Robert Hale Merriman – WikiPédia

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Robert Hale Merriman (1908, Eureka – Beginning , Corbera d’Ebré, Spain) is an American academic and militant, an assistant of economics at the University of California (Berkeley). Engaged on the republican side during the Spanish civil war. He was commander of the Abraham Lincoln battalion, was part of the staff of the XV ° International Brigade and died during the retirement according to the nationalist offensive of Aragon.

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Son of a lumberjack on the west coast of the USA, Merriman made several professions to pay his studies at the University of Nevada. He enrolled in the “ROTC” courses (training body for reserve officers) and learned of the handling of weapons.

He obtained a scholarship and continues his economics studies in Berkeley (University of California). Appointed master assistant, he became a friend of Robert Oppenheimer, is part of the left intelligentsia. He wanted to study the socialist economic system, asked for a scholarship, and leaves for Moscow with Marion, his young wife, in 1935.

In 1936 (Merriman was 28 years old), the Spanish civil war broke out, and he decided to engage among the volunteers who will fight fascism alongside the Republicans. He leaves for Valencia.

Debut [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Selon by.b. Coleman [ first ] , “The arrival of Robert Merriman, at the end of January 37, at the training camp for American volunteers from Villanueva [ 2 ] A little more complicated the situation with regard to the command of the Lincoln battalion [ 3 ] . Merriman, 28, a student at the end of the higher education cycle, lecturer at the University of California (Berkeley), arrived in Spain, coming from USSR. He apparently studied the organization of Kolkhozes when his conscience called him in Spain. Some Lincoln brigadists thought that in fact Merriman took courses at the Lenin Institute in order to become one of the chiefs of the PCUSA, and had been placed by the cominetern at the head of the battalion. Others believed that Merriman was a non-communist idealist. In fact, Merriman was closely linked to the PC, and even became a member of the Spanish PC during the war [ 4 ] “.

David G. Gilmore, on the other hand, thinks that Merriman “by participating in the civil war in Spain, sought in short to test himself, to find his truth. Son of a lumberjack on the west coast, large and athletic, Merriman was also by nature an intellectual, animated by the curiosity of a researcher … According to his widow, Merrimann was not communist when he left Moscow for Spain, But was a pre-political idealist. The great American depression and some interesting examples discovered in the USSR before the great Stalinist purge had oriented it towards leftism and activism, but apparently it had not registered in the PC ” [ 5 ]

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Merriman, officially appointed deputy of commander Harris, in fact takes over the direction of Lincoln and, with his experience as a former student of the EOR at the University of Nevada, actively begins to train his men: they are mostly blue-collars (workers, dockers, sailors …) Admittedly used to punching but who have not done military service and have no experience of war and firearms. Merriman develops physical training and practical lessons: steps, progression techniques, camouflage and scrolling in the field. As for the initiation to the handling of war weapons, it turns short: the Lincoln was only endowed with fifty Russian-Nagant rifles Mosin-Nagant 1891 model, with some dilapidated machine guns, and a few boxes of cartridges.

Jarama [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In early February 1937, when the Americans were barely acclimatized and a little trained, a rumor reached them: the nationalists, after having failed to enter Madrid to the north (battles of the University City and Campo Casa) then to the north -Tre (3 unsuccessful assaults against the Coruña road) will attack to the Southeast, on the Rio Jarama, to cut the Madrid-Valencia road; And Lincoln may be called to defense. Most of the 400 (approximately) Americans have not yet fired. The chief of the machine gun section, who has not yet unwinding his weapons, in despair made an ethyl coma when he learns the news.

The peaceful course of the Rio Jarama (here seen from tencia from the old bridge) was the scene of a terrible battle (February 6 to 27, 37) for the possession of the Madrid-Valencia road

The , the generalissime republican José Miaja orders a total counter-offensive, and launches the international brigades in the battle: the 11 It is , twelfth It is , 14 It is And 15 It is Bi (the Lincoln battalion is part of the 15 It is ) will attack.

During the transport of the Lincoln to the front, we stop the trucks and improvise a last minute instruction in shooting: each man tries his rifle by pulling some cartridges in an embankment.

The 37, in the afternoon, Lincolns receive for the first re times the order to get out of the trench and attack [ 6 ] . They advance a little, and are broke by a fire nourished by nationalist machine guns; The survivors are burying and waiting at night to return to the trench. Assessment: 20 dead and 40 injured.

