When the Battalion would visit a Spanish village the children would 
all crowd around him, attracted by his dark color and it was hard to tell 
who had a better time playing, he or the children. 
The Estampa Spanish newspaper devoted a long article to him in a 
November issue. In the article, Garcia Ortega, famous Spanish writer, 
says this of him among others: 
“At Brunete Douglas Roach was wounded by a tank shell, shrapnel 
piercing his left shoulder. But he continues with the same enthusiasm 
as always, with the characteristic smile which still brightens his face. 
He remembers with great emotion the comrades who fell on the field 
of battle. And he has a great confidence in the triumph of the Spanish 
people.” 
Doug Roach is now convalescing in the States. 
Walter Garland, the third machine-gunner, twice wounded in action, 
rose from the ranks to be Lieutenant and Commander of the Machine 
Gun Company of the Lincoln Battalion. 
He was first wounded in the fighting in the early days of Jarama, a 
bullet in the abdomen. Recovering, he was sent to an Officers’ Training 
School and was later placed in charge of training a Machine Gun Com- 
pany. 
In the early days of Brunete he got wounded again, this time in the 
hand. That took him out of action for twelve days. Following the of- 
fensive he took command of a Battalion in the Training Base — a very 
swift but merited promotion for a man so young. 
Walter Garland is 23 years old, by profession a radio orchestrator. 
A few months ago he returned to his native Brooklyn, N.Y. a real credit 
to his race and to the American people as a whole. 
S. M. 

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