Fighting in Spain

So this is the only Orwell book I have read in the last few years, and it is also the first book I have read on the Spanish Civil War.

I will be honest, and admit I know little about the Spanish Civil War, and even in reading through the Wikipedia page on it, I am still quite confused. There seem to be a great number of militias and armies who fall loosely onto two sides, but as I say it appears pretty confusing for me. This book didn't set out to, and didn't succeed at explaining the in depth politics or parties involved.

I did enjoy the observations of war in this book. The overriding theme seems to be futility and a lack of progress. I think this is probably a more realistic summary of any war than most books on the topic offer.

A lack of uniforms, supplies, but most importantly weapons underlines the inadequacy of the force Orwell fought with. For the record he fought for POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista - Worker's Party of Marxist Unification): An anti-Stalinist revolutionary communist party of former Trotskyists formed in 1935 by Andreu Nin, one of the many parties on the Republican side, against the Nationalists (fascists), led by Franco.

Orwell reports in the book that in a three week period at Huesca, he fired only three shots in the direction of the enemy. The opposing forces were over 700 yards apart in trenches, with weapons capable of accuracy at around 150 yards. Even on leave in Barcelona he became involved in a standoff with the Assault guards - the urban police force, which I think makes them on the same side? Confusing huh? While maintaining a friendly but cautious relationship they were still opposing each other, and occupied adjacent buildings. Again the entire force had enough rifles for those on guard to have one, and needed to surrender the weapon to their replacement each watch change.

One of the Assault Guards opposite knelt down and began firing across the barricade. I was on guard in the observatory at the time. I trained my rifle on him and yelled across:‘Hi! Don't you shoot at us!'‘What?'‘Don't you fire at us or we'll fire back!'‘No, no! I wasn't firing at you. Look - down there!'He motioned with his rifle towards the side street that ran past the bottom of our building. Sure enough, a youth in blue overalls, with a rifle in his hand, was dodging around the corner. Evidently he had just taken a shot at the Assault Guards on the roof.‘I was firing at him. He fired first. (I believe this was true.) We don't want to shoot you. We're only workers, the same as you are.'He made the anti-fascist salute, which I returned.‘Have you got any more beer left?'‘No, it's all gone.'

His explanation of being shot, and his recovery is also a good read.

I didn't mention this is an excerpt, and a part of the Penguin Great Journeys series - which is a bit strange, as it wasn't really a journey like the others in the series. It comes from his book Homage to Catalonia. Not sure I will seek out the full book - but this was good starter on the Spanish Civil War. I have another book on a couple of New Zealand volunteers who fought, so I will try and get to that soon, and see of that explains the situation more!