The author states that this is not a history of the war or an account of the involvement of the approximately 2,800 Americans who fought for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Rather, it is the story of a handful of those men. Almost all were communists at a time when that ideology was still a beacon of hope.
In February, 1936, the Popular Front, a coalition of liberals, Socialists and Communists won an election in Spain, a country where 2% of the population owned 2/3rds of the land. The Army's right-wing leaders quickly formulated plans for a coup, but were faced with a significant challenge. Most of the Army was stationed in Morocco and there was no way to transport the men to Spain, because the navy refused to participate. To the rescue of Gen. Francisco Franco came Hitler and Goebbels. Germany provided air transport. With a viciousness that shocked the world, the Nationalists quickly took over about one-third of the nation. The Republic was rebuffed by the western democracies when it tried to purchase arms and turned to the USSR. There were reigns of terror on both sides that saw some of the most vicious, brutal slaughters imaginable. Volunteers poured in from around the world to help the Republicans. The prototypical American volunteer was "a New Yorker, a communist, an immigrant or the son of an immigrant, a trade unionist and a member of a group that has almost vanished from the US today, a working-class Jew." The amateur Republicans held off the Nationalists into 1937, by which time both sides were overwhelmed by their backers. Thousands of German and Italians fought with Franco. The Germans provided meaningful air support and weapons, including the 88mm artillery pieces that would later dominate WW2. The Soviets started purging and eliminating those on the Republican side who didn't fit their Stalinist ideological standards. The war continued through 1937 with the Nationalists prevailing. They held most of the country's industrial and agricultural wealth in the west and north. The Republicans held Madrid and Barcelona, but the noose was tightening. Although each side received material support from its allies, Franco received more, and at the end of the day, Franco had a trained army fighting a band of militias. In March, 1938, Franco's penultimate push began and the Republicans were routed. They fled behind the Ebro River and flooded into Barcelona. In July, the Republicans took the offensive for the final time. The Battle of the Ebro raged for months. As the west appeased Hitler, neither Britain nor France were willing to sell arms to the Republicans. Stalin lost interest and withdrew most of the Soviets in Spain. In October, the government withdrew the internationalists and thus the last 2,500 volunteers left Spain. Only a few hundred American were left. Franco launched his final push and by March 1939, the civil war was over. Franco executed tens of thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands. Franco's dictatorship lasted another 36 years. In 1996, the Spanish Parliament granted citizenship to all living members of the International Brigades.
A history that tells the tale of fascists allied with the Roman Catholic Church on one side and Reds on the other is wearying. On the Republican side though, we do have the international volunteers, and although badly served by their Communist leaders, they and the newsmen and women who followed them and told their story to the world are some of the finest, bravest people of character one comes across in any history. Some, like Ernest Hemingway and a young George Orwell, an English foot soldier, are well-known. Most, like Bob Merriman, an American officer, and Lois Orr and Milly Bennett, young writers, are footnotes to history. They all went to Spain to participate in what they believed was the first opportunity to stand-up to Fascism. I have learned a great deal about an important 20th-century event that heretofore I knew virtually nothing about.
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