Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Unlikely Warriors The British in the and the Struggle Against Fascism by Richa Read further. Baxell, Richard. Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism . London: Aurum Press, 2012. Boyd Haycock, David. I am Spain: The Spanish Civil War and the Men and Women who went to Fight Fascism . Brecon: OLd Street Publishing, 2012. The following paperback book is based upon the IBMT's acclaimed travelling exhibition: Baxell, Richard, Jackson Angela & Jump, Jim. Antifascistas: British and Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War . London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2010. Lastly, an academic study, comparing the experiences of British volunteers in the Greek War of Independence of 1821-23, the Spanish Civil War and the war in Finland in 1939: Roberts, Elizabeth. "Freedom, Faction, Fame and Blood". Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Works specifically on the British Battalion. There are a number of books on the British Battalion. Three are works by members of the battalion, or its supporters: Alexander, Bill. British Volunteers for Liberty. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1982. Ryan, Frank, ed. The Book of the XVth Brigade: Records of British, American, Canadian and Irish Volunteers in the XV International Brigade in Spain 1936-1938, Madrid: War Commissariat, 1938. reissued by Warren & Pell in 2003. Rust, William. Britons in Spain. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1939, reissued by Warren & Pell in 2003. There are two academic studies. The first, a rather critical work, draws heavily on the material held in Moscow: Hopkins, James K. Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War. California: Stanford, 1998. The second, also using the Moscow material, forms the basis of much of the information on this website: Baxell, Richard. British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the , 1936-1939. London, Routledge/Cañada Blanch Studies on Contemporary Spain, 2004 and reissued by Warren & Pell in 2007. Lastly, the following is based mainly on the in February 1937: Hughes, Ben. They Shall Not Pass! The British Battalion at Jarama. Oxford: Osprey, 2011. ISBN 13: 9781781312339. Unlikely Warriors: The Extraordinary Story Of The Britons Who Fought In The Spanish Civil War. Baxell, Richard. This specific ISBN edition is currently not available. On the 17th of July, 1936, a Nationalist military uprising was launched in Spain. In the face of the rebels' bloody march, the Spanish Republic turned to the leaders of Britain and France for assistance - but its pleas fell on deaf ears. Appalled at the prospect of another European democracy succumbing to fascism, volunteers from across the Continent - and beyond - flocked to Spain's aid, many to join the International Brigades. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Richard Baxell is a research associate at the London School of Economics and a trustee of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. He is the author of a number of books and articles on British volunteers for the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.His previous works include the critically acclaimed British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades, 1936-1939. With Jim Jump and Angela Jackson, he is a co-author of the IBMT's travelling exhibition, Antifascistas and the accompanying book. `Baxell's authoritative book draws on unpublished memoirs as well as personal interviews with a tiny band of survivors who lived their experience, in the poignant words of one volunteer, as "a time of hope, when a man with a rifle had some power to divert the tide of human affairs".' `Examines the motivation of these individuals and recounts their stories in an oral history of remarkable power.' `Most interesting, because previously least known, are Richard Baxell's detailed descriptions of the backgrounds of the individual volunteers, drawn from unpublished diaries and oral histories, and the reception they received on their return home.' 'Well researched and luminously written, Baxell's book shows us what these volunteers were like - their grand heroism and their petty hatreds, the miseries they endured, the awfulness of war.' `Baxell draws painstaking miniatures of the uncontroversial heroism of doomed men. It's beyond history; it's myth.' 'This is a brilliant new book with lots of new material that should appeal to the general reader as well as those who already have a fair knowledge of the subject. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it.' `Lively and accessible. Those of us privileged like the author to have met and known a number of the survivors know that Spain always remained in their hearts. The time they spent there was proudly remembered by many as the most important of their lives.' 