They Shall Not Pass: The British Battalion at Jarama

Hughes (Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World) ably narrates the incredible story of the unlikely triumph of a heroic British battalion in the Spanish Civil War. The outlook for the Spanish Republic early in 1937 was not good. Madrid managed to hold out against the Nationalist forces of Francisco Franco, but its only lifeline was a single road that ran to the coast through the olive groves by the Jarama River. That February, the International Brigades, motley formations consisting of assorted antifascists and adventurers, were brought up for a long-awaited offensive to secure that road. But Franco's forces struck first, with the brunt following on a battalion of British volunteers. In three days of ferocious combat, the Brits took horrendous casualties as a result of ill discipline, poor training, cowardly and incompetent leadership, and political interference. By the third night, the Brits had had enough and%C2%A0launched a night counterattack that gave the Republicans a much needed tactical and propaganda victory. and Hughes fleshes out the individual combatants while placing their sacrifices in the strategic and historical context, although not without a tendency to engage in pro-Republican hagiography. 36 color and b&w illus.; maps. (July)