Dunbar, Chief of Operations 

Malcolm Dunbar was achieving a reputation in Britain as a writer 
when the war in Spain called him to the field. The young writer — he is 
only twenty-six years of age – also happened to have taken a Univer- 
sity Degree in Economics and History, and to have done some unor- 
thodox reading in the process. As a result he disappointed some pro- 
fessors by identifying himself with the plain people. Added to his study 
of history and economics was a certain amount of military training 
which an imperialist government — with an eye to future cannon-fod- 
der – had thoughtfully insisted that he and his school-fellows should 
assimilate in an Officers’ Training Corps. Not all students, nor all poets, 
have been able to put such education to the good use to which Malcolm 
Dunbar puts his today. 
Arriving in Spain in January 1937, Dunbar took a rifle and went 
to the Jarama front as a rank-and-file Volunteer. Three days later he 
was ill command of a section; in another three days he was in hospital 
wounded. Within a month he was back in the line. Meanwhile his worth 
had been assessed; as a result he was sent to an Officers’ Training 
School, and thence as an Instructor to recruits. Yearning for active ser- 
vice, his applications for transfer to Jarama were so persistent that, 
coupled with reports on his work at the School, they resulted in his 
being sent to command an Anti-Tank Battery — one of the first for- 
med in Spain! 
He and Hugh Slater, his Political Commissar, picked their men; luc- 
kily so, for after four days in which to know guns and crews, the Bat- 
tery was sent to Jarama. There, and at Brunete, he directed the Battery 
throughout the heaviest weeks of the fighting. The man who could be 
consistently witty those days had unusually good nerves. Dunbar’s quips 
under fire at Brunete would require a separate article. On July 23, 
canght in a burst of machine-gun fire, he had a lucky escape; a bullet 
just missed the jugular artery. 
After a month in hospital Captain Dunbar returned, His behaviour 
during his apprenticeship art Jarama and his leadership at Brunete had 
the inevitable result; he was appointed to the Brigade Staff, becoming 
Chief of Operations. Throughout the Aragon offensive he proved that 
for this onerous task he is also competent. But, the Brigade leader still 
remains the same quietly humorous, easily-accesible comrade, the same 
unaffected British Volunteer. 
R. F. 

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