They Shall Not Pass
The British Battalion at Jarama - The Spanish Civil War
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The story of a group of idealistic British volunteers who achieved the first victory against Fascism – the greatest unknown turning point of the 20th century.
In 1937 a group of idealistic British volunteers sailed from England to fight the dark threat of dictatorship in Spain. In the olive groves of Jarama, near Madrid, they achieved the first victory against Franco's army. It was Fascism's first defeat. Hardly remembered today, it proved a crucial military turning point in the fight against Fascism.
For the first time, Ben Hughes reconstructs the battle in a vivid blow-by-blow account, and considers its fascinating aftermath.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hughes (Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World) ably narrates the incredible story of the unlikely triumph of a heroic British battalion in the Spanish Civil War. The outlook for the Spanish Republic early in 1937 was not good. Madrid managed to hold out against the Nationalist forces of Francisco Franco, but its only lifeline was a single road that ran to the coast through the olive groves by the Jarama River. That February, the International Brigades, motley formations consisting of assorted antifascists and adventurers, were brought up for a long-awaited offensive to secure that road. But Franco's forces struck first, with the brunt following on a battalion of British volunteers. In three days of ferocious combat, the Brits took horrendous casualties as a result of ill discipline, poor training, cowardly and incompetent leadership, and political interference. By the third night, the Brits had had enough and launched a night counterattack that gave the Republicans a much needed tactical and propaganda victory. and Hughes fleshes out the individual combatants while placing their sacrifices in the strategic and historical context, although not without a tendency to engage in pro-Republican hagiography. 36 color and b&w illus.; maps.
