Czechoslovaks in the International Brigades

More than 2,200 Czechoslovaks, including over 400 from the German minority and over 200 from the Hungarian, came to the aid of the Republic, although the exact number of Czechoslovaks who served in Spain cannot be determined. About 1,300 of them came directly from Czechoslovakia, with the rest mainly from other countries, with those from France being the most numerous. Many of the Czechs or Slovaks who went from France served in battalions formed from French or Polish expatriates as part of the 11th International Brigade. The situation was further complicated by the very diverse national composition of interwar Czechoslovakia. Many Czechoslovaks of German and Hungarian nationality joined German and Hungarian units (especially the Thälmann and Rákosi battalions).

The first truly Czechoslovak unit was the 40-man Klement Gottwald infantry platoon formed in early December 1936 as part of the Chapaev Battalion of the 13th International Brigade. At the turn of 1937 and 1938, a large percentage of the Czechoslovaks was concentrated in the ranks of the 129th International Brigade: about 400 in the Dimitroff battalion and about 300 in the T. G. Masaryk battalion. About a hundred were later assigned to the Batallón Divisionario under the 45th Division.

More than 400 Czechoslovaks served in the artillery, including almost 50 in the Karl Liebknecht heavy artillery battery. Another artillery unit with a complete predominance of Czechoslovak volunteers was the Klement Gottwald anti-aircraft battery, which had 224 members.

Czechoslovaks also served in other branches, including armoured forces, air force, logistics, and even the navy. Some served in partisan shock forces behind enemy lines, among them Alois Samec, who took part in the famous raid on the Francoist prison in Carchuna near Granada in May 1938. The activities of the Czechoslovak Jan Amos Komenský field hospital are a separate chapter altogether.

About 180 Czechoslovaks served in officer ranks, most often as platoon leaders, but also as company and even battalion commanders. In these cases, however, these were men like Josef Pavel aka Franz Schuster, Ferdinand Otto Miksche or Bohuslav Laštovička, who previously had received military training either in the Soviet Union or the interwar Czechoslovak army.

During World War II, Czechoslovak members of the International Brigades continued their fight. Many joined the resistance in their occupied homeland or in France, while others served in the ranks of regular Allied armies. The photo shows a group of them in liberated Paris in 1944.

ZM