threat of an enveloping movement. General Lukacs saw this danger and sent the brigade's entire staff into the battle. Rezso Szanto turned his artillery and fired with deadly effect on the fascists, who were attacking from the rear, forcing them to flee.
The victory at Guadalajara gave the Republicans a short respite. When the Hungarian Company was withdrawn to the village of Meco for a rest a Hungarian Battalion began to be formed on the initiative of Mate Zalka, Janos Gal and Ferenc Miinnich. The Hungarian volunteers, who had been in other international units, were now concentrated at Meco. The battalion was formed quickly under the direction of Captain Lajos Cseby, who was known as Pedro Fernandez. The first order of the day in the battalion, which was named after Matyas Rakosi,^^1^^ was posted on April 1, 1937. Soon afterwards the 12th Brigade was formed into a division under Mat6 Zalka. It consisted of two International Brigades--- Garibaldi and Dabrowski. The Hungarian Battalion became part of the Dabrowski Brigade.
The numerical strength of the Hungarian Battalion grew steadily. New volunteers arrived, men who had been wounded returned to the ranks after recuperating from their wounds, and _-_-_
~^^1^^ At a meeting in 1956 marking the 20th anniversary of the formation of the International Brigades, the Hungarians who had been volunteers adopted a statement in which they declared: "In 1936 the thousand Hungarians who held high the banner of freedom and proletarian internationalism in Spain, inscribed on that banner the name of the man who before a Horthy court had championed the Hungarian people and courageously fulfilled his duty. In 1949 we were bitterly disappointed. That man himself erased his name from that heroic banner.''
183
Not all of the Hungarians fighting in Spain were in the battalion commanded by Akos-Hevesi. The Petofi Platoon of the 15th International Brigade consisted of Hungarians, most of whom were Czechoslovak citizens. Captain Sandor Sziklai was a staff officer at the Madrid Front. A prisoner-of-war in Russia during the First World War, he had taken part in the Great October Socialist Revolution and in the Civil War and joined the Bolshevik Party in Russia in 1917. In Spain he was known as Peter Ladi. Serving with him was Miklos Steinmetz, who, as a truce envoy of the Soviet Army, was foully killed by the nazis at the approaches to Budapest on December 29, 1944.
The first operation of the Hungarian Battalion and of the entire 45th Division was the offensive in early June 1937 at the town of Huesca on the Aragon Front. In the evening of June 11, on the eve of the offensive, a fascist shell cut short the life of the division commander, Mate Zalka, while he was inspecting the front lines. 184 Battalion Commander Akos Hevesi and Battalion Commissar Imre Tarr also lost their lives in this operation.
The Hungarian Battalion of the Dabrowski Brigade fought in many battles, which cost it innumerable lives. Among the fallen heroes were Company Commander Imre fibert, who was killed at Brunete in the summer of 1937, and Pal Nagy, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary.
The battles in Estremadura were followed by hard defensive fighting in the spring of 1938, when the enemy broke through the Aragon Front. The 13th Brigade distinguished itself during the defence of Lerida. Outstanding leadership was displayed in these battles by Mihaly Szalvai, who had taken over the command of the Hungarian Battalion in August 1937. An eye-witness account of an episode of the Aragon retreat is given by Imre Mezo in reminiscences published in 1938:
``After the battalion had taken up a new defensive line, Szalvai as usual was inspecting the positions of one of the companies when somebody sounded the alarm.
``Enemy cavalry were charging in the direction of the hill where the men had dug in temporarily. The machine-gunners managed to fire only one belt before the cavalrymen were upon the Hungarian positions. An unequal battle ensued, and it was only due to Szalvai's cool-headedness and resourcefulness and the staunchness of the men that the cavalry attack was repulsed, with the enemy suffering heavy losses."^^1^^
During the 42 days' fighting on the Aragon Front the ranks of the Hungarian volunteers were again thinned. The casualties at the defence of Lerida included the company Party organiser, Gyorgy Sebes, and Battalion Commissar Gyorgy Weiszbrunn.
During offensive of the Republican Army of the Ebro, the Hungarian Battalion was the first unit in the sector of the 13th Brigade to cross the river. The order for the crossing was received on July 24 at 21.30 hours, and by 00.30 hours the battalion had successfully completed the operation. After capturing Camposinas the 13th Brigade advanced in the direction of Gandesa. The Hungarian Battalion inflicted heavy losses on the fascists, capturing many prisoners and a large quantity of equipment.
In the course of two weeks in August, during the defence of the bridgehead on the right bank of the Ebro, the battalion's casualties were 30 killed and 105 wounded.
The Hungarian Battalion was at the firing lines until September 23, 1938, when the Republican Government recalled the international volunteers from the front.
At the farewell ceremony the men of the Dabrowski Brigade, the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Spanyol foldon a Rabadsdgert, p. 42.
185
``We, freedom volunteers of the Dabrowski Brigade, soldiers of the invincible Spanish People's Army, defenders of the freedom of the Spanish people and all the peoples of the world, we sons of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, mortal enemies of fascism, barbarism and national oppression, swear in this beloved land of Spain, where we have left the graves of our comrades, we swear by the blood shed in the struggle against fascism, by our revolutionary and anti-fascist consciousness, by our battle banners, by the decorations we have received from the hands of the Republican Government that to our last breath we shall be true to the ideals, for whose defence we had come to Spain. We shall carry on this struggle wherever life takes us.
``We swear to be eternally true to the Spanish people, whose blood has mixed with our blood. We swear to be true to the Government of the Republic and to the Command of the People's Army and solemnly declare that we shall return to the ranks of the People's Army at any time ... if that is needed and desired by the Republic....
``But even should there be no need for us to return to you, the memory of liberty, the passion for which burns in you and for which you have fought so heroically, shall live on in our hearts and in the hearts of the coming generation.''
186 __*_*_*__On January 23, 1939, the volunteers awaiting to be evacuated from Spain, with Hungarians among them, again took up arms to fight in the last battles as soldiers of the Catalan Army. It was necessary to safeguard the withdrawal of the wounded and the hospitals and cover the stream of refugees who were fleeing to the French frontier from the fascist army that had broken through the Catalan Front.
Even wounded men---L\'aszl\'o Rajk, Andr\'as T\'ompe and L\'aszl\'o Gy\'aros among them---joined the newly-formed international units. Along with the other volunteers and the Spanish troops, the Hungarian volunteers honourably discharged their last duty.
They crossed the frontier into France at Port-Bou on February 9, 1939. The heroic freedom fighters were met by French colonial troops, gendarmes and concentration camps.
Despite the bitterness of defeat, the Hungarian volunteers were eager to continue the struggle against fascism. A Communist Party organisation was set up and began to operate as soon as the volunteers were taken to concentration camps. The struggle did not cease for a moment in these camps. The moral and political staunchness and the internationalist and anti-fascist tempering of the Hungarian volunteers were soon put to a new test.
The Second World War broke out on September 1, 1939.
The French authorities wanted the men of the International Brigades to join the Foreign Legion. This was rejected by the volunteers. They wanted to fight fascism, not colonial peoples. Fifty-two volunteers, including ten Hungarians, whom the authorities suspected of organising Resistance, were taken to a penal camp at Vernet and then to a camp at Djelfa, Algeria, on the border of the Sahara. The other volunteers were shipped to that camp soon afterwards.
In March 1941, after France had been occupied by the nazis, some of the volunteers escaped while they were being deported to labour in Germany and made their way home. They continued the struggle against fascism in Hungary as members of the underground anti-fascist movement. Among them was Laszlo Rajk, who had been the secretary of the Party organisation in the Hungarian Battalion and became a secretary of the Central Committee of the underground Communist Party of Hungary. Many of those who returned to Hungary were seized and imprisoned or killed. The latter included Pal Fiigedi.
Algeria was liberated by the Allies in 1943 and the volunteers
held at the Djelfa camp were able to go to the USSR to take part
in the struggle against nazi Germany. In May 1944, Mihaly
Szalvai flew to Yugoslavia where he joined in the liberation
struggle of the Yugoslav people. Sandor Sziklai, who became an
187
The Hungarian Battalion after the Aragon battles, 1938
officer of the Soviet Army, returned to Hungary in the autumn
of 1944. Ferenc Miinnich fought in the battle of Stalingrad, that
marked the turning point of the Second World War.
