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p More 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 90 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.

p 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.

p This decision, incidentally, was prompted by a number of events.

p 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.

p 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:

p “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.

p “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.

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p “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.

p “Yesterday we did three transfusions—this is about the average daily, besides the blood we leave at hospitals for them to use themselves. . . .

p “This is a grand country and a grand people. The wounded behave wonderfully.

p “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.

p “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!”

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 92
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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p The organised selection of men for the Canadian contingent began at a meeting of the first volunteers to arrive from other 93 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.

p 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.

p 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
94 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.

p In proving the oneness of democratic internationalism and true patriotism, they wrote a glorious page in the history of Canada.

p 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.

p 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:

p “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.

p “ ’Ou allez-vous, Monsieur?’ The Surete official was polite.

p “ ’We are going to Paris to study art.’

p “The official smiled slightly.

p “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.

p “Bill was called away for a conference. When he returned he briefed the group.

p “ ’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.’

p “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.

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p “ ’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.’

p “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.

p “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."  [95•1 

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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, 96 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.

p 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.

p 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:

p “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.

p “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  [96•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.

p “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.

p “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.

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p “Ahead of us we saw the tanks grinding to a halt in front of the town. Twenty-five of them were on fire.  [97•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.

p “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."  [97•2 

p William Kardash, a tank lieutenant, describes the battle as follows.

p “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.

p 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.

p “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.

p “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.

p “Meanwhile, the fire spread into the tank, and the danger of an explosion both of the gasoline and the ammunition was becoming 98 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.

p “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.

p “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.

p “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."  [98•1 

p The next military operation in which the Canadians took part was the battle of Teruel.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p Captain Lionel Edwards gives the following description in 99

Officers of the Canadian Battalion at the front
his memoirs of the conditions under which his company operated.

p “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.

p “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.

p “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 100 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1975/ISSR389/20070209/199.tx" revolvers. We scattered them a second time. Night came on and the barrage began again.

p “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.

p “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.

p “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.”

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 101 on Corbera, advanced closer than any of the other Republican troops on Gandesa.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.