The , in the middle of the day, the “General Gal” (János Gálicz) orders the Lincoln to set up the Pingarrón assault, an eminence strongly held by the nationalists, but without strategic interest, and obviously impregnable by infantrymen. Merriman calls on this abstrusal order to Vladimir ćopić. Ćopić does not give a counter-order. Without preparation for artillery, without support of tanks or planes, in the absence of Spanish troops which had to support them, the Lincoln leave the trenches, and are broke by nationalist machine guns. The Americans are trying to move forward, then are planted on the ground and bury themselves. At night, out of the approximately 400 men who had come out, only a hundred returned unscathed [ 7 ] .

Lincoln, rebellious by this massacre [ 8 ] Be dismissal, seek those responsible to take revenge. Merriman, seriously injured in the arm, is hospitalized [ 9 ] , The following days, the Lincoln calm down, are reorganized: an officer appreciated by men, Martin Hourihan, takes command, helped by George Montague Nathan, whose courage during attacks amazed men [ ten ] . Later, when Hourihan falls ill, it was the African-American non-commissioned officer Oliver Law who is appointed to the head of the Lincoln battalion (an unprecedented fact since the end of the Civil War: a black command of American soldiers). Furthermore, after Jarama’s disaster, the PCUSA (which does not publicize in the USA the disaster and the consecutive demoralization in the troop) urgently sends trusted men to take the Americans in hand: among them Sandor Voros, Dave Doran (born David Dransky) and Steve Nelson (Activist) (in) (born Stjepan Mesarosh), who will become political commissioners.

Merriman’s wife Marion arrives from Moscow; She treats her husband during her convalescence and holds an administrative position at the staff.

After the Battle of Jarama (6– 37), the front stabilizes on a line of forts and trenches dug on both sides; He will remain relatively calm until the end of the war, but his guard will immobilize many republican troops.

Brunette [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

After spending 4 months in the trenches on the Jarama, the Lincoln are sent to the west of Madrid in the Brunette Battle: Les Républicains launch this offensive both for reasons of international political prestige and to loosen the Francoist vintage around Madrid and disturb the nationalist attack on the north.

The Lincolns received the reinforcement of a newly formed American battalion, the “George Washington”. On the second day of the battle, the Americans took Villanueva de la Cañada after hard fights in the hot heat of the Castilian summer. On the other hand they fail, and lose many men, before the nationalist positions of “Mosquito Ridge” (at Villaviciosa de Odon).

Commander Oliver Law is killed the . The losses of the Americans are such that the still valid workforce of the Lincoln battalion and the Washington battalion are merged ( 1937). Merriman having been appointed to the XV ° BI staff, Mirko Markovic takes the head of Lincoln-Washington [ 11 ] .

Taragosse offensive [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

At the end of August 1937, the Republican government decided to attack Zaragosse, the nervous center of nationalist positions in Aragon, in order to divert the enemy from its attack on Santander. Saragosse, apparently poorly defended, is indeed an interesting objective for the Republicans, but their attack will flush out on several fortified small towns which act as outposts, and stop a few kilometers from the capital of the Aragon.

When the taking of Zaragoza has obviously become impossible, the Lincoln-Washington distinguished themselves by making themselves masters of 2 small towns: Quinto, and Belchite ( first is At 37). Faced with the fierce resistance of defenders, “requests” Carlists and phalangists, the Americans now experienced know how to use the field and become specialists in street combat and body-to-body. In addition, they have been equipped with the Russian-1928 model machine gunner, the DEGTYAREV DP 28 (which resists heat and dust well), use their anti-tank guns against concrete walls to force the passage. Commissioner Steve Nelson efficiently seconds Merriman on the ground, shows the qualities of chef and tactician [ twelfth ] , and the losses of the Americans, although high, are relatively less important than on the Jarama and in Brunette. Steve Nelson is injured [ 13 ] And replaced by Dave Doran. Doran, he will endeavor to exercise his function of political commissioner with rigor: the indiscipline of the Americans, more attached to the courage than to the respect of the rules stated by the Party [ 14 ] , binds it.

