Company One Mac-Paps by a Member of the 1st Company
Company One Mac-Paps By a Member of the 1st Company
The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 21, June 15, 1938
It was a year ago this month the first company was formed. For a while it was the only company in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. The Washington Battalion had left for the front, and a handful of Americans and Canadians were left in Tarazona. Most of these had arrived in Spain a couple of weeks previously, experiencing their first taste of fascism in armed aggression.
Joe Dallet was introduced to us as the commissar of the new Battalion. A few days later Bob Merriman was introduced to us as the commander. Joe Gibbons who has now become famous in the whole Battalion was the first commissar of Company One, and Bob Thompson who later became Battalion commander, was our Company commander.
The Company spent the whole of last summer training hard at maneuvers, thus developing a well-trained military unit. It was here that Dave Doran, who afterwards became commissar of the Brigade, received his first training.
When Bob Merriman left the Battalion, Bob Wheeler a Jarama veteran, became our Company Commander, Thompson taking over the Battalion.
On September 9th 1937, when the Battalion left for the front the Primera Company was ready to do its stuff.
