09 October 2012

Franco's International Brigades: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War

From the publisher:

'Foreign volunteers fought on behalf of General Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War for a right-wing cause whose aim was to smash democracy. These assorted adventurers, fascists, and Catholic crusaders were on the winning side, but their role has remained strangely hidden until now. Men from Portugal and Morocco signed on for money and adventure. General Eoin O'Duffy organised 700 Irishmen in a modern Crusade; 500 Catholic Frenchmen fought in the 'Jeanne D'Arc' unit; and thirty British volunteers, including aristocrats and working-class fascists, also took up arms. Romanian Iron Guard extremists died at Majadahonda and an Indian volunteer fought in the fascist militia. There were Russians, Americans, Finns, Belgians, Greeks, Cubans, and many more. Goose-stepping alongside the volunteers were fascist conscripts from Germany and Italy, in training for the next world war. Foreigners, whether unknown individuals like British pilot Cecil Bebb or infamous figures like the German dictator Adolf Hitler, were essential to Franco's victory. Without Bebb who flew General Francisco Franco from the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco in 1936, a journey which was to precipitate the onset of the Spanish Civil War the war would never have started; without Hitler, Franco would never have won.'

11 comments:

Cyprian Korzeniowski said...

I'm hoping the Golden Dawn has need of international brigades soon.

I wouldn't mind helping them clean up the universities:

http://translate.google.gr/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=el&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ethnos.gr%2Farticle.asp%3Fcatid%3D22768%26subid%3D2%26pubid%3D63721340&act=url

Anonymous said...

¡Arriba España!

¡Franco, Franco, Franco!

Anonymous said...

Most views on the subject are so PC.

Do you know of any good books from the "proper" viewpoint?

Hopefully in English.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I'm currently reading Sir Oswald Mosley's memoirs, My Life. It's a bit prosaic and superficial in places, but there are some good portraits of the political situation during those years.

Anonymous said...

Golden Dawn is speaking more in terms of fighting for Europeans in general...rather than just Greeks.


Soxtory said...

Have been trying to get this book at a reasonable price for sometime.

Cameron said...

Looks good, thanks.

Antoine Stumpf said...

It would be easy to dismiss you as a sun-soaked twat. But then I saw this post.

Californio_6th_ gen said...

Well, Franco really was underrated - in my opinion.

Aaron Jeethan said...


I'm a bit late to the party but the book is now available:

http://www.amazon.com/Francos-International-Brigades-Adventurers-Christian/dp/0231704259

and here's an article on foreign volunteers fighting for Franco:

http://www.brightreview.co.uk/ARTICLE-Armed-Tourists.html

Anonymous said...

'Brother against brother' is a better book, this is mainly about Frank Thomas and Peter Keen who fought in Franco's forces, there is a bit about a communist volunteer but the best bits are about the anti-communists.