With the British Battalion by Volunteer Staff
11-1740 British BN EM, Sierra Pandols, August 1938; Harry Randall: Fifteenth International Brigade Films and Photographs; ALBA PHOTO 011-1740 (E1484) ; Series E, Miscelllaneous; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Elmer Holmes Bobst Library 70 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries
The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, no. 33, October 6, 1938
All was not exactly quiet on the British Battalion’s sector during the last action of Hill 565. This despite the fact that the Battalion was theoretically in reserve, in accordance with the accepted reserve police of the Division, the Army Corps and the Army. Two companies were detailed to work with the Lincolns and the 59th. These were the 4th and last companies, respectively. They saw plenty of action on these two sectors of our front, and they brought stories back to the men in reserve.
But they got a story in return. Here is a semi-semi-semi-official version. It seems that Sergeant McGuire, adjutant of Company 2, was in charge of an antiavion squad. Said Sergeant McGuire had a light Czech machinegun in his squad, and shortly after a shell landed in the Brigade Estado Mayor (really, this is entirely irrelevant to the story) six or seven, or it might even have been nine Heinkels 52 light bombers came over the lines and set about their dirty work.
Sergeant McGuire fired six bursts from his light automatic Czech, and at the last burst he suddenly went wild. He started to yell that he had hit the bloody thing, that his last burst had done the trick. Sure enough, and to the amazement of all (probably including Sergeant McGuire), the bloody thing came down.
Chapter Two. It seems that the 59th had an antiavion squad and they too were firing at the plane, certain it is that they laid claim to the credit for knocking down the Heinkel 52 light bomber. No reports have yet come in from the Lincolns or the Mac-Paps but it is a reasonable assumption that they will also lay claim to the plane.
Well, the pay-off (as those quaint Americans phrase it) is just this: that the Brigade has received the credit for wiping one German Heinkel 52 light bomber from the Catalonian skies and nada mas. So it is suggested that the antiavion squads had better get busy and work up a little competition. If we knock down 4 planes, the tension will be easier around Brigade, both literally and figuratively.
The Volunteer correspondent in the British Battalion is ill as we go to press; which may account for the fact that his column is somewhat the slim side. So here is a slogan “Blame it on Bate.” But there is no reason why the British comrades can’t sit down and do a little writing on their own; we want it! They want to read it.
