Spanish Civil War: an introduction
Life at War
The Conditions of War
The battlefield was not the only place the Welsh volunteers faced issues, outside of conflict, the conditions these men had to endure on a day-to-day basis were abhorrent, subjected to extreme heat with little food, luxuries, and quite often the infighting and politics of the Republican front would also impact the dealings and lives of the Welsh volunteers. These men had to make do with what little they had and try their hardest to push forwards and endure, despite a wide range of logistical, geographical, and political issues.
For four days we slept in tents. They turned out to be the most trying, yet amusing times of my life.
- Letter written by Alwyn Skinner from in Albacete during the Spanish Civil War
Political Infighting
Despite this conflict in theory being a unified front against fascism, the politics of the war and various groups that participated spilt out into the personal lives of the volunteers and caused divides between themselves and various other groups such as the P.O.U.M. (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification) and its seeming fight against the C.P.S. (Communist Party of Spain), especially during the ‘May Days’ of 1937. Alun Menai Williams would state this of the infighting from groups like P.O.U.M.:
There was a resentment of everybody not persecuting the war… the plays in politics at that time seemed to be wrong… the main thing was to beat Franco. To defeat him by whatever means.
- Interview with Alun Menai Williams
Though despite this infighting, the volunteers still pressed on and had far more to be concerned about, Alun Menai once again tells us that despite all of the political infighting, a lot of it was never a priority and that they spent more time looking for food and cigarettes than worrying about political matters. Alun said this about himself and his comrades during this time:
We were so busy looking after out ruddy selves, scrounging for food, and scrouging for cigarettes, that we had very little political life as such.
- Interview with Alun Menai Williams
The Logistics of War
One of the most glaring issues with the daily lives of the volunteers and the Spanish Civil War was the logistical issues caused by terrain, Spain is home to a wide range of environmental conditions, snowstorms and blizzards can occur in the winter season as well as extreme rainstorms as well. This is made worse by the scorching hot weather in the warmer seasons which overall made fighting in Spain a total logistical and strategic nightmare. Alwyn Skinner described the conditions in a letter home, stating that:
The roads in Spain are not well constructed as in England… A few days rain suffice to make it difficult for lorries to move. The wheels get stuck in the mud, and I have seen several lorries stuck for hours.
- Letter written by Alwyn Skinner from in Albacete during the Spanish Civil War