Before the Zaragosse campaign ended with stabilization of the front, the Lincoln-Washington attended the disaster that was the republican attack on Fuentes del Ebro ( 37): Americans had to arrive in 2 It is Wave after fast 5 Russian BT tanks carrying Spanish assault troops opened their way to them. But the incoordination of the operation is total: the Russian tanks (they are not equipped to transport the infantrymen, who fall from the tanks) arrived from the rear cross at high speed the republican trenches of first re Line, whose occupants, who have not been warned, open fire to them, are crushed. Then the tanks rush into a plain whose irrigation channels were opened by nationalists; They kiss, seek to go back. The infantrymen must go to their rescue. Review: more than 300 dead (especially among the North American brigadists of the new Mackenzie-Papineau battalion) and 19 lost 48 tanks [ 15 ] .

After the destruction caused in September 37 by artillery, aviation and street fighting, the ruins of Belchite (Aragon) remained in the order of the order of leader Franco. We see the bell tower which served as a shooting station for nationalist snipers. In the years 1940-1950 the city was fully rebuilt at some distance by prisoners of a neighboring concentration camp.

Two weeks after the first re Battle of Belchite, Merriman visits the ruins of the city in Marion, his young woman. Half a century later, Marion describes in his book of souvenirs (see the chapter “Bibliography”) this visit, which precedes his departure for the USA: Robert sends him to make a fundraising tour in favor of the Spanish Republic (in fact he shelters it). “We are walking in the ruins, and while Bob explains the course of the battle to me, the shadows lie down in the surrounding fields. Here has fallen one of our best machine gunners; next to this Burt wall was killed; Here is the tomb of Danny; here fell Sidney, the ball of a sniper touched him between the eyes; here was injured Steve Nelson. Certainly our losses were few, but it was the best and the most loved by our men. We follow a small factory, and huge sewer rats are saved in a gutter near the road. They are as big as cats. Although 2 weeks have passed, the smell of burnt flesh Still floats in the air, disgusting in the freshness of the evening. Although they are much more numerous than us, the fascists did not deal with their corpses. They left hundreds of rotten bodies piled up in several buildings. We Let’s go through the streets strewn with debris, and the impression of desolation and death increases. Abandoned cats wander, hungry, and snarling dogs scream and fight at the bottom of the black and narrow streets. The full moon shines when we arrive at the cathedral, in the center of the city. On its worn steps drag a red and white phalangist flag, and lower a cassock, perhaps lost there by a priest on the run. In the square, there is enough light so that Bob and I can read the posters still glued to the ruined walls: they describe the horrors of Marxism, and not those of the war triggered by a small group of fascists. I notice posters that enjoin modest driving to young women: they must wear skirts and long sleeves, because it is the woman who encourages man to sin. There are no posters promising democracy. ” [ 16 ] “.

Teruel Battle [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Lincoln, included in the 35 It is Division of General Walter, only in play in one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war (140,000 losses in total) only from the 37: The Spaniards (both Francist and Republicans) make the taking and conservation of this small capital in the southern province of the Aragon a matter of national honor. The Siberian cold (-18 °) and the snow of this exceptional winter further increases the sufferings of the combatants of the 2 edges [ 17 ] , despite the visits to celebrities on the front: Ernest Hemingway, African-American singer Paul Robeson, Clement Attlee (future British Prime Minister), etc. on the republican side.

After an abominable siege, Teruel falls into the hands of the Republicans, then was taken up by the nationalists. The Americans are pushed out of Teruel and resist in the neighboring hills (El Muletón), then on the Alfambra river, where they are the core of a pocket of resistance. When the Alfambra pocket is swept by nationalists ( defeat of alfambra ), decimated Americans fall back on Segura from Los Baños and Vivel del Río Martín.

However Franco, who has taken over Teruel, the only important city that the Republicans have won, leaves Italian aviation the task of bombing the civilian population of Barcelona (and other big cities) and prepares a large spring offensive.

Franco offensive in Aragon. Merriman death [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The 1938, surviving Americans are confined to relative tranquility (their workforce was completed with young Spanish conscripts, which they supervise) when three Franquis armies attack en masse on the front between the Ebre and Vivel del Río Martín. Republican troops are quickly overwhelmed and dismiss ( Retired from Aragon ). The Lincoln battalion gathers in Belchite, and defends itself hard in the ruins and around (second battle of Belchite). THE , crushed by the tanks and enemy aviation, they are forced to win, and fold along the Ebro valley.

