MacFarquhar, Roderick (Oral history)

British ambulance driver served with Scottish Ambulance Unit and with 35th Div Medical Unit in Spain, 1/1937-10/1938

REEL 1 Background in Inverness and Glasgow, GB, 1908-1936: family; education; employment. Aspects of background to joining Scottish Ambulance Unit in Glasgow, 1936-1937: attitude towards Fascism; political activities and degree of knowledge of Spain; opinion of Labour Party’s attitude to situation in Spain; reaction to editorial in ‘Glasgow Herald’ newspaper; enrolment in Scottish Ambulance Unit, 1/1937. Recollections of period as ambulance driver with Scottish Ambulance Unit in Spain, 1/1937-3/1937: equipment; ambulance journey from Glasgow to Spain including stopping for propaganda meeting at Cambridge; reception from British Embassy in Spain; story of execution of Belgian attaché for spying for Nationalists. REEL 2 Continues: question of activities of British military attaché Captain Christopher Lance and Fernanda Jacobsen’s campaign of disinformation in Spain; reasons for dissension in ambulance unit and suspicions of Fernanda Jacobsen’s activities; atmosphere of confidence in Republican Spain on arrival; his role in evacuating wounded from Jarama front, 2/1937; opinion of medical facilities; nature of wounds; question of casualties amongst stretcher bearers; sight of Basque doctor removing wounded underfire; opinion of Scottish Ambulance Unit. REEL 3 Continues: smuggling individuals through embassies in Spain back to GB; situation in Madrid; growing political awareness and refusal to join Communist Party in Spain; background to transfer to International Bdes, 3/1937. Recollections of period as volunteer with 35th Div Medical Unit in Spain, 3/1937-9/1937: medical orderly duties with blood transfusion unit at Navasarada on Sierra de Guadarrama; hospital work on Brunete front, 7/1937; Nationalist air attacks; story of visiting Karol Swierczewski ‘General Walter’s’ grave in Warsaw, Poland, 1977; opinion of ‘General Walter’; move to Belchite on Zaragoza front, 8/1937. REEL 4 Continues: duties as Belchite; casualties and disease; opinion of non-intervention policy on Republican Forces; story of interrogation during Second World War of German pilot who bombed Guernica in 1938; change in his political opinions in Spain; contract with other foreign volunteers; return to GB to raise support for Spanish Republic, 12/1937; working with Canadian stretcher bearers on Ebro front, 6/1938-7/1938; opinion of calibre of Spanish Republican Army; story of joining Royal Artillery in Edinburgh, 1941. REEL 5 Continues: story illustrating British Army’s treatment of him as former International Bde volunteer; opinion of strength of German attack on River Ebro; opinion of Nationalist Forces’ morale; story of hearing news of Munich Agreement, 9/1938; reaction withdrawal of International Bdes, 1938; retrieving casualties with stretcher bearers on final day on International Bde action, 10/1938; opinion of Anarchist troops at Zaragoza; opinion of Hugh Thomas’s book on Spanish Civil War.