The International Brigade was the name given to the band of volunteers and mercenaries who travelled to Spain to fight against the "Nationalist" forces led by General Franco and helped by Nazi German and Mussolini Italian forces, and defend the legitimate Spanish Republic government in the Spanish civil war.
40'000 men and women were enroled in the Brigades. As many as 10'000 of them never returned. 50 nationalties were represented in the Brigades (during the Battle of madrid, the XIIth Brigade counted representants of no less than 17 nationalties in its ranks)
A great number of important artists were in Spain at the time. The Brigades included such luminaries as George Orwell, who wrote his book Homage to Catalonia about his experiences in the war. Ernest Hemingway also was there as a war reporter for the NANA, and spent for time on the front line -- see For Whom the Bell Tolls, as well as André Malraux (l'Espoir), or Simone Weil.
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Constitution of the Brigades
The idea to use foreign Communist Parties to recruit volunteers (both Communist and non-Communists -- a non-Communnist volunteer would first have an interview with an agent of the NKVD) to come to the aid of the Spanish Republic was exposed in Moskow in september 1936 by Willy Muenzenberg, who was the chief of Komintern propaganda for Western Europe (perhaps on the suggestion by Maurice Thorez). By the end of September, the Italian and French Communist Parties had decided to set up a column. Luigi Longo, ex-leader of the Italian Communist Youth, was charged to make the necessary arrangements with the Spanish government. The Soviet Ministry of Defense also helped, since they had experience dealing with coprs of international volunteers (there had been precedents of such corps during the Russian Civil War). At first, the idea was repeled by Largo Caballero, but after the first drawbacks of the war, he changed his mind, and finally agreed to the operation on the 22th of October. However, the Soviet Union did not retract from the Non-Intervention Comitee, probably to avoid diplomatic conflict with France and Britain.
The main recruitment centre was in Paris, under supervision by Soviet colonel Karol "Walter" Swierczewski. On the 17th of October, an open letter by Stalin to José Diaz was published in Mundo Obrero, alledging that liberation for Spain was a matter not only for Spaniards, but also for the whole "progressist Humanity"; in a matter of days, support organisations for the Spanish Republic were funded in most countries, all more or less controlled by the Komintern.
Paths were aranged for volunteers : for instance, Josp Broz, who would became famous as Marechal Tito, was in Paris to provide assistance, money and passports for the volunteers from Eastern Europe. Volunteers were sent by train or ship from France to Spain, and sent to the base of Albacete. However, lots of them also came by themselves to Spain. The volunteers were under no contrat, nor determined engagement period, which would later prove a burden.
Lots of Italians, Germans, or people from other autoritarian countries, joined the movement, with the idea that the combat in Spain was a first step to restore democracy or advance a revolutionary cause in their own country. There were also lots of workless workers (especially from France), and adventurers. Finally, some 500 Communists who had been exiled to Russia were sent to Spain (among then, experienced military leaders from the First World War like "Kléber" Stern, "Gomez" Zaisser, "Lukacs" Zalka and "Gal" Galicz, who would prove invaluable in combat).
The operation was met by Communists wih enthusiam, but by Anarchists with scepticism, at best. At first, the Anarchists who controlled the borders with France were told to repel Communist volunteers, and relunctantly let the passage after protests.
The first group of 500 men (mainly French, with a few exiled Poles and Germans) arrived in Albacete on the 14th of Octobre. They were met by international volunteers who had already been fighting in Spain : the remains of the Germans from the Taelmann Century, Italians from Gastone Sozzi and French from Commune de Paris (Amongst these men, British poet John Cornford). Men were sorted according to their experience and origin, and dispatched to units.
Albacete base was under command of André Marty, a French Communist whose obsession for plots and spies would trigger massive purges (Ernest Hemingway would draft a ferocious portait of Marty in For Whom the Bell Tolls). Marty was essentially incompetant and owned his position to the friendship of Stalin. He was secunded by better leaders, who set up training for Cavalry, Artillery and Infantry, hospitals.
The French Communist Party provided uniforms for the Brigades. Discipline was extreme. During several months, the Brigades were locked in their base while a strict military training was under way.
