Churchill’s Spaniards; the Gibraltarians who never were.   

In 1939, as the Spanish civil war came to a close, some 250 thousand Republicans had escaped Franco’s wrath by fleeing over the Pyrenees to France; who to be honest didn’t want them. They were seen as Reds and consequently a threat to the stability of La Belle France, who had quite enough reds of their own. To isolate them from French society these Spanish Reds and their families were housed in internment camps, where they were fed near starvation rations which it was hoped would encourage them to go home; as unlikely as that sounds.

Everything was to change when France found herself at war with Germany. From a Spanish perspective, should the Germans overrun France, (and it appeared as if they would) they would find themselves in Mathausen to be eradicated like so many of their colleagues before them. From a French perspective they had quite enough to do without administering concentration camps. But almost immediately, the French realised that within the camps they had something France lacked; battle experience. So the French made them an offer; if the Reds would engage in war work or join the military, they and their families would be released. 

So, our three heroes emerged.  The subject of research by Damien Lewis; Rafael Ramos, Justo Balerdi and Franciso Geronimo began an amazing journey, beginning with their acceptance into the French Foreign Legion and deployment to the French colony of Syria, with the 6^th REI (Regiment of Foreigners).

 

                                                    Rafael Ramos left and Francisco Geronimo right, in Rome 1945.

The German troops’ lightning defeat of France (and Syria’s now Vichy status) had an unfortunate outcome for legionnaires of Spanish extraction, who were all ordered to German held territory, (along with Jews, Czechs and Poles) there to face execution or the death camps. This was compounded by a pre-war Abwehr plot which had placed hundreds of young Germans in the Legion to the extent that half the privates and 80% of NCOs were German. The French officers could no longer trust the NCOs and this in turn, led them to turn a blind eye to the Spaniards deserting in droves. Our three heroes joined sixty other colleagues, in stealing two French army trucks, taking their weapons with them and heading for the British lines in Palestine.

 

                       

                                                                                 Francisco Geronimo on the right.  

On arrival at the first British checkpoint, a sentry barred their way; without papers they could not pass. As they argued, a figure jumped out of the rear of a truck and knocked the sentry unconscious and the trucks went through. As luck would have it, two British officers were recruiting for the newly formed Middle East Commando and experienced, ex-legionnaire, guerrilla fighters, were too good a bargain to miss; the Spaniards were inducted, en-masse, to 50ME Commando, which is where their adventures really began.

The 50 ME commandos first saw action in the 1941 Operation Abstention, a raid on the Greek populated island of Kastelorizzo, which was an Italian seaplane base. The location - the most easterly of the Dodecanese chain, just 2 miles from Turkey - was attractive to the Royal Navy as a potential base for MTBs. Today the sheltered deep water harbour remains a base for the Hellenic Navy. The raid was a complete surprise and all enemy resistance crumbled. They took the key objective, Paleocastro Fort, set upon the 800 foot high cliff that dominated the harbour but the failure to land any reinforcements left the 200 men under siege. They were bombarded by Italian warplanes and motor torpedo boats from nearby Rhodes and with their food, water and ammunition, running low as well as mounting casualties, the survivors were lifted from the beach in a daring night time evacuation by HMAS Perth, a Leander Class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy.

Back in action three months later 50ME Commando served as E Coy, D Battalion, a part of Col. Robert Laycock’s Layforce, in the battle for Crete. Under ferocious attack from German paratroopers, Crete fell, and many commandos were taken prisoner. This could easily have been the end for the Spaniards, had they been detected.  But, a bright New Zealand Medical Officer, Captain Archie Cochrane, told them to destroy anything that might identify them as Spaniards and tell the Germans that they were from Gibraltar. That would account for their appearance and accents but make them British subjects and hence save their lives. The ruse worked and they owed their salvation to that quick thinking M.O.

               

                               Embarking the wounded.                      Some of the Spanish volunteers who escaped the island.

Geronimo did not care for imprisonment as a POW so immediately escaped and spent eleven long months living off the land in the rugged White Mountains (Lefka Ori) of Crete along with other escapees. It was extremely tough, sometimes they had little else to eat other than snails and dried grapes. However, he managed to pick up the language and was eventually able to pass himself off as a Cretan to the Germans.

