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 o11ly 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 a 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 i11 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 a11 Officers’ Training School, and thence as a11 Instructor to recruits. Yearning for active ser- vice, his applications for transfer to Jarama were so persistent that, coupled with reports o11 his work at the School, they resulted in his being sent to command an Anti-Tank Battery —— one of the first for-

nied in Spai11!

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 se11t 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. B. F.

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