A Mac-Pap Memorial Stone was unveiled at a joint Cumberland Museum and Canadian Veterans Memorial Ceremony at the Cumberland Cemetery, Saturday, June 20. The cost of the stone was covered by B.C. supporters of the Mac-Paps, as well as the national charity organization “Friends of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion”.
The Spanish Civil War is often seen as a prelude to World War II. The civil war began on July 18, 1936, as army officers attempted to overthrow the democratically-elected Republican government.
But it was also a proxy war. The Soviets lent significant organizational and material support to the elected Spanish Republican government. That assistance, however, was dwarfed by the backing Mussolini and Hitler provided to their fellow fascist Francisco Franco. Some 75,000 Italian fascists fought in Spain. The Nazis not only helped the rebel nationalist forces, but used Spain as a military laboratory for their nascent Luftwaffe. The most notorious example of this was the terror bombing of the northern Basque torn of Guernica in April 1937.
The Western Powers adopted a policy of non-intervention, imposing an arms embargo upon the official government and the fascist rebels alike. The war ended in a rebel fascist victory on April 1, 1939, after 32 months of fighting and some 500,000 deaths.
Republican International Brigade volunteer soldiers came from abroad and the recruitment of some 45,000 volunteers were organized world-wide ....
