The International Brigades consisted of a number of military units formed in 1936 by the Communist International (Comintern) to defend the democratically elected Spanish Republic against the violent uprising of Franco’s Nationalists. With the assistance of the Popular Front (Frente Popular), a coalition of international groups determined to fight fascism in Europe, the International Brigades volunteers entered Spanish territory in October 1936. About 35,000 volunteers representing eighty nationalities fought in the Spanish Civil War, among them where about 2,500 US Americans, 1,800 British, 500 Canadians. A total of five International Brigades units were formed, from the 11th to the 15th brigades.
The 31 men who signed the fan belonged to the 15th Brigade and consisted of volunteers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
For two years, the International Brigades fought against the Spanish Nationalists, including in the major battles of Jarama, Brunete, Teruel, and the Ebro. On September 21, 1938, the Spanish Prime Minister Juan Negrín announced the official departure of the International Brigades. It was Negrín’s final diplomatic effort to force Franco’s Nationalists to turn down the military support they received from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This, however, did not happen and it sealed the military defeat of the Spanish Republic. On October 28, a farewell parade for the international volunteers took place in Barcelona, where Dolores Ibarruri, a Spanish Communist known as La Pasionaria (the passion flower) delivered an impassioned speech to thank the volunteers. About one-third of the American volunteers lost their lives in the war; there was scarcely a volunteer who left without wounds or having suffered from hunger and sickness.
Encyclopedia of Marxism. “Popular Front.”
Marxist Internet Archive. “The Communist International.”
XV International Brigade in Spain
Michael Curtis. “The Return of the International Brigade.” New English Review. 22 March 2022.
Structure of the Brigades
A brigade is a military unit that, on average, consists of three to six battalions. In total, this translates to about three thousand personnel in a brigade. A battalion is a military unit that consists of three hundred to one thousand personnel in total. On average, battalions consist of four to six companies. The International Brigades usually organized battalions based on shared nationality and language among its volunteers. The 15th Brigade had six battalions, and each battalion had four companies. It included several English-speaking battalions (American, Canadian, Irish, and British). Political commissars were present on all levels of organization—brigades, battalions, and companies. They were tasked with the instruction of communist ideology and the enforcement of military and political discipline. How these objectives were approached varied greatly among the individual commissars.
Chris Brooks. “Jarama Series. The Regiments. The Volunteer. 13 July 2016.
Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Battalion)
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade (Battalion) was part of the 15th International Brigade formed in January 1937. The name paid homage to the American President Abraham Lincoln, known for his role in the American Civil War. Several people, like historian Peter Carroll, suggest that the name emphasized the connections between the American Civil War and the Spanish Civil War. It was meant to inspire Americans volunteers to fight in Spain against Franco’s troops.
While this unit is frequently referred to as the Abraham Lincoln “Brigade”— by the volunteers themselves as well as in the literature and in this project—the technically correct name for this military unit made up of volunteers from the United States is the Abraham Lincoln “Battalion.” It should be noted that some American volunteers insisted on calling the unit a “battalion.” For example, Bob Merriman, the American commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, saluted it in his diary with, “Long Live the Lincoln Battalion.”
This project, however, follows the widely accepted terminology of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as the more inclusive term for all the units in which American volunteers served, such as the Medical Bureau and later the Washington Battalion after it had merged with the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.
David Jorge and Sebastiaan Faber. “Naming the Lincoln Battalion.” The Volunteer. 13 March 2016.
William Loren Katz. “The Forgotten Fight Against Fascism.” Zinn Education Project. 10 June 2014.
George Washington Battalion
The George Washington Battalion consisted of American volunteers—with the exception of its leader, Mirko Markovics, a volunteer from Yugoslavia. It was formed in late April 1937 after the battles of Jarama, Malaga and Guadalajara. Markovics was instructed to organize a second English-speaking unit, distinct from the Lincoln Battalion. The Washington Battalion operated under the 15th International Brigade and was majorly involved in the battle of Brunete in the summer of 1937. After Brunete, where it was nearly destroyed, this unit was disbanded and its members transferred to the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.
Chris Brooks. “The making of the Washington Battalion.” The Volunteer. 21 March 2014.
Lincoln-Washington Battalion
Before the Battle of Brunete, International forces trained a new Washington Battalion to help support the Lincoln Battalion, especially after the Lincoln Battalion’s recent battle at Jarama. At the battle of Brunete in July 1937, the 15th International Brigade launched an attack on Mosquito ridge, a key point at the battle of Brunete. Despite repeated assaults, the 15th Brigade was unable to take control of the ridge, suffering heavy casualties. As a result, the Lincoln and Washington Battalions were merged and became known as the Lincoln-Washington Battalion – though it was still often referred to as the Lincoln Battalion.
