John Hopkins

They will have to make a break for it under cover of darkness.

Soon, everyone who is fit enough to attempt the escape is ready by a small rear door.

It opens onto a courtyard, beyond which a series of side streets lead out of town.

Cautiously creaking the door open, Mika peers into the foggy darkness, hoping they'll be lucky enough to slip past the Francoist forces unnoticed.

She ushers her comrades out of the door ahead of her, watching as their silhouettes are swallowed by the thick mist, one by one.

When it's her turn to move, the air is suddenly filled with shouting, followed by a hail of gunfire.

Cursing, Mika realizes her team must have run into the enemy in the dark.

A scream rings out, abruptly terminated.

She hesitates, but then the cannon fire begins again, battering the cathedral with renewed ferocity.

It's now or never.

As bullets fly to her left, she takes off, running in the opposite direction across the damp cobblestones.

Her breath comes at short bursts, sweat trickling down her back under a thick wool jacket.

But soon, she is ducking into a small alleyway, sprinting away from the gunfire and towards the outskirts of the town.

She smiles savagely into the darkness.

Once again, she lives to fight another day.

Mika is one of just a handful of fighters to escape from Sigwintha.

After her desperate escape, she is made a captain in the Republican army.

Yet despite the bravery of such women, it is only early on that they fight in any real numbers.

Gender norms quickly reassert themselves, and soon women are encouraged away from the front lines and towards support roles or work in factories.

Rosa Sanchez becomes a telephonist and a postal worker.