The , in the vines near Corbera del Ebro, while with the men who have Merriman left him seeks to join Gandesa, he is surrounded by the nationalists, and killed with his lieutenant, Edgar James Cody.

We have long wondered about the exact circumstances of Merriman’s death: he could have been taken prisoner, then be liquidated immediately, or later in a concentration camp. One of his young Spanish soldiers, Fausto Villar, from Valencia, revealed that he had attended his death: “Merriman was at the head of his battalion, while all the other officers had abandoned their men: the American had chosen to stay with them, at the risk of being killed, as unfortunately happened. (…) The enemies were at the bottom of a sloping vine, where we were trying (without success) to hide to escape the continuous gusts of machine guns. I called Merriman and Cody, I cried their names, but they didn’t answer. Their bodies were motionless, lying in the furrows between the vine feet, a few meters from me ” [ 18 ] .

The Sierra de Pandols, seen here since the 705 coast, dominates Gandesa. It was the place of fierce struggles between nationalists and Republicans towards the end (August and September 38) of the Battle of the Ebre. Americans resisted Coast 666

The surviving English -speaking brigadists at the nationalist offensive in Aragon will still participate in the last big belligerent start in the Republic: the battle of the Ebreal. THE 38 They cross the Ebrest to attack the nationalist positions. When, under the command of Milton Wolff the Lincoln returned to Corbera, (before being nailed to the Sierra de Pandols by aviation and Francoist artillery), they seek the remains of their leader, and find nothing. Their last fight will take place on 38: Prime Minister Negrin announced the 23rd to the League of Nations that the Spanish Republic thanks the brigadists, who will be repatriated. And the 38 The news of the Munich agreements falls: fascism triumph. Many English speakers will still be killed during the crossing of the Ebre: only 150 Americans will survive.

In 1987 Toni Orensanz described Merriman (probably according to an old photo): “Dressed in reed soles and panties, a coat, a flat cap and round glasses” [ 19 ] . He was very large (“he exceeds Hemingway of several inches” noted his wife), athletic, and yet an intellectual obviously, with his round glasses in Myopus. Orensanz adds: “In his capacity as chief of staff of the XV ° International Brigade, Bob Merriman has known universal intellectuals and writers, like Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell and John Kenneth Galbraith [ 20 ] “His wife Marion held an administrative position in the staff of the staff, and the young couple had to bring a note of freshness in the austere atmosphere of the brigades.

Fifty years later, Marion described the visit that the Merriman made in Hemingway and John Dos Passos, who then stayed at the Florida hotel, in the beautiful neighborhoods of Madrid.

In Madrid, the “Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas” (nicknamed “La Monumental”), in a neo-Mudéjar style, inaugurated in 1931, sits in the Guindalera district

“We are entering the car in Madrid, and we pass first in front of the large arenas: Moresque architecture, stolen from superimposed arcades, dark ocher with beautiful Azulejos, columns. It’s magnificent, I thought. By by Elsewhere, the entrance to Madrid resembles that of all the major industrial cities. After crossing the factories crown, we arrive in the beautiful neighborhoods.

“Even under the bombing, Madrid is wonderful!”, I told Bob. Even the blocks of buildings ripped by bombs do not take their air of dignity with large boulevards bordered by modern trees and buildings.
But the scene changes quickly: while we descend a large boulevard, we hear gunshots. Detonations are getting closer. “This is a machine gun” says Bob. The machine guns crackle, perhaps a few blocks from there, I am not sure. Then it is the boom of the cannon, and the reality of Madrid at war is imposed on me. The shell falls at some distance, and a building collapses, reduced to rubble and dust. We run in the street, staying near the buildings. The horror of the war penetrates me. I am terrified.

