Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations
Welcome to 'Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations,' the podcast where we analyze and look at the events, people and actions that have shaped the nations of our world . From revolutions to treaties, conflicts to triumphs, we explore the historical blueprints that continue to influence the way nations think and act today.
Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations
The Spanish Civil War: The World Comes To Spain (Part 6)
Could a handful of idealists really change the course of history? This episode of Double Helix Blueprint of Nations takes you on a gripping journey back to 1936, as we uncover how the Spanish Civil War became a global battleground for ideologies. From the dusty streets of Barcelona, volunteers from 52 nations, driven by ideological zeal and personal circumstance, united to confront the rising tide of fascism. With the Axis powers, Germany and Italy, experimenting with their military might on Spanish soil, the stakes were undeniably high.
Twitter: @HistoryHelix
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Doublehelixhistory
Instagram: History_Helix
Email: DoubleHelixHistorypodcast@gmail.com
Have feedback? Send us a Text and Interact with us!
Picture a dusty road outside Barcelona, september 1936. A column of men is marching towards the front. They wear a mix of civilian clothes and partial uniforms. Their weapons are equally mismatched Hunting rifles next to Great War surplus Italian guns next to Soviet rifles. But most striking are their voices French, english, german, american, polish, italian A babble of languages united in song. Among them walks a young German named Ludwig Renn. Just three years ago he was an officer in the German army. Now he is marching to fight against soldiers trained in German military doctrine, supported by German planes and tanks. In his pocket is a letter he hasn't mailed yet. Dear Mother, it begins you won't understand why I'm here, but I've seen what fascism did to Germany. Spain is where we must stop it.
Speaker 1:200 miles away, in a villa outside Salamanca, another German is writing his own letter. Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, commander of the Condor Legion, reports to Berlin. The laboratory conditions here are perfect. Every military theory can be tested, every new weapon evaluated. Spain has become our proving ground. And high above them both, a young American named Frank Tinker pilots his Soviet-built I-16 fighter, scanning the skies for German Messerschmitts. In his cockpit is a crumpled newspaper article about the US Neutrality Act. Next to it is his contract with the Spanish Republican Air Force, paying him $1,500 per month, plus $1,000 for every enemy plane shot down. As he would later write, I came for the money, I stayed for the cost.
Speaker 1:You know how they say you can't understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. Well, I'd argue you can't understand a nation until you've walked through its history, not just the highlight reel or the sanitized version you find in textbooks. I mean really getting into its DNA, those defining moments that shaped everything that came after, those moments where paths were chosen, where decisions were made in palaces and backrooms and city streets that changed the course of millions of lives. I'm your host, paul, and this is Double Helix Blueprint of Nations, where we unravel the genetic code of countries through their most transformative moments. Think of it like ancestry testing, but for entire nations. We dig deep into the historical DNA, finding those crucial moments that made countries who they are today. Before we continue today's story, if you've been following our journey through Spain's Civil War and are finding value in these stories, please take a moment to rate and review Double Helix wherever you get your podcasts. Your support helps other history enthusiasts discover these important stories and, honestly, it helps me justify to my family why I spend so much time reading old war diaries and archives and all kinds of history books. Anyway, we're going to take a little bit of a detour in our story today because we're going to talk about an important aspect of the Spanish Civil War, so we're kind of breaking off with the timeline a little bit, but I think it's a valuable story and a valuable part of the narrative of why the Spanish Civil War matters so much.
Speaker 1:One of the most striking things about studying the Spanish Civil War is how it became a magnet for people from all over the world. Spain in 1936 wasn't just a country torn apart by internal conflicts. It was essentially history's deadliest international conference where everyone brought their own weapons instead of business cards. Let me take you to Paris in August 1936. In a crowded office near Gare du Nord, a young British woman named Nan Green was filling out forms Previous military experience None Political affiliation. Communist Party. Reason for volunteering she pauses at this one Reason for volunteering. She pauses at this one.
Speaker 1:In her memoir she would later write how do you explain that you are leaving your children behind because you believe that if fascism isn't stopped in Spain, it will eventually come for them in England. Not exactly the kind of excuse note most parents would write, but this was the kind of choice thousands were making In 52 countries. People from all walks of life were deciding that Spain's fight was their fight. They came from everywhere Coal miners from Wales, stock workers from Marseille, intellectuals from New York, factory workers from Hamburg. Many had never even fired a gun, some had never left their home countries before. But they came, creating what must have been the world's most diverse and probably worst-trained army in history.
Speaker 1:The numbers tell part of the story. Approximately 35,000 men and women from different countries joined the international brigades to fight for the Republic. But behind each number was a personal tale. Take Bill Bailey, an American seaman who jumped ship in Hoboken and made his way to Spain. In his diary he described his first sight of Barcelona the city was alive with revolution, red and black flags everywhere, working people in charge. I thought this is worth fighting for, though I imagined worth dying for wasn't in the original travel brochure.
