British Battalion
Encyclopedia
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
Early volunteers
A number of British volunteers, including Tom WintringhamTom Wintringham
Thomas Henry Wintringham was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the Home Guard during World War II and was one of the founders of the Common Wealth Party.-Early life:Tom Wintringham was born 1898...
and Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen was a British film producer whose career started in the 1930s. He was the producer of several extremely controversial films including Peeping Tom and The Criminal...
, arrived in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
during August-September 1936 and formed the Tom Mann Centuria - a rifle company in the German-speaking Thälmann Column. The Thälmann Battalion
Thälmann Battalion
The Thälmann Battalion was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was named after the imprisoned German communist leader Ernst Thälmann and included approximately 1,500 people, mainly Germans, Austrians, Swiss and Scandinavians. The battalion fought in the defence...
later formed part of XII International Brigade
XII International Brigade
The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7 November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formally named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the most famous and inspiring leader in the Italian Independence Wars, General Giuseppe Garibaldi. Its first commanding officer was a soviet advisor of Hungarian...
and fought in the Siege of Madrid, including the battle for University City
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...
.
Another group of British volunteers - among them Jock Cunningham
Jock Cunningham
Jock Cunningham was a British volunteer in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He became a battalion and brigade commander....
and John Cornford
John Cornford
Rupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford.- Biography :...
- fought with the French-speaking Commune de Paris Battalion, in the XI International Brigade
XI International Brigade
The XI International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War.It would become especially renowned for providing desperately needed support in the darkest hours of the Republican defense of Madrid on 8 November 1936, when, with great losses, it helped repulse a major...
. It also fought in the Siege of Madrid, including the battles for University City
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...
and Casa de Campo
Casa de Campo
The Casa de Campo is the largest urban park situated west of central Madrid, . It was formerly a royal hunting estate. Its area is more than ....
.
In December 1936, 145 British volunteers formed No. 1 Company of the French-speaking Marseillaise Battalion, part of the XIV International Brigade
XIV International Brigade
The XIV International Brigade was one of several international brigades that fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War. It was raised on 20 December 1936 with volunteers mainly from France and Belgium, under General "Walter" . This Brigade was the fourth of the...
. They fought on the Córdoba front during December, and on the Madrid front during January 1937. Heavy fighting on 15 January at Las Rozas reduced the active ranks to 67.
Formation
In January 1937, the survivors of No.1 Company joined with 450 new British, IrishConnolly Column
The Connolly Column was the name given to the Irish volunteers who fought for the Second Spanish Republic in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. They were named after James Connolly, the executed leader of the Irish Citizen Army...
, and Dominion
Dominion
A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
volunteers at Madrigueras
Madrigueras
Madrigueras is a municipality in Albacete, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 4,917 according to the official statistics by the National Statistics Institute of Spain . The principal productions of this village are wine, knives and spatulas...
, near Albacete
Albacete
Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....
, International Brigades headquarters. They were formed into an English-speaking battalion, with three infantry companies (Nos. 1, 3, 4) and a machine-gun company (no. 2).
The battalion was numbered the 16th battalion of the International Brigades. It was formally named after Shapurji Saklatvala
Shapurji Saklatvala
Shapurji Saklatvala was a British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. He was the third Indian Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom after fellow Parsis Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Bhownagree....
, the former Communist
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
. However, this name never caught on and it was normally known as the "British Battalion". (The Spanish referred to it as "el batallón británico" or "el batallón inglés"). Number 1 company was called the Major Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
Company after the Labour Party leader.
The British Battalion was attached to XV International Brigade
XV International Brigade
The XV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the International Brigades. It was mustered at Albacete in Spain, in January 1937, comprising many English-speaking volunteers - arranged into a mostly British British Battalion and a mostly...
, XV IB. The other battalions were the US Lincoln Battalion
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade refers to volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades. They fought for Spanish Republican forces against Franco and the Spanish Nationalists....