Other Hungarians continued the anti-fascist struggle as members of the Resistance in France, Belgium and other countries where circumstances took them. Thirty-three of them died in this struggle---among them were Istvan Molnar, who in Spain commanded the Polish Palafox Battalion, and Lieutenant Laszlo Marschall, who during the liberation of Paris in August 1944 was in command of a barricade at the crossing of the St. Germaine and St. Michel boulevards and later commanded the Petofi Company in the French Army.
After Hungary's liberation in 1945 the former Hungarian volunteers in Spain energetically helped to restore their country and then build the foundations of socialism. Many became ministers, deputy ministers, generals or army officers. From 1958 through 1961 Ferenc Miinnich was Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic.
The former volunteers took up arms again during the counterrevolutionary revolt in Budapest in October 1956. Imre Mezo, Secretary of the Budapest City Party Committee, and Major-- 188 General Sandor Sziklai, who headed the Institute of Military History, were killed in this struggle.
Today nearly 150 former volunteers live in Hungary and many of them are still active in political and civic life. They are a living example for the rising generation, an example of revolutionary passion and of fidelity to the ideals of socialism and proletarian internationalism.
[189] __ALPHA_LVL1__ IRELANDThirteen years before the rising of the Spanish fascist generals, Ireland had a civil war. This was on the issue of full national independence from British imperialism---following a four-year period of mass resistance and a militant guerrilla struggle. The conservative bourgeoisie and its abettors in the national movement accepted the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which created two states in Ireland: one formally independent and the other colonial. This treaty was opposed by a radical section of the national movement, and a bitter civil war broke out. In 1923 the pro-treatyites won a military victory with the help of British armaments.
The Irish civil war created a major dividing line among the Irish people. It was followed by an uneasy peace. In 1932 the pro-treaty government headed by William Cosgrave was defeated in a general election. A new government was formed by the Fianna Fail Party led by Eamon De Valera. That party mainly represented the interests of the smaller capitalists, traders and middle farmers. Its programme called for strengthening Ireland politically and economically as an independent state. However, in the social sphere the De Valera Government largely continued Cosgrave's anti-labour policies.
The electoral defeat of the Cosgrave Government was a setback for Irish reaction. To regain ground, the reactionaries launched a hysterical campaign against the Left Republicans and Communists. In March 1933, incited by the reactionaries, a mob sacked Connolly House, the headquarters of the Irish Revolutionary Workers and Small Farmers Groups, from which, despite the terror and government persecution, the Communist Party of Ireland was formed in June 1933. On its initiative the Irish Republican Congress, which united the Left Republicans, the tenant and unemployed associations, the small farmers and other organisations, was founded in September 1934.
In Ireland, as in other European countries, there was a fascist movement that called itself the ``blueshirt movement''. Its leader was General Owen O'Duffy, who had commanded the pro-treaty 190 troops and had been chief of police until the election of the De Valera Government. O'Duffy had established contact with international fascist circles and incorporated in the objectives of the blueshirt movement the creation of an Irish corporative state. On February 28, 1934, Deputy J. A. Costello declared in the Irish Parliament: ``The blackshirts have been victorious in Italy, and the Hitler brownshirts have been victorious in Germany, as assuredly, the blueshirts will be victorious in Ireland."^^1^^
This fascist threat was met by a fighting united effort of Republicans, trade unionists, Communists and small farmers. Led by Frank Ryan, Tom Barry, George Gilmore, Sean Murray and Peadar O'Donnel, they drove the blueshirts off the streets after many violent encounters. Many of the men who were active in this struggle later joined the International Brigades.
In Ireland the Right-wing forces supported the revolt of the reactionary Spanish generals on July 18, 1936 with a hysterical propaganda campaign. Playing on the religious feeling of the people, the Irish reactionaries, particularly the blueshirts, slandered the Spanish Republic. For instance, the reactionary newspaper Irish Independent described the Left-wing bourgeois government, formed by Manuel Azana in February 1936 after the Popular Front's electoral victory, as a ``group of bloodthirsty Bolsheviks, persecutors of Catholic nuns and priests''. This sort of propaganda found a response among politically backward sections of the people.
This distortion of the developments in Spain confused even many members of the Irish Labour and Republican organisations. The first clear exposition of the real issues of the war in Spain was given on July 27, 1936 by The UJorker, the weekly bulletin of the Communist Party of Ireland: ``In Spain, as we write, a new immortal page of working-class history is being inscribed. The reports published by the capitalist press are like a dust cloud obscuring the fighters as they strain in combat, but from the glimpses of the truth we can picture the rest.'' After detailing the programme of the Spanish Popular Front the weekly stressed that the programme had the full support of the Socialists and the Communists, neither of whom had representatives in the government. It ended the report with the words: ``Greetings to our heroic Spanish brothers and sisters in their glorious fight!''
This clear declaration by the Communist weekly helped many to assess the situation correctly, but the capitalist press proceeded shamelessly to poison the minds of the Irish people. In the ferment of organised hysteria O'Duffy, the leader of the blueshirts, posed as a ``saviour of religion" and announced his intention to form an Irish Brigade of volunteers to ``fight for Christianity in _-_-_
~^^1^^ Irish Independent, February 29, 1934.
191 Spain".^^1^^ The reactionary Irish Christian Front was formed and it held rallies attended by clerical and lay dignitaries, who with religious slogans campaigned for Irish support for Franco. As a result, the large sum of £30,000 was collected at the church doors allegedly for the reconstruction of the churches damaged or destroyed in the fighting. Some of it found its way to the Franco forces and the rest disappeared, a fact that was, needless to say, completely played down.The Irish anti-fascists staunchly fought the hate campaign against Republican Spain. They were helped considerably by the clear analysis given by Sean Murray, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, in his weekly articles on Spain in The Worker. Meetings were held to give people the truth about Spain. An outstanding public speaker, Murray addressed these meetings. On one occasion he said: ``I warn the workers of Ireland against the press reports about atrocities in Spain. These come from imperialist liars, the hirelings of fascism. Their purpose is to turn the outside world against the Spanish Republic and to try to get foreign intervention to foist fascism on the people of Spain. These liars are not to be believed.'' Giving instances of how religious slogans had been used in Ireland's own struggles in order to conceal the upper class opposition to the people's demands, he pointed out that the same tactic was being used in Spain. ``The gallant Spanish people,'' he said, ``are not only fighting against the traitors within Spain but against the enemies of liberty throughout all Europe, Ireland included. This makes the Spanish question indeed a question for the friends of freedom in every land. Are we in Ireland to stand aside and allow this crime against the people of Spain to be carried out before our eyes?"^^2^^
Another powerful voice that came to the defence of the Spanish Republic was that of Peadar O'Donnell. A well-known guerrilla fighter in 1920--23 and the author of many books, he had actually been travelling in Spain when the fascist revolt occurred. His first-hand accounts made an important contribution to making the truth known. Also active in championing the Spanish Republic was another famous Irish guerrilla, Ernie O'Malley, the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Recruited to fight on Franco's side, the Irish Brigade was in Spain for less than six months. It took part in only one action with Moroccan troops and lost two men in the encounter. Four others were killed during a brief period in the trenches. Realising that they had been duped the men of the brigade mutinied and demanded to be sent home. Upon their return to Ireland they were given a carefully managed hero's welcome. For some time they basked in the blaze of publicity, which extolled their ``deeds'' in the Franco army. With the aid of clericals, pressure was applied on them to prevent them from telling the truth about Franco Spain. The news of this brigade's fiasco was printed in only a few newspapers, one of which was The New York Times. A varnished account of the brigade's ``exploits'' is given in a book published by Owen O'Duffy in Dublin in 1938,
~^^2^^ The Worker, August 15, 1936.
192
Regrettably, in this tense situation there was no clear call from either the Irish Trade Union Congress or the Irish Labour ( SocialDemocratic) Party. However, at the annual conference of the Irish Trade Union Congress in August 1936 Christie Clark (Irish National Union of Woodworkers), Bob Smith (Plumbing Trade Union) and some other delegates did raise their voices in support of their Spanish brothers. The Irish newspapers, however, suppressed all mention of their statements in their reports of the congress meetings.
