Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THE last British member of the Spanish Civil War International Brigade has died.
Stan Hilton, who fought on behalf of the Spanish against fascist dictator General Franco, passed away in Melbourne at the age of 98.
In 1937, a 19-year-old Hilton left his ship in Alicante and joined the British Battalion of the 15th International Brigade.
“The Spanish people needed help, it was the right thing to do,” he said.
Hilton helped Spanish rebels fight off Hitler and Mussolini’s forces too, who were testing their weaponry ahead of the Second World War.
He rejoined the British navy for WWII before emigrating to Australia in 1956.
I remember hitching a ride with an old I/B man in the 60s’. He knew as did all the I/B men that if the Republic fell, then a full blown European war was on the cards. It did’nt stop the rich British and Fren ch from doing everything they could to bring down the Republic. So should we blame Franco, Hitler and Mussolini for what followed or the elites in Britain and France?
I think that de must add the elites in USA too.
But the driver here was the fear to the revolución and the fear to a sovietic invasion.
In my opinion , both fears were completely justified.
Anselmo,
your fascist fear is pure irrational paranoia, you know nothing of the mass exterminations being carried out by the NKVD on Stalin’s orders, that pyscho had his hands full with this. Do you know how far Russia is from Spain. Stalin did’nt have a navy even halfway capable of taking on the British or French navies.
You are so far divorced from reality that it would be funny if the subject matter was’nt so real and still affecting Spain to this day.
Excuse me for to explaining me so bad, I am refering to a sovietic invasion not of Spain,else of all Western Europe.
According with the former analyst of KGB ,Viktor Suvorov , the Sovietic Union was preparing the terrestrial invasión of Western Europe for wich was condition neccessary that, fistly ,Germany will fight a war of few years with France and UK. Only after these armies would be exhausted, the Red Army would attack and invade Western Europe.
On the other hand is a fact that the I/B were a tool of Stalin,that only obeyed the orders of the high military chiefs of the republic , with the previous aprobation of the Stalin representant .
It is probably that in the case of the triumph of the Republic , it would become a socialist state or a sovietic republic
A Fascist fantacist – who would have thought – altogether now – It’s Springtime for Hitler, don’t forget to wear a pink tutu, it’s de rigeur.
In the case that you have read some of the books of Suvorov or watched his conferences. I´ll thank you that explain me wich of their asertions is wrong in your opinion.