The Forgotten Canadian Resistance To Francoism | Battlefield Mysteries | War Stories

[Music] go you who see the need to help a people a people steely strong and brave who are fighting for their freedom their homes their very lives so that in freedom they shall walk the sunny soil of spain and freedom till their vineyards in freedom with all the strength of bursting energy build a new and happy spain [Music] salute and honor volley and honor volley three times in 1936 19 year old canadian jules pavio along with hundreds of other canadian volunteers journeyed to spain to defend the republic against the rise of fascism half of these men would never return home [Music] today historian norm christie has come back to the battlefields of spain to uncover the truth behind one of the nation's darkest mysteries the fate of those missing volunteers whose stories have remained buried for more than half a century this is a burial ground in a little village called euclis 100 kilometers south of madrid and the people here are exhuming the remains of republican soldiers killed the spanish civil war 70 years ago cemeteries like this and these exclamations are the grim realities of war and they're something you don't get from looking at pristine cemeteries it's when you're looking at these skulls and these skeletons that you know what the cost of war really is the spanish civil war involved 40 000 international volunteers including 1500 canadians half of those men were killed and none of them have a grave these people have simply vanished [Music] today spain is a progressive democratic nation open and free but just below the peaceful surface lie the reminders of a deeply troubled past a story of terror and oppression that began over 70 years ago july 17 1936 fascist nationalists aided by the military launched a surprise coup against the democratic republic of spain but the uprising is only partly successful the fascists claim scattered parts of the country while the republicans retain the rest including the capital madrid the stage is now set for what will become one of the most savage civil wars of the 20th century in september 1936 general francisco franco emerges as the leader of the fascist forces and by the end of october he has led his armies to the outskirts of madrid [Music] this is the grand via in madrid and today as in 1936 it's the heart of a vibrant city it was also the center of the republican cause and the fascists knew that to win the war quickly they would have to capture madrid and to do this they started a terror bombing program using the condor legion which was hitler's contribution to the fascist cause but rather than terrorize the population he increased their will to resist [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for months madrid has been a city of terror day and night death sudden and frightful stalks the spanish capital the drone of planes starts the panic-stricken populace rushing to shelter before their eyes they've seen whole families wiped out by the insurgents bomb dropping skyraiders the coming of the new year promises only desolation for stricken madrid [Music] brutal conflict catches the world's attention images of the devastation wrought by the fascists raise a call to arms throughout the west and soon thousands of idealistic volunteers are signing up and sailing for spain you saw in the newsreels the bombardment is shelling madrid [Music] and the people running into shelter getting killed on the streets this was fighting fighting and aggression a danger in the world [Music] this really affected me when you saw these news reels you wanted to do something here is a people that are suffering under an attack what can you do to help these people when the opportunity arose i went 35 000 of us that went there from different ethnic backgrounds religious [Music] political a lot of writers and artists so but all were anti-fascists these raw recruits are organized into units known as the international brigades ragtag bands of civilian idealists and socialists with one common goal to fight the rising tide of fascism [Music] by the fall of 1936 the fascists had captured most of southwestern spain and were ready for the assault of madrid their plan was to attack the western outskirts of madrid capture the city and end the war in fact from here you get a clear view of the manzanarus river valley and this is where the fascists were going to launch their attack and they did so on november the 8th 1936 with great success at the start they started to push their way into the city and this caused great panic it looked like madrid was going to fall and that the war could be over and just at the nick of time a new group of troops arrive the men of the international brigades and they were here to save madrid the internationals add three and a half thousand desperately needed combatants to the defense of madrid bringing with them a significant boost to republican morale their cries of no passer meaning they shall not pass inspire fellow defenders for nearly a week spaniards and internationals fight side by side defending madrid but the inexperience of the volunteers takes its toll during this time one in three of the men known as los brigadista is killed [Music] this is the pharmacy building in the university of madrid and in 1936 this campus became a battleground in fact you can see scars of the old fighting up on the brickwork near the top of those buildings that's where the snipers were and of course they would exchange fire with the men on the ground there's more evidence of the battles over here on november 15 1936 the moors in the spanish legion came across the manzanaros river and stormed into the campus and it was here that some of the most ferocious fighting of the spanish war took place you can actually see some of the damages here this is actually bullet holes in granite all left over from 1936 you can see bullet holes in the in the regular brick up here when the moors in the spanish legion came across the international brigades were ordered to repel them really hand-to-hand battles from basement floor to floor the internationals finally stopped the