When we enter the Florida hotel, I tremble with all my body. We go up directly upstairs where Hemingway is housed. Bob calms me, then knocks on the door. “Hello. I am Merriman” said Bob to Hemingway who, impressive but friendly, opens the door. “I know,” said Hemingway. Bob presents me, and the writer warmly welcomes me. Then Hemingway and Bob start to talk about the war and the show they have in the project. John Dos Passos and Josephine Herbst arrive, and also a group of Americans, brigadists and war correspondents, who drink Hemingway scotch and compare their notes. I collapse in an old armchair: my legs cut by what I experienced outside. I study Bob and Hemingway. They get along well. Each of the two speaks for a while, then listen to the other. That they are different, I thought. Bob is 28 years old, Hemingway at least 10 years older. Hemingway seems complex to me. He is tall, strong, macho. He does not give the impression of being a fanfaron, but he looks sure of himself, and makes him think that he will ultimately lead what he undertakes.

Bob is larger than hemingway, he exceeds him by several inches. They are examining, each has round glasses, those of Bob circled with scales, those of steel hemingway. Hemingway is animated, he agitates his hands by asking questions, scratches his thick black hair when he is perplexed, he darkens, then, when something entertains him, he laughs with a deep laugh. He wears a woolen vest, high buttoned, and a dark tie, with a defeated knot. Bob is shaved closely. Hemingway has a 2 -day beard, it does not seem to be being pushed his beard, his harsh hair invades his cheeks and his chin. It seems that he slept little last night. He has a big scar on the forehead, probably the trace of a fight [ 21 ] . Hemingway and Bob sip their tape. Someone offers me to drink, and I have never been so happy to have a glass of whiskey. Even in the middle of this relatively secure room, I’m afraid. I cannot chase the total madness of war with my mind. Bob and Hemingway continue to speak together, and everything that differentiates them jumps out. When we see Bob, we immediately think that he is an intellectual, while Hemingway is an intellectual, but by seeing him we think he is an adventurer. Bob gives the impression of being rather an observer, and Hemingway a man of action.

I am fascinated by Passos Dos, I always thought he was writing better than Hemingway. John Dos Passos is certainly an excellent chronicler of war; But he does not impress me as a man. I find it undecided. I do not understand everything he says, but his message is clear: for reasons unknown to me, he has only one desire, to leave [ 22 ] . Far from Hemingway’s room, far from Madrid shaken by the bombs.

I too am afraid, and with reason. But Dos Passos drives strangely, as if fear was not alone in waving it. According to his uncertainty, the expressions of his face, one can deduce that he thinks that the cause of the Republic is lost, given the material superiority of Franco. He criticizes the Republic, for which Americans fight and die [ 23 ] . Hemingway, on the contrary, clearly lets you know, by his presence and his writings, on which side he is. He revealed to the world how we murdered Madrid, how fascists bomb children. He spoke of “cries of children when they are touched. We have a taste as soon as the child sees planes and screams” ¡Aviación! “Some children, however, do not cry when they are affected – until they are mobilized” [ 24 ] .

Is it during this evening with the Merriman that Hemingway developed his characters, the heroes of his novel for whom the Glas sounds: Robert Jordan, the young Spanish teacher from America to fight alongside the Spanish Republicans, And her mistress Maria?

