US
International Brigade (IB) volunteer Alvah Bessie commenting on
issue of IB uniform at Albacete, February 1938:
"The
Caps, coats, jackets, overcoats and ponchos were gray, green,
olive-drab, khaki, of all manner of styles; no two looked alike.
They were apparently the hand-me-downs of a dozen different foreign
armies (there were even clothes with the United States Army eagle-stamped
buttons)... "
BESSIE, A. 1977. Men
in Battle. 5th Ed. Los Angeles: Pinnacle Books Imc., P.39 |
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The above
quote from Alvah Bessie's memoir 'Men in Battle' is very intriguing and
is a good example of the many references made by IB veterans to the amount
of foreign 'surplus' uniforms that were issued to them during the SCW.
La Columna
strive to display the different types of uniform worn by the IBs during
the SCW; this page is dedicated to collecting and identifying 'foreign
surplus' that the Spanish Republic issued to the IB:
Note: It is
worth saying that one example does not typical make. In other words one
photograph of a 1913 Canadian tunic, for example, does not mean every
member of a SCW group should get one. Better is to have the odd example
within a unit of such an item to display the wide variety of clothing
worn. |
Canadian
1913 Tunic? |
© The 15th International
Brigade Photographic Unit Photograph Collection ; ALBA Photo 011;
ALBA Photo number:11_0980s
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, New York University
Libraries.
|
Left
is a detail of a picture, from the Tamiment collection, of a British
Battalion Commissar in October 1937.
He appears
to be wearing a WWI vintage tunic. There has been some debate within
the SCW re-enactment community as to the nationality of this tunic,
but we now are pretty certain it is Canadian; below is a snippet
of an email conversation with an American collector of SCW uniforms:
"I
thought about for a long time and came to the conclusion it was
a Canadian 1913 tunic (as opposed to a USMC 1912/1917 or Brit
1907) by the button spacing (suggesting a more than 5 button front),
the standing collar and lack of "rifle" patches on the
shoulder.
Additionally,
the chest darts end above the pocket flap, unlike on USMC tunics.
The buttons look bright British or Canadians domed style to me-not
the flattened & blackened USMC type. Plus, the buttons all
appear to be the same size, common on Canadian uniforms."
|
French
inter-war Tunic? |
-Brown,-Transmiciones-%5BTransmissions%5D,-MacKenzie-Papineau_May-38.jpg)
©
The 15th International Brigade Photographic Unit Photograph Collection
; ALBA Photo 011; ALBA Photo number:11_0222s
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012, New York University
Libraries. |
 |
The
picture above left is that of William "Red"Brown, of
the Transmiciones, in the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion of the
15th IB, May 38.
It is
hard to be certain but, he appears to be wearing a French inter
war period tunic? The picture on the right is an example of such
a French tunic. |
More
examples as we find them...
|
Any other examples?
Please email us...
If you know of any other pictures
of IB wearing 'surplus' then please email me here. (you will have to remove the (nospam) from the address for it to work.) |
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