fascist attack but with very heavy casualties roughly half the men in the battle were either killed or wounded [Music] after 14 days a battle republican forces succeed in turning back the fascists but the cost of defending the capital is terrible over ten thousand lives have been lost including two thousand men of the fledgling international brigades today little evidence of their sacrifice remains only a few scattered bullet holes and shell scars [Music] by the end of november 1936 franco accepts that madrid cannot be taken he begins preparations for a new offensive one that will bring in the new year with the blood of tens of thousands of men among them many newly arrived internationals receiving their baptism of fire at the battle of haramah [Music] the harama river valley a quiet picturesque region of central spain close inspection though reveals scars of a violent past scattered traces of a terrible battle one that would transform the valley into a vast unmarked grave of the spanish civil war february 6 1937 the haramah river valley erupts in withering fire as 40 000 soldiers of the fascist army launch a new offensive it's here in the killing fields of haramah where the 450 american cuban irish and canadian volunteers of the abraham lincoln battalion receive their bloody baptismal fire so seve what do you think these are is that a human bone it could be i don't know a doctor can can say that well check them out we'll take them to the uh archaeologist yeah i was going to ask you about the battle of the lincoln battalion on february 27 1937. now they started from these positions yes and they have to attack against the fastest line who is on the west in the skyline so basically they got up this is their first battle as a unit and they've got to go up this rise yes they were unsupported in the attack yes it was his machine gun just shoot them down it was a murder in certain trench sections along the line whole groups of men would barely reach the top of the parapets before being smashed back into the trenches by withering fire each time the pitiful line rose to continue the advance the deadly cross and direct fire of whole batteries of guns cut into them thinning their ranks so that entire squads and sections were melting away in death and agony so they never had a chance my understanding is they had 450 men and out of those 450 men 127 were killed yeah in that short attack do you know how far they got or were they no no they got 100 meter meters far from the trenches but they they can they can advance more it was very very unsuccessful it had been the bloodiest battle so far in the war and it brought the end to the the battle of rama yes of the 127 men of the abraham lincoln battalion killed at least nine were canadians [Music] men like joseph campbell fred lackey and george loskowski all lost in their first day of battle in total the fighting claims the lives of over ten thousand men from both sides for little or no gain today the vast majority of those killed remain where they fell lost among the thousands of dead left unclaimed and unmarked on the battlefields of haramah [Music] so you said that there were a number of brigadistas buried here who were killed in the haramah yes two thousand uh soldiers yeah spaniards and foreigners that were buried in that in this side of the side here yes at the end of the of the war franco ordered to remove all the remains of the bodies it was a friend of mine transformatio a french frigatista from oloron marie that came here in 86 in order to to discover where where his comrades fallen in the battle he discovered that the remains of the body were put in that corner of the cemetery over here see as a rubbish yes at the end franz zomasu got to to put this memorial what does it say well uh in the memory of the heroes fighters anti-fascists spaniards and foreigners of the international brigades that who in the battle of haramah gave their lives for the course of freedom of spain and europe and the war more than 2 000 bodies are inside this this place so why did it take so long for them to recognize these people well because under the dictatorship of franco it was not possible to remember these these guys how many thousands of other ones are are buried in unknown or unmarked graves from the republican side uh a thousand thousand of people you know that there are a lot of graves common mass caves many many places of spain the battle of harama ends in a stalemate and the valley is once again quiet but as 1937 wears on fascist attacks all over spain claimed tens of thousands more republican lives many are the volunteers of the international brigades men who came to spain to fight for their ideals but soon find themselves fighting for their lives [Music] by the spring of 1937 the line had stabilized around madrid and the defense madrid had bought a lot of time for the republican army to form up to get reinforcements to get some armaments and by july 1937 they were ready to launch their first major offense of the war and they chose to launch the attack 40 kilometers west of madrid against the fascist positions near burnetty right now we're trying to find the jump off position of the lincoln battalion for the battle of brunetti and the lincolns and the washingtons contain a lot of the new arrivals a lot of the americans and canadians so for most of these guys this was going to be their first taste of battle very few had a military background these are men who deeply believed in the cause sincerely believed in the cause and were willing to give their lives for spain and for the fight against the fascists for days the men of the 15th international brigade maintain a non-stop assault they overrun the fascists defending the small towns and villages of the guadarama river valley advancing at last to the foot of their final objective a key nationalist position known as mosquito ridge this is the infamous mosquito ridge and it was a main fascist position during the battle of burnet but you can see around us you can hear the pile drivers and the earth movers it's now vanishing into history itself another lost sight of the spanish civil war but in 1937 