With the growth of the people's solidarity with the anti-fascist struggle in Spain the Irish capitalist and religious press stepped up its campaign of lies and slander. Despite the paucity of progressive papers and the existence of pogrom-like atmosphere the fearless work of the first defenders of the Spanish Republic in Ireland began to have results. An All-Ireland Spanish Aid Committee was formed. It was headed by prominent public figures like Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington (widow of an Irish pacifist who was murdered by a British Army officer in 1916); Dorothy MacArdle, the Irish writer; Nora Connolly-O'Brien (daughter of James Connolly, the Irish Socialist leader who was executed by the British imperialists for his leadership of the uprising of 1916) and R. N. Tweedy. In Belfast Harry Midgely, the Labour __PRINTERS_P_193_COMMENT__ 13---781 193 Member of the Parliament and Chairman of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland, declared his stand with the anti-fascists of Spain. Despite a campaign of intimidation against them, the delegates to the Irish Conference of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union in September 1936 unanimously declared their approval of the British Executive's decision in granting £1,000 for aid to the Spanish Government. A committee was formed in Dublin and Belfast to organise an Irish Ambulance Corps for the Spanish Republican Army.
Although the Irish Catholic Church was violently pro-Franco, the Reverend Michael O'Flanagan fearlessly and heroically championed the cause of Republican Spain. He had played a leading part in the movement against British imperialism and had been one of the few priests who openly denounced the treaty of 1921. Speaking at a meeting of solidarity with Republican Spain in the Engineers Hall, Dublin, on December 3, 1936, O'Flanagan said: ``The fight in Spain is a fight between the rich privileged classes as against the rank and file of the poor oppressed people of Spain. The cause being fought for in Spain is nearer to us than realised. The Foreign Legion and the Moorish troops are to Spain what the Black and Tans (a mercenary corps of ex-British officers of World War I sent to Ireland in 1920--21 as a special punitive and terror detachment against the Irish guerrillas and civilian population.---Author) were to Ireland."^^1^^ He spoke against the activities of the Irish Christian Front in rectruiting an Irish Brigade for Franco.
O'Flanagan and the Spanish Aid Committee (which later developed into the Irish Friends of the Spanish Republic) exposed the claim of the Spanish fascists and the Irish reactionaries that the war in Spain was on religious issues. Father O'Flanagan went on a lecture tour of the USA and Canada, where he spoke at many meetings and delivered many broadcasts in which he emphasised to the Catholics of these countries the real issues in Spain. He died in Dublin on August 7, 1942, a sterling Irish patriot and militant anti-fascist to the end.
Although they were frightened by the persecution of champions of the Spanish Republic, many trade-union leaders made generous but anonymous personal subscriptions to the Spanish Aid Committee, while some (for example, John Swift, now General Secretary of the Irish Bakers' Union and President of the International Union of Food Workers) were forthright in raising financial aid from their fellow trade-unionists. Supporters of the Spanish Republic held a meeting on January 17, 1937 in the Gaiety Theatre, one of Dublin's largest halls. The main speaker was Father Ramon Laborda, a Basque priest. He exposed the assertion that the _-_-_
^^1^^ The Worker, December 12, 1936.
194 fascists were defending Christianity: ``When I read recently that the Catholics of Ireland were offering men and money to fascist Franco, the personification of the most brutal imperialism, I exclaimed indignantly: 'It is impossible.' Ireland could not do that unless she has been miserably deceived."^^1^^There was a quick response in Ireland to the news that foreign anti-fascist volunteers were arriving in Spain. The Communists took part in this manifestation of international solidarity.
In September 1936, the decision was taken to form an Irish unit for the Spanish Republican Army. The Communist Party of Ireland gave the task of recruitment and organisation to Bill Gannon, a Party member who had considerable experience of political work in the Irish Republican Army and been decorated with an Irish Governmental Medal for his distinguished record in the Irish national struggle. The first .Irish volunteer arrived in Spain in early September. He was Bill Scott, a bricklayer, member of the CPI, one-time member of the Irish Republican Army, and son of a veteran of the working-class movement who had taken part in the 1916 rising led by James Connolly. In Barcelona he joined a group of French, German, Italian and English antifascists, who formed an International Centuria that later took the name of Thaelmann. In the defence of Madrid Bill Scott fought with the Thaelmann Battalion. In a letter to Sean Murray he wrote: ``You needn't mind who knows I am in Spain ... for ... it's the most sacred cause in history to defend Freedom."^^2^^ The first Irish anti-fascists fell in action in December 1936 defending Madrid. They were Tommy Patton of Achill, County Mayo, and William Barry of Dublin, who came all the way from Melbourne in Australia to Madrid.
The first organised group of Irish volunteers left for Spain in December. It was led by Frank Ryan, who prior to the departure made a press statement, in which he said: ``The Irish contingent is a demonstration of revolutionary Ireland's solidarity with the gallant Spanish workers and peasants in their fight for freedom against fascism. It aims to redeem Irish honour besmirched by the intervention of Irish fascism on the side of the Spanish fascist rebels. It is to aid the revolutionary movements in Ireland to defeat the fascist menace at home, and finally, and not the least, to establish the closest fraternal bonds of kinship between the Republican democracies of Ireland and Spain."^^3^^
Frank Ryan, commander of the Irish in the International Brigades, personified the best militant and revolutionary traditions of the Irish people. At the age of 18 he had taken part in the war against the Black and Tans and subsequently against the _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Worker, January 23, 1937.
~^^2^^ The Worker, March 19, 1937.
~^^3^^ The Worker, December 19, 1936.
__PRINTERS_P_196_COMMENT__ 19* 195 pro-treaty forces in the Irish civil war. A revolutionary journalist, he was for many years the editor of An Phoblacht (The Republic). He was one of the founders and the secretary of the Irish Republican Congress. In the period from 1923 to 1932 he was imprisoned time and again by the Cosgrave Government. He was a respected figure for his integrity and fighting personality and for his efforts to promote Irish culture (he was an enthusiast in the Irish-Gaelic-national language revival movement).With him in the first organised group went outstanding figures in the Irish Republican, communist and working-class movements. Among these were Kit Conway of Tipperary, a legendary figure of the Black and Tans and civil wars; Jack Nalty and Paddy Duff; Donal O'Reilly (a veteran IRA fighter from a well-known revolutionary family), Frank Edwards of Waterford, who had been dismissed from his post as a teacher because of his anti-fascist activity; Seamus Cummins and Jim Prendergast, a well-known activitist and public speaker for the Irish Communist Party. The first Irish group went to Madrigueras to be shaped into a military unit. This was speedily done as most of them, including the youngest, had at some stage or other been members of the IRA in which they had a military training. The Irish section of the International Brigade became known as the James Connolly Unit.
The ranks of the Irish in Madrigueras were continually augmented by new arrivals from Ireland as well as by many other Irishmen who had come from Britain and the U.S.A. The latter had been driven into exile by the economic pressure of unemployment or had been forced to leave Ireland for political reasons. Among the Irish there were two sets of brothers---John, Willie and Paddy Power from Waterford and the three O'Flahertys from Boston, the "Little Ireland" of the U.S.A.
The revolutionary background, the fighting traditions, political conduct and military fervour of the Irish attracted to their ranks English-speaking comrades who could claim no relationship with Ireland. They included Samuel Lee, a young Jewish volunteer, who was later to die with his Irish comrades in the battle of Jarama, and John Scott from South Africa, who fell near Morata.
On December 24, 1936, the Irish Unit went to the front for the first time along with the British and the French 12th Battalion of the ;14th International Brigade. At the time not all of the brigade's units had been formed, but an emergency---a fascist breakthrough of the Republican front in the south near Cordoba--- required immediate action. As they approached the front, to be more exact, the locality where the front was believed to be, for nobody knew how far the fascists had penetrated, they were strafed by aircraft. Reaching an olive grove by a sand road they were caught in a cross-fire by machine-guns from the surrounding 196 ridges. The battalion, including the Irish, continued its advance and occupied a hill, driving the fascists off.
However, it soon appeared that the battalion was almost completely encircled by the fascists. There was confusion among the untrained men, and soon a withdrawal was ordered. In this unexpected encounter the battalion suffered heavy casualties. The Irish Unit lost nine men. They were: John Meehan of Galway, the Dublin workers Michael Nolan, Jim Foley, Leo Green, Tony Fox, Henry Bonar and Tommy Woods, the young Irish Republican Boy Scout Mick May (who, as Frank Ryan wrote, "did great work ... covering off his comrades as they went back under shell and machine-gun fire'') and Frank Conroy (``who fought like a hero the same day'')^^1^^. The other battalions of the 14th Brigade arrived in a few days and together with the Spanish units they counter-attacked and brought the enemy to a halt.