Once, Geronimo was almost captured in a Cretan village while resting. The family shouted a warning as the Germans approached, and Geronimo, though half asleep, reacted instinctively and made a run for the open window. However, he mis-timed his jump. His head collided with the frame and he fell to earth outside, a crumpled unconscious heap. Luckily for the family– not to mention Geronimo – he was never discovered, even in his slumber. He woke up after the Germans had gone. Then, in the spring of 1942, he was rescued in an SOE operation, exhausted by malaria he was to spend several more months recuperating.

He then volunteered for the SAS. In Phillipeville, Algeria, Geronimo met up with Justo Balerdi and they were reunited with Rafael Ramos. Another Spaniard, Juan Torrent Abadia, also joined them. All four volunteered for special service, and were shortly badged into 2nd SAS.

 

                             2^nd SAS, Operation Tombola.   Ramos middle row 2^nd from R.    Geronimo back row 3^rd from L.

 

It was decided to change their names for they could expect no mercy if captured and identified as Spaniards. Three chose the names of iconic British heroes, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake and Robert the Bruce… except for fiery young Ramos who refused to be renamed.  Drake and Raleigh were seen as too obvious so eventually Juan Abadia, who was the spitting image of film star Ronald Colman, chose the surname Colman, Justo Balerdi (originally a telephonist from near Bilbao) became Robert Bruce and Franciso Geronimo (apprentice electrician from Malaga) became Frank Williams.

All four would see action over the next two years with the SAS, jumping into France after D-Day and harassing the enemy behind the lines during operations such as Dunhill and True Form. Most of them made at least 3 combat jumps, and were able to wear their wings proudly on their chest after doing so. In late 1944, Geronimo (now Williams), Balerdi (now Bruce), and Ramos would deploy to Italy, under the leadership of legendary SAS commander Major Roy Farran.

In March 1945, the three Spaniards parachuted behind the Gothic Line, in northern Italy, as part of a forty strong SAS squadron tasked to join up with bands of Italian (Garibaldina, Reggianni and Russian) partisans. Under the leadership of Major Farran, they spent the next few months harassing the rear of the German lines.

 

                                                                       Justo Balerdi centre.

Their mission, codenamed Operation Tombola, culminated in one of the most audacious SAS operations of the entire war: the assault on the German 14th Army Headquarters, which commanded 100,000 troops holding back the Allied advance. On that daring raid the Spaniards would distinguish themselves, simultaneously attacking the Villa Rossi and Villa Calvi, destroying one and leaving the other ablaze. Major Farran was aware of Hitler’s instruction that 10 partisans should be killed for every German casualty, so arranged for a Scottish Regimental Piper to accompany the raiding force, to stamp a British signature on the attack and deter reprisals.

The Germans were taken completely by surprise, not least to hear a lone Scottish piper playing Highland Laddie as the bullets ricocheted around the villas.

                    

                                  David ‘Mad Piper’ Kirkpatrick WW2                                   David in 2011

 

Rafael Ramos would earn himself the Military Medal; storming Villa Rossi and killing six German officers. When Captain Michael Lees of the SOE  stormed the villa’s spiral staircase, getting shot five times in the process, Ramos carried him to safety and later, fortified with Benzedrine, carried the badly wounded Lees for many miles to safety on an improvised stretcher made from a ladder, saving his life. Churchill’s Spaniards had helped make this one of the most successful operations in SAS history.

But the Spaniards’ successes would cost one of them dear. On the final SAS assault on a German convoy in a small Italian town, driving through in jeeps with all guns blazing, Balerdi took a stray round to the head and was killed instantly. He had been a staunch anti fascist and the only Basque to serve in the SAS throughout WW2.

 

                                                             Justo Balerdi above and back left in the jeep.

 At the end of World War II, Spain remained fascist as the Allies opted to keep Spain as an anti-communist bulwark rather than free it from Franco’s tyranny. The part these brave men had played in the war was, conveniently, largely forgotten.

After the war there was a shameful attempt to hand back all the Spanish SAS, including our heroes, to Spain’s fascist regime. Thanks to a press outcry in Britain, the idea was quietly shelved.  Rafael Ramos settled in Exeter working for the Express & Echo newspaper; he died in 1961 aged 42 after a short illness. Juan Abadia (John Colman) settled in the UK and raised a family. Francisco Geronimo (Frank Williams) married and raised a family in Cardiff, finding work as a pipe-fitter, eventually contracting asbestosis and dying in 1981.

    

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    First published Dec 2019 at History Society Chronicle.                    Paul Hodkinson.