Who were the International Brigades?

The International Brigades were military units made up of anti-fascist volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. They fought against rebel Spanish Nationalist forces, led by General Francisco Franco, with the support of German and Italian forces.

The British and French International Brigades
From the second half of July 1936, coinciding with the military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, about 2.500 British men and women travelled to Spain as volunteers. Their arrival was spaced out until April 1938, reaching monthly maximums in December 1936 and January 1937 with two hundred and 180 British volunteers respectively. Many of them were militants of the Communist Party (British Communist Party), the Young Communist League and the Labour Party. This influx prompted the creation of a battalion, The Tom Mann Centuria, integrated into the 15th Brigade at the end of January 1937.

The 2.500 British volunteers were a small part of a total of 35.000 brigades from 54 countries. With the approval of the Comintern (Communist International) in August 1936, these brigades formed part of the Popular Army of the International Brigade. The largest contingent was the French one, with more than 2.000 volunteers, the majority, workers recruited by the French Communist Party and veterans of the First World War. The writer André Malraux is perhaps the most famous French brigadier who came to Spain. It is precisely his work Hope (L’espoir) which relates, among other events, the experience of the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo. This account correlates with Vincent Doherty's photographs. “I have learnt that life has no value, but also that nothing deserves a life”, Malraux concluded after his time in Spain.

There were British brigadiers at the front line on all the war fronts: Toledo, Madrid, Jarama, Brunete, Guadalajara, Belchite, Aragon, Ebro and Catalonia. Of the contingent of 2.500, about 800 were between 21 and 27 years old, the youngest, 16 and the oldest, 63. The largest group, according to age,was made up 23 year olds, about 160 in total. They came mainly from England (57%), 21% were Scottish, 8% Irish, 6% Welsh, 1% Cypriots and the rest from other countries of the British Empire.

Leaving Spain
At the end of October 1938 , in compliance with the order of the Committee of No Intervention of the Society of Nations, almost all the international volunteers who had survived left Spain and returned to their countries of origin. About 2.000 had died and had been buried.