Speaker 1:But while idealistic volunteers were streaming in to help the Republic, other foreigners were arriving more discreetly. German and Italian advisors were setting up offices in nationalist Spain. Hitler and Mussolini had recognized the opportunity that Spain presented a chance to test their military theories, train their officers and evaluate their latest weapons. You might call it the world's deadliest production testing program. The scale of the Axis intervention was massive. By the end of 1936, italy had sent 50,000 quote-unquote volunteers, organizing into the Corpo Truppe Voluntaria, though I suspect real volunteers don't usually arrive with their own artillery divisions. Germany had deployed the Condor Legion with its latest aircraft, and both nations were sending tanks, artillery and military advisors, because nothing says not officially involved like sending an entire air force.
Speaker 1:The human stories from the nationalist side are much harder to come by. Their records were more closely guarded. But we do have letters of Italian soldiers, like Giuseppe Coppo to his family. They told us we were coming to fight communism, he says, but these Spanish towns were bombing. They remind me of our village, the people. They look just like us. Sometimes I wonder if this is what they meant by heroic warfare.
Speaker 1:The Republic's response to this intervention came primarily from the Soviet Union. Stalin's motivations were complex. He wanted to support the fellow leftist government, but he also saw Spain as a way to fight fascism without directly confronting Hitler. Soviet aid began arriving in October of 1936. Tanks, planes and military advisors. With them came another kind of advisor, nkvd agents, who would exert increasing control over Republican politics. As one Republican officer dryly noted, our Soviet friends brought us weapons to fight fascism and commissars to fight everyone else.
Speaker 1:But perhaps the most fascinating international aspect of the war was what was happening in London. There, the Non-Intervention Committee was holding regular meetings to ensure that foreign powers did not get involved in Spain. Yes, you heard that right. While German bombs were falling on Madrid and Italian troops were marching through Malaga, diplomats were solemnly discussing how to prevent foreign intervention. It was perhaps history's most elaborate exercise in collective denial. The British journalist Claude Cogburn attended these meetings. His satirical reports captured the absurdity. He says the delegates agreed that they had successfully prevented the Spanish Civil War from occurring and therefore they adjourned for tea.
Speaker 1:The international nature of the war created some surreal situations. In this guise, over Madrid you might find American volunteers flying Soviet planes against German pilots testing Messerschmitts In the trenches. Outside of Huesca, english socialists fought alongside Spanish anarchists against Moroccan troops led by German advisors. Here's a story that captures this bizarre reality German advisors here's a story that captures this bizarre reality. In December 1936, outside Madrid, an international brigade unit intercepted a radio transmission from the opposing trenches it was a German voice singing the Internationale. Apparently some German anti-fascists had infiltrated the Condor Legion. The brigade's German members sent back and for a few minutes enemies serenaded each other with the same revolutionary song before resuming trying to kill each other. If it wasn't so tragic it would make for a fantastic scene in a dark comedy.
Speaker 1:The presses of foreign volunteers also had a profound impact on Spanish society. In Barcelona, locals were amazed to see foreigners fighting for their cause. One Spanish militia woman wrote they came from comfortable lives, from democracies, to fight in our war. It made us realize our struggle meant something to the world, though I imagine explaining to your parents that you're leaving medical school to join a revolution in Spain was not exactly the easiest conversation. But among those documenting this international confluence was photographer Robert Capa. In his contact sheets from 1937, we see a remarkable image An American volunteer teaching Spanish militia members how to use a Soviet machine gun while taking cover behind an Italian tank captured from Franco's forces. As Kappa noted in his diary, this isn't one war, it's all the world's wars happening in one country. In a hospital in Valencia you might hear a dozen languages from the wounded. An American nurse named Frederica Martin kept a diary of her experiences there. She wrote of a young Polish fighter who died calling for his mother, of an English poet who recited Shakespeare through his fever, of a German anti-fascist who discovered his brother was flying for the Condor Legion.
Speaker 1:The Spanish Civil War had a way of making the world seem very small, but also very cruel. The international brigades transformed as the war progressed. The early volunteers, primarily political activists and intellectuals, were gradually replaced by military veterans and working class militants. Their letters home trace this evolution, as one British volunteer wrote. And the cost was staggering. Talk about survival, and the cost was staggering. The British battalion lost 75% of its strength at the Battle of Haramat. We will discuss that later. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade suffered 120 casualties in its first day in combat.
Speaker 1:By mid-1937, some units had been rebuilt three or four times over. A German volunteer wrote home we joke that we are no longer the International Brigade, we're the International Remnants. Dark humor was often the only kind available in the trenches. Meanwhile, the war was becoming increasingly mechanized. The Spanish battlefield served as a testing ground for weapons that would soon devastate all of Europe. A Republican officer wrote Today we face a new German tank. Tomorrow Paris or London will face hundreds of them. The Germans, ever efficient, had turned Spain into the world's deadliest research and development program. Above the Spanish skies, the future of aerial warfare was also being written. Frank Tinker, the American pilot we met earlier, described dogfighting with Germans' Me 109s. They're testing new tactics every day. We're not just fighting them, we're their guinea pigs, though I imagine being a test subject wasn't mentioned in the recruitment materials.
