Happy International Brigades Day!

[CaptainHaddonCollider]

Hi chaps,
Here in Denmark we've chosen the 17th of october to celebrate the men and women who went to Spain to fight the fascists. It will be marked by a small service by the memorial in Copenhagen at 12. Only 500 volunteers went to Spain from Denmark, but they are still held in high regard by a lot of people, especially in some of the older socialist parties.

As a small celebration, I painted up my version of Tom Glyn Evans for our upcoming SCW campaign, using the excellent CoC rules:



He just needs a few touch ups (eyes, for starters!) and he'll be good to lead his platoon against Francos fascists.

Here's a picture of the "Taffy" from the real world:



I don't really know much about him, and the internet is strangely unresponsive on searches, all I managed to figure out was that he was a Welsh miner, who went to Spain sometime in 1936. Whether he survived the ordeal is unknown to me. If anyone have any additional info I'd welcome it.

To finish off this rather pathetic cavalacade of IB's, I did some conversions for the battle of Teruel. They're really just the Paul Hicks heads from Empress stuck onto bodies of Warlord Games french infantry, but I sort of like them. I'm wondering if I can find some more ways to stick on some mausers and russian weapons:



Anyways, happy International Brigades Day to everyone, No Pasarán!

[grant]

¡No Pasarán!

I'm working through Rhodes' Hell and Good Company right now; as a Canadian it's good to know the story of Norman Bethune and his humanitarian efforts.

To this day, it's stunning that the world let fascism win.

[Kommando_J]

As un-palatable as fascism was at the time, everyone feared communism more, plus it gave itself awful press what with executing its own volunteers.

[Arlequín]

Nice looking conversions... I might be inclined to file away the 'turnbacks' on the great coats and fill the gap a little; they will look far less 'French' as a result. Otherwise though they will certainly look the part.


  

To this day, it's stunning that the world let fascism win.

It didn't, the view of the Thirties 'man in the street' was that they stopped the spread of communism... although that attitude was what allowed the Communists to prosper within the Republic during the Civil War in any case. In most international press at the start of the war, the respective forces were described as 'Loyalists' and 'Rebels'... 'Republican' and 'Nationalist' came later. 'Fascist' came direct from the Comintern and the Soviet Politburo and are terms we largely perpetuate still, a testament perhaps to the power of communist propaganda and Marxist historians.
 

Calling the Nationalists 'fascists' is like saying all Canadians speak only French. Reactionary, conservative, anti-communist and anti-democracy certainly, but then so were Poland, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Austria and Greece in the Thirties too... all of whom were also labelled as fascists at the time by 'the Left'. Take away the anti-democracy part and you have a definition of the UK and US political establishments too... although there was a significant portion of those establishments who thought democracy had its downside.

The bulk of the Spanish Nationalists wanted a return to 19th Century values; the 'three pillars' of Church, State (or Crown for some) and Army... and certainly not the Falange's view that "New Spain will wear a short skirt"... and would involve the working classes far more in the political process. Regardless though, popular support for the Nationalists across the population was higher than you might imagine... the 'right' won the election of 1933 (although voting was split roughly evenly between right and left... the centrists swung the result).

The SCW is far more complex than simple labels of 'fascist' and 'communist' or 'good guys' and 'bad guys'... just grey and greyer from whichever part of the political spectrum you stand at. Had the Republicans won, we would no doubt be currently comparing Spain to Cuba and North Korea, presuming their regime had survived into the 21st Century... or describing it as a 'former Communist Bloc State'.

 

[CaptainHaddonCollider]

Nice looking conversions... I might be inclined to file away the 'turnbacks' on the great coats and fill the gap a little; they will look far less 'French' as a result. Otherwise though they will certainly look the part.

Thanks for the tip, I shall Endeavour to bring my limited modelling skills to the task. I still have two french infantry packs to try it out on, so let's see what comes out of it.

I'm locking the thread now, as I really just wanted to show off a model I painted up as a very small and limited commemoration of the International Brigades on the day they were formed, and not start a discussion on whether fascism or communism is good or bad.
Thanks for the input though. I totally disagree, for the record, but let's just leave it at that.