Read on Twitter
Thread #OTD Friday 12 February 1937 The British Battalion, 15th International Brigade, is transferred from Chinchon nearer to the River Jarama. Tom Wintringham is in command. 25 years old Maurice ‘Mossie’ Quinlan (Rifle No. 715), from Waterford, is in No. 1 Company. 1/
No 1 Company is commanded by ‘Kit’ Conway, a South Tipperary man with a distinguished record in the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War. The Company includes a significant number of experienced Irish veterans. 2/
Neither the advancing men, Wintringham nor Brigade HQ are aware that the Fascists (highly experienced Moroccan troops and Foreign Legionnaires of Franco’s Army of Africa) are pouring over the river in great numbers since they captured a bridge in the darkness of early morning 3/
Wintringham faces three battalions of Moroccans, including a heavy machine gun and mortar company, together with two banderas of the Foreign Legion. The Fascists have assembled almost 2,000 troops in the sector. The Brigaders are outnumbered by more than 3 to 1. 4/
Colonel Asensio Cabinalla is in command of the Fascist forces. Silhouetted against the skyline, the British and Irish Brigaders are easy targets for the Nazi German heavy machine guns supporting the Fascist advance. On the western slopes, several men are hit by the raking fire 5/
As darkness deepens on the first evening of the battle, a thin sliver of a sickle moon rises over Jarama. A British volunteer, David Crook, always remembers it: ‘Throughout the last fifty years, I’ve never seen such a moon without thinking of Jarama.’ 7/
Other Brigade heroes of No. 1 Company on the first day: André Diamant, Fred Copeman, Josh Francis and Ralph Campaneau