First Engagements : the Battle of Madrid
The first International Brigade, the XIth Brigade (numbered XI, next to the ten mixt brigades of the Spanish regular army), under command of Kléber, was engaged during the Battle of Madrid, occupying its positions on the 8th of November. There were the battalions Edgard André (German), Commune de Paris (French), Dombrowsky (Polish), and a section of British machine-gunners, totalling around 1900 men. The XIIth brigade took its positions on the 13th of november, with 1550 men.
The Battle of Madrid was a determinent success for the Republic, and the role of the International Brigades in this victory was generally recognised, sometimes even beyond reality (the british emabssador, sir Henry Childon, declaring that there were no Spaniard in he Army which had defended Madrid). Even though the International Brigades did not win the battle by themselves, nor significantly changed the situation, they certainly did provide an example by their superb fight, and improved the moral of the population by testimonying the implication of other nations in the fight.
One of the strategic positions in Madrid was the Casa del Campo. There the Nationalist troops were Arab troops commanded by General Varela. They were excellent fighters in the open, but were ill-trained for urban warfare, a role which the Republicans mastered from the early days of the war. They were thus stopped by the IIIrd and IVth Brigades of the regular Republican Army. On the 9th of November, the whole XIth Brigade was at the Casa del Campo. In the evening, Kléber launched an assault on the Nationalist positions, which lasted for the whole night and part of the next morning. At the end of the fight, the Nationalist troops had been forced to retreat, abandonning all hopes of a direct asault on Madrid by Casa del Campo, while the XIth Brigade had lost a third of its men.
On the 12th, as the battle was raging on, the XIIth Brigade, under General "Lukacs", took its positions on the Valencia-Madrid road, with battalions Thaelmann (Germans), André Marty(French and Belges) and Garibaldi (Italians). The XIIth launched an attack on Nationalist positions on the hill Corro de los Angeles, which was unsuccessfull (langages and communication problems, commandment issues, lack of rest, bad links with armoured units and insufficient artillery support seem to have contributed to the failure).
On the 16th, Anarchist units of the Republican Army were forced to retreat, and the University City was taken by Nationalist troops -- Arab troops and legionnaries covered by the Nazi Condor Legion. The XIth Brigade was sent to defend the City. The battle was extremely bloody, a mix of artillery and aviation bombings with baynet and grenade fights, room after room. Anarchist leader Durruti was killed there on the 19th of November. The battle in the University went on untill 3/4 on the City was under nationalist control. Both sides then started setting up trenches and fortifications. It was then clear that any assault from either side would be far too costly; the nationalist leaders had to renounce the idea of a direct assault on Madrid, and ready for a siege of the capital.
On the 13th of December, 18'000 nationalist troop attempted an attack to close the encirclement of Madrid at Guadarrama. The Republicans sent a Soviet armoured unit (under general Pavlov, whose experience in Spain would make a future hero of the Second World War) and both XIth and XIIth International Brigades. Violent combats resulted in stopping the Nationalist advance.
An attack was then launched by the Republic on the Cordoba front. The battle ended in a form of stall-mate (a communication was issued, saying: "Today, our advance continued without loss of land"). Poets Ralph Fox and John Cornford were killed. Eventually, the Nationalists had advanced, taking the hydro-electric station at El Campo. André Marty accused the commander of the Maresillaise Battalion, Gaston Delasalle, of espionage and treason and had him executed (it is doubtfull that Delasalle would have been a spy for Franco; he was denounced by his own second, André Heussler, who might have been a treator himself and was later executed for treason by the French Resistance during the Second World War).
Further Nationalist attempts after Christmas to encircle Madrid were met with failure, not without extremely violent combats. On the 6th, The Thaelmann batallion arrived at Las Rozas and held its positions virtually to the last man. On the 9th, only ten kilometers had been lost to the Nationalists, when the XIIth and XIVth International Brigades and the 1st British Company arrived in Madrid. Violent Republican assaults were launched in attempt to retake the land, but with little success. On the 15th, trenches and fortifications were built by both sides, resulting in a stalemate.
Madrid was never taken until the very end of the war.