this was a critical position mosquito ridge gives a commanding view of the entire attacking force so the advantage from this position was clearly with the fascists so when the americans and canadians came across this valley here they met heavy heavy fire and took terrible casualties one of the men in the attack was jules pavio with the lincoln battalion this looks like the top of the ridge where we attacked that day the fire was a very heavy machine gun and a rifle fire from over across this deep valley here we were trying to go and get with the tanks up to the top of the ridge there and cut that highway fear doesn't come into it you get keyed up when you go into battle like that you fire and then run and drop down and fire again and run and then dive in the firing was going above my head so i thought well i gotta get back to rejoin the battalion here they were trying to get me of course and i finally made that final run up to here to and yelling um don't fire here uh it's jules and uh there was a japanese american with his head up and as i was diving into there he got hit right there you could just see the the thing forming there it is awful but you know it's so vivid when you see this this fellow uh was a cook he wanted to get to the front where he can do some fighting so here he was in the first attack and and he got killed after that um we were taken to try and cut the highway we got into a hollow uh on the riverbed and we got bombed the bombing are so heavy i can always recall trying to hang on to the tufts of grass when i got back to canada even um i'd hear a plane coming over and i'd go diving for the ditch you know that panic uh some panic feeling and it took years to subside we had to then start moving back but more started attacking us it's an honor to die for allah so they keep coming at you you they won't stop now i'll have to use that bayonet and i was wondering i'm a peaceful guy how am i gonna you know uh kill a guy with a bayonet so this is the kind of experience you have you don't know how you're gonna react but you're gonna do it [Music] we killed quite a few and we held those trenches until we saw that we were going to get annihilated on july 26th after 20 days of fighting the republicans abandoned the battleground leaving behind a devastated plane littered with thousands of bodies including 24 canadians a third of all the canadian volunteers who fought in the battle [Music] but the volunteers of the international brigades have little time to recover as the republican leaders are planning their next move another massive offensive this time in northern spain the advance begins on august 23rd and over the course of the following week the brigadista attack and capture enemy positions across the arrogant front by the beginning of september the internationals are ready to turn their sights on their next objective the heavily fortified village of belgite this is saint augustine's church or what remains of saint augustine's church in belshiti and it was attacked by the lincoln battalion in september 1937 and they managed to break through the back door here of the church and force the fascists out through this area here and you can see the damage of this place like the shell holes bullet holes it's been destroyed in the fighting as the lincolns moved through the church they forced the fascists out into the courtyard and as they broke out they got more resistance one of the stories from the period is where jim wolfe from vancouver was coming out through here and he was hit by a grenade and hit him in the face and as he lay dying he gave his cigarettes to a friend because he had no more use for them but as you can see out here taking the church was just the first phase [Music] was a fascist stronghold it was like a fortress not a village the fighting was house to house it was bayonet it was grenade it was hand-to-hand the men had to go in with a big ram break the door open clear the house try to punch a hole through to the other house and move one at a time but you can see in this town how difficult this would have been there was no escape for the fascists they had to fight they were fanatical fighters and they were going to give an inch one particular house gave the lincoln's great problems they took a drum of fuel rolled it into the house and ignited it and as they fought and tried to move down these streets there were snipers machine gun fire constant incoming artillery and it took them six days to take it my guards were so tired that they only woke when grenades were thrown up the alley in the early hours of the morning beautiful music floated over the city followed by rifle and machine gun fire and grenade explosions short silence and then a terrific bombardment of hand grenades thrown at our barricade the whole night was like a fantastic melodrama weird beautiful dangerous and delightful because we knew victory was ours [Music] this place is a remarkable memorial to the spanish civil war it's incredible to think what took place here six days in september 1937. it reminds you of the streets of yep or maybe dresden or stalingrad it just is a perfect monument to the fighting that took place there's even a nice little piece up here where you have an unexploded shell embedded in the church tower it's just just absolutely phenomenal when franco first left this place as is it was a propaganda piece to show the barbarism of the republicans but what he really created was a remarkable moral to the suffering of war to this day the casualty figures of belchitti remain unknown one source claims that after the attack fewer than a hundred men were left standing today the only tributes to their sacrifice are the crumbling walls and ruins of the battle scarred village the battle for belshite marks the beginning of the end with a republican offensive and on march 9th 1938 franco launches a counter-offensive decimating the republican army as it retreats spawning a new wave of violence that will claim thousands of lives with thousands more simply vanishing in march 1938 the fascists launched a major offensive in the aragon and they broke through the republican lines in fact