Speaker 1:But while volunteers poured in to help the Republic, the official response of democratic nations remained paralyzed by the non-intervention committee. In London's Foreign Office, a young diplomat named Ralph Stevenson wrote a telling memo. We are watching democracy die in Spain to preserve a peace that will not last and, spoiler alert, he was right. By 1938, the pattern of the coming world war was clear for anyone willing to see it. Hitler and Mussolini had confirmed their alliance. The democracies had demonstrated their reluctance to confront fascism. The Soviet Union had shown that it would aid its allies, but at a price. The Spanish Civil War had become a preview of coming attractions that nobody wanted to watch had become a preview of coming attractions that nobody wanted to watch. In September of 1938, in one of the war's most poignant moments, the Republican government announced the withdrawal of the international brigades. They marched one last time through Barcelona.
Speaker 2:The walking wounded, the veterans of a dozen battles, the survivors of three years of war. La Pasionaria gave her famous farewell speech. You are the legend, you are the heroic example of solidarity and the universality of democracy. The love and gratitude of the entire Spanish people who, today and tomorrow, will shout with enthusiasm.
Speaker 1:Long live the heroes of the international brigades. She said you are history, you are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy, solidarity and universality. A Catalan woman watching the International Brigade's farewell parade wrote in her journal tragedy could inspire such love for those born so far away, though I suppose Spain in the 1930s had a unique way of turning tourists into revolutionaries. But for many volunteers the war didn't end with their departure from Spain. Some, like the German volunteers, could not go home. Hitler had stripped them of their citizenship. Others returned to face suspicion and persecution.
Speaker 1:In America, the Lincoln Brigade veterans were labeled premature anti-fascists, possibly the only time in history. Being too early to fight fascism was considered a character flaw. The legacy of the international intervention in Spain proved complex and far-reaching. The Republic's defeat convinced Hitler that the democracies were weak and divided. The experience gained by the Condor Legions would apply to Warsaw and to Rotterdam. The tactics of terror bombing practiced at Guernica would soon be replicated across all of Europe. Spain had become a dress rehearsal for the tragedy that would soon engulf the entire world by early 1939, as the Republic's defeat loomed, the international volunteers faced hard choices. Some, like the British and the Americans, could go home, though many would soon find themselves fighting fascism again in World War II. In fact, the first American casualty of the war was a Lincoln Brigade veteran, robert Merriman. He was killed fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. He had gone from one war to another like a deadly form of career advancement. Other like a deadly form of career advancement.
Speaker 1:There's a café in Paris that still exists today where surviving International Brigade veterans would meet in the years after World War II. One regular customer described these gatherings in 1950. They sit together French, british, american, german, all older now, many wounds that still trouble them. They rarely talk about the battles. Instead they remember the Spanish villages that took them in, the children who followed them through the streets, the old women who blessed them as they marched past. Perhaps the most profound legacy wasn't military or political, but human. The war showed that ordinary people could recognize evil and choose to fight it, even when their governments would not. As one British volunteer wrote years later, spain made us all choose sides, not between left and right, but between humanity and inhumanity. Today, whenever people from different countries unite to fight injustice, whether it's international aid workers, human rights activists or volunteers joining other struggles for freedom, they're walking a path first marked by the international brigades in Spain them. They're walking a path first marked by the international brigades in Spain. The Spanish phrase no pasarán still echoes in protests around the world, its meaning understood even by those who don't speak Spanish.
Speaker 1:As we end the episode, I'll leave you with a song reminiscent of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Next time, on Double Helix, we will return to our timeline as the Republic faces its greatest challenge, not from Franco's armies, but from within. We'll see how political divisions between anarchists, communists and socialists erupted into street fighting in Barcelona. We'll witness how the dream of revolution collided with the demands of modern warfare. And we'll explore how these internal conflicts undermine the Republic's ability to fight fascism, even as Franco's forces grew stronger and more unified. Until then, thank you for listening. We will see you soon. That is warming us still. The Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 3:Brigade. No pas sera, no pas sera. So sang the Abe Lincoln Brigade. Across the years and the oceans, we still sing the song Of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Thank you All the teachers, the artists, the workers who died. Oh the Abe Lincoln Brigade. Their stories still thrill me. We worked side by side With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. No passer-on, no passer-on. So sang the Abe Lincoln Brigade. Across the years and the oceans, we still sing the song the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. So raise glasses and voices, give them a toast. Oh the Abe Lincoln Brigade, those who die best Are the ones who live most. ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶. Across the years and the oceans, we still sing the song of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. No pass it on, no pass it on. So sang the Abe Lincoln Brigade. Across the years and the oceans, we still sing the song of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
