Three months in Spain
The British Battalion at Madrigueras and Jarama
Saturday 7 August, 2pm
People’s History Museum
Left Bank
Spinningfields
Manchester M3 3ER
FREE ENTRY
Historian Dr. Richard Baxell lectures on the day-to-day experiences of the British and Irish volunteers in The Spanish Civil War, during the early part of 1937.
The lecture will include audio and video clips from some of the interviews with Brigaders and will cover the formation of the battalion, its baptism of fire at Jarama and its subsequent recovery and rebuilding before returning to action at the Battle of Brunete in July 1937.
As Baxell says: ‘The period of training – let alone combat – must have been an immense culture shock to the members of the battalion, almost all of whom spoke no Spanish and had rarely travelled, even within Britain. Factor in an unfamiliar diet, woefully insufficient and often sub-standard weaponry and a general lack of appropriate military experience and you begin to understand the scale of the appalling task facing the British Battalion in their first experience of combat.’
Richard Baxell, with Jim Jump and Angela Jackson, compiled the ANTIFASCISTAS exhibition for the International Brigade Memorial Trust (see below). He is also the author of British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, the history of the British Battalion in the International Brigades.
More details of Richard’s work can be found at www.richardbaxell.info
In addition, Civil War songs will be performed by Manchester group The Maddonnas.
For more details of the event contact: Dolores Long: 0161 226 2013 or Hilary Jones: 0161 224 1747
To book a place, please telephone the People’s History Museum on 0161 838 9190 or email: info@phm.org.uk
ANTIFACISTAS
Antifascistas is the exhibition commissoned by the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) on the British and Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and will be at the People’s History Museum from 6-31st August.
For more information on the work of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
email: secretary@international-brigades.org.uk
tel: 020 8555 6674
web: www.international-brigades.org.uk
