In a very dense hand and in a very newsy mood, Merriman starts the 15th of August by checking on the Intendencia or Brigade Stores.  George Kaye is apparently doing a good job in the Intendencia and Van der Berghe will be going to the Intendencia to help out.   Continuing his audit of the Brigade, he has George Wattis and Bill Skinner, two experienced commanders, taking inventory of the stores and he has his new aide Sidney Shostek and a Goodman looking over the books. The only American named Goodman in Spain at the time was Carroll (Kibby) Goodman but he was listed as working in the Regiment de Tren.  It is possible that he is in Albacete as the Americans would utilize the trains significantly over the next few days.  There also was a Briton named Philip Goodman.  Shostek and Goodman find that people were purchasing items for themselves from the Intendencia.  Otherwise, Merriman is happy with the progress of the stores.   There is a lot of rice, though.

Joe Hinks and George Coyle visit Merriman and complain about the actions of Wally Tapsell (see previous diary pages).   Joe Hinks would return to write a memoir about the early days in Spain.  George Coyle was, according to Richard Baxell, “another Lenin School alumnus who had been in Spain for six months, [but] should not go back into the line” and he as a “disappointment in Spain when he deserted from the front at Jarama and took a few days leave in Madrid without permission for which he was placed in a labour battalion.”¹   The repatriation of Tapsell and not Hinks and Coyle irritated them, who felt they were being punished because they might send the stories of the British Battalion disarray back to England.

Merriman says he settled the issues over lunch.  While Cunningham felt that the British issues were already addressed, apparently a petition had reached the command level.   Wally Tapsell was removed from the line and in trade Merriman got three new cars at the Autopark.  George Wattis pushed for his promotion from Senior Lieutentant to Captain and Merriman agreed.

The Autopark, too, was in disarray with complaints.  Fred Lutz joined to help with propaganda.    A “Martinez” was leaving and this soldier does not appear to be an American.  Samuel Gonshak continues to be a problem and is now accusing Joe Dallet of cowardice. “Horner” could be Arthur Horner, who had been President of the South Wales Miners Federation¹.    Will Paynter also was a Welsh miner.

Much of the rest of the two

day diary entries involves adjustment in the balance of the Brigade.   Major Luis Crespo went with Bill Skinner to reorganize positions in Morata de Tajuna. Americans were added at almost Company strength to the British Battalion and the Spanish 24th Battalion.  Merriman notes that Americans going to the British would have to have a proper political outlook as the British were very jaded at this point.  Jim Bourne was added to the British and was downcast by the assignment.  The Americans added Hans Amlie as their commander with Leonard Lamb and Ruby Ryant going along.  They seem to work well together.  John Hagiliou is again causing problems, probably involving his criticisms of the Communist party.  Mike Pappas keeps pushing for repatriation.  He will never get his wish and will be killed in August 1938.

Arthur Olerenshaw and Frank Ryan are mustered to work with the English in an attempt to restore order and morale.   In his round robin checking on Headquarter’s units, Merriman visits the Armoury and finds it wanting.  Only three Colt machine guns and one Lewis Machine gun were in the Armoury and the location of the Armoury was “nasty”.   The Armoury was led by Ronald Rinaldo and he had few organizational skills.

At the front at Morata, Garcia buggered off.   There was a Lieutenant Commander Abad Garcia (pictured here who was in the 24th Battalion).  The Americans inherited 60 Spanish soldiers in the effort to balance the Battalions.  Merriman makes a visit to the British with Steve Nelson and George Wattis.  They meet with Frank Ryan, Hercules Avgerhinos, and William Ivy Morrison.   In an attempt to improve morale, they have a sing along.

Finally,  Merriman says that “Popovich” will soon be coming to the Brigade.  This could be Kosha Popovics, a Yugoslavian Communist brigadista, or Vladomir Popovics, a Captain in Spain and a friend of Marshall Tito (Josef Broz).

Merriman finishes reporting on a car accident near Carabaña which is to the northwest of Perales.  Car accidents irritated Merriman since he had so much trouble landing enough transportation.  In the next few days, everyone will be on the move and every vehicle will be needed.

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¹ Richard Baxell, Unlikely Warriors, ibid.

Merriman is now fully ensconced in Brigade politics and he has a lot to tell his diary.  Apologies for the small font required to get all onto one printed page.   Merriman is believed to be at the Brigade Estado Mayor in Ambite Mill at this point.   Merriman notes that Sidney Shostek is now in Ambite with the Brigade staff.  He says that he sent men two schools, “Radio and Enlace”.   Enlace is coordination (this is the school for the Brigade Runners who must give oral orders from Command to front line troops and vice-versa). That would definitely require schooling.

Merriman is left to pick up the pieces of the crushing of the British leadership.  Aitken and Cunningham were dismayed that their names were not mentioned at all in General Gal’s order brought back to Brigade by Copic.  Wally Tapsell would not speak to Merriman.  On searching Aitken’s room, four political orders (probably ignored or not acted on) were found.   Aitken was ordered to go take a walk in order to cool down.

Merriman was highly suspicious of George Wattis but uses him in this difficult situation to go talk to Aitken to settle things down.   Later Merriman tries to get Wattis promoted to Captain.  Tapsell, Aitken and Coleman would shortly leave for Britain to discuss the disarray amongst the British Battalion with William Rust of the CPGB.  Aitken would not return to Spain as he was judged to be untrusted by the men.  Aitken wrote memoranda at this point trying to get many of the British repatriated and it may be that this was seen as misleading the men into believing that they would or could go home.  The Spanish Army policy was that no one was to be released if they could fight.

