Sources
Eugene Downing
[International Brigade volunteers and the Ebro]
The men who left Ireland in the thirties to fight for the Spanish Republic had no tide of popular feeling to sustain them. In other democratic countries, however rightwing their governments may have been, there were the normal democratic forces of the labour movement and liberal middle class opinion from which the active supporters of the Spanish Republic could draw material and moral support.In both Britain and France huge anti-fascist demonstrations were held which indicated how most people felt about the non-intervention policy of their governments – a policy which deprived the Republic of its right to purchase arms to protect itself against Franco’s rebellion.
These sources of encouragement were non-existent in Ireland. A few brave individuals spoke out but their voices were unheard by the people who never had a chance to understand what the war was about, deafened as they were by religious propaganda of the most virulent kind.
Under these circumstances to leave Ireland to join the International brigades was not only a highly conscious political decision but a remarkable act of defiance of the climate of opinion in the country which brought the individuals concerned not only into conflict with the community but in most cases with their own families as well.
On the other hand, the members of O’Duffy’s Brigade, or the Soldiers of Christ as they were called, organised by Blueshirts to assist Franco in smashing the Republic, left Ireland as heroes, canonised in advance as it were. But they returned as a rather bedraggled and quarrelsome crew, many of them having realised that they were no more than pawns in a sordid struggle between ambitious mediocrities in their own country.
In contrast to this shameful blot on Ireland’s reputation as a freedom-loving country there was a continuous Irish presence on the side of the Republic right to the bitter end – both on the battlefield and in Franco’s gaols. Even after the twelfth hour they were still there, symbolically, in the person of ‘the prisoner of Burgos’ Frank Ryan.
The anti-fascists Irish who went to Spain in 1936 and 1937 had the roughest time of all, flung as they were from one battle to another as the need arose. The survivors of the Cordoba battle in December 1936 found themselves shortly afterwards fighting north of Madrid at Las Rosas. In February 1937 they took part in the battle of Jarama. There then followed Brunete, still in the Madrid sector, in July, and Belchite in the Aragon in August of the same year.
In March 1938 the republic suffered a very serious setback in the Aragon area and in April Franco succeeded in reaching Vinaroz, north of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast, and cutting the province of Catalonia off from central Spain.
While holding Franco’s forces along the line of the river Ebro the Government proceeded with the creation of a new Army – the Army of the Ebro. The 15th Brigade had suffered a severe mauling in the Aragon disaster (in which Frank Ryan was captured) but was now re-organised and the gaps filled with new recruits who continued, illegally, to cross the Pyrenees. Together with the other International Brigades, the XVth (comprising the British, Irish, Americans and Canadians) would be part of this new Army of the Ebro.
The small group of Irish who crossed the Pyrenees in March 1938, in time for the last act of the tragedy, were drafted into the re-organised British Battalion, the 57th Battalion of the 15th Brigade. That group, of which I was one, had a much less hectic time than the earlier arrivals. When I say that four months were to pass before we fired a shot in anger the contrast with the situation in which the earlier volunteers were involved will be obvious. Nobody could complain about lack of training before going into action. We could even indulge in the luxury of competing with each other against a stopwatch in stripping down and reassembling the bolt of a rifle. Some of the 1936 arrivals hardly had time to get used to the fell of a rifle.
The main hardship during this training period was the continual feeling of hunger and. For most, the scarcity of cigarettes. We were well aware, of course, that plenty of people in Ireland and Britain were familiar with those sensations without having to go to Spain. On the other hand, the hardship may have been largely imaginary since the general feeling among the members of the Battalion was that they had never been so healthy in all their lives.
Never having been used to high living I had no complaint make about the simplicity of the fare but rather the scarcity. I was quite happy with coffee and dry bread for breakfast, I just wanted more bread.
Eventually the moment arrived for which all the training had been a preparation. This was the re-crossing of the river Ebro and the recapture in two days of territory in which it would take Franco four months to win back at a cost of over 30,000 casualties.
Not being a military expert I have no opinion to express on whether or not it was wise to launch the offensive in the first place. As Matt Busby once said: ‘ I have to pick the team before the match. Everybody else picks it afterwards.’Franco was reported to have welcomed the attack which meant that large republican forces had been committed to a well-defined area with their backs to a river. True enough, it wasn’t the most comfortable place to be in when the counter-offensive got going. However, by that time I had departed from the scene.
