Lincoln Battalion
The Lincoln Battalion, the major component of what came to be known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was the 17th battalion of the XV International Brigade that fought in the Spanish Civil War. Named after United States President Abraham Lincoln, the battalion was organized by the Communist International. The XVth Brigade was one of many mixed brigades that comprised the International Brigades.
The Lincoln Battalion was formed by American volunteers who served as soldiers, technicians, medical personnel, and aviators alongside the Spanish Republican forces against the Nazi-supported forces of General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist faction. Unlike the segregated U.S. Army in the 1930s, the Lincoln Battalion integrated white and black soldiers on an equal basis. Of the approximately 3,000 American volunteers who went to Spain, 681 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness.
History
Creation
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 17 July 1936 to 28 March 1939. The combatants were the Republicans—a political alliance referred to as the Popular Front, which was loyal to the Spanish Republic —and the Nationalists, a rebel movement led by General Francisco Franco, which was backed by the fascist countries in Europe. The Spanish Civil War's triggering event was the coup of July 1936 in which the Nationalists attempted to overthrow the elected Republican government.On 26 July, less than ten days after the coup started, an international Communist conference was held in Prague to formulate plans to assist the Republicans. The conference attendees decided to raise a multinational brigade of 5,000 men and a fund of one billion francs. At the same time, Communist parties worldwide launched a full-scale propaganda campaign supporting the Popular Front. The Communist International soon joined the activity, sending to Spain its leader Georgi Dimitrov, as well as Palmiro Togliatti, the chief of the Communist Party of Italy. The Soviet Union began supplying aid to the Republicans in August 1936. Over one ship per day arrived at Spain's Mediterranean ports carrying munitions, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, artillery, and trucks. With the cargo came Soviet agents, technicians, instructors, and propagandists.
The Communist International quickly started to organize the International Brigades, taking care to conceal or minimize the Communist character of the enterprise. In keeping with Popular Front culture, the Republican cause was portrayed as a struggle for progressive democracy, and the American soldiers in Spain named their units the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the George Washington Battalion, and the John Brown Battery. Other countries used similar patriotic names, e.g., the Garibaldi Battalion from Italy. Besides the Americans who volunteered as soldiers, another 125 men and women served with the American Medical Bureau as nurses, doctors, and ambulance drivers.
1937
Seeking help to defeat the armed rebellion, the Republicans asked for volunteer fighters worldwide. The American volunteers, many of them Communists, started arriving in Spain in late 1936. Utilizing the name of Abraham Lincoln, they formed the Lincoln Battalion in January 1937 as part of the XV International Brigade. The battalion initially fielded three companies: two infantry and one machine gun. Sections of Latin American and Irish volunteers were also included, organized as the Centuria Guttieras and the Connolly Column, respectively. After less than two months of training, the Lincolns took action in February 1937. Many of the volunteers recalled that training was rudimentary: "They give me a gun, and they give me 100 bullets, and they send me to fight."The International Brigades were usually deployed as shock troops, resulting in high casualties. As an example, the Lincoln Battalion lost 22.5% of its strength by war's end. The Lincolns were especially depleted by the Battle of Jarama. On 27 February 1937, the unit lost two-thirds of its forces, including commander Robert Hale Merriman in a futile assault on Nationalist positions. Merriman had begged Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Ćopić not to launch the attack, fearing slaughter. Ćopić insisted it proceed and promised air and armored support, which never came. Merriman was almost immediately wounded, and the Lincolns suffered 136 deaths. The battalion remained in combat and was slowly rebuilt while maintaining its front-line positions. The unit was finally pulled out of the lines for a brief rest before the offensive at Brunete.
Joined by the newly trained George Washington Battalion, the XVth Brigade took action at Villanueva de la Cañada on the second day of the Brunete Offensive and secured the town after hard fighting. The Washingtons attacked the north end of the village, while the British and Dimitrov battalions attacked from the south.
The XVth Brigade then deployed against "Mosquito Ridge", but despite repeated assaults, they could not dislodge the Nationalist troops holding that critical piece of terrain. The Lincoln Battalion's commander Oliver Law—the first black commander of an integrated American army unit—was killed during this action. The XVth Brigade again sustained severe losses. Due to the high rate of casualties, the Lincoln and Washington Battalions were merged. Thereafter, the unit was officially known as the Lincoln-Washington Battalion, though it was more commonly referred to as the Lincoln Battalion.
