Lost Cause by John Wilson

Author:John Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV016080, JUV013000, JUV039220
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2012-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

JULY 1

Dominion Day for the Canadians. No Red Ensigns or patriotic songs, but the Mac-Paps’ flag was held high and the Internationale sung lustily. The flag is a large rectangle of red bearing the words CANADA’S MACKENZIE-PAPINEAU BATTALION, 1837–1937, Fascism shall be destroyed. It also sports a raised fist over a red star and a green maple leaf. It’s very grand, and I got a lump in my throat as we sang beneath it.

We new recruits have been formed into a squad under a Canadian officer. His name is Pat Forest, but everyone calls him Tiny because he is over six feet tall and almost that wide across the shoulders. He’s a dedicated Communist and was a stevedore on the Vancouver docks. He’s been over here since January 1937 and has been wounded FOUR times. The men say it’s because he’s such a large target.

As I had been told, most of the Mac-Paps now are young Spaniards. Some of them look even younger than I do! Tiny told us that there are Canadians scattered in other units as well. He knows of several boys in the Dabrowski Battalion because they had recently immigrated to Canada from Eastern Europe and they felt more comfortable with the language in that battalion. It’s all very strange, but there’s a feeling that nationality doesn’t matter. We’re all here for the same reason.

The Mac-Paps suffered heavily in the spring battles, but despite that, the mood is good and everyone is certain that we will win the battle that all know is coming soon.

“We’ll beat those sons-of-guns,” Tiny declared this afternoon. Actually “sons-of-guns” is not what he really said, but I don’t feel comfortable writing down the real word. “The governments in Canada, Britain and America will see what we can do and finally realize that we have to stand up to Fascism, and the sooner we do it, the better it’ll be. They don’t even need to fight, just give us some decent tanks, planes and machine guns, and we’ll do the job for them. If we win in Spain, you just watch Hitler and Mussolini run scared. Like all bullies, they’re cowards at heart.”

“And as we march triumphantly into Burgos to put Franco on trial for war crimes, we’ll look up and see a flock of pigs winging their way overhead.” This was from Hugh, a short, skinny guy who peers out from behind thick round spectacles; he’s the only veteran apart from Tiny in our squad. He was a schoolteacher in Winnipeg before he was fired for corrupting the young minds of his students with Communist ideas. He’s just back from having a bomb fragment dug out of his thigh and still has a limp. Hugh’s the wet blanket in the squad, always there with a negative point of view whenever anyone says anything positive. What he said annoyed me, but the others simply shrugged it off with a laugh.

“Have you all forgotten what it was like back in March and April?” Hugh went on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.