Our Fathers Fought Franco by Willy Maley sampler
resonant piece of working class history, this book is a living link to four extraordinary stories. Why did these young men put their lives on the line and go to Spain to fight with the International Brigades? How did they all end up in the same prison cell? And what is their legacy today? James Maley, George Watters, Donald Renton and Archibald Williams were members of Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the XV International Brigade. This is the first book to focus on a small group of men who, from different starting-points, ended up on the same battleground at Jarama, and then in the same prisons after capture by Franco’s forces. Their remarkable story is told both in their own words and in the recollections of their sons and daughters, through a prison notebook, newspaper reports, stills cut from newsreels, interviews, anecdotes and memories, with a foreword by Daniel Gray. Our Fathers Fought Franco is a collective biography that promises to add significantly to the understanding of the motives of those who ‘went because their open eyes could see no other way’.
resonant piece of working class history, this book is a living link to four extraordinary stories. Why did these young men put their lives on the line and go to Spain to fight with the International Brigades? How did they all end up in the same prison cell? And what is their legacy today?
James Maley, George Watters, Donald Renton and Archibald Williams were members of Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the XV International Brigade. This is the first book to focus on a small group of men who, from different starting-points, ended up on the same battleground at Jarama, and then in the same prisons after capture by Franco’s forces.
Their remarkable story is told both in their own words and in the recollections of their sons and daughters, through a prison notebook, newspaper reports, stills cut from newsreels, interviews, anecdotes and memories, with a foreword by Daniel Gray.
Our Fathers Fought Franco is a collective biography that promises to add significantly to the understanding of the motives of those who ‘went because their open eyes could see no other way’.
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Timeline<br />
1931<br />
14 April Second Spanish Republic proclaimed.<br />
1936<br />
16 February In Spain the Popular Front wins elections.<br />
10 May Manuel Azaña becomes President.<br />
17 July A military uprising in Spanish Morocco is followed next<br />
day <strong>by</strong> a rising in Spain, signalling the start of Civil War,<br />
with <strong>Franco</strong> leading the Army of Africa.<br />
4 August Anglo-French Non-Intervention Treaty signed.<br />
4 September Popular Front government formed with Republicans,<br />
Socialists and Communists.<br />
Four anarchist ministers join the Popular Front government<br />
23 October Rome–Berlin Axis signed.<br />
8 November Arrival of International Brigades in Madrid.<br />
The battle begins for control of Madrid, with <strong>Franco</strong> aiming<br />
to effect a siege.<br />
27 December The Saklatvala Battalion – later the British Battalion – comes<br />
into being.<br />
1937<br />
11 January British Government confirms that under the Foreign<br />
Enlistment Act it is illegal to recruit or volunteer for service<br />
in Spain on either side.<br />
6 February Battle of Jarama begins.<br />
8 February Málaga falls to <strong>Franco</strong>’s forces.<br />
9 March <strong>Franco</strong> issues an order that all foreigners captured with arms<br />
will be executed.<br />
26 April The Luftwaffe bomb Guernica, the heart of the Basque<br />
region.<br />
3–9 May Republicans and Communists suppress an anarchist and<br />
Trotskyist rising in Barcelona.<br />
19 June <strong>Franco</strong> takes Bilbao.<br />
6 July Republican counter-offensive at Brunete.<br />
16
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