Soon afterwards the brigade was transferred to the Central Front, where the Republican forces were repulsing a strong fascist thrust towards the northeastern approaches of Madrid. The Irish were in action from January 11 through 14 in a counterattack on the village of Majadahonda. The Dublin worker Denis Coady was killed in this counter-attack. His comrades buried him in Torrelodones. In the fighting Captain Kit Conway particularly distinguished himself for his leadership in repulsing an attempted counter-attack by the Moroccans at nightfall. A large number of the James Connolly Unit was wounded. Jack Nalty who had been wounded in the chest by a burst of machine-gun fire, walked five kilometres to the nearest dressing station. A well-known athlete, he survived the first and all subsequent battles of the Irish Unit, and fell in the last action of the 15th Brigade on the Ebro in September 1938.
The Irish mourned not only their own dead but also the death on the Cordoba Front of Ralph Fox, a talented English Communist writer, a company political commissar. He had endeared himself to them for his book Marx, Engels and Lenin on Ireland. Many of the Irish fighters had read this book and it had strengthened their conviction that Irish national liberation had to be closely linked with international proletarian solidarity.
Because of the high rate of casualties the James Connolly Unit was disbanded and the Irish volunteers were divided between the British and American battalions of the newly-formed Abraham Lincoln 15th International Brigade. In the ranks of this brigade they fought in the famous battle of the Jarama. In that battle there were defeats and victories. One of the engagements was recorded by Frank Ryan:
``On the road from Chinchon to Madrid, the road along which we had marched to the attack three days before, were scattered _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Worker, February 6, 1937.
197 now all who survived---a few hundred Britons, Irish and Spaniards. Dispirited by heavy casualties, by defeat, by lack of food, worn out by three days of gruelling fighting, our men appeared to have reached the end of their resistance. Some were still straggling down the slopes which had been, up to an hour ago, the front line. And now there was no line... . After three days of terrific struggle, the superior numbers, the superior armaments of the fascists had routed them. All, as they came back, had similar stories to tell; of comrades dead, of conditions that were more than flesh and blood could stand, of weariness they found hard to resist. I recognised the young commissar of the Spanish Company. His hand bloody where a bullet had grazed the palm, he was fumbling nervelessly with his automatic, in turn threatening and pleading with his men. I got Manuel to calm him, and to tell him we would rally everybody in a moment. As I walked along the road to see how many men we had, I found myself deciding that we should go back up the line of the road to San Martin de la Vega and take the Moors on their left flank.``Groups were lying about on the roadside, hungrily eating oranges that had been thrown to them from a passing lorry... . I found my eyes straying always to the hills we had vacated___ They stumbled to their feet-----One line of four___A few were still on the grass bank beside the road, adjusting helmets and rifles. 'Hurry up!' came the cry from the ranks. Up the road ... I saw Jack Cunningham (the battalion commander.---Ed.) assembling another crowd. We hurried up, joined forces. Together, we two marched at the head. The crowd behind was marching silently. The thoughts in their minds could not be inspiring ones. I remembered a trick of the old days when we were holding banned demonstrations. I jerked my head back: 'Sing up, ye sons of guns.'
``Quaveringly at first, then more lustily, then in one resounding chant the song rose from the ranks. Bent backs straightened; tired legs thumped sturdily; what had been a routed rabble marched to battle again as proudly as they had done three days before. And the valley resounded to their singing:
... Then comrades, come rally,
And the last fight let us face;
The Internationale unites the human race....
``On we marched, back up the road, nearer and nearer to the front.... I looked back. Beneath the forest of upraised fists, what a strange band: unshaven, unkempt, blood-stained, grimy. And marching on the road back. Beside the road stood our Brigade Commander General Gal. ... We gave three cheers for him. Briefly, tersely, he spoke to us. We had one and a half hours of daylight in which to recapture our lost positions. 'That gap on our right?' A Spanish Battalion was coming up with us to occupy 198 it. Again the Internationale arose. It was being sung in French, too. .. a group of Franco-Beige had joined us. We passed the Spanish Battalion. They had caught the infection: they were singing, too, as they deployed to the right. Jack Cunningham seemed to be the only man who was not singing. Hands thrust into his greatcoat pockets, he trudged at the head of his men. ... We were singing; he was planning.
``As the olive groves loom in sight, we deploy to the left. At last, we are on the ridge, the ridge which we must never again desert. For, while we hold that ridge, the Madrid-Valencia road is free. Bullets whistle through the air, or smack into the ground, or find a human target. Cries, shouts-----But always the louder interminable singing.
``Flat on the ground, we fire into the groves. There are no sections, no companies even. But the individuals jump ahead, and set an example that is readily followed---too readily, because sometimes they block our fire----Advancing! All the time advancing. As I crawl forward I suddenly realise, with savage joy, that it is we who are advancing and they who are being pushed back."^^1^^
The fascist offensive was hurtled back. But again the Irish, among all the other international volunteers, paid a high price. They lost some of their best and bravest men like the Reverend R. M. Hilliard, known because of his fistic prowess in the ring as the Boxing Parson. In the earlier stage of the fascist advance he had fought on against the advancing tanks with a little group that had neither an anti-tank gun nor grenades. With him died Eamonn McGrotty of Derry, who had been a member of the Irish Christian Brothers, a Catholic teaching order; William Fox, Bill Henry and Dick O'Neil of Belfast; Hugh Bonar of Donegal; Liam Tumilson, the ex-member of the anti-national sectarian Orange Order, who in Spain had proved his fealty both to the cause of Irish national liberation and of international solidarity; Paddy McDaid, whose battles before Jarama had included the defence of the Four Courts in Dublin during the Irish civil war in 1922; Charlie Donnelly, a student at University College, Dublin, a leader of the Irish Republican Congress, a young poet of great promise, who had interrupted his work on the life of James Connolly to go to Spain.
For the Irish the greatest loss was sustained in the death of Captain Kit Conway. More than 16 years before he had earned for himself the reputation of a tough guerrilla commander against both the British imperialists and the pro-treatyites in Ireland. An indomitable opponent of fascism, he joined the Communist Party of Ireland and was well known in many parts of his country for his fighting opposition to the blueshirts. Because of the pogrom atmosphere in Ireland against the defenders of Republican Spain, many of the volunteers had to leave the country quietly. But Conway, an _-_-_
^^1^^ The Book of the 15th Brigade, Madrid, 1938, pp. 58--61.
199 __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.02.13) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ nil active member of the Building Workers' Section of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, on the day of his departure addressed his fellow workers on the construction job where he worked. He explained what was happening in Spain, saying: ``Sooner than fascism should win there, I would leave my body in Spain to manure the fields.''In March 1937 many of the Irish who had been wounded on the Jarama, like Peter Daly of County Wexford, arrived at the base in Albacete, where new rectruits were being formed into a unit. This was the Anglo-American Company, which had sections of Americans, Latin-Americans and a section composed of Irish and British. This company was attached to the 20th Battalion.
Two Irishmen, Peter Daly and Paddy O'Daire, were lieutenants in the Anglo-American Company, which took part in the fighting at Pozoblanco. After four months on the Southern Front they were returned to Albacete for the purpose of rejoining the reorganised 15th Brigade.
From July 6 to 26 the Irish volunteers took part in the battle of Brunete, where they lost Thomas Morris; two comrades from Belfast, William Laughran and William Beattie; the Dubliner William Davis; and Michael Kelly of Ballinasloe. Another Irishman, George Brown, who was a leading figure in the communist and working-class movement in Manchester, was shot by the fascists as he lay wounded on the roadside. After Brunete, when there was a further reorganisation of the various battalions of the 15th Brigade, Peter Daly was appointed commander of the British Battalion. During the capture of Quinto on the Aragon Front, he was seriously wounded and later died in a hospital in Benicasim.
Four months later, at the battle for Teruel, three more Irish volunteers were to lay down their lives. They were Peter Glacken, Francis O'Brien and David Walshe, a lad from Ballina in the west of Ireland.
In Aragon during the fascist offensive that began on March 9, 1938, Ben Murray, a Belfast worker, died a hero's death in an attempt to stop the advancing Franco troops.
