A new book by Séan Scullion, "Churchill’s Spaniards - Continuing the Fight in the British Army 1939-46", tells the story of about 1,200 Spaniards who enlisted with the British army to fight Hitler in the war. Ángel Camarena took part in one of the most dangerous SAS operations of the Second World War when 30 troopers lost their lives after being ambushed by the Nazis. He survived the battle to fight again for the elite fighting force in another operation as the British army crossed the Rhine in the dying days of the war in their trademark jeeps.
Camarena also took part in an SAS operation to force the surrender of the German army in Norway as Hitler was about to fall. His extraordinary life also included escaping execution at the hands of the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco, joining the Allies in North Africa, and signing up for the SAS. It is just one among many remarkable tales told in "Churchill's Spaniards", a book about 1,200 Spaniards who joined the British army during the Second World War to help Winston Churchill defeat fascism.
Séan Scullion, a lieutenant colonel in the British army who is based in the Netherlands where he works for NATO, spent the past eight years researching the book. In gripping prose, which suits the daring exploits of these men, Scullion tells the stories of the Spaniards who joined the SAS, others worked as spies for the Special Operations Executive or fought on battlefronts from Tobruk, Salermo, Normandy, Arnhem and the Arden.
