Continuing on the story from https://foxburg.edublogs.org/2020/12/09/david-marshalls-spanish-equipment/ we left off David’s account with him going into action having not yet fired his rifle.
We got into lorries at Chinchon the next morning. We were detrucked south of Madrid near a place called Cerro de los Angeles, the hill of the Angels, it’s a symmetrical hill which I think is said to be the geographical centre of Spain. They were on top in a bloody old heavy building and we had to try to get them out. David Marshall IWMSA
The bloody old heavy building can be seen in the image below.
It was a bit of a shambles, we had a couple of tanks with us, they only has 2 pdr guns, and the convex curvature of the hill meant as they were climbing up they couldn’t depress enough to hit the building at the top anyway until they got too close. It was a stirling time. We stood there, you see, you could see Madrid far in the distance, far away, you could see it being bombed a little, you could see the great plumes coming up. And then we started to move forward in open order, we were shooting and firing but nothing much happened, we attacked all night. Like all war it was a bit of a balls, we didn’t get anywhere. I got shot the next day. David Marshall IWMSA
A number of times I have mentioned David getting injured, however, to hear him describe the event brings it into sharp relief.
We had advanced as far as we could and we were firing at the windows of this building in a controlled way. We were right on the right flank and we felt bloody exposed because we knew moors were in the offing, we had a healthy respect for them. David Marshall IWMSA
The ‘moors’ are another thread which seems to weave it’s way into the British Battalion. A Jarama the XV Brigade, including the British Battalion, faced the Moors of Franco’s Army of Africa. At this stage the Army of Africa and the Spanish Foreign legion were used as shock troops; leading the assaults as these were the only units who’s morale Franco could rely upon. After Jarama and Brunete, Franco relied more and more on the Italian Blue Division and the German Condor Legion as his leading shock troops.
I was laid at an angle to the building because there was a very shallow furrow and I was hoping this would be of some help and firing a bit across myself. I got one particular window as a target and was having a steady go at it, without being wasteful. David Marshall IWMSA
I have written about the ammunition in the earlier post – see the link to David Marshall’s Spanish Equipment at the top of this page.
They were giving us Machine-gun stuff. When you hear the first bullet go past you, you know you are not invulnerable, and there was a bit of shrapnel about, not a lot. Then this marksman got onto me, and I heard the bullets hitting the ground around me, he must have put half a dozen around me, and then he hit me in the leg. Didn’t hurt. It was like a red hot blow, as I say it didn’t hurt, and that was the end of my military stuff. David Marshall IWMSA
Despite forty years passing, one can still hear the frustration in David’s voice as he relates the incident.
By this time it was late afternoon and the sun was coming down, and I just laid quietly, as time passed I crawled back. David Marshall IWMSA
David received his wound; just above the ankle on 12th November 1936, he had been in Spain for just over ten weeks.
I was sitting at the base of an olive tree, this figure came frantically storming at me with a bayonet. I managed to spot him and said “Frank it’s me,” He helped me back, then stretcher bearers came and they insisted on putting me on a stretcher, which I resisted, I resented in a way as I could certainly get along on my rifle. We were shoved into lorries and many of the lads were badly hurt of course. We travelled for an hour or two, the stars were so close you could’ve picked them out of the sky. David Marshall IWMSA
It seems likely that the man who helped him back was the Australian Frank Browne , this is the only man named Frank, that we have records for, serving in Spain at this time, in this unit.
Republican forces “execute” a statue on Cerro de los Ángeles in 1936