On the same front, Frank Ryan, now with the rank of major
and adjutant of the 15th Brigade, was taken prisoner by the
Italian fascists. They lined him up on the road with all the other
prisoners and with bayonet-prods tried to force him to give the
fascist salute. Ryan with a proud bearing refused. Under the
threat of death they persisted in their efforts, but he continued to
treat them with contempt. They then placed him in front of a
firing party and proceeded to enact the motions of an execution.
He still remained adamant. They did not kill him---as one of the
senior officers considered that such a ranking officer of the
International Brigade was a prize that could possibly be exchanged
for one of the Italian fascist officers captured by the Republican
200
A poster issued by the Irish anti-fascists protesting against the Italian
warships' visit to Dublin and demanding the release of Frank Ryan from a Franco
prison
[201]
forces. Frank Ryan was taken to the concentration camp at Mora
del Ebro, and later to the prison of San Pedro de Cardenas, where
the fascist gaolers tried to break him with torture. They failed.
He was transferred to the Burgos Central Prison, where a
courtmartial sentenced him to death. A committee consisting of
prominent personalities was formed in Ireland to campaign for his
release. In this they did not succeed, but the fascists had to
commute the death sentence to 30 years' imprisonment.
In 1937 and 1938 new volunteers arrived to fill the gaps in the ranks of the Irish. The new and veteran Irish fought, alongside the British, Americans, Canadians, Cypriots and others who made up the 15th Brigade, in the crossing of the Ebro and in the subsequent battles on the Sierra Pandols. There the Irish Roll of Honour gained new names: Jimmy Straney, Maurice Ryan and Paddy O'Sullivan, the senior officer of No. 1 Company of the British Battalion.
On September 22, 1938, two years after the first Irish anti-- fascist had come to Madrid, the last two Irish deaths in action took place. They were Liam McGregor, a young political commissar and leading figure in the Communist Party of Ireland, and Jack Nalty, officer of a machine-gun company, who had come in the first group with Frank Ryan. Fascist bullets ended the life of men who had been active in the Irish Republican, trade-union and communist movements.
The withdrawal of the International Brigades in September 1938 ended the period of service of the Irish anti-fascists in the ranks of the Spanish People's Army. In December they set out for home. They had fulfilled the pledge of solidarity and had redeemed the honour and freedom-loving traditions of the Irish people. Their struggle was a natural expression of traditional links between the Irish national liberation movement and the cause of international solidarity.
Compared numerically with the contributions of other countries to the International Brigades, that of Ireland was not large, but the difficult political conditions under which the Irish joined the movement must be borne in mind. Of the 127 Irish volunteers who came to Spain 55 laid down their lives. Irish newspapers rarely reported the death of an Irish fighter of the International Brigade. Records of their struggle and heroism could only be found in the progressive weekly Irish Democrat.
During the Second World War four of the Irish veterans fought in the ranks of the anti-Hitler forces: Paddy O'Daire, who rose to the rank of major; Alec Digges, who is now prominent in the Association of the International Brigade and Friends of Republican Spain; Michael Lehane, who was killed in a Norwegian transport during a clash with the enemy; Paddy Roe MacLaughlin.
Those who returned home encountered many difficulties caused
202
Michael O'Riordan, an Irish internationalist
volunteer, now the General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Ireland
by the unemployment
that had gripped Ireland.
For an anti-fascist fighter
home from Spain the
prospect of finding work
was extremely doubtful.
Nonetheless, many went
back to their homeland
and continued the
struggle.
For instance, Donal O'Reilly resumed his trade-union work. He is now a member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Plasterers' Union and of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.
Jim Prendergast went back to his post in the Irish Communist Party and later worked among the Irish emigrant workers in Britain. At present he is a leading figure in the National Union of Railwaymen. Paddy Duff, who was one of the first Irish volunteers in Spain, became a fulltime official in the Workers' Union of Ireland. Michael O'Riordan, Johnny Power and Paddy Smith spent the war years in an Irish internment camp. James F. O'Regan and Liam O' Hanlon served nine years of penal servitude in British gaols for Irish Republican activity. Hugh Hunter resumed his tireless work as an activist in the Irish communist movement. Peter O'Connor served as a Labour Councillor in his native city of Waterford. Others, like Frank Edwards and Tom O'Brien, continued to serve in the Irish progressive movement.
In the long run, thanks to the efforts of the former volunteers, the truth about Spain became known to the Irish people. Indicative of this was the protest evoked by the ``friendly'' visit of Italian fascist warships to the Port of Dublin in 1938. The fascist officers had to flee the streets in face of a demonstration of workers singing Bandera Rossa. The song had been brought to Dublin by Irish members of the International Brigade who had borrowed it from the Italian Garibaldi Brigade.
One of the main tasks of the men who had returned from Spain was to secure the release of Frank Ryan from Franco captivity. For 203 this purpose, as we have already noted, a committee was formed which organised protest rallies and actions. In an attempt to damp down the campaign the De Valera Government gave false assurances that Frank Ryan was being well looked after in Burgos. Only in later years was it revealed that he had been taken from Burgos to Germany and that he died in Dresden on June 10, 1944. Today he lies buried in the soil of the German Democratic Republic and his grave is tended by former German comrades of the llth Brigade.
As the fascist attack on the Spanish Republic had its sharp reverberations in Ireland in 1936, so will the present courageous struggle of the Spanish people against Francoism have its effect on Ireland, that has still not secured full national independence. For that reason solidarity .with Spain is inalienable from the struggle of the Irish people for national freedom. Many of the Irish people, once duped by the flow of reactionary propaganda, now display a vital interest in the developments in Spain. The real issues of the war of 1936--39 have become clearer to them. For instance, they see the growing unity between Communist and Catholic workers in Spain and hear that a number of churches have become organised centres of resistance to the Franco regime.
Though reaction is still very strong in Ireland, none of its champions would now dare to call a public meeting of support for Franco. None of them celebrated the 30th anniversary of the generals' revolt. On the other hand, the Connolly Youth Movement, which was founded in 1964, honoured the anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish people's national-revolutionary war by a public lecture. The Laurentian (Catholic) Society of Trinity College, Dublin, organised a symposium on the Spanish war. The symposium was attended by Peader O'Donnell of the Irish Friends of the Spanish Republic, and Michael O'Riordan, former member of the International Brigade. Solidarity with the Spanish students is displayed by the Irish Union of Students. These changes in the context of Ireland are a good measure of the impact of the Spanish people's continuing struggle against Francoism. They are also a vindication of those who, at the cost of their lives, fulfilled on behalf of all the Irish people their internationalist duty on the battlefields of Spain.
The anti-fascist traditions of the Irish Unit of the International Brigade are alive today in a new generation of fighters. They live on in the Irish Communist Party, in the Irish labour and tradeunion organisations, in the Republican movement and in the Connolly Youth Movement formed to advance the ideals of national and social liberation and international solidarity.
[204] __ALPHA_LVL1__ ITALYItaly's war with Abyssinia ended formally in May 1936 with the capture of Addis Ababa. This was a great triumph for fascism, not so much militarily as politically. The fascist leaders presented their African adventure to the masses as a campaign undertaken by Italy, wrongfully deprived, in order to ensure a reasonable standard of living for its people. This propaganda device, based on the nationalist slogan of the ``great proletarian" rising up to win himself ``a place in the sun'', was no new one. It had first been used in 1911, not without a certain degree of success, during Italy's war with Turkey over Libya. At that time the effect of this imperialist slogan on the masses was weakened, thanks to anti-- militarist demonstrations by proletarian organisations.
In 1935--36 the propaganda efforts of the fascist leaders and their war of annexation with Abyssinia were supported by the hypocritical policies of the League of Nations and the Government of the United States. The ``sanctions'' against the aggressor announced by the Western powers did not, in fact, impede the conduct of the war in any way whatsoever: strategic war material continued to be sold to the Italian Government, and Italian transport ships carrying troops and arms crossed the Suez Canal as did the ships of the Italian Navy to the coast of Africa, freely. Moreover, the declarations of protest from the governments of the Western ``great powers" against Italy's invasion of Abyssinia in no way affected the friendly relations between them and the Italian fascist state.