'This is a colorful, heroic, tragic and deeply troubling tale. War is a horror that can serve a good cause. Baxell provides a full account of mostly working class people who voluntarily went to war for a good cause that they believed in. Based on an extraordinary range of material, it is a splendid thing to have this full and satisfying account.' `Richard Baxell is one of the world's greatest experts on the International Brigades. Unlikely Warriors is not only the definitive work on the British volunteers in terms of its research base and its awareness of the complex British, Spanish and international contexts. It is also a superbly written and deeply moving vision of the inspiring but doomed efforts of men and women to halt Europe's descent into war.' 'A story of astonishing principle and courage. Baxell presents the volunteers unromantically but sensitively: as ordinary people who made an extraordinary choice.' 'A marvellously accessible history of the British volunteers who joined the struggle against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Richard Baxell sheds new light on the role and achievements of these idealistic men and women. Fascinating.' ' Unlikely Warriors is a well researched, largely balanced, highly readable and accessible narrative of what remains a compelling story. For this, Richard Baxell is to be congratulated.' 'The book is beautifully written and it's a totally absorbing read about incredible people whose like we will probably never see again.'ÿ 'Benefiting from an impressive range of research, this is an extraordinary story of heroism, tragedy and sacrifice.' ‘Richard Baxell is one of the world’s greatest experts on the International Brigades. Unlikely Warriors is not only the definitive work on the British volunteers in terms of its research base and its awareness of the complex British, Spanish and international contexts. It is also a superbly written and deeply moving vision of the inspiring but doomed efforts of men and women to halt Europe’s descent into war.’ ​ ‘Baxell draws painstaking miniatures of the uncontroversial heroism of doomed men. It’s beyond history; it’s myth.’ ​ ‘Examines the motivation of these individuals and recounts their stories in an oral history of remarkable power.’ CAROLINE ANGUS. New Zealand author and historian. Thomas Cromwell and Tudor expert. Spanish history, civil war, and historical memory writer. SPAIN BOOK REVIEW: ‘Unlikely Warriors’ by Richard Baxell. When a Nationalist military uprising was launched in Spain in July 1936, the Spanish Republic’s desperate pleas for assistance from the leaders of Britain and France fell on deaf ears. Appalled at the prospect of another European democracy succumbing to fascism, volunteers from across the Continent and beyond flocked to Spain’s aid, many to join the International Brigades. More than 2,500 of these men and women came from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, and contrary to popular myth theirs was not an army of adventurers, poets and public school idealists. Overwhelmingly they hailed from modest working class backgrounds, leaving behind their livelihoods and their families to fight in a brutal civil war on foreign soil. Some 500 of them never returned home. In this inspiring and moving oral history, Richard Baxell weaves together a diverse array of testimony to tell the remarkable story of the Britons who took up arms against General Franco. Drawing on his own extensive interviews with survivors, research in archives across Britain, Spain and Russia, as well as first-hand accounts by writers both famous and unknown, Unlikely Warriors presents a startling new interpretation of the Spanish Civil War and follows a band of ordinary men and women who made an extraordinary choice. This book caught my eye while I waited in the entry queue at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid last year. Off to see the Dali exhibit, along with a trip to see Guernica and the civil war exhibition for a second time, I spotted this book in the gift shop as I shivered in the cold. Me – war book – sold. Talk about finding a gem. Unlikely Warriors is a remarkable accomplishment, with solid five-star reviews for excellent reason. Baxell has taken research to a new level, and used archives and interviews in the UK and the Abraham Lincoln files in New York, and material not yet published. Interviews from the Imperial War Museum in London have been accessed to give a rich account of those who went to Spain to fight the righteous fight. The International Brigades have been fleshed out like never before, along with those who went to fight for various other factions, including those who went to serve Franco’s side. The book starts off with the realities of life in the UK for those who heard the calling to Spain. While the stereotypes stated that volunteers were ‘radical romantics or middle-class Marxists’, the reality was far different. A large majority were working class, and no doubt imagined they understood the battle that Spaniards faced. However, the upper class, intellectuals and writers were littered among the brave men, from a great range of lifestyles across the class divide. What the International Brigades had was working class men fighting alongside those highly educated, for