Peter Anderson

And basically, this had become a huge publicity issue.

People talking about the heroic defenders, the people on the Francoist side, and groups associated with the Republicans, really keen to capture this symbol of power.

That became really symbolically important.

And what Franco does is instead of going directly to Madrid before the defenses had been properly prepared there, he diverts to Toledo and he manages to lift the siege and he gets incredible publicity.

The British and the French pursued a policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, which curiously turned out to be a massively important form of intervention in the Spanish Civil War.

And what the British do with the French as a way of solving a variety of political and strategic problems is come up with the suggestion of non-intervention.

So in August 1936, they work on this and they come up with a treaty of non-intervention that lots of countries sign, including the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

When the war first starts, Italy in particular is really watching the situation.

They don't want to become involved if the British are going to become involved.

They see the British attitude and they decide, ha, this is another example of a kind of weak-willed British and French activity.

We can become involved in Spain without too many consequences.

Germany thinks similar things and becomes really involved.

We do get women who are fighting in particularly in militia units and particularly early on in the Spanish Civil War.

And there are some of the really famous examples.

There's a woman from Madrid, Rosa Sanchez Mora, who became known as the dynamiter.

She joined in Madrid when it was under siege in the summer of 1936.

She became involved in the women's dynamite section, so they were involved in hurling dynamite at the enemy, but also in various defense works.

She lost her right hand.

I think it was blown off, if I remember rightly.

So she's really turned into this great symbol of the bravery of ordinary people fighting against fascism and making the sacrifice, if you like.