Surrounded by the aura of military victories and success in foreign policy fascist demagogic propaganda assumed vast proportions in Italy. The hardship of the people, made more acute by the economic crisis of 1931--32, was used by Mussolini to deceive the masses with promises of the future prosperity of a great fascist empire. The policy of aggression pursued by Italian fascism was supported by the top hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the pettybourgeois elements, and also the representatives of the leading pre-fascist political circles. Only the vanguard of the working 205 class and a few political groups hostile to the fascist regime were not taken in by the nationalist slogans.
An appeal by the Italian Communist Party published in its central organ Lo Stato operaio in October 1935 stated that ``one of the most tragic aspects of the situation which has arisen in Italy is that the people do not know the true state of affairs and the real course of events".
Nevertheless, in spite of the fascist propaganda and terror, which reigned in Italy in those years, 1936 heralded the beginning of an upsurge in the anti-fascist movement in Italy. ``The great wave of renovation'', to quote Palmiro Togliatti, which the Seventh Congress of the Comintern injected into the international working-class and communist movement, stimulated the Italian Communist Party to take the initiative in applying the tactics of the united front. Unity of action between Italian emigre Communists and Socialists was strengthened. One result of this united action was the convening of a congress of Italians in Brussels on October 12 and 13, 1935, attended by 371 delegates from Europe and America, the representatives of all anti-fascist groups regardless of political and religious persuasions. The congress's appeal to the workers of the world ended with the demand: ``Immediate peace with Abyssinia! Down with Mussolini!''
During this period in France under the influence of the growing success of the Popular Front more favourable conditions had been created for the legal functioning of Italian emigre anti-fascist organisations, which had previously been victimised and repressed by the French police. The victory of the French Popular Front gave a new impetus to the activity of anti-fascist forces in Italy. The struggle of the French workers exerted an influence on the broad masses and their experience was used in the revolutionary work not only of the Communists, but also of other underground groups.
The events that took place in Spain in the summer of 1936 had a particularly strong impact on the development of antifascist feeling and the opposition movement in the masses. From the very first days of the fascist military revolt the Italian workers demonstrated their solidarity with the Spanish Republic. Antifascists, particularly those in France and Belgium, began to raise funds to aid the Spanish people. By the middle of August the Committee of Aid had collected 38,000 francs.
In Italy itself, in Rome, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Modena and other towns, there were demonstrations of solidarity with the Spanish people, leaflets were distributed and the slogans ``Long live Caballero!" and ``Down with Mussolini!" appeared on the walls of buildings. The Communist Party organised the raising of funds for the Spanish Republic. The underground newspaper Unita reported that 100,000 francs had been collected in a month. 206 Interest increased in the events taking place in Spain. The number of people listening to underground anti-fascist radio stations grew each day. Italian Communists broadcast daily programmes for them from the radio stations of the Communist Party of .Spain and the United Socialist Party of Catalonia giving detailed accounts of the events in Spain and the Spanish people's heroic struggle for independence and denouncing the criminal policy of intervention pursued by Mussolini.
One can get a general idea of the extent of Italian intervention in Spain from a statement made by Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, at a meeting with Hitler in 1940, to the effect that Italy had spent 14,000 million lire on the Spanish war. After lengthy negotiations with Franco this sum was halved in the bill presented to the Spanish Government.
According to the Italian press, over the whole period of the war Italy dispatched to Spain 1,930 cannon, more than 7,500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, about 250,000 small arms and 324 million rounds of ammunition for them, 10,135 automatic guns, 7,663 motor vehicles, and 950 tanks and armoured cars. Franco's fleet was supplemented by 91 Italian warships and submarines. Ninety-two transport ships of the Italian Navy supplied troops and arms to the insurgents. Five thousand, six hundred and ninety-nine officers and men and 312 civilians of the Italian Air Force were engaged in the military operations. They carried out 86,420 combat missions and 5,318 air raids, dropping 11,584 tons of bombs. In addition to the aeroplanes of the Italian Air Force participating in the intervention Mussolini provided the insurgents with 763 fighter aircraft and 1,414 aircraft motors.
The semi-official Italian newspaper Forze armate announced on June 8, 1939 that a total of one hundred thousand officers and men of the Italian regular army and the fascist militia ( blackshirts) supplied with all the necessary arms and equipment, took part in the war against the Spanish Republic. There are grounds for assuming that the true strength of the Italian expeditionary forces in Spain was at least one-and-a-half times larger.
Reports of Italian intervention in Spanish affairs appeared in the world press simultaneously with reports on the generals' revolt in Spain. On July 15, 1936, three days before the revolt, Mussolini signed the first decree on the dispatch of Italian aircraft to Spanish Morocco to land General Franco's African troops in Spain.
In the following weeks and months from Gaeta (near Naples) and other Italian ports the ships Lombardia, Sardinia, Sizilia, Liguria and Toscana set sail for Spain carrying arms, ammunition, troops and military instructors, and the Fiat, Caproni and Savoia Marchetti fighter squadrons left Milan and other towns to support the military operations of the Spanish insurgents. The island 207 of Mallorca was to all intents and purposes occupied and turned into the main base for Italian aircraft to carry out operations against Republican troops and the civilian population.
Italy's armed aggression against the Spanish Republic was no chance military adventure, but part of a general policy of military expansion dictated by the interests of Italian imperialism---its desire to turn the Mediterranean into an Italian lake.
As early as 1934 the Italian Government had begun talks with representatives of the Spanish monarchists and financed their subversive activities against the government of the democratic Spanish Republic, promising them its support in the form of money, men, aircraft and military supplies in the event of open conflict.
The armed intervention by Italian fascism against Republican Spain was not popular with the mass of the Italian people. The mounting scale of the military operations demanded increased mobilisation to supplement the Italian expeditionary forces, the number of dead and wounded rose, and the growth in military expenditure seriously affected the position of the working people. All this intensified discontent among the Italian public. Its sympathies were with the Spanish people. News of Italians fighting for freedom on the side of the Spanish Republic strengthened this feeling and stimulated the activities of anti-fascist groups and organisations. Arrests became more frequent. Special fascist tribunals sentenced many anti-fascists, primarily Communists, for propaganda activities in support of the Spanish Republic and for helping Italian volunteers to cross the border illegally.
Solidarity with the Spanish people grew steadily and rallied all the Italian anti-fascist forces. On August 25, 1936, the Communist, Socialist and Republican parties signed an agreement to take joint action in giving aid to Spain. Later, on December 31, 1936, these parties launched a joint appeal against the fascist intervention: "All troops must leave Spain!" Thus unity of action by all Italian progressive forces was achieved for the first time on the Spanish fronts in the armed struggle against fascism.
Italian anti-fascists living in Spain as political emigres immediately joined the People's Militia to fight against the insurgents. Ettore Gualierini (Pablo Bono) took part in organising the 5th Regiment of the People's Militia, set up by the Communist Party of Spain. He was later appointed corps commissar when the units of the regular Republican Army were set up. Vittorio Vidali (Carlos Contreras), leader of the Spanish section of the International Red Aid, was commissar of the 5th Regiment from the moment it was formed.
In persistent fighting with the fascists in the Sierra de
Guadarrama in the summer of 1936 divisions of the 5th Regiment halted
the insurgents' advance on Madrid. Guido Giacobini, Fernando
208
Luigi Longo and Vittorio Vidali with Italian volunteers
de Rosa and many other Italians lost their lives in these early
battles for the capital.
The death of Fernando de Rosa, an active member of the Italian and Spanish socialist youth movement, who took part in the Asturian rising in 1934, was a particularly sad loss for the Italian anti-fascists. He died in command of the October Youth Battalion.
The first Italian volunteers from abroad arrived in Spain in August 1936. They were political emigres who had been living in France. After joining the 22nd Centuria of the People's Militia, set up in the Karl Marx Barracks in Barcelona, they engaged in battle with the fascists on the Aragon Front. One of the first to lay down his life was the Communist Paolo Comida at Tardienta on August 22.
Another group of Italian volunteers arrived on the Aragon Front at the end of August. It consisted of several hundred men of varying political convictions under Carlo Rosselli, the leader of the Giustizia e Liberia emigre anti-fascist organisation in France. The group consisted of a machine-gun company and a rifle company. The Republican Mario Angeloni was killed in their first battle near Monte Pelato (Bald Mountain) and five other Italians died with him. Angeloni was a famous lawyer in Italy who used to defend members of workers' organisations before fascist tribunals, for which he himself was arrested and sentenced.