Anna Martí. “In the footsteps of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion.” The Volunteer. 1 July 2012.
Thälmann Battalion
Many anti-fascist Germans who had escaped Nazi Germany were recruited by the German Communist Party to join the fight in Spain. They formed the Thälmann Battalion, named after the leader of the German Communist Party, Ernst Thälmann. The so-called “Thälmann Brigade” was the unofficial name for the 11th International Brigade. Formally, it consisted of the Thälmann Battalion, the Edgar Andre Battalion, and the Hans Beimler Battalion. It included volunteers of Swiss, Dutch, Austrian, German, and Scandinavian origin. The Thälmann Battalion was present in November 1936 during the battle of Madrid and later participated in the battle of Guadalajara. An estimated 3,000 Germans volunteered with the International Brigades, though not all joined the Thälmann Battalion.
Victor Grossman. “The Last German Volunteer.” The Volunteer. 4 March 2011.
John Simkin. “Thaelmann Battalion.” Spartacus-educational.
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion was formed as an expansion to the 15th Brigade in the summer of 1937 after the Anglo-American battalions—that included Canadians—had faced heavy casualties in the two-week battle of Brunete. Its name came from William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, who had advocated for Canada’s home rule in the early nineteenth century. In 1837, Mackenzie and Papineau had waged their own anti-colonial uprisings in Canada. Nicknamed the “Mac-Paps,” approximately 1,500 Canadian volunteers fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Initially, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion was an English-speaking unit of a roughly equal number of Canadians and U.S. Americans. It came to be viewed as uniquely Canadian when its Canadian contingent significantly increased. Like their fellow American volunteers, many Canadians fought in Spain because of their connections to the Communist Party of Canada and, more broadly, their commitments to antifascism. The Mac-Paps were chiefly involved in the battles of Brunete, Teruel, Gandesa, and the Ebro. About half of the volunteers in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion lost their lives.
Chris Brooks. “Jarama Series; Canadians in the Lincoln Battalion.” The Volunteer. 15 June 2016.
129th Brigade
The 129th International Brigade included members of different countries and was also known as the 129th Mixed Brigade of “Forty Nations Brigade.” The 129th Brigade was the last International Brigade to be formed. Its name is written on the fan, along with the names of the men who signed it. Our project focuses on the experiences of the men that were part of the 129th Brigade anti-tank battery.
Many of these men had been part of the 35th Anglo-American Battery of the 4th Artillery Group under the command of Nathan Budish, with Sidney (“Sid”) Kaufman as its political commissar. Budish had previous experience in the U.S. National Guard. The 35th Battery was one of the international units left in the southern portion of the Republican territory, which the Nationalists had cut in half after reaching the Mediterranean coast in April 1938. The majority of the International Brigades were in the northern half, closer to the French border.
In June 1938, the 35th battery was ordered to merge with another brigade—the Dimitroff—to form what would be called the 129th Brigade. In the fall of 1938, the 129th Brigade withdrew to the city of Valencia. In January 1939, they were transported to Barcelona by boat and from there by train to the village of Cassà de la Selva, where Americans from the 15th Brigade regrouped. The American volunteers from the 129th Brigade joined them, effectively dissolving it as a separate entity.
The former editor of the journal, The Volunteer, Ben Iceland, himself an artillery member of this unit, crafted detailed records of the 129th Brigade, including information about Maurice Hawkins and Frank Madigan. The 35th battery’s political commissar, Sidney Kaufman, also wrote about other signatories of the fan, notably on how John Palu and John Stuivenberg returned to the United States.
Chris Brooks and Liana Katz. “Blast from the Past: Artillery Series. The Volunteer. 7 July 2015.
Chris Brooks. “The Flight by Sidney Kaufman.” The Volunteer. 10 April 2020.
Diversity among American Volunteers
About 70% of the Americans who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War were recent immigrants or their descendants, especially from Europe. Among them we find people from Estonia, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, The Netherlands, and Armenia as well as Jewish and Black Americans (see also our statistics). They had strong alliances with labor and leftist movements in the United States and understood the danger of the rise of fascism in Europe. For them, fascism was an issue of international importance. The American volunteers, like those from other countries, were internationalists at heart. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was the first racially integrated military unit in U.S. history, including a mixed unit led, for the first time, by a black commander.
Not all American volunteers joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Due to their citizenship status or language affiliations, some were assigned to other International Brigades units, such as the Italian Garibaldi Battalion or the German Thälmann Battalion. Hans Maslowski, for example, was assigned to the Thaelmann Battery upon arrival in Spain in 1937, even though he had migrated to the United States in 1927 at age 28.