a common cause, and Baxell has written about these people in a fluid and enjoyable down-to-earth style. The men, the majority Communists, fought under the premise that if Franco won in Spain, Hitler would then go on to victory with his own endeavours. While Britain and France sat idly by, individuals were able to see past self-interest and faced a brutal reality for the common good. The reality put volunteers at a disadvantage from the start, with many without military training, and provided with exceptionally little. With the International Brigades, just one part of many groups fighting together in an uneasy alliance for the Republican cause, leadership was haphazard, as was any type of planning, along with weapons and gear given. While many volunteers were Communists, those in power among the forces also had to battle against other leaders from other groups. It meant that those on the ground never genuinely formed a coherent group, unlike the united forces under Franco. The massive battles undertaken by British forces, such as Madrid, Ebro, Brunete and Jarama, were bloody affairs littered with an enormous death toll. Just the struggle alone within the medical divisions was horrific as they fought to save the lives of young men, whose cause became increasingly hard to identity. Fighting fascism is a broad notion, to be romanticised as men, gun in hand, throw themselves at the enemy, but Baxell does not subscribe to this notion. The author gives a more realistic and honest account of war, where individuals are convinced of one thing at home, and struggle when faced with the gruesome battles in Spain. Some volunteers were hopelessly inadequate for the war in Spain, due to age or experience, and some were there for the wrong reasons. Unlikely Warriors doesn’t just cover what happened in Spain. The book explains how these volunteers suffered, and many were lost, but those who survived considered their fight to be one of the greatest moments in their lives. Many went home with little or no regrets. The May Day battles in Barcelona are well covered in the book, explaining how the communist sympathisers fought enemies on all sides. When international volunteers were all ordered out of Spain in late 1938, dreams of these men being able to live in Spain as citizens were not realised until long after Franco’s death. Tales of men held prisoner are told with clarity, showing what many volunteers endured through their time on the peninsula. While British men went home once their battalions got disbanded, they struggled to enlist to serve in WWII and some nationalities were either imprisoned or stripped of their home country citizenship. Their battles did not win the war, just as Europe fell into a state which allowed evil to flourish. Baxell has created a book where those new to the subject can learn and understand, but at the same time, give more knowledgeable readers a more personal and vulnerable perspective to the battles. Many books on the war can read as stiff or academic, but Baxell has created a marvellous account which humanises but does not romanticise the role of international volunteers in a complex war. The book breaks down the struggles in Spain, to give a realistic account of what life was like for those who sacrificed for a cause which did not succeed in victory. Unlikely Warriors is a must-read for anyone interested in Spain and its recent history. Richard Baxell is a research associate at the London School of Economics and a trustee of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. Learn more about the author on his website – Richard Baxell. On Wednesday 30 April, Richard Baxell will be appearing at Offside Librería bookstore in Madrid, giving a presentation on his work from 8pm. Review: The British in Spain. Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle against Fascism . By Richard Baxell. (London, Aurum, 2012). Of the 35,000 foreigners who fought on behalf of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War 2,500 were British and 500 of them were killed. There have been several books written about their activities as well as memoirs by some of the participants. Two of them were written by Richard Baxell: English Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War (2004) and, with Angela Jackson and Jim Jump, Antifascistas: British & Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War (2010). The former is short and covers only the three years of the war itself and the latter is fundamentally a book of splendid pictures and short texts. Baxell’s Unlikely Warriors is a culminating and I believe definitive accomplishment. It appears to use every available source, not only archives in Britain but the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in New York, the collection in Moscow as well as much unpublished material, including many interviews available at the Imperial War Museum in London. Although most of the story is devoted to those who were with the International Brigade, Baxell pays attention to those who participated in other contexts, most notably who