__PRINTERS_P_209_COMMENT__ 14---781 209At the same time a group of Italian volunteers was fighting on the Northern Front, defending the town of Irun against the troopsof the rebel General Mola. Many Italians laid down their lives on the battlefield, including the Communists Remigio Maurovic and Alberto Donati and the Socialist Pietro Bertoni.
After the fall of Irun the volunteers first retreated to France and then returned to Spain. Together with other Italian volunteers they formed the Gastone Sozzi Centuria, named after an Italian Communist who was killed in prison by the fascist police. This centuria fought on the Madrid Front as part of the Catalan Libertad Column of the People's Militia. It consisted of 86 Italians, 29 Poles, 10 Frenchmen, one Dane and several Belgians. Its commander, Antonini, and commissar, Francesco Leone, were both Italian volunteers.
Apart from the above-mentioned formations and military detachments in which most of the Italian volunteers fought, there were small groups of Italians in other detachments of the Aragon People's Militia and regular units of the Republican Army. For example, ten Italian volunteer pilots were attached to the Republican Air Force at the beginning of the war. On September 30,. in an air battle over Toledo the pilot Giordano Viezzoli was killed, who had been sentenced by the fascist tribunal in Italy to six years in prison for his activities in the Italian RepublicanParty. Another Italian pilot, the Communist Primo Gibelli, whohad come from the USSR, lost his life on a combat mission near Madrid that same autumn.
The thoughts and feelings of the Italian volunteers were well expressed by Luigi Longo in a speech delivered in Madrid on September 18, 1936, on the presentation of the banner of the Italian Communist Party to the 5th Regiment. He said:
``The thousands of Italian anti-fascists now languishing in fascist prisons are with you heart and soul. The cause for which they have sacrificed their freedom, and some their lives, is the same cause for which you are fighting. They wanted to give their people bread and work, symbolised by the ears of corn and the hammer embroidered on our banner, and for which you too are striving. Today the people of Spain are fighting for free labour against exploitation, for freedom against oppression, for civilisation against barbarianism.... Therefore your struggle is the struggle of all peoples who are striving for peace, freedom and a better life.
``Italian fascism, the exploiters and oppressors of the Italian people, are acting together with the enemies of the Spanish people, to whom they are sending arms, aircraft and their own pilots. But the Italian people are with you, soldiers of freedom, with all their hearts!.. . Hundreds of Italians are requesting the honour of being recruited into the ranks of the People's Militia, 210 in order to fight with you for freedom. This is why the banner which I am handing over to your regiment is not just a gift from the Italian Communist Party, but also an expression of the solidarity of the whole Italian people with Republican Spain___''^^1^^
In the autumn of 1936 the Republic's struggle against the rebels and interventionists assumed the character of a large war. The government of the Popular Front proceeded to form a regular army. Among the first military units of the new army to be organised were the International Brigades, which included both men from the various centurias and columns, and the anti-fascist volunteers who were arriving from many countries.
One of the first regular international units was the battalion named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy's national hero. It was formed in Albacete in October, when large numbers of Italian volunteers began to arrive there from France, Belgium, Switzerland, San Marino, America, the USSR and Italy itself. The battalion consisted of more than 500 men whose ages ranged from 18 to 50, with varying social backgrounds and political affiliations: Communists, who were in the majority, Socialists, Republicans, members of the Giustizia e Liberia group, and many politically unaffiliated, including a considerable number of Catholics. The battalion commander was Randolfo Pacciardi, a leader of the Italian Republican Party, and its political commissars were Antonio Roasio, a Communist, and Amedeo Azzi, a Socialist.
Thus the battalion's composition and leadership reflected the alliance and unity of the main political forces in the Italian antifascist democratic movement. This unity was preserved throughout the Spanish war. Other members of the Garibaldi Battalion were the Italian Communist Party leaders---Palmiro Togliatti (Mario Ercoli), then a representative of the Comintern, Luigi Longo (Gallo), who was inspector-general of all the International Brigades, and the Italian Socialist leader, Pietro Nenni.
Out of a total of roughly four thousand Italian volunteers, 1,822 were Communists, 137 Socialists, 124 anarchists and 55 members of radical democratic parties. The largest group were those without party affiliations. It should be stressed that almost half the volunteers came from the working class.
On November 10, 1936, before it was fully formed, the Garibaldi Battalion was dispatched urgently as part of the 12th International Brigade under the command of General Mate Zalka (Lukacs) and Commissar Luigi Longo to the Central Front where the llth International Brigade, whose commissar was the famous Italian Communist Giuseppe di Vittorio (Mario Nicoletti), was already fighting. The battalion first took part in an attack on fascist positions in the Cerro de los Angeles to the south of _-_-_
~^^1^^ Luigi Longo, Le Brigate Internazionali in Spagna, Rome, 1956, p. 27.
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The brigade's attack was not successful, although the battalions, including the Garibaldi Battalion, fought their way to the foot of the hill. By the end of the first day's fighting it became clear that courage and determination alone were not enough to guarantee victory. What was needed was military training for the troops and efficient unit and combat organisation. The brigade lacked proper co-ordination between the command and the various units. Supply of ammunition and food and evacuation of the wounded were badly organised. The results of this lesson were evident six days later, when the battalion and the whole of the 12th Brigade, after rectifying most of these mistakes, went into action on another section of the Madrid Front, the University City. On November 19, the Garibaldi Battalion occupied a position near the San Fernando Bridge on the River Manzanares, and a few days later relieved the Polish Dabrowski Battalion on the section of the front up to the Puertas de Hierro Bridge. In constant fighting that lasted until November 26 and at the 213 price of heavy losses the fierce attacks by Moroccans were repulsed. Twenty members of the Garibaldi Battalion lost their lives and more than 150 were wounded.
From November 30 the Garibaldi Battalion was engaged in halting a fascist attack in the Pozuelo de Alarcon sector to the northwest of Madrid and launching a counter-offensive. In a letter to the battalion commander Pacciardi, General K16ber who was in command of the sector, wrote: "Thanks to the brilliant action of the Garibaldi Battalion after four days of resistance the enemy's heavy attacks supported by aircraft, artillery and numerous tanks, were repulsed, and our positions reinforced. The spirit of self-sacrifice shown by the Garibaldi Battalion rallied round it all the units defending Pozuelo''. By December 9 when the 12th Brigade was withdrawn into reserve, the strength of the Garibaldi Battalion had been reduced by almost half---from 600 to 350 men.
In the middle of December the battalion received reinforcements from the constant stream of new Italian volunteers. The largest group, consisting of 310 men, was led by Guido Picelli, a Communist and former deputy in the Italian parliament, who had lead the "proletarian defence" of Parma during Mussolini's notorious advance on Rome in 1922. It was he who had hoisted the Red Flag on the Montecitorio, the parliamentary building in Rome, on May 1, 1926.
In addition two companies were formed from newly arrived volunteers. One of them, under the command of Bocchi and Commissar Locatelli, was attached to the 14th International Brigade, and at the end of December, with the British Company and other units of the advance guard battalion of this brigade, ioined battle with the fascists who were breaking through the front in the south of Spain in Andalucia. At the price of heavy losses---only 200 of the 600 men survived---the company and the whole battalion checked the enemy's advance, enabling the brigade's main forces to carry out their combat mission. A group of forty Italians was surrounded in the hills, captured by the fascists and shot. The other company of over 100 men joined with volunteers from the Balkans and Slav countries to form the Dimitrov Battalion in the 15th International Brigade, which was commanded by the Italian volunteer Major Penchienati in the battle of the Jarama.
After a small-scale operation at Boadilla del Monte on December 20 the 12th Brigade was transferred to the Guadalajara line on New Year's Eve with instructions to launch a surprise attack and drive the fascists back from the Zaragoza highway. The attack was successful and the Garibaldi Battalion gained possession of the village of Mirabueno. Company Commander Guido Picelli and eight other Italian volunteers lost their lives in this battle.
