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but whereas the Nationalists soon received aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the Loyalists, so named because they remained loyal to the Republic, received no such aid, at first.

In the fall of 1936, large amounts of aid from Soviet Russia began to arrive. Nevertheless, the Republican air force was sadly depleted. It needed both planes and pilots and while it sent its own young nationals to Russia and France to undergo intensive pilot training courses, it needed already qualified pilots to act as a stop-gap until its own pilots were ready.

Peck pledged allegiance to the Spanish Air Ministry, rather than the Republic, thereby not jeopardizing his American citizenship.

Jim Peck's trip to Spain began on the back of a truck, which after a devious route to avoid French patrols deposited him and forty others at the foot of a range of ten to twelve thousand foot peaks.

Those that made it had reached Spain with only the clothes on their backs, nothing more. Their first steps on Spanish soil had not been auspicious.

Rounded up and put on another truck, Jim's party lurched into the mountain town of Figueras where they were housed in an old fort built by Napoleon, with thick walls and square cut embrasures which began six feet back in the stone.

The trip south to Valencia remains a blank to this day, but Peck's and Williams' welcome to the Republic's provisional capitol, now that Madrid was besieged, will never be forgotten.

No sooner had they checked in at their hotel and begun to walk around the city than they were greeted with smiles. At a downtown bar where they stopped in for some food and a drink with four infantry types, they found that six bottles of red wine miraculously appeared, compliments of the management, and they were greeted with the Republican salute, the clenched fist raised to the side of the head, at the temple.

In all, 31 Americans volunteered to fly for Republican Spain, and although they were volunteers, there never was an aerial International Brigade as such. Americans, British, German, French, Polish, Russian and other Slav nationals flew for the Republic, as did pilots from Mexico and Latin America, but although they came from everywhere and were truly international, they never belonged to an aerial international brigade or squadron, unless it was a phantom one, and were, in fact, often found serving in Spanish Republican units with Spanish nationals. men, like Andre Malraux, who led French fliers for the Republic and even procured French aircraft, came closest to leading an international squadron, but its make-up never assumed the formality found in the more famous infantry groups.

The Russians had come to Spain in force in November of 1936, when

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they startled the military attaches of the world by introducing their new type plane, POLIKARPOV monoplane fighters over Madrid.

The appearance of these new, retracting gear fighterst which represented the aircraft of the future, dumbfounded those experts who naively believed the Soviet Union incapable of producing new types. They were wrong about the Russian plane, as well as the quality of Russian-built aircraft.

By the second weeks of his training, Peck first met the Russians. As a group, they were aloof, they assumed Spanish names and kept to themselves, acting only as advisors, allowing the Spanish instructors to run the course. But the Russian advisors knew their business. They were superb pilots and they flew their machines all over the sky in a dazzling display.

At the new provisional capitol, Valencia, it was not uncommon for Jim Peck to lunch with Ernest Hemingway at the Hotel Repaldo, while Papa waxed both lyrically and seriously over the future of the Republic. Whatever else may be said of Hemingway, he truly believed in the Republic and was one of its unselfish supporters, giving generously of his time, money and prestige to publicize its cause.

One afternoon at the Repaldo, Hemingway was trying to convince a group of newspapermen of the justice of the Republic's fight. The big, bearish writer/adventurer pointed to Peck and his companions and, in a voice choked with emotion, which Jim remembers to this day said, tears coming to his eyes, "this is a land of peasants. You are professionals, you know machines and how to make them work. We don't. You know how to fight machines, so help us." There was not doubt

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This brochure has been published as a public service by VALB members. For additional copies and further information, write to:

Joe Brandt
66 West 94th Street
New York, N.Y. 10025

We acknowledge with thanks and appreciation, the help and cooperation extended to us by the DAILY WORLD photo and research department.
The expenses involved in publishing this brochure go way beyond the capacities of the few veterans who have advanced the initial cost. These few veterans are old in age, living on fixed incomes, depending on social security and on their families for additional help to exist.

To guarantee the completion of payment of the balance due on publishing and to guarantee the circulation of 5 to 10,000 copies via mailing and other methods, we are desperately in need of money. In addition to any contribution you can make, we appeal to you to order and pay for bundle copies for the libraries, media, and unemployed; or, at least a minimum of 5 copies for $2. In addition, if you wish, you may send us a list of friends you wish to receive a copy of this pamphlet, and enclose postage. We will mail this for you.

Thank you, dear reader, for your cooperation and help.
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