Merriman lets us know that he and Marion Merriman have now been married five years.  Happy Anniversary!   Merriman returned to camp to lecture.   As we noted on prior pages, many of the troops were disgruntled for lack of repatriation opportunity but also for just the lack of leave.  Harry Pollitt, head of the Communist Party of Great Britain received a note from an anonymous volunteer (signed “Salud, S___”):

many volunteers ‘feel downhearted at times’ and that certain issues ‘have caused hell among us’.  Among these, it was being asked, ‘Why do officers eat separate and sleep on beds while we sleep on the ground?’  And rather more pointedly, ‘Why do some guys go to Albacete all the time and we don’t get leave?’ ¹

One begins to understand this comment when we see how often Merriman, Marcovics, Thompson and other officers are back and forth to Albacete.  Merriman was back in Albacete on May 10, had a session in firing the new anti-tank 45mm gun and then ate with Marion, Marcovics and Ribley at the Intendencia.  He met with Copic  and Platone at the Guarda Nationale and then returned back to Pozorubio, taking Marion with him this time.   Her anniversary present was to go see where her husband worked.  Since Pozorubio was “top secret”, it must have been quite a treat.

Joe Dallet and Steve Nelson are now in Albacete and both will be involved in the setting up of the second American Battalion, called the Washington Battalion.  The Nelson/Dallet group that came in from France were delayed by being jailed three weeks in France prior to being allowed to “leave France”, which they did across the Pyranees. Dallet reported the story in his memoir “Letters from Spain” (available at the link online). The Lincoln and Washington Battalions would have separate identities until the middle of the summer.

Ripples of the fighting in Barcelona are being felt at Albacete.  Platone expected trouble in Albacete, especially since large amounts of equipment and munitions are now arriving.  Merriman is told that they will have to increase the guard in Albacete.   Merriman says “more men should be here in Albacete”.  This may not be just related to the guard situation.  Arthur Timpson, who came into Spain during this week in 1937, relates:

About an hour later the truck stopped with a lot of voices about us.  Then the back flap {of the truck} was pulled aside and someone with a very seamed face, topped by a leather cap, looked in, gave us a brief scrutiny, and closed the flap.  I was sitting close to the rear and got a glimpse of a wall and a machine gun pointing carelessly in our general direction.  Two more of the leather-capped men were with the gun.  Our truck went ahead for another fifty yards.  Then we got out. We were in an immense square with barrack-like buildings all around.  There was the gate that we came through with two machine guns over the gate.  A half dozen more of the leather caps were visible.  None of them looked friendly.  Someone, of the reception committee, I suppose, said “Anarchists.  We are POWs.

And so it was that on May 6, 1937, I became a prisoner in the fortress of Figueras”….  ²

The interception of Internationales and their being held as “Prisoners of War” by the Anarchists in Figueras would have been a significant wake up call for the Brigade Staff in Albacete.  Having their lifeline of new recruits cut off would have been most worrying. Timpson was held for a few days and released on to Albacete.

Merriman tells us that he is going on leave on May 11.

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¹ Richard Baxell, Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle for Spain 1936-1939, ibid., pg 246.  (from Comintern Archives 546/3/438/72)

² Arthur Timpson, “An Encounter with the Anarchists in Figueras” in Our Fight, Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, SPAIN, 1936-1939, ibid., p 90.

Over the next month, the XVth Brigade will largely be in a training and resting mode.   While the Brigade was ordered back onto the lines at Jarama, activity there was largely quiet and the main fighting in May was in Basque country and on the Segovia Front with the XIVth Brigade.  On the 7th of May, fighting also ceased from the mini-civil war in Barcelona and the CNT declared a truce and ordered its members to tear down the barricades in the city.  By this time, however, Thomas reports that 400 people had died in Barcelona and nearly 1000 were injured.¹  The “May Days” (to this day) cause fighting amongst the left and is likely never to be resolved.

Merriman mentions the “fighting the night before” and this has nothing to do with Barcelona, but rather a rebellion in Albacete.  Interestingly, Copic says in his diary “The notice to return to our old positions was greeted with tranquility in the Brigade, because the men did not have much enthusiasm for this period in Alcala {de Heneres}.²   One wonders how much Copic was really in touch with the men.  Baxell relates how the British were in near revolt as their time on the line at Jarama dragged out.³  The British had been told that their tours would be as short as two months and many were sure that after six months they would be repatriated.  When the Brigades could not allow men to leave, some of the British rebelled and even tried to desert through Barcelona.  With the flux in leadership, this “proletarian army” was difficult to handle for the Commissars, who generally thought their job was to advocate for the men and get them the best food and supplies they could.  In a hint of the coming month’s struggles for command, Merriman says that he bawled out the men as “babies”.