fought with the POUM, as well as chapters on the few who fought on Franco’s side and on the British reporters who came to Spain. This is a remarkably well balanced and fair minded account. It faces one squarely with the endless paradox of war. The experience of war itself could not be, as was certainly true in Spain, more dreadful yet for many though not all who participated and survived, it was the most important and rewarding experience of their lives, one that they didn’t regret. After many years, with the death of Franco and Spain’s transition to democracy the right side won. La Pasionaria’s famous speech in October, 1938 was finally fulfilled: veterans could return and become Spanish citizens should they wish. The story is set in the broader context of Britain in the 1930s, the Depression, the growth and activities of the Communist Party and the fight against Sir Oswald Mosley’s Fascists. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War the idea of an International Brigade, under the aegis of the Comintern directed from Moscow, took shape. The Party in Britain was the chief recruiter and organizer for British recruits. It is intriguing that the one nation conspicuously missing as a supplier of manpower to the Brigade was the Soviet Union itself. There were crucial Russian advisers, most of whom were to be executed when they returned home, victims of Stalin’s paranoia. The West supplied most of the international volunteers. Although the writers and intellectual who participated were significant, by far the great majority who came were from the working class. Three-fourths of the British members of the International Brigade were Communists. Those who went to fight thought, probably rightly, that if Franco could be defeated, it might stop Hitler in his tracks and that the looming war would not be necessary. It is a brutal story. Very few of the volunteers had military experience. Training was inadequate. The leadership was far from flawless. Not only were there military commanders but also a parallel command structure of the commissars who were to make sure that the Communist party continued to be in control. The losses through death or injury were horrific. Through Spanish Medical Aid and other groups there was an attempt to cope with medical needs and important advances were made in the area of blood transfusion but they were quite primitive and difficult. British participation in famous battles are finely described—Madrid, Jarama, Brunete, the Ebro. The deaths, injuries, and suffering of the battles do make one wonder if war is ever worth it. How can it be tolerated even in the interests such a good cause, trying to stop the rise of Fascism? War is not romanticized in Baxell’s vivid accounts, nor is it hidden from the reader that there were incompetents and scoundrels among the British who went to Spain. Baxell deals well with the May days in Barcelona. Certainly one of the most famous accounts of the war is Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia , either ignored or attacked when it was first published in 1938, seen as unhelpful in winning the war. It came into its own in the 1950s on the basis of its merits, augmenting Orwell’s greater fame, but was also used as a weapon in the Cold War. Orwell himself was hoping to join the International Brigade, appalled at the inefficiency he had experienced while with the POUM militia. But then when he came to Barcelona and found his POUM comrades being attacked, he knew which side he was on. In his view the Communists and their allies were willing to murder those on the same side as well as the truth in order to achieve their aims. Baxell appreciates the tragic irony of the situation: that the Communists were right to suppress the revolution in order to have the best chance to win the war and their opponents were right about what should be the ultimate aims of the struggle: achieving a better society. But could the latter happen without the former? Indeed the Communists and their allies won out and the still Republic lost, largely because of the policy of non-intervention. Baxell continues the story, describing vividly the departure of British volunteers and the brutal experiences of those who were taken prisoner. He follows the veterans through World War II when quite a few of them were seen as untrustworthy, “Premature Anti-Fascists,” and were ridiculously kept out of the military. Others managed to serve. , drummed out of the puritan Party because of his love life, used his Civil War experience to help found the Home Guard. Bernard Knox came to the United States, joined the OSS and was parachuted into Europe. Others helped to defeat Hitler. Loyal Communists had to deal with the difficulties of the party line, most notably when the Nazi-Soviet pact sparked the claim that the war against Germany was on behalf of imperialism. Despite hopes to the contrary, the end of the war did not bring the fall of Franco. This is a colorful, heroic, tragic and deeply troubling tale. War is a horror that can serve a good cause. Baxell provides a full