Americans in the Spanish Civil War

Update 22 December 2011 Happy Holidays to All

brooksarp — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:16:08 +0000

Happy Holidays to all. This is my second Christmas away from my family. This time in Afghanistan. On the positive side the war in Iraq is over for us. The war here in Afghanistan continues to grind along. May your holiday be filled with peace, love and joy.

Update 21 December

brooksarp — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:03:14 +0000

I hope to have a little time to work on updates when I am home on R&R. I went in today and approved several comments that I had thought I had previously approved. I was happy to see several articles published in the latest Volunteer. I have a couple of articles that I would like to finish up.

Happy holidays to all!

3 November 2011 Update

brooksarp — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:40:56 +0000

I updated the research page with a new link to the US State Department for passport records. They have almost tripled the fee for a 3rd party passport search.

7 October 2011 Update

brooksarp — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:02:54 +0000

I have completed the review of Grace under Pressure and have posted it to my LibraryThing site. I enjoyed the book and it added quite a bit of additional information on Shipman.

I have not had a great deal of time to devote to research. I am hoping to do some additional work before year-end if work allows.

17 September 2011 Update

brooksarp — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:36:30 +0000

I added two links one to Spanish Heavens Above America and the second to The Good Fight. Both are on youtube. I would encourage you to purchase both films. I have also done some work on my LibraryThing site. I added numerous book covers and did some clean up work.

It is unlikely that I will get any additional work done on the site for the next couple of weeks as I will be moving over to be the day Battle Major and the pace is different.

Update 14 September 2011

brooksarp — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:44:27 +0000

Received a copy of Sean O’Rourke’s Grace Under Pressure, The Life of Evan Shipman. A quick skim filled in many of the missing elements of Shipman’s service in Spain. I will put a review on LibraryThing after I complete the book.

31 August 2011 Update

brooksarp — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:32:37 +0000

Who is Jock Stockwell?

Reputed to be a Scottish veteran who moved to the United States after the war. He does not appear on any of the lists of known volunteers. J. Carmody checked the list of UK volunteers and there is no volunteer by that name.

There is some information available on him. He is mentioned in an article that appeared in the British newsletter International Brigade Memorial Trust (No. 5, June 2003). The brief note indicates that Stockwell was originally from Scotland and fought with the British Battalion.

Stockwell was interviewed by Ulrich Kolbe from Germany for a documentary on Harry Fisher. The footage of Stockwell was shot at the VALB reunion in NYC. Kolbe’s film Spanish Himmel uber Amerika can be found on Youtube.com. Stockwell has only a very small role in the film. In the film he says that he arrived in Spain in August 1936 and received some training at Albacete before going to the Madrid Front. He describes fighting in what sounds like University City Madrid. His story does not add up very well.

A Google search turned up a citation in Mary V. Dearborn’s Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim. In the book he is noted as an artist and veteran of the Spanish Civil War who met Ms. Guggenheim in 1946.

Was he in Spain under a different name? or is he a pretender?

Updates 28 June 2011

brooksarp — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:43:22 +0000

I am on a four day pass and am hanging out in San Antonio with my family. I am looking forward to watching the History Detectives episode tonight. After my pass I will be going forward to KAF. Once I am settled in I should have some time to do more research.

Updates 8 June 2011

brooksarp — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:57:58 +0000

I took a few minutes today to add a biographical sketch for Henry (Mark) Buska.

Update 13 May 2011

brooksarp — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:59:09 +0000

I have made several small update over the past two weeks. I added a list of Swedish volunteers killed in action. A link to six-part documentary on Canadian volunteers. I will be putting up a couple of additional updates this weekend.

ALSO PBS’ History Detective will be airing the segment featuring the Spanish Civil War on June 28, 2011. I am looking forward to the program. I was able to provide a little input though for the most part I was unable to find the information they were looking for.