Here's an attack on my review of Giles Tremlett's book. And here's some evidence, drawn from the best possible source: the Wintringham archive at the Liddell Hart Centre. 1/ Next up Colonel Gal...
international-brigades.org.uk/content/traves…
international-brigades.org.uk/content/traves…
2/ Yes of course Frank Ryan & Jock Cunningham led the battalion forward singing the Internationale but Colonel Gal (János Gálicz) also rallied them & gave orders - it's a one par summary of a 3 day battle! So what's the real issue here...
3/ The real issue is that nobody writing about the International Brigades is allowed to criticise Stalinism. Here's the IBMT "line" on my review (and wait til they read Giles' Book!)...
4/ At issue is the question why was the Spanish Republic defeated: it is a fact that while Mussolini sent 70k+ personnel the Comintern sent 35k, mainly IB volunteers, arms, aircraft etc plus cadres like Gal - all this is clear in the book, and the review...
5/ But Stalinism strangled the revolution. That's what Orwell wrote about. There should be no contradiction between honouring the heroism of the IB volunteers and recording the military/political failures of their commanders.
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