DAYS IN SPAIN

There were not many days in Spain—sixty in all—two rich months.

The best picture of them you will find in the letters.

We shall only say a few words. The boys joined the Battalion on June 3oth after preliminary training.

Capt. Lenny Lamb remembers him when he joined the Battalion. "He was a serious fellow, a hard worker and very energetic."

In Spain. Mendy is third from left, front row.

The men were in rest in a little valley near Marsa. Edwin Rolfe describes them in his fine account "The Lincoln Battalion." We give glimpses through his eyes:

"Here, among the ripening vineyards and the still-green hazelnut and almond trees the men relaxed, falling into the easy routine of rest and training. Within a few weeks the earth was dotted with small, grave-like trenches, the single habitations of the soldiers, and with large lean-tos against the trees which could easily shelter five or six men apiece. Others dug in against the side of the terraces or against the hill itself, still others built huts which they covered with branches, layers of cloth and soil and leaves. On the earth inside they spread pine needles, and made niches for candles in the rock and soil walls.

"Here, too, newspapers—`periodicos murals'—blossomed forth, on trees, or terrace walls, or against the sides of the few stone huts in the fields. Anyone who wanted to could write articles for the papers."

Mendy, you'll read in his letters, responded quickly to the wall paper. Echoes of Student News days.

The group Mendy arrived in is described by Rolfe:

"A new group of American volunteers joined the battalion at Marsa, the first group that had come to Spain for many months, the first Americans to join the battalion since Jim Lardner had showed up in May. It was a small group, perhaps six in all, but it was proof that interest in the United States in the Spanish War, although it had sagged for a time under the impact of Franco's huge territorial gains, was still very much alive."

Then further on we learn that:

"The battalion swung into the new training. Booklets were distributed, entitled 'How to Cross Rivers.' Night maneuvers were invariably alike: the four battalions would converge at the bank of a mock river, then the men would mimic the crossing of the river in boats, in complete darkness, and after reaching the theoretical opposite shore, would rapidly storm the heights.

"For six full weeks this training continued. The pattern of the next action was clear ... ."

This, of course, you'll find in none of the letters.

Mendy's knowledge of Spanish came into good use. On the side he taught a class to his fellow Americans. There were chances to stay in the rear, be a base official. Mendy was for soldiers fighting at the front. This was the task and the test he had come for.

On the day before the action, Milt Wolff, then a Captain, spoke of the implication of the events to come. Rolfe records that speech.

"'Men,' he said, 'I've called you together because everything is set. You all know for what. Before another day is over we'll be in action again. You all know the reasons for this offensive. We've got to stop the Fascists' drive toward Valencia, we've got to divert their troops and planes from the Levante front. If all goes well we're going to roll into action the same way we did in our maneuvers back at Marsa.

"'This is the big effort we've got to make, now. If we succeed—and we will—if we stick together and remember everything we've learned in the past—we should penetrate deep into enemy territory. We know the lines across the river are thinly held. This action has been thoroughly planned. We've got all the information anyone would want to have before entering an action like this.

"'One thing you've got to know. We won't have any of our planes to help us, not for at least three days. They're all on the Valencia front, and they can't be spared. And we have very few anti-air batteries. And we'll have no artillery of our own for some days, until we can get them across the river. You understand why. But I just wanted to let you know what to expect and what not to.

"'Now remember: stick together. Remember the most important thing of all is to maintain discipline and contact. Contact—remember that word. They cut us off near Gandesa last April because our companies separated and lost contact with each other. That must not happen again. If we keep together, we should take back much of what we lost during the retreats. For us it's more important than just taking back a few towns. We can drive them out of the spots where we lost Merriman and Doran and all the others. And we can change the whole complexion of the war. But we've got to stick together. That's all, comrades.'

"Then, lifting his right arm, his fingers in a fist, he bellowed:
"'Viva el ejercito popular !
"'Viva las Brigades Internacionales!
" `Viva la victoria final!' "

Rolfe writes of the beginning of the action:

"An hour after midnight, on July 25, 1938, the Army of the Ebro went quietly into the offensive which stopped the advance of Franco's troops on the Mediterranean coast, gained five hundred square miles of territory along a ninety-mile front, recaptured more than a dozen towns lost during the retreats, and tied up the insurgent armies on a single sector for four long months. By nightfall of the third day more than 6,000 prisoners had been taken. The towns of Flix, Asco, Mora de Ebro, Benifallet, Pinell, Fatarella, Riharroja, Miravet, Corbera and a number of smaller villages were in government hands, and the key town of Gandesa was surrounded on three sides. The offensive, launched along the great bend in the Ebro River from Amposta, south of Tortosa, to Mequinenza, in Aragon, stunned not only the insurgents but the entire world... ."

"The Fifteenth Brigade went over with the second wave of Republican troops. The sun was mounting and artillery fire was sweeping the approaches to the river as the Lincoln Battalion, marching along a dried stream bed from Torre de España, emerged on a sandy strip of shore below Asco ... ."

The men, veterans of the retreat, saw the places again where only months before they had suffered defeat.

Outside the town of Villaba de los Arcos the "accident" Mendy wrote about in his last letter happened. In the brigade commissariat report, the words ran thusly: " ... Tabb and Mendelson had both received head wounds. The latter a vicious hit which had plowed through the side of his skull. He regained consciousness only once before he died."

That is the way the report runs. Others say elsewise, others remember different things. One comrade put it this way:

"Remember it was war, death was a common thing, there were many impressions and all of them were mixed up ... ."

Mendy had money on him—in his letter he says, "$27 more than most" which may give credence to a Brigade man, who was in the protection forces for the Asco landing, who remembers that an unconscious Jewish fellow from Brooklyn was being sent back on a stretcher across the Ebro to the base hospital. This comrade says he died there—before crossing the river. He remembered he was Jewish, from Brooklyn and had something like $35. This impression stuck with him. He had a "lot of money." This volunteer was buried in Asco, near the river on the side of a railroad bridge.

One thing remains—Mendy never recrossed the river again. There was no retreat for him.