  1. ↑ The following chapter is translated-resumed by E.B. Coleman’s work: Some men put up their lives (see bibliography)
  2. ↑ Harry Fisher, an American BI veteran remembers: “BI training camps were in small towns around Albacete. The Americans (from my contingent) went to Madrigueras (” Les Lantes “), and we are Awarded an empty warehouse as a barracks “(” The Small Towns Surrounding Albacete Were Used by the International Brigades for Training Purposses. The Americans Went to Madrigueras, where we Barracked in an Unused Warehouse “). In Harry Fisher Comrades, tales of a brigadista in the spanish civil war , University of Nebraska Press, (ISBN  9780803220065 ) , p. thirty first
  3. ↑ Coleman explained above that the American Communist Party (PCUSA) wanted to appoint the military leaders of the troops himself (like political leaders, the commissars , who had the step on the soldiers); THE first is Commander of the Americans in Spain chosen by the PCUSA was a certain James Harris, ex-starkeeper of the American army, with skills more than limited and unloved by men. In addition, the Americans, few at the beginning and suspected of killing and individualism by André Marty and his assistants, had been confined to away villages (Tarrazona, Villanueva) and in more than Spartan conditions
  4. ↑ according Some men put in their lives from E.B. Coleman, p. 39-40
  5. ↑ “he was seeking some kind of personal testing and certitude in the Spanish war. Merriman, the son of a West Coast lumberjack, was tall and athletic, a natural intellectual with a searching curiosity. His wife, Marion, paints a deeply admiring and loving portrait of this enigmatic adventurer, who remains, despite her warm recollections, disturbingly vague. Merriman was not a Communist when he left Moscow for Spain, according to his wife, but a prepolitical idealist. The Depression and some positive experiences in Russia before the Stalinist purges turned him leftward and toward activism, but he apparently never made a formal commitment to the Communist Party.” In Casualties of a Pure War , David D. Gilmore; The New York Times , June 8, 1986 https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/08/Books/casualties-of-a-pure-war.html
  6. ↑ The English expression is “to go over the top”. She is well illustrated by a painting by John Nash, painted 18 years before the Battle of Jarama (see File:NashOverTheTop.jpg ). On the Jarama, the snow of February 37 was hardly abundant, it was rather icy rain; The Lincoln will however meet these conditions at Christmas 38, during the Battle of Teruel
  7. ↑ selon EB Coleman, Some men put in their lives , p. 43-44 . Coleman notes in his work the differences in the evaluation of Lincoln’s losses in Jarama according to the sources. Sandor Voros, a communist activist Special Pcusa, (and therefore little suspected of having undervalued the losses) noted: “153 dead out of 377 fighters on February 27” (not to mention the injured). This huge losses rate explains the mutiny and the desertions of American brigadists in the following days. Coleman adds p. 44 (References to support): “Gal and André Marty are disgusted, and see justified the bad opinion they have of Americans”.
  8. ↑ In Jarama, during the attack on February 27, 37, the Irish activist, activist and poet Charles Donelly, one of the chiefs of the Connolly column, was killed. British sculptor Jason Gurney seriously injured in the right hand, will be repatriated.
  9. ↑ According to WP’s article english “Spanish Civil War, 1937”, § “FEBRUARY 27”: “After this disaster, COPIC, the head of poor preparation of the attack, refuses to see Robert Merriman, the chief of the battalion Lincoln, who was injured”
  10. ↑ According to Copeman, Fred: Reason in Revolt , 1948. Blandford Press, p. 82
  11. ↑ In his memories, the veteran Harry Fisher writes: “A week after the start of the brunette offensive, the Lincoln and Washington battalions were merged. The 2 battalions had had big losses, and only 550 men left in all. Mirko Markovic was appointed commander. ” (“About a Week after we started the brunette offensive, the Lincoln and the Washington Both Joined Forces. Both Battalions Had Suffered Heavy Casualties, Leaving Only About 550 Men to make up the New Lincoln-Washington Battalion. Mirko Markovic Was Named Order” .). In Harry Fisher: Comrades, tales of a brigadista in the spanish civil war , University of Nebraska Press (ISBN  9780803220065 ) , p. sixty seven
  12. ↑ During the attack on the fortified city of Belchite, the shooting of the nationalist snipers harass the Americans. Merriman orders to take the church, where many snipers have posted. But, out of the 22 men who attack the church, only 2 come back. Hans Amlie refuses to send a 2CD squad to the massacre. Steve Nelson then notices a warehouse away, he crosses it, crosses it and leads a diversion attack against the Church, which is then taken, and the Lincoln-Washington enter Belchite. Translation-American of “Spartacus Educational” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/splincoln.htm
  13. ↑ Steve Nelson, a political commissioner who had been able to be appreciated by American brigadists, has several injuries in Belchite. (Cf Harry Fisher, Comrades, tales of a brigadista in the spanish civil war , p. 83 ). After being operated on, he will, during his convalescence and before his return to the USA, serve (according to the WP article english “Steve Nelson (Activist)”) from Guide to VIPs who come to visit the theater of operations and support the cause: John Bernard, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway
  14. ↑ The time (after the days of May 37 in Barcelona) and the place (northeast of Spain) are the scene of a repression of Spanish anarchism by the Stalinians, for whom “Trotskyism” remains good Also understood a obsession. Note that during the starting parade of the brigadists, on October 25, 38 in Barcelona, ​​the only American who died for the Spanish Republic mentioned on the banners was Steve Doran, disappeared during the “Retirada de Aragón”. Yet nearly 1,000 American brigadists died in Spain, out of the approximately 3,000 who fought
  15. ↑ According to the site La Columna.org.uk: http://www.lacolumma.org.uk/lacolumma_files/Cliveden%202006/fuentes%20del%20Bro-%20the%20last%20gasp%20Of%20the%20aragon%20Offenseive.pdf
  16. ↑ “As Bob explained the battle to me, walking through the town’s ruins, the shadows lengthened across the empty fields nearby. Here one of our best machine-gunners fell, beside that wall Burt was killed, there was Danny’s grave, here Sidney fell, a sniper’s bullet between his eyes, there Steve Nelson was wounded. Our losses were actually very low, but they included some of the best and most loved of our men.
    As we passed a little factory, huge sewer rats scurried into a drain beside the road. They were as large as cats. Even though it was two weeks later, the smell of burned flesh still hung faint and nauseating in the cool dusk. Their forces far outnumbered ours, but the fascists had not even attempted to dispose of their dead. They had left hundreds of decaying corpses stacked in various buildings.
    As we passed through the debris-filled streets, the air of desolation and death deepened. Homeless cats scuttled about, hungry, and dogs howled and fought bitterly down the blackness of narrow streets. The full moon was bright by the time we reached the cathedral in the center. Across its worn stone steps limply lay a purple and white Falangist banner. Further down was a priest’s cassock, perhaps shed in flight.
    Only the square admitted enough light for Bob and me to read the fascist posters still stuck to broken walls, posters depicting the horrors of Marxism rather than the horrors of the war that a small group of fascists had started. I noticed there were posted rules for the modesty of young women, rules requiring long skirts and long sleeves, saying sin is woman’s because she tempts man. There were no posters promising a government for all of the people.” In Merriman, Marion : American Commander in Spain: Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (1986)
  17. ↑ The executions for refusal of obedience were numerous on both sides, the affair of the 53 republican soldiers shot for the example in Mora de Rubielos (January 20, 38) remaining famous
  18. ↑ “Merriman was at the head of the battalion when all the controls had abandoned their combatants, preferring the American military to leave the controls and accompany the men of the Lincoln battalion to die with them if necessary, as unfortunately happened … … the enemy troops They were at the bottom of a vineyard hillside after which we were uselessly taken refuge from the constant shots of the machine guns. I called Merriman and Cody, I shouted at them, but they did not answer. His bodies were motionless next to the grooves of the vineyards, a few meters from me. ” Extrait d’Allass of the avant-garde du 5-4-1987 Sur Robert Merriman: “Fold the bells. The brigadista who inspired Hemingway died 60 years ago in Gandesa” (“Le Glas Sonne. Le Brigadiste Qui A Inspired Hemingway Est Mort il and 60 an anx à gandesa “) par toni orensanz. ‘ http://www.guerracivil.org/diaris/980405vang.html » ( Archive.org • Wikiwix • Archive.is • Google • What to do ?)
  19. ↑ “Dressed with cane boots, mount pants, coat, plate cap and round glasses.” In the avant-garde du 5-4-1987: The bells bend. The brigadista who inspired Hemingway died 60 years ago in Gandesa ‘ http://www.guerracivil.org/diaris/980405vang.html » ( Archive.org • Wikiwix • Archive.is • Google • What to do ?) . The misery of the republican army was great. A photo of Merriman in higher officer uniform is seen on http://dlib.nyu.edu/albaimages/11_0634s.jpg
  20. ↑ “As Chief of the General Staff of the 15th International Brigade, Bob Merriman met writers and intellectuals as universal as Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell and John Kenneth Galbraith.” Voir Références Note Supra.
  21. ↑ This big scar beam on the front (and Hemingway hated it questioning it on this subject) is due to the fall of a vasistas, in Paris, in the 1920s: Hemingway had confused the chain of vasistas with that of the hunting
  22. ↑ See Hotel Florida (Madrid) and José Robles Pazos articles
  23. ↑ Hemingway has also widely criticized certain corrupt or ineffective leaders of the Republic and the brigadists: see its articles, and in for whom the Tirade Tirade sounds against the generalissime José Miaja, the “enemies of the people”, etc. Those who find it thanks to Hemingway’s eyes: General Walter, Lukacz (Maté Zalka), Hans Kahle, Gustavo Durán, and Mikhail Koltsov.
  24. ↑ in Marion Merriman, American Commander in Spain: Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (1986)
    voir Spartacus Educational : http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/wmerriman.htm

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