, the crack Balkan Dimitrov Battalion
Dimitrov Battalion
The Dimitrov Battalion was part of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was the 18th battalion formed, and was named after Georgi Dimitrov, a Bulgarian communist and General Secretary of the Comintern in that period....
, and the Franco-Belgian Sixth February Battalion.
Jarama, 1937
In February 1937, the battalion fought at the Battle of JaramaBattle of Jarama
The Battle of Jarama was an attempt by General Franco's Nationalists to dislodge the Republican lines along the river Jarama, just east of Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War...
. In a single day's bloody fighting on 12 February against Moors
Regulares
The Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas , known simply as the Regulares , were the volunteer infantry and cavalry units of the Spanish Army recruited in Spanish Morocco. They consisted of Moroccans officered by Spaniards...
from Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's Army of Africa
Spanish Army of Africa
The Army of Africa was a Spanish field army that garrisoned Spanish Morocco from the early 20th century until Morocco's independence in 1956....
, the British Battalion suffered 275 casualties in No.1, No.3, and No.4 companies - leaving 125 rifleman fit for duty. On the second day of fighting, the machine gun company was surrounded by Fascists and many of its members were captured. Battalion commander Tom Wintringham was injured, and Jock Cunningham took command of the battalion's 140 survivors. The battalion remained in the trenches at Jarama
Jarama
Jarama is a river in central Spain. It flows north to south, and passes east of Madrid when El Atazar Dam is built on a tributary, the Lozoya River. It flows into the river Tagus in Aranjuez...
until 17 June 1937.
Brunete, 1937
Reinforced by new recruits and strengthened by returnees from hospital, the British Battalion mustered 331 brigaders at the Battle of BruneteBattle of Brunete
The Battle of Brunete , fought 15 miles west of Madrid, was a Republican attempt to alleviate the pressure exerted by the Nationalists on the capital and on the north during the Spanish Civil War...
. On 6 July, XV IB
XV International Brigade
The XV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the International Brigades. It was mustered at Albacete in Spain, in January 1937, comprising many English-speaking volunteers - arranged into a mostly British British Battalion and a mostly...
occupied the villages of Romanillos and Boadilla del Monte
Boadilla del Monte
Boadilla del Monte is a town in Spain. It is located in the center of the Community of Madrid. It had a population of 41,807 in 2008.-External links:* * *...
, and by midnight captured the village of Villanueva de la Cañada
Villanueva de la Cañada
Villanueva de la Cañada is a municipality in Spain, located 30 km west of the city of Madrid.Population : 14 809.-General references:*- External links :...
. (It was here that Alex McDade
Alex McDade
Alex McDade was a Glasgow labourer who went to Spain to fight with XV International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War He was a political commissar with the British Battalion and wounded at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of Brunete at Villanueva...
who wrote the song, Valley of Jarama, commonly heard at Brigade reunions, was killed in action.) The following day the British were ordered to advance on Mosquito Ridge, a piece of high ground which overlooked the battalion's original objectives. As they left Villanueva de la Cañada they were bombed by Junkers aircraft from the Condor Legion
Condor Legion
The Condor Legion was a unit composed of volunteers from the German Air Force and from the German Army which served with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War of July 1936 to March 1939. The Condor Legion developed methods of terror bombing which were used widely in the Second World War...
and shelled by Fascist artillery. The two-hour barrage and devastating heat caused heavy casualties and prevented the battalion reaching Mosquito Ridge before the Fascists rushed reinforcements to defend the position. Only 42 members of the battalion were left fit for service, and the battalion was withdrawn into a reserve position.
Aragon, 1937
In mid-August, the Republican 35th Division, which included XV IBXV International Brigade
The XV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the International Brigades. It was mustered at Albacete in Spain, in January 1937, comprising many English-speaking volunteers - arranged into a mostly British British Battalion and a mostly...
, was moved to Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
. The focus of the Aragon campaign was to draw-off Fascist attacks on Santander
Santander, Cantabria
The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. Located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao, the city has a population of 183,446 .-History:...
and to capture the strategic city of Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...