The year 1937 began with fresh heavy defensive fighting for 214 Madrid, in which the 12th Brigade took part. On January 3 the fascists, who had concentrated a large combat force, launched an offensive to the northwest of Madrid in the region of Las Rosas and Majadahonda with the aim of surrounding the capital from the north and cutting it off from Republican forces in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
February brought the Republic new difficulties. Extending the scope of his intervention in Spain, Mussolini concentrated an expeditionary corps in the region of Seville. The first objective of his military operations was the port of Malaga, which was defended by poorly-armed detachments of the People's Militia. On February 8 the Italians captured the town. But General Fran^ co's main goal was Madrid. His plan was to strike simultaneously from the Zaragoza highway and the Jarama in the south, encircling and destroying the most efficient Republican troops and gaining control of the capital. On February 6 a large grouping launched an attack southwest of Madrid. The battle of the Jarama began. Like the January offensive on the northwest of Madrid, this large and bloody battle, in which as many as 40,000 troops fought on the side of the fascists, did not bring the enemy any success. The fascists were not able to advance more than four to six kilometres beyond the east bank of the Jarama. Over twenty Republican brigades took part in the fighting which lasted three weeks, including four International Brigades---the llth, 12th, 14th and 15th. The increased organisation and combat efficiency of the units of the Republican Army helped them not only to repulse the fierce attacks of the insurgents' crack troops, but also to mount a counter-attack. The fascists lost half their men and their units were incapable of further offensive action.
General Roatta, Commander of the Italian expeditionary force, whose four divisions---the Black Flame, the Black Arrows, the Dio lo vuole and the Littorio Division---were concentrated in the Sigiienza area in February, was now faced with mounting an offensive on Madrid in order to defeat the Republican Army and take the capital with his forces alone. Like Franco, the Italian general was convinced that his 50,000 strong force would gain an easy victory over the weak Republican defence. Roatta confidently instructed his subordinates in the consecutive stages of this operation: "Tomorrow we will be in Guadalajara, the day after in Alcala de Henares, and the day after that in Madrid!" By special command he conveyed Mussolini's blessing to his troops: "I am observing the course of the battle and am confident that the courage and perseverance of our legions will crush enemy resistance. May the legionaries be assured that I am following their operations which will be crowned with victory!''
At 7 a.m. on March 8, 1937, fifty guns of the Italian
expeditionary force opened fire on the poorly-fortified positions of the
215
A group of volunteers from the Garibaldi Battalion. Second left (standing):
Antonio Roasio
[216]
Republicans near Mirabueno and on the hills by El Marenchal.
Simultaneously up to thirty fascist aircraft began bombing the
Almadrones and Mirabueno areas. They were followed by twenty
tanks and infantry. The small Republican units retreated. Thus
began the Guadalajara operation. The fascist offensive caught
the Republicans completely unawares.
On the night of March 9 the Garibaldi Battalion, numbering about 800 men, was brought up to close the breach in the Brihuega line. The Garibaldis with Commissar Ilio Barontini as acting commander (Pacciardi was on leave) received orders to occupy the hills north of Brihuega and hold their position until the brigade's other battalions arrived. In the meantime, however, the enemy had already succeeded in capturing Brihuega, and the Garibaldi Battalion joined battle with the advance guard of the Italian expeditionary force.
At the same time the llth International Brigade was repulsing an enemy attack in the Zaragoza road area. The Garibaldis took their first prisoners, including a major in the Italian army. That night the first deserters from the Black Arrow Division arrived.
Next day the battle was resumed with renewed force. Roatta moved up two full-strength divisions, supported by all his artillery, to attack the two Republican brigades. Yet in spite of their vast numerical superiority, the fascists could not overcome the stubborn resistance of the brigaders. Republican tanks and aircraft dealt devastating blows to the interventionist columns. That day the fascists succeeded in advancing only six kilometres along the road, capturing the townlet of Trijueque, driving back the 12th Brigade slightly, and occupying a country house known as the Ibarra Palace.
On March 12 all four divisions of the expeditionary force went into battle. Two of them attacked the 12th International Brigade. Apart from the two International Brigades exhausted by two days of fighting and suffering from heavy casualties, the Republican Command could muster only three more brigades that had been hastily transferred from the Jarama Front, one tank battalion and the brave Republican airmen who attacked the enemy's mechanised columns from the air in the most difficult weather conditions. The International Brigades formed part of the group under Enrique Lister. On its left, to the north of the Zaragoza road, was the 12th Division under the Italian volunteer and Communist Nino Nanetti. The interventionists could not advance a step in the direction of Madrid. There was a drop in morale among their ranks, and more enemy soldiers surrendered, deserted or came over to the Republicans with their arms.
This low morale in the fascist troops was assisted by the intensive propaganda work among the enemy soldiers organised by Luigi Longo, Vittorio Vidali, Teresa Noce (Estella), Giuliano 217 Paietta (Camen), Giacomo Calandrone (Canapino) and the commissars of the Garibaldi Battalion. They dropped leaflets behind the enemy lines with the help of simple rockets and used loudspeakers to address enemy soldiers and get prisoners-of-war to describe the truth about the Spanish people's struggle.
The turning point came on March 13, when the fascists went over to the defensive. Units of Lister's Republican forces mounted a counter-attack along the Zaragoza road and freed the townlet of Trijueque. The next day the 12th Brigade under Brignoli attacked the Ibarra Palace. They advanced from two sides supported by artillery and five tanks. After fierce resistance the fascist garrison surrendered and the palace was captured by the Republicans. In this battle the Republicans destroyed two battalions of Italian fascists capturing 150 prisoners, several guns, about 300 rifles and a great deal of ammunition.
On March 18, after the re-grouping and training of the Republican units, the whole People's Army on the Guadalajara Front was put on the offensive, causing the fascist divisions to retreat hastily. On March 23 the battle of Guadalajara ended with the total rout of the Italian expeditionary force and the failure of Franco's new attempt to take Madrid. This victory was of great military and political importance. For the first time the republicans had beaten a well-equipped 50,000-strong fascist army. The hundreds of captured officers and men of the Italian expeditionary force, and the large number of documents, which were subsequently published in the press, were factual evidence of foreign intervention in the Spanish Republic. Mussolini's sole conclusion from the shameful defeat at Guadalajara was a decision to step up intervention in Spain.
An important military and political role in the battle of Guadalajara was played by the Garibaldis, whose heroism and selfsacrifice saved the honour of the Italian people. Alvarez del Vayo, Commissar General of the Republican Army, sent a telegram to the Military Commissar of the Central Front with a request to convey through Comrade Gallo his admiration and fraternal greetings to the men of the International Brigades, whose deeds would never be forgotten by the Spanish people, and particularly to the Garibaldi Battalion, which nobly symbolised the heroic struggle for freedom against fascism.
Many Garibaldis perished at the hands of Italian legionaries in the battle of Guadalajara, including the following: Beniamino Mudado, Domenico Mazza, Giovanni Tremul, Andre Leandro, Pietro Poletti, Gagliardo Delmiro, Giuseppe Javoli, Pietro Rivani, Francesco Jacopini, Fernando Morillo, Severino Bottagisi, Francesco Bret, Nunzio Guerrini, Plasido di Valerio, Giuseppe Carrara, Luigi Pinessi, Luigi Basso, Bernardo Falco, Prieto Cibrario and Alfredo Paternoster.
218In April 1937 the Garibaldi Battalion was transformed into the 12th Garibaldi Brigade. Together with the Dabrowski Brigade it formed a divisional group under the command of General Lukacs. After a short rest the 12th Brigade took part in two military operations in April, one on the Jarama and the other in the Casa de Campo near Mount Garabitas.
At the end of the month it was given leave and reinforced by Spanish troops and volunteers from the Italian company of the Dimitrov Battalion, the Giustizia e Liberia Column and the Antonio Gramsci Battery.
In June the 12th Garibaldi Brigade together with the Dabrowski Brigade and some Catalan military units, which included the BlackRed Anarchist Battalion under the Italian anti-fascist, Fausto Nitti, took part in an attack on Huesca on the Aragon Front. This operation was not successful. In some bloody battles from June 12 to 16 on the heavily fortified points of Cimillas and Allerre the Garibaldis lost many men including their battalion commander, the Republican Libero Battistelli, a man of high principles who had come to fight for freedom from Argentina where he had emigrated. The divisional commander, General Lukacs (Mate Zalka), was mortally wounded at the beginning of the operation.
The following month the 12th Brigade took part in a large Republican offensive on Brunete. The brigade's skilful manoeuvring helped to capture the village of Villanueva del Pardillo on July 9 and a large number of prisoners and equipment, earning it the gratitude of Colonel Vicente Rojo, Chief of Staff of the Central Front. Sergeant Bruno Lugli was killed in this battle.
In the Brunete ope