The battle of Jarama
On the 6th of February, follwing the fall of Malaga, the nationalists launched an attackon the Madrid-Andalusia road, South of Madrid. The Nationalists quickly advanced on the little town Ciempozuelos, held by the XVth International Brigade, which was composed by the Saklatvala Battalion (British), the Dimitrov battalion (miscalenous Balkanic nationalities), the 6 Février Battalion (Belges and French) and the Abraham Lincoln battalion (550 Americans, some of them Black).
On the 11th of February, all sentries of the André Marty batallion of the XIVth Brigade were stabbed and a Nationalist brigade crossed the Jarama. The Garibaldi Batallion stopped the advance with heavy fire. At another point, the same tactic allowed the Nationalists to deploy their troops past the river.
The British Saklatvala Battalion took most of the attack, on the 12th. It defended its positions under heavy artillery fire during 7 hours. The place became known as "Suicide Hill". At the end of the day, 225 men remained of the 600 of the British battalion. A company was made prisoner by ruse (Nationalists advanced amongst their ranks singing The International).
On the 17th, the Republican Army striked back. The 23th and the 27th, the International Brigades were engaged, but with little success. The Abraham Lincoln battalion was put under great pressure, with no artillery support. There were 120 killed and 175 wounded. Amongst the dead was the Irish poet Charles Donely [1] (http://www.ajoderse.com/varios/red/red.htm).
As in Madrid, the fight resulted in a stalemate, since both sides had consolidated their positions to the point were no usefull assault could be undertaken.
The battle of Guadalajara
After the failed assault on the Jarama, the Nationalists attempted another assault on Madrid, from the North-East this time. The objective was the town of Guadalajara, 50kilometers from Madrid. The whole Italian expeditionnary corps (35'000 men, with 80 battle tanks and 200 field artillery) was deployed, as Mussolini wanted the victory to be credited to Italy. On the 9th of March, the Italians made a breach in the Republican lines, but did not properly exploit the advance. However, the rest of the Nationalist army was advancing, and the situation appeared critical for the Republicans. A mixture of the best available units of the Republican army was quickly set up, among them the XIth and XIIth International Brigades.
On the 10th of March at dawn, the Nationalists closed in, and by noon, the Garibaldi Battalion made its move. Some confusion arrised from the fact that the sides were not aware of the other's moves, and that both sides spoke Italian; this resulted in scouts from both sides exchanging informations without realising they were enemies. The Republican lines advanced and make their jonction with the XIth International Brigade. Fascist battle tanks were shot at and infantry patrols came into action (there took place the incident in which a fascist officer asked why Italian soldiers were shooting at his party, and was responded Noi siamo Italiani di Garibaldi, and which point the Fascists surrendered). The action went on as some sort of Italian civil war in foreign land. The common language was taken advantage of when Republican used loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda messages and airplanes to drop messages promising to pay Fascist desertors.
On the 11th, the Fascists broke the front of the Republican army. The Thaelmann Brigade suffered heavy losses but succeeded in holding the Trijueque-Torija road. Garibaldi also held its positions. On the 12th, Republican planes and tanks attacked. The Thaelmann Brigade attacked Trijuete ith bayonets and re-took the town, capturing numerous prisonners.
To re-write
The first Brigades to be formed were mostly composed from French, Belgian, Italian and German volunteers, and were numbered as the XIth, XIIth and XIIIth mixte brigades (according to the re-organisation of the Spanish army, which was consituted in ten mixt Brigades immidiatly after the failed coup; these brigades mixted experienced soldiers with volunteers who had just joined but had no experience of combat).
The battalions were often constituted of one perticular nationality, as to ease understanding of orders. They were named after national heroes of the Left movements. Examples are the German Thaelmann battalion (named after Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist Party during the Weimar Republic), French Louise Michel battalion (after Lousie Michel a hero of the 1871 Paris Commune) and Commune de Paris battalion, Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, or George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John Brown American battalions. At first, the Americans who involved themselves in the Spanish civil war did so mainly in the form of ambulances, but engagements increased and eventually led to the creation of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
There were nearly 40,000 volunteers, of wich 9000 to 10,000 French, for the defense of the Spanish Republic. Most of them were workers, and half of them were from Paris. They included a larger number of veterants from the First World War, which made them efficient fighters. The first engagements fought by the International Brigades during the Battle of Madrid demonstrated their military value.