they routed the republican army and the situation was desperate and they threw in a lot of new reinforcements into the battle to try to stop the fascist advance and jules you joined in in that attack to try to stop the fascist advance yes i did yes it's really a route it's more than a retreat isn't it they're really driving hard against the republican foreign chaos and that's the position you were you're in when you set up your machine guns at the end of march yes what we're going to do is we're going to try to find the position that you went into on that night yes so here's the crossroads that we just went across so according to the histories you guys were pushed out into this area here that ridge right over there on the left the bay yeah that's where you're you're probably in front of that [Music] so jules does this look like it yes this looks more like it uh some pine trees here what happened as i was getting the machine gun crew into place they were doing some digging i saw these two soldiers and i wanted to find out who they were beside us where they there are the right brigades that we were told so as i walked over uh two uh two soldiers uh they they put the guns at me monitor you put your hands up i yelled to to them uh fire they these are fascists terrorism they jumped in behind me and led me back with the rifles through the woods into a little hollow and there was carl geyser and the other 14 15 guys with them we were marched down the highway down that slope until we reach the farmhouse and uh brigade our divisional headquarters of the italians what we're going to do is we're going to go down the road and try to find where that farmhouse is or where it would have been yes we don't know if it's still there today so you can tell us the rest of the story which is uh was quite an incredible story yes all right [Music] hey jules okay so with one over here yeah so let's carry on with your story we came down this road and we're brought to this farm they quickly lined us up against the wall and they formed the firing squad [Music] you feel you have to die like a brigadista and so we were getting ready uh to sing the international so you're bracing yourself or bracing yourself okay and then black limousine comes down the road they stopped they saw something happening here called over to the officer in charge and that's what he was doing and he says we are killing these rats oh these are internationals no we want to capture them they wanted to exchange them a miracle has happened you know yeah there is a great feeling of of joy and release and that's when we are then put into the cattle cars and taken to a burgers [Music] so you recognize it yes i do this we spent a lot of time here brings back memories now you said there was about 500 about international brigaders and there were a lot of canadians with you uh there was about uh about 20 of us yeah canadians did you fear for your life did you think you were okay or did you still think there was an element of danger in being here oh well you never know yeah we didn't know if there are but uh you you don't think of it uh you know you're you're trying to make life uh interesting and worthwhile and uh eat enough so you survive there's two guards uh sticky and tanky tanky uh there had been wounded by by the british and he really hated them sticky uh just like to swing his stick and break them on uh on the backs of their prisoners us coming down especially to the to the meals uh running through the gauntlet so he had a whip made out of both penis with lead weights on the ends so that made him happy it didn't break and he could swing it and it lasted a long time but it wasn't all bad i recall us preparing for the christmas concert we invited the officers and the the camp commandant it is just to see those germans their german choir to sing there the the bell song and the low things the hum and then into a powerful singing it was so thrilling you you tears came into your eyes everybody stood up oh they all lay and the guards and the prisoners we were like one were patting each other on the back and it was just that feeling of that you know humanity you know finally the beauty of of just just being able to do that these these germans didn't expect to to have a life afterwards they were going to be sent back into concentration camp probably executed so but they could sing like this as a matter of fact that three german international officers uh were executed here and the grave is somewhere outside the wall i wonder if we can find it yeah we're gonna we're gonna ask the the priest to see if we can we can try to find where the graves were yes all right oh yes this is it that's where you're held yes yeah we were on the second and third floor i know i was on the third floor second floor is where we had the christmas concert yeah all right there yeah can you imagine this is the graveyard is this the graveyard yeah here we go up here yeah these are the graves uh just here on this lawn here uh jules is uh where the people who were shot here were buried but they moved the graves they brought the bones out and they they're now buried here and here under where we are i see yeah so the yeah the international brigade and uh and also the spanish fighters they're all here they're wonderful they're all bird here right and how many would there have been this that's um 2025 including spanish and internationally i see well that's quite a few that died here anyway yeah grazie okay so this is this is the graves that they got this is what's left of them yes imagine yeah how do you feel when you think about these people well i feel very sad you know that this would have had to happen uh they were great fighters and officers and and but that's what the fascists did after all you know they at the front they executed us as fast as they could i was one of the lucky ones jules pavio endures the hardship of the burgos prison camp for over a year until his release and return to canada in 1939. forbavio the war is over but for the remaining volunteers of the international brigades who continue the fight the worst days of the spanish civil war are yet to come