account of mostly working class people who voluntarily went to war for a good cause that they believed in. Based on an extraordinary range of material, it is a splendid thing to have this full and satisfying account. Peter Stansky has recently published with William Abrahams Julian Bell: From Bloomsbury to the Spanish Civil War. Len Crome lecture, 2017. For this year's Len Crome event, I discussed the difficulties involved in establishing the precise background and origins of the volunteers for Spain from Britain & Ireland and how the various national groups in the International Brigades got along while fighting in Spain. The talk will be on the IBMT's Youtube channel and a precis appears in issue 45 of the IBMT magazine (2/2017). The last volunteer. In the Sky News studio talking about the former International Brigader, Geoffrey Servante, who died on 22 April 2019, aged 99. He was almost certainly the last surviving British veteran of the Spanish Civil War. The Strange Death of Gerda Taro. On 31 May 2018 I joined the biographer and filmmaker, Jane Rogoyska, for a presentation at L.S.E.'s Cañada Blanch Centre, chaired by Professor Paul Preston. We were outlining our thoughts on the image that had recently appeared on social media: did it really show the celebrated photojournalist, Gerda Taro, on her death bed? Talk Radio's Home Schooling. On 12 June 2020 during Britain's Coronavirus lockdown, I was asked to contribute to Talk Radio's 'Home-Schooling' segment. Football and the Spanish Civil War. Pictured here with the two speakers at the IBMT's 2019 Len Crome conference in Oxford: to my right, the researcher and author Daniel Gray, to my left historian and The Guardian 's football correspondent, Sid Lowe. There are more images on the IBMT's Flickr account. LSE expertise. I was very happy to take part in a short six minute film produced by the Gill Parker Consultancy. The film was commissioned by the L.S.E. to showcase the expertise of LSE academics; in this instance Professor of Contemporary Spanish History, Paul Preston. In addition to myself, the film included interviews with former Basque child, Herminio Martínez; Professor of Spanish History, Helen Graham; and Spanish writer and journalist, Lala Isla. BBC Radio 3 Proms Extra. On 9 August 2017, I introduced a number of readings relating to the International Brigades, movingly delivered by actors Christopher Ecclestone and Yolanda Vazquez and by Margot Heinemann’s daughter, Jane Bernal. Forthcoming events. Thursday 20 May, publication of German International Brigader Jan Kurzke's memoir, The Good Comrade by Clapton Press (includes my introduction). Review of Paul Preston’s A People Betrayed. I n March 2006 Spanish police raided a number of homes and offices belonging to Jesus Gil, the mayor of Marbella and to Juan Antonio Roca, head of town planning. The police seized cash amounting to some 2.4 billion euros, much of it casually stuffed into bin-liners, plus staggering quantities of valuables: ‘boxes of jewellery, several luxury cars, 245 valuable paintings including one by Miró hanging in a bathroom, a helicopter, a pavilion full of hunting trophies in the form of stuffed elephants, zebras, giraffes and leopards and a stable of more than a hundred thoroughbred horses.’ On this occasion the culprits went to jail, but it is just one of many examples of the astounding levels of corruption to have dogged Spain for centuries, laid out starkly in Paul Preston’s new history of the country, A People Betrayed. Preston is, of course, the world’s foremost authority on contemporary Spanish history and this study – running to 565 pages with a further 134 of references – draws on some fifty years of research. Fortunately, his elegant and engaging narrative style make it eminently readable, enjoyable even, despite the subject matter. While the book follows a traditional chronological structure, it concentrates on a number of themes; as the author explains, ‘it is the central thesis of this book that the violence, corruption and incompetence of the political class have betrayed the population.’ Spain is hardly unique in this, of course, and Preston is quick to discount the popular caricatures and stereotypes of Spain and its people, the so called ‘black legend’. Nevertheless, it is striking how brazen the venality and sleaze appear to be. As Preston argues, public service in Spain has always been a route to private profit for some, and it should perhaps come as no surprise, therefore, that many people view it as an unsurprising, normal part of politics. A People Betrayed begins in 1874, with the demise of Spain’s first republic and the foundations of the nineteenth century electoral stitch-up known as the turno pacifico , when ‘politics became an exclusive minuet danced by a small privileged majority.’ Subsequent chapters discuss Spain’s loss of empire in 1898, the ’tragic week’ of 1909 and the country’s missed opportunities during the first world war. All are typically thorough, though it the chapters on Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship from 1923 to 1930 which many will find particularly interesting. Preston recounts how, ushered in on the spirit of ‘regenerationism’ that pledged to make Spain great again, Primo’s regime instead sank to outrageous levels of incompetence and corruption. Monopolies were given to friends and cronies in banking, petroleum, telecommunications, even rodent eradication. Meanwhile four million pesetas were ‘donated’ by the populace to pay for the dictator’s family home. As the descriptions of the dictator’s outrageous corruption and excesses are laid out, it gradually dawns that perhaps twentieth century Spain is not the only issue on the author’s mind. History often tells us as much about the present as the past, as the arguments currently raging over statues and memorialisation amply demonstrate. The author’s descriptions of Primo de Rivera’s boastful, thin-skinned demeanour and his pathetic yarns of macho womanising are strongly reminiscent of a more recent vainglorious blowhard. This parallel is made explicit when Preston notes how the dictator’s tendency to put out triumphalist announcements resonates in Trumps’ midnight twitter tirades. Perhaps Primo’s swift fall from power – with the country in chaos, blaming those around him for his personal and political failings – will find another contemporary echo. IBMT readers will no doubt be on familiar ground when the author turns to the second Spanish republic, the military coup and civil war. However, there is plenty of new material here and, as ever, it’s elegantly done, explaining clearly how the fledgling democratic government faced myriad problems and bitter foes, all at a time of global economic meltdown. Returning to the theme of corruption, Preston reveals how the unscrupulous Mallorcan multi-millionaire Juan March, ‘the sultan of Spain’, utterly perverted the 1933 elections. The ensuing government was so notoriously corrupt that a roulette-fixing scandal directly involving the P.M. Alejandro Lerroux provided the Spanish language with a new term for the black market: el estraperlo . As the author states, it’s obvious that the Republican army was militarily outclassed during the civil war; hardly surprising, given the colossal assistance provided by Mussolini and Hitler. However, Preston reiterates the view of many brigaders (and many others) that the British and French policy of non-intervention played a significant part in the Republicans’ defeat. As Preston argues, ‘More than the losses on the battlefield, the greatest defeat was Munich.’ While corruption, blunders and war profiteering were hardly unknown within the Republican camp, Preston remains sympathetic to the government’s plight, particularly to the efforts of ‘the brilliant’ Juan Negrín (whatever can it be that the author finds to admire in the larger-than-life, liberal, gourmet, university professor?). However, it will come as a surprise to no one that within Franco’s zone, hatred, incompetence and profit ruled. As Franco himself admitted in 1942: ‘our crusade is the only struggle in which the rich who took part in the war emerged richer.’ Once again Juan March’s money played its part, funding not just Captain Bebb’s infamous Dragon Rapide, but as much as ten per cent of the cost of the Nacionales ’ war effort. Naturally, March was amply rewarded during Franco’s ‘kleptocratic state’ which followed. This state sanctioned corruption was, Preston argues, utterly deliberate. Franco ‘turned a blind eye to venality’, because it gave him leverage and kept people loyal. Meanwhile the dictator, who clearly drew no distinction between himself and the country, built up a huge personal fortune, including property, cash, and multiple investments. His family all gorged from the same trough and the avarice of his wife, Doña Carmen, was legendary; Preston recounts how Madrid jewellers shut up shop in panic when they saw her coming. Unfortunately, there is no happy ending to this tale. Preston maintains that, despite the return to democracy in 1977, ‘Forty years of brainwashing guaranteed that Francoist attitudes would survive for decades.’ Incompetence and scandal also persisted: ‘Spain was bedevilled by a level of corruption that involved virtually every institution in the country.’ To this day, political and financial scandals feature regularly in the Spanish media, embroiling politicians of all colours and even the royal family. Sadly the author doesn’t seem optimistic that this will end any time soon; he titles the final chapter, ‘the triumph of corruption and incompetence.’ The observant among you will notice that the book’s cover bears an image taken by the acclaimed Hungarian photographer, Andre Friedmann, better known as Robert Capa. It shows a long line of defeated Spanish Republican soldiers being marched off, not to freedom, nor even safety, but to be incarcerated in grim internment – dare I say concentration – camps in the south of France. Surrounded by barbed wire on three sides and the sea on the other, lacking basic food and shelter, thousands of the Spanish refugees perished. A People Betrayed indeed.