From August–October 1937, the Lincoln-Washington Battalion fought in a series of battles in the Aragon Offensive. It fought well at both Quinto and Belchite. The engagement at Quinto was a combined arms action as the Lincoln-Washington Battalion was led into their second assault on the town by Soviet tanks, T-26 tanks, and Soviet crews. Belchite was a hard battle with house-to-house fighting that produced heavy casualties.
After Belchite, the XVth Brigade was again reorganized. The newly formed Canadian MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion joined the brigade, and the veteran Dimitrov Battalion departed. A majority of the volunteers in the "Mac-Paps" were Americans. On 13 October 1937, the XVth Brigade fought at Fuentes de Ebro. Men from the brigade's 24th Battalion rode Russian tanks into the attack. The remaining battalions were supposed to follow the tanks, but the attack fell apart because they did not coordinate their advance with the infantry. Casualties were especially heavy in the 24th and MacKenzie-Papineau Battalions. After Fuentes, the XVth Brigade was pulled back to a reserve position, receiving its first extended period of rest and relaxation since going into combat at Jarama.
In late December, the Lincoln-Washington Battalion was alerted for service at Teruel. The XVth Brigade was deployed to hold the recently captured city of Teruel against the expected Nationalist counterattack. The winter of 1937/38 was among the coldest on record, and many troops suffered frostbite during the campaign. The Lincoln-Washington's initially held positions overlooking Teruel that they called the North Pole. Later, they moved down into the city. During January, the Nationalists launched coordinated attacks against the Republican defenses. The XVth Brigade's British Battalion and MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion both lost an entire company attempting to hold the territory. Nationalist superiority in both numbers and materiel eventually pushed the XVth Brigade out of Teruel. The XV BDE, including the Lincoln-Washington Battalion, were pulled out of the line for rest after three weeks in the lines. But before the units could get to the rest areas, their trains and trucks were stopped, and they were redeployed to the front, where they participated in an offensive that was expected to relieve some of the pressure on Teruel. In a dawn attack, the XVth Brigade attacked a series of Nationalist fortifications at Segura de los Baños. While the attack succeeded, the Nationalist forces did not transfer any forces away from Teruel.
1938-1939
March found the Lincoln-Washington in reserve positions in Aragon. Their rest proved short-lived as the XVth Brigade was swept up in the disaster known as "The Retreats". Nationalist forces punched through the Republican lines and drove to the sea, cutting the Republic in two. The Lincoln-Washington Battalion was dispersed, reformed, and dispersed again in a confused series of holding actions and retreats in which it lost most of its personnel killed, captured, or missing. Robert Merriman and Dave Doran, two of the highest-ranking American officers in the XVth Brigade, were presumed captured and executed as Nationalist forces normally executed all international prisoners. The remnants of the Battalion gathered on the far side of the Ebro River, where they were slowly reconstituted with a limited number of international volunteers from the hospitals and rear areas.Spanish troops, many young conscripts, were drafted into the XVth Brigade's battalions to bring them fully up to strength. Spaniards were integrated into the Lincoln Battalion as early as Jarama. Spanish companies were added to the international battalions as the flow of volunteers from North America decreased. After the Retreats, Spanish troops were integrated across all battalions and comprised most of the XVth Brigade's strength in its last action.
In July 1938, the rebuilt Lincoln-Washington Battalion participated in the Ebro offensive. The XVth Brigade crossed the Ebro and rapidly advanced across the territory they had retreated through in March and April. However, the Nationalist forces quickly rallied, and the offensive stalled. The Republican troops returned to the defensive, contesting the area captured in the offensive.
On 21 September 1938, Juan Negrín, the Spanish prime minister, announced to the League of Nations the unilateral withdrawal of the International Brigades from battle. Juan Negrín was trying to negotiate peace as his only hope. He had been informed that the International Brigades were no longer of military value, Although he maintained a vain hope that the Nationalists would withdraw their German and Italian troops, Franco kept his German and Italian forces until the war's end.
On 1 November 1938, International Brigadists received a warm farewell from the people in Barcelona, where 250,000 people gathered to say goodbye to the international brigades for freedom. In a famous farewell speech, Dolores Ibárruri, "La Pasionaria", declared: "You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy's solidarity and universality in the face of the vile and accommodating spirit of those who interpret democratic principles with their eyes on hoards of wealth or corporate shares which they want to safeguard from all risk."
Surviving Americans from across Spain were sent to Ripoll, where the International Red Cross and the US government verified their nationality before repatriating them. Many were able to participate in the farewell activities, including a parade in Barcelona where the International Brigades were officially disbanded. Most American volunteers returned to the US between December 1938 and January 1939. American POWs were released after the fall of the Republican government, although the last POWs did not arrive in the United States until September 1939.