. On 25 August the battalion took part in street fighting to capture the Fascist strongpoint at Quinto
Quinto
Quinto may refer to:*Quinto , a barrio in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico*Quinto, Switzerland, a municipality in the canton of Ticino*Quinto, Spain, a municipality in the province of Zaragoza*Quinto, Italy:...
. On 25 August the battalion attacked a strong Fascist position at Purburrel Hill, and was repelled by intense rifle and machine gun fire. The following day another assault was made on the hill, supported by the XVth Brigade antitank artillery battery, and this time the attack succeeded. Heavy fighting had reduced the battalion to 100 men, and a number of Spanish troops were drafted as reinforcements for the battalion.
Disbandment
On 21 September 1938, Juan NegrínJuan Negrín
Juan Negrín y López was a Spanish politician and physician.-Early years:Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Negrín came from a religious middle-class family...
announced to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
that the Republican government would disband the International Brigades. The British battalion was withdrawn into reserve at the end of September 1938, and on 17 October, the battalion took part in the International Brigades' farewell parade through Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. President Azaña
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz was a Spanish politician. He was the first Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic , and later served again as Prime Minister , and then as the second and last President of the Republic . The Spanish Civil War broke out while he was President...
and Prime Minister Negrín joined the crowds who took part in one of the last great Republican celebrations. On disbandment, 305 British volunteers left Spain. They arrived at Victoria Station on 7 December, to be met by a crowd of supporters including Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
, Stafford Cripps
Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...
, Willie Gallacher
Willie Gallacher
William "Willie" Gallacher was a Scottish trade unionist, activist and communist. He was one of the leading figures of the Shop Stewards' Movement in wartime Glasgow and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain...
, and Will Lawther
Will Lawther
Sir William "Will" Lawther was a politician and trade union leader in the United Kingdom.Lawther was President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain . He was the Labour Member of Parliament for the Barnard Castle constituency from 1929–1931.- External links :* - nationalarchives.gov.uk...
.
International Brigade Memorial Trust
The International Brigade Memorial TrustInternational Brigade Memorial Trust
The International Brigade Memorial Trust is a British educational trust formed by the veterans of the International Brigade Association, the Friends of the IBA, representatives of the Marx Memorial Library, and historians specialising in the Spanish Civil War....
has been established by veterans and historians to preserve and catalog the history of the British Battalion.
Roll of Honour
The IBMT has compiled a Roll of Honour, listing the members of the British battalion who fell in Spain. The list is compiled primarily from documents held in the International Brigade Archive in the Marx Memorial Library, London and the International Brigade Archive in the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Recent Historical Documents, Moscow.Notable members
- Bill Alexander - industrial chemist, commander of the British Battalion from 1938, later Assistant General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great BritainCommunist Party of Great BritainThe Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
. - Christopher CaudwellChristopher CaudwellChristopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg , a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.He was born into a Catholic family living at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney district, south-west London...
- journalist, poet, killed in action at Jarama. - Fred CopemanFred CopemanFred Copeman OBE was an English volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, commanding the British Battalion...
- former sailor, organiser of the Invergordon MutinyInvergordon MutinyThe Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
, commanded the British Battalion during 1937. - John CornfordJohn CornfordRupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford.- Biography :...
- poet, great-grandson of the naturalist Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. - Jason GurneyJason GurneyJason Gurney was a British sculptor who fought in the Spanish Civil War.He was with the International Brigades from December 1936 to August 1937. During that time, he served in the British Battalion, the Lincoln Battalion and XIV International Brigade staff. He was wounded in the right hand by a...
- British sculptor, also served with the Lincoln Battalion. - Len Crome - doctor, neuropathologist, winner of the Military CrossMilitary CrossThe Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
during the Second World War. - Jack JonesJack Jones (trade union leader)James Larkin Jones, CH, MBE , known as Jack Jones, was a British trade union leader and General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union.-Early life:...
- later General Secretary of the Transport & General Workers Union. - Laurie LeeLaurie LeeLaurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter, raised in the village of Slad, and went to Marling School, Gloucestershire. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie , As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and...