My experience of warfare in the sense of direct contact with the enemy was of short duration – although not exactly painless.
On the second day after crossing the river and after minor skirmishes with isolated groups we had advanced to within a short distance of the town of Gandesa. The capture of this key town was vital to the success of the whole operation. But it was impossible to occupy the town without first dislodging the enemy from the hills which formed a natural defensive barrier in front of it. These hills were strongly fortified and the troops well dug in.
We, on the other hand, lay strung out along the top of the Sierra Cabels with some straggly bushes in front of us. How they managed to grow at all in the iron-hard ground is a mystery.
There was no time to do anything about this lack of cover since time was on Franco’s side. Literally every minute that passed, now that the element of surprise was over, meant that the defences were strengthened with more troops, tanks, planes and artillery. The offensive had to be pressed home.
Since Franco’s troops didn’t exactly stand up and wave their arms there was no question of pinpointing a target. It was a matter of banging away at the hill in front of us knowing that eventually we would have to go over the top and endeavour to dislodge the enemy in a frontal assault. Shortly after the commencement of this engagement I became a casualty.There were already dead and dying in the building in the nearby village of Corbera where the wounded were housed preparatory to being brought back to the river and transported to the other side. I won’t attempt to describe this Dante’s inferno. Suffice to say that on the following afternoon 27 July I was in Matero hospital some 100 miles from the battlefront.
This is an indication of the high level of efficiency of the whole operation. Fifty thousand men had to be transported across the one hundred yard wide river against enemy-held territory. In addition, all the supplies necessary to maintain them had to keep crossing in a steady flow. Bridges had to be built to take this traffic. During the hours of daylight Franco’s bombers were up and down the river bombing everything in sight. Bridges had to be rebuilt again and again. Men and supplies continued to come over.
It’s easy to imagine the mass of organisational detail that was involved, the endless possibilities of muddle and administrative confusion and even military disaster. IN the midst of all this a constant stream of wounded had to be brought back over this same river and transported to various hospitals in Catalonia which had been prepared to receive them.
All this was all done. And not just during the initial stages when it could be said that Franco had been taken by surprise, but during the whole period of the battle.
The overwhelming weight of metal which Franco was able to bring to bear led inexorably to the gradual loss by the Republican Army of territory and their eventual retreat back across the river.
With the French frontier closed against the supply of arms to the Republic it was impossible to withstand the subsequent offensive against Catalonia. In a few months it was all over.
In view of the time which has elapsed since these painful events it might be thought possible to look back at them now with a less jaundiced eye but it is still a bitter thought that all the high endeavour of the republican forces came to nothing as a result of the non-intervention policy of Britain and France which had such a disastrous effect on the republic’s ability to defend itself.
Before the end most International Brigadiers had been repatriated. I arrived in Dublin with the last group of Irishmen to return on 21 December 1938. Paddy Duff was the last individual Irishman to get out of Spain - in February 1939.
Although we were aware at the time that Franco’s victory, from a long-term historical point of view, was merely an episode I don’t think any of us expected to have to wait for nearly 40 years for the episode to come to an end. But come to an end it did and Francoism,, with all its works and pomps, has indeed been swept away by the winds of history.
Material by/about Eugene are also available on this site:
There are 2 obituaries available about him:
One by Manus O'Riordan, the other appeared on the Indymedia site.In addition to this letter by Eugene there are a few other pieces written by him now available online.
In September 2000 Eugene was interviewed by Ciaran Crossey and John Quinn about the SCW. Here is Eugene's 5 page authorised version of the notes from that discussion.
A [funny] article about Eugene's street politics in the mid 1930's - Street Journalism.
A letter to the Irish Times about Mattie Ryan, Pandit Nehru and a shooting exhibition.The Plaque on the Wall, a report of a visit back to the hospital in Spain.
Letters from Josefina [about his time in hospital and letters between him and Josefina, one of the nurses.]
A letter to Saothar, the journal of the Irish Labour History Society, about McGregor, the International Lenin School and the SCW
A very funny piece about the moment When I was in Charge.
The Siege of Connolly House. An interesting piece about a siege of the place the CP offices.
A letter to the Irish Times about the catholic church's refusal to allow a funeral service for
IB volunteer Tony Fox.Would anyone who knows of further articles by Eugene please get in touch.
Ciaran Crossey
Belfast, 6th August 2003. cpcrossey@hotmail.com
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