The men were given a lecture again by Carlos.  We interpret  this to be “Commandante Carlos” who was in actuality Vittorio Vidali, a  Comintern representative who served in Spanish Military Intelligence (SIM).  A photo of Carlos is shown in Radosh and when Merriman says “Mike translated”, it adds some credence to this identification as Mikhail Koltsov was traveling with Carlos.  Koltsov was believed to have a direct reporting line to the Kremlin and their involvement at Albacete and Pozorubio would show the growing influence of Russian advisors in the Brigade training.  Another bit of evidence is Robert Colodny’s contribution to “The Good Fight” ⁵:

A Comintern staff headed by Palmiro Togliatti (Ercoli) and André Marty reached the Spanish capital and began the work of shaping the polyglot collection of volunteers into an offensive shock unit.  The former had been for years a high official serving on the executive committee of the Comintern: the latter, the leader of the mutiny of the Black Sea Fleet in 1919; was a Communist deputy from Marseilles.  Marty, assisted by Luigi Longo {Gallo}, the inspector general of the International Brigades, and by {Giuseppi} di Vittorio {Mario Nicoletti}, the political commissar, took over the control of the units in Albacete.  Hans Beimler, the one-time chief of the Communist delegation in the German Reichstag, Vittorio Vidal{i; “Carlos”}, the political commissar of the Fifth Regiment, and Ludwig Renn (Arnold Vieth von Golssenau), on of the Saxon Guards and lately and inmate of a German concentration camp, formed the general staff of the Albacete base.

Merriman talked with Markovics (we will use the Serbian spelling here) about the new weapons that were pouring into Albacete.  New Maxim machine guns, some with light machine guns attached, were reviewed.  The most revolutionary weapon for the Brigade was the new Soviet manufactured 45mm anti-tank gun which became the darling of the British Battalion.   This weapon would fire a high explosive shell 3 km on a flat trajectory to take out a tank and could be used as artillery up to 16 km.  It was reported to be incredibly accurate.  Wally Tapsell and Will Paynter were clearly there to help start the new British anti-tank company.  Bill Alexander and Malcolm Dunbar would become commanders of the company.

It is not clear if Merriman got a message or a massage in Albacete, but his shoulder was healing from the wound gotten at Jarama.  The next two words are also unintelligible and looks like Lam. Lambert, who has stumped identification before.  His “old friend” in Intendencia is likely to be a Russian as Merriman refers to Russians as either “friends” or “Mexicans”.  He meets Richard Fein who is in Transports and questions him about a missing truck.  He bids goodbye to Milicich, who is believed to be either Russian or eastern European and is leaving for Jarama.

Back in Camp at Pozorubio, Merriman lists the lectures being given by Ribley (or Rebluy), Rochefort, and Cleven.  These names are still all questionable and not seen in the common references.  Cleven or Clemen and Ribley were also mentioned on 3-4 May’s posting and Rochefort earlier.  The highlighted word is practically undecipherable.

Biographies of Will Paynter (here also) and Wally Tapsell are given on the link and the photo on the right is of Wally Tapsell.

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¹ Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, Harper, New York, 1961, p 429.

² Vladimir Copic, Diary, Fond 545 Opus 3 Delo 467, Tamiment Library Comintern Microfilm Archives, NYU.

³ Baxell, Unlikely Warriors: The Extraordinary Story Of The Britons Who Fought In The Spanish Civil War, ibid.

⁴ Ronald Radosh (ed), Mary Habeck (ed) and Grigory Sevostianov (ed), Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War, Yale University, 2001. pg 204.

⁵ Robert Colodny, “The International Brigades” in Our Fight, Writings by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Spain, 1936-1939,  Alvah Bessie and Albert Prago, eds., Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Monthly Review Press, New York, 1987, p. 31.

In the May 1 and 2 pages, Merriman notes that Sam Baron comes to Albacete and on May 3 he goes to the training base at Madrigueras.  Perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek Merriman mentions a “plot” to keep Baron from meeting up with Amlie in Madrigueras and to keep them apart, he brings Amlie to Pozorubio, the Officer’s Training School.  While they didn’t stay separated, Amlie did meet with Baron but it had little effect not the outcome, since by the end of May 4 Amlie is in Pozorubio and has decided to join the Communist Party, clearly a coup for the CPUSA and Spanish Communists.