- poet, novelist, author of Cider with RosieCider with RosieCider with Rosie is a 1959 book by Laurie Lee . It is the first book of a trilogy that continues with As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War...
. - Will PaynterWill PaynterWilliam Thomas Paynter was a Welsh miners' leader involved in the hunger marches of the 1930s.Paynter was born in Cardiff, where he had a basic education before going to work at a colliery at the age of fourteen. By the age of eighteen, he was working on the coal-face, and soon joined the...
- NUMNumNum may refer to:* Short for number* Num , a god of Samoyedic peoples* Khnum, a god of Egyptian mythology* Mios Num, an island of western New Guinea* Num, NepalNUM may refer to:* National Union of Mineworkers...
General Secretary 1959 - 1968 - Esmond RomillyEsmond RomillyEsmond Marcus David Romilly was a British socialist and anti-fascist, now remembered mainly for his marriage to Jessica Mitford, one of the Mitford sisters...
- journalist, nephew of Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. - Stephen SpenderStephen SpenderSir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
- poet, essayist, professor at University College, London, knighted 1983. - Alfred ShermanAlfred ShermanSir Alfred Sherman, KBE, was a writer, journalist, and political analyst. Described by a long-time associate as "a brilliant polymath, a consummate homo politicus, and one of the last true witnesses to the 20th century", he began life as a Communist soldier in the Spanish Civil War but later...
- Conservative philosopher, battalion Russian translator; taken prisoner in 1938 - Tom WintringhamTom WintringhamThomas Henry Wintringham was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the Home Guard during World War II and was one of the founders of the Common Wealth Party.-Early life:Tom Wintringham was born 1898...
- journalist, author, commander of the British Battalion to 1937.
Further reading
- British Volunteers for Liberty: Spain, 1936-39, Bill Alexander, Lawrence & Wishart, 1983, ISBN 0-85315-564-X.
- No to Franco, the Struggle Never Stopped, 1939-1975, Bill Alexander, 1992, ISBN 0-9519667-0-7.
- British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, Richard Baxell, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-203-64785-8.
- The Shallow Grave: Memoir of the Spanish Civil War, Walter Gregory, Gollancz, 1986, ISBN 0-575-03790-3.
- Reason in Revolt, Fred Copeman, Blandford Press, 1948. (Out of print)
- Britons in Spain - The History of the British Battalion of the XVTH International Brigade, William Rust, Lawrence & Wishart, 1939.
- Crusade in Spain, Jason Gurney, Faber. 1974. ISBN 978-0571103102
- We Cannot Park on Both Sides: Reading volunteers in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, Mike Cooper and Ray Parkes, Reading International Brigades Memorial Committee, 2000. ISBN 0-9535448-0-X.
See also
- International BrigadesInternational BrigadesThe International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
- XV International BrigadeXV International BrigadeThe XV International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the International Brigades. It was mustered at Albacete in Spain, in January 1937, comprising many English-speaking volunteers - arranged into a mostly British British Battalion and a mostly...
- Viva la Quinta Brigada - song by Christy MooreChristy MooreChristopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
- ILP ContingentILP ContingentThe British Independent Labour Party sent a small contingent to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The contingent fought with the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification and included George Orwell, who subsequently wrote about his experiences in his widely-read account Homage to Catalonia.-Contingent...
- International Brigades order of battleInternational Brigades order of battleThe International Brigades were volunteer military units of foreigners who fought on the side of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The number of combattant volunteers has been estimated at between 32,000–35,000, though with no more than about 20,000 active at any one time...
External links
- British International Brigade veterans tell their stories - The Guardian
- The International Brigade Memorial Trust - www.international-brigades.org.uk
- History of the British Battalion, XV International Brigade - www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
- Irish vol. in SCW
- RealAudio interviews with British Battalion veterans - www.iwm.org.uk
- Men who fought Franco fêted as Spain finally confronts its past - The Times, 15 July 2006