throughout the spring of 1938 the fascists continue their assaults on republican forces but in july the republicans muster their remaining strength and embark on one last offensive against the nationalists in the hope of stopping franco's advance we're driving to the pandols mountains in catalonia and it was the scene of the great fighting during the hebrew offensive in the summer of 1938 the international brigades were moving forward advancing towards their all failures at gandessa and there they'd run into big trouble over the next few weeks the brigade is to launch a series of all-out attacks on the superior fascist force but the offensive quickly withers and they're forced to withdraw through the mountains west of condesa i'm with miquel and we're gonna go up this valley and find a monument to the brigadiestas international alleys that was put up in 1938. miguel this area was used by the republicans in 1938 to tell me about the past we're taking up to the top of so let's go up and find it you can leave [Music] okay [Music] hey [Music] so it was built uh in this in by the by the very same international brigaders in the uh in the battle but to do this i mean this is this is a true love for your comrades for your fallen comrades see can you actually read what that says can you translate that i know it's hard to read but uh in memory in memory of the fighters the spanish and international fighters from the brigade espanol the spanish army remembers you you are little long live the republic but this looks like an individual grace this is the only individual grave to an international or even a republican soldier that i've seen the whole time we've been researching this so these bodies have to be in in in the valleys or on the ridges somewhere i mean there's no graves for this war it's like they it's the only war where no one got killed you've got the bunkers you've got the trenches you've got the tunnels you've got all sorts of evidence of war do you have any cemeteries see for 40 years after franco won the war there they were made to forget there were fascist brigades who were sent out to find um uh bodies and and anything any vestige of the war and uh unhide them take them away and bury them and and forget about them the monument was kind of hidden these these internationals these were they they came to spain to help out these are very brave men they gave their lives for the cause of fighting fascism don't you think they deserve something a little bit more than this yeah every every country should have their their own monument to their own men who fell here it's amazing fantastic though [Music] on august 26th the battered 15th international brigade staggers down from the pandora's mountains and in september the surviving brigadista are reluctantly sent home for them the bloody three-year war is over but they leave behind fifteen thousand fallen comrades most still lay on the battlefields where they were cut down their memory lost in defeat and later erased by a fanatical victor [Music] the fascist victory in 1939 brought about 40 years of dictatorship in spain under francisco franco to the victor go the spoils and the right to write history and to raise memorials to their fallen and this is franco's memorial to his fallen [Music] this is the basilica of the valley of the fallen and it's part of the memorial to the 200 000 fascist dead of the spanish civil war in 1975 general franco was buried here and it's a very impressive monument and the basilica is surmounted by a giant cross that overlooks the valley of the fallen which was a battlefield of the spanish civil war before the vanquished there were years of persecution and their dead lay for decades in unmarked graves [Music] um i'm with maximo molina who's the director of the dig here at uclas so can you tell me what you've got here we have uh the burial place from the people who were killed by franco's dictatorship in here for example in this grave there were five people who had been shot dead after being shot they were shot on the head that's the way we identified the people who were who were shot dead executed that's right were any of these graves marked there was nothing here to say that this is a cemetery until 1988. on a personal side your grandfather was shot during the civil war and is that what brought you in or is it something else no is that what brought me in directly he was found and taken out of the place he had hidden in and he was shot dead the same the same the very same morning it's pretty unfair that all these people either soldiers or or or republicans who were killed have been forgotten for so long explain to me the split in spain about uncovering the history of the spanish civil war well basically the ones who were the who won the war obviously they they got their their dc's back they were excused with public money and they got many benefits from franco's governments franco supporters on the other hand the republicans the one who lost the war they got nothing they got their families badly buried and forgotten and in places that are have no dignity or even in the middle of the country or the side of the roads there must be around 200 000 miss yeah that's right yeah are you going to find them all oh i wish i could so do you have anything to say to the to these men yeah i don't know yes that's we are trying to get them back the dignity they never lost is what they would tell them bringing a little bit of justice to these people who have been forgotten and then trying to close for once and definitely the the wounds from the civil war that are still opening this is something we have to face if we don't face the past how on earth are we going to look at the future [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

Views: 9,243

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, spanish civil war, francisco franco, spanish civil wars documentary, spain history documentary, civil war, battlefield mysteries, spanish civil war documentary, history of spain, franco spain, canadians spanish civil war

Id: WJ1oJsxagO8

Length: 46min 39sec (2799 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021