The International Brigades were mainly Communists, or under Communist authority. They were involved in the fightings in Barcelona against Republican opponants to the Communists -- the POUM (Partido Obredo de Unification Marxista, which defined themselves as trotskists, while having been explicitly bashed by Trotsky) and Anarchists.
Later, mercenary contracts were cancelled, and learning Spanish became mandatory, coincidating with a thightening of military discipline amongst the Spanish Republican military.
Status of the Brigades after the war
Since the Civil war was eventually won by the Nationalists, the Brigadists were initially on the "wrong side" of History, especially since most of their home countries had a right-winged government (in France, for instance, the Popular Front was not in power anymore). However, since most of these countries found themselves at war with the very powers which had been fought in Spain, the Brigadists gained some prestige as the first guard of the democracies, having fought a prophetical combat. Retrospectively, it was clear that the war in Spain was not as much a Spanish Civil war than a draft for the incomming Second World War. Some glory was therefore accredited to the volunteers (a great deal of the surivors having also fought galantly during the World War), but this soon faded in the fear of Soviet-like propaganda. Since the fall of the Soviet bloc, the International Brigades have been quite unanimously regarded as heroes, and the legitimacy of their fight seems to have washed away the stains of summary executions and stalinist manipulations.
Swiss Brigadists
766 Swiss went to fight for the Republic, while only 40 went on the other side. It is interesting to notice that the pro-republicans were later prosecuted for breaking the Swiss neutrality laws, which prohibit Swiss nationals to fight for foreign countries, while the pro-fascists were never prosecuted. This might be explained on one hand by the anti-communism of the swiss government at the time, but also because the Swiss living in Spain at the time (nearly 4000) where very much afraid of what was perceived as a communist mouvement. The republican fighters were re-abilitated in the 90s.
Interestingly, it has been noted that the sanctions of those condemned were very much variable (ranging from 15 days to 4 months in prison) but that the french-speaking tribunals had been as a rule much more lenient than the german-speaking ones. This is very much corellated to the openly pro-fascist sentiment of the so-called elite in those parts at the time.
Nationalisation of former Brigadists
On the 26th of January, 1996, the Spanish government gave the Spanish citizenship to the Brigadists. At the time, rougthly 600 remained. By the end of 1938, Prime Minister Juan Negrin had promised the Spanish citizenship to the Brigadists, a promess which had not been held since the Republic had lost the war.
Misc
Symbolism and Heraldic
The International Brigades were inheritors of a Communist aestetic, which explains the numerous very stylised posters about the subject.
The flags featured the colors of the Spanish Republic : Red, Yellow and Black, often along with Communist symbols (Red flags, hammer and sickel, fist,...). The emblem of the brigades themselves was the three-pointed red star, which is often featured.
Personalities involved in the International Brigades
Oliver_Law_fighting2.jpg
- George Orwell
- André Marty
- "Kléber" Stern
- "Gomez" Zaisser
- "Lukacs" Zalka
- "Gal" Galicz
- John Cornford.
- Simone Weil
- Ernest Hemingway (although he was in Spain officially only as a reporter, Hemingway did not balk letting a hand in the small arms training of the recruits)
- David Guest
- Oliver Law
References
Books
- Spanish Civil War, Hugh Thomas
- Nancy Mitford's novel The Pursuit of Love (1945)
Internet pages
- IBMT the international brigade memorial trust (http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/)
- Farewell to the International Brigades (http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/british_volunteers/farewell.htm)
- Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (http://www.alba-valb.org/)
- Spartacus Educational (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPinternational.htm)
Photographs
- asso.acer.free.fr (http://asso.acer.free.fr/photos/galeriephotos.htm)
- english.uiuc.edu (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/scw/photessay.htm)
Films
- Land and Freedom (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/), by Ken Loach (although the subject of the film is not the International Brigades, it portaits international volunteers, and the actual International Brigades are indeed featured)
- Sierra de Teruel (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0037680/) by André Malraux (features the International bomber squadron in margin of the Brigades)
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