The situation deteriorates with some significant accusations: Gal calling Bates a fascist and Bates calling Gal a fool and not really a Bolshevik.  Gal counters that he was trained by Stalin himself.  This probably indicates that Gal attended the Lenin School in Moscow where Stalin was indeed an instructor of sorts, giving lectures at the Lenin School to many including Copic, Haywood and Steve Nelson.  But this “I am a better Communist than you are” argument is leading nowhere.   Merriman mentions that Gal holds council in the garden at Ambite

and Tapsell has been sent there to cool off.  Another photo of Copic and Gal shows this garden.

Merriman seems to stay above the fray and makes Wattis “Coordination Officer” (see Enlace above).  Van den Berghe’s wife (Marguarite) is leaving and he is seeing her off.  Lou Secundy starts work on the Brigade Staff, and Sidney Shostek and Phil Cooperman conduct an audit of the Brigade’s books.  When Merriman says he wants to clean up Albacete, he apparently means it.   Merriman again says Ralph Bates will leave because important cadres of the Communist Party are not to be sent to the front.  He says the “Tapsell affair is a real mess” .    Richard Baxell spends considerable time discussing the Tapsell affair in his book Unlikely Warriors.¹   A very brief synopsis of the issue was that both Fred Copeman and Wally Tapsell had suffered nervous breakdowns during the recent battle of Brunete.  Tapsell, like Marcovics, told Colonel Klaus that the British were in no shape to return to Brunete on July 28.  Aitken said that this was a “bloody terrible” decision and Tapsell went further and accused General Gal of gross incompetence.

Spartacus International’s biography of Tapsell reveals his state of mind on this day:

Tapsell caused considerable political controversy when he criticised Colonel Janos Galicz, the commander of 15th Brigade. He reported that “only stupidity or a deliberate disregard for life would keep men in such an exposed position (on Mosquito Ridge). Galicz isn’t fit to command a troop of Brownies, let alone a People’s Army.” Galicz responded by demanding that Tapsell be shot for insubordination. However, Tapsell was protected by Fred Copeman, the commander of the battalion.

Tapsell also accused Cunningham of “being out of his depth as regimental commander”.¹   Bert Williams related that Tapsell’s conduct was abnormal and on August 9, 1937, Tapsell sent a letter to the British Communist Party Secretariat  stating:

In plain fact, and it is hard to state this, on every occasion we were with Spanish troops in this engagement they let us down.  Their behaviour on every occasion either resulted in serious casualties, or the immediate loss of positions won by us at heavy cost.  This is a fact.¹

In view of the disintegration of the leadership of the Scots, Irish and English and the “circular firing squad” set up by them, it is no wonder that Copic was able to use Brunete as an excuse to mobilize Gal and Klaus to get them all out.   Cunningham, Bert Williams, George Aitken, Wally Tapsell, and Fred Copeman would be ordered back to the British Isles before the end of August and Harry Pollitt, leader of the Communist Party in England, would enforce the decision to keep some of them there.  Only Tapsell and Copeman would return to Spain in November, further rousing the anger of Aitken and Cunningham who thought that this was a terrible decision.  In any case, Merriman reveals that “all are off the line”.

Things quieted a bit on 14 August, and Merriman assigns Mirko Marcovics to check on the patrols (i.e. the brigade military police) and he goes off to visit the Spanish 24th battalion and the Eastern European Dimitroff Battalion.  He visits the British battalion (based in Mondejar) and finds them in disarray, with no welcome and no translators for the Spanish from Brigade.  Aitken and Cunningham suggest that the new Brigade leadership should speak instead of them and after Aitken was booed, it is apparent why.   Merriman and the staff leave to visit the Americans and to give the British time to get themselves corrected in camp.

Merriman makes a side note that Hans Amlie has come back.  Amlie was a Captain with the Americans at Brunete and was wounded and had to be dragged from the field of battle.   Merriman continues to criticize Jock Cunningham who attacked those who ran to the front and then sought to get out.  Perhaps Cunningham was referring to Harry Haywood who he had criticized for just this.   Merriman says he met up with Leo Gallagher, a Canadian from Toronto who would have been in training with the Mac-Paps.  He also meets again with the British anti-tank company.

Merriman speaks with two reporters and then rushed back for a dinner at the Division level honoring a Major Costelli who was 71 years old. Costelli is not found in the Italian lists in RGASPI and so the name may be misspelled by Merriman.  Costelli made a curious speech about worthless people seeking stripes … likely to arouse Merriman’s suspicion since he just added a stripe of his own by becoming Chief of Staff.  He meets “big Jim Ruskin”, a Briton who was a Captain in Transmissions.  Ruskin was born Dovmont Sergeevich Zubchaninov².

Merriman says that General Gal is trying to recover from the mistakes he made with the orders given to Copic.   He wants David Abraham Zaret to become a “Mexican” citizen, i.e a Russian citizen, because he has become a good Bolshevik.   Zaret (a.k.a Jarrett) was an aide to Gal and thus probably was being looked after by his boss.   Merriman notes that  Bill Skinner has returned from the Mac-Paps and will be on his staff.   He says in a side note (“Tapsel [sic] talked”), which probably refers back to the discussion above.

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¹ Richard Baxell, Unlikely Warriors: the British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism, ibid, pp. 269-278.

² Kevin Buyers, The International Brigades in Spain.