They Died for Democracy

Air-ace Be11 Leider, first of tl1e \varm—l1earted American democrats to offer his services to the people of Spain, had been meeting and beating Fascist airmen in the early days of the Jarama offensive. He died when, wounded in an encounter, he made a forced landing. He was probably the first American to die in Jarama. In the months that followed many more Americans, less ‘well known than him, were also to make the same sacrifice, in the same gallant spirit, for the same great cause.

It is one of the tragedies of those breathless days of February 1937 that little records are available of the men of the Lincoln Battalion who died in the counter—offensives of February 23 and 27. For, most of the Lincolns —— hailing from widely separated places in the North American continent — were acquaintances of a month merely; many had not ever met until the eve of battle. There was therefore no opportunity for getting to know one another, no time for the intimate conversations that would reveal the history of men’s lives. So, men fell in battle, and their comrades who survived knew not of the great minds and the courageous hearts that had been torn from the service of humanity.

So it happened that when intellectuals like Julius Rosenthal and John Lenthier, workers like Tieger and Chelebian —— to cite only four, each of whom had a record of achievements in their respective spheres —— fell in action, many of their comrades knew of them only as names on

a Roll of Honor. It was «mere chance that details of others were known ;’

they had comrades who knew them back home, or there was some story in connection with their passing from this world. When such are cited, in this book, it is, as a rule, because they are types, not exceptions.

“Slim” Greenleaf was engaged in the unromantic task of bringing up the food when he volunteered to rescue a Wounded comrade, and was killed in the attempt. He of the rank and file died as gloriously as men like Douglas Seacord, Battalion Adjutant, who fell, charging the Fascist trenches four days later. Paul Niepold, Socialist, and Joe Strys- and, Communist, sealed with their blood the unity of working—clas~s or- ganisation-s.

But, not merely the unity of parties was sealed on that battlefield of

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