DAILY MAIL (London), April 9, 2001

Following Franco; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Many people joined the communist International Brigades to fight the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. Did anyone volunteer to fight with the fascists?

1. ABOUT 16,000 Germans were encouraged by Hitler to fight for Franco and 5,000 of them fought in the infamous Condor Legion.

Mussolini sent about 70,000 Italians, 4,000 of whom died in the conflict.

Historian Hugh Thomas says Franco was joined by between 2,500 and 5,000 Portuguese and 600 Irishmen under Eoin O'Duffy. Frenchmen fought in the Carlist forces and the Spanish Foreign Legion.

Four Americans are known to have served Franco, and 12 Britons, including the poet Roy Campbell.

And up to 75,000 native soldiers from Spanish Morocco fought in Franco's Nationalist forces, officially as 'volunteers'.

Geoff Parry, Hounslow, Middx.

2. MY LATE grandfather, John Corway, was a pro-Franco volunteer from Ireland.

Most Irish volunteers were not fascists but believed they were serving freedom, democracy and Christianity against the spread of communism. They had no desire for a fascist state in the Nazi sense.

Later, Jews and others fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe fled through Spain and some even sought sanctuary there.

It is said that history is written by the victors, but this doesn't seem to be the case for the Spanish Civil War.

James Casey, Rathmines, Dublin.