Who was Sam Baron that he had this effect on the Internationals?  Baron was a member of the Socialist Party of the US, a reporter for the New York Call newspaper (to become the Socialist Call) and moreover was a “right wing” member of the SP.  In the early 20th Century, the Socialist Party had splits where left wing and right wing elements were both allowed to coexist within the party.  The “right wing” had more anarchistic tendencies and were called “the Kangaroo faction”.

The testimony of Baron later in 1938 shows his anti-communist leanings and he accuses the Loyalist Government in Spain of having him locked up twice while he was there as a correspondent.

Clearly, the intrigue about using Amlie as a wedge against the Socialists who failed to deliver the Eugene V. Debs column to Spain as part of the International Brigades was an important political effort on the part of the CP to assume sole leadership of the Internationals in Spain.

Some names are reintroduced on the May 3 diary page.  {Alec} Donaldson and {Arthur} Olorenshaw (assumed here  but seen on a subsequent diary page) are mentioned.   Arthur J.  Olorenshaw, 43, is an interesting character¹.  It is known that he went to the  Carrow’s School in Norwich which his father John also attended and ended up as a Master there.   He served in WWI in the 215th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery.  In the 1920’s, he played in an orchestra on a cruise line between Halifax and England.  By the end of the Spanish Civil War, Olorenshaw will be reviewing the party status of the returning veterans.

To be honest, the scrawl which was interpreted as “Oler” could also be “Clem”.   There is a “Clemen” who will come up in the next few weeks and we had what appeared to be “Cleven” before.  Merriman mentions a Ribley(?)  who gave training on night exercises. Ribley or the transcription is an enigma.  He does not appear in the British, Canadian or US registers of volunteers.  Later transcription of the name (and there will be many) look more like “Rebluy” which also is unrecognizable.

Another new name is Marcovics who will be frequently mentioned in Merriman’s diary for the next several months.  Mirko Markovics (Markovics is a more correct transcription in Slav) was a Yugoslavian emigre to the US who led the CPUSA’s Serbian section in 1936.  Marcovics and Merriman will wrangle for much of the next few months and it seems that there was not a lot of good will between them.  Perhaps the reason for the ill will is best revealed by Marion Merriman:

A Yugoslav-American officer, Mirko Markovicz, who had once made a play for me, only to be rebuffed, came to me one day.  He told me he happened to notice on Bob’s desk at headquarters a letter in Russian from a woman in Moscow.  The woman’s name was Klava {Klava had made advances to Bob Merriman in Moscow and Marion did not know what had really gone on between them}.  I immediately felt weak and shaky, insecure, as though I were being told Bob had received a letter from a lover.  I remembered Klava, the young blonde Russian who had tried so desperately to attract Bob in Moscow.  I was perplexed.  Markovicz knew it.  He was cunning.

But I quickly realized what Markovicz was doing.  He was attempting to separate Bob and me by making me suspicious of Bob.  He — it surely was thought — would fill in the breach.  Distrusting Bob, I would turn to him.  Well, how wrong he was!  I remembered what I thought of Klava, how I felt sorry for her, how I realized she was reaching out to a strong man, a man she could not have, for love.

I told Bob that I was aware a letter had come from Klava.  And I told him that Markovicz, who was one of the more important American volunteer commanders, having taken over the George Washington Battalion {more later on this Battalion}, was attempting to cause a problem between us.  Bob was outraged that Marcovicz would read his mail.  Despite his fury, he told me he would keep it within himself.  He would not trust Marcovicz ever again, but he would not allow Marcovicz’s lack of scruples to affect the relationship of command needed in fighting the war.²

Merriman reveals that Walter Garland may return to the US where he could be used for recruiting and fundraising purposes.  Edward Cecil-Smith will go to Madrigueras as a company commander and will move up as the third North American English speaking brigade begins to form over the summer.

Training continued on May 4 with “Carlos” giving the lecture.  Carlos was a nom-de-guerre for an Italian comrade.  Carlos will lecture several times over the next month and in June, he will assume command in place of General Gal.  He will be named in the May 7-8 diary page.

Vladimir Copic’s diary says that on May 3, the XVth Brigade was ordered back into the trenches at Jarama through “high military orders”.   After 75 days at the front, the XVth got a grand total of four days rest.³

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¹  Arthur J. Olorenshaw, Ancestry.com

² Marion Merriman Wachtel and Warren Lerude, American Commander in Spain, ibid., pg 146-147.

³ Comintern microfilm Fond 545 Opus 3 Delo 467, Tamiment Library, New York University Bobst Library.