Robert Raven’s Story 

On March 14, a surprise Fascist attack, supported by tanks, made 
a breach in the trenches to the left of the XV Brigade. The Lincoln 
Battalion, nearest the break, rallied the men who had been driven out. 
Among the Americans was J. Robert Raven, who tells here in a letter 
dictated from hospital, how he was seriously and tragically wounded 
during the encounter: 

“Just writing to let you know what happened to me after you left. 
I rushed up about 350 meters of empty trenches bringing up all the Span- 
iards I could rally around. Then I met a Canadian. The trenches had 
been filling up gradually at our exhortation of “No Pasarán!” Suddenly 
we ran, into four soldiers whom we thought were our own at first, but 
their helmets and clothes proved them to be Fascists. They tried to 
capture us. We tore away from them and ran back thirty metres and 
grabbed some grenades. My Canadian comrade opened the lever of 
his grenade and handed it to me, which he should not have done. How- 
ever, I crawled up towards the Fascists under cover of the Spaniards’ 
fire who had just come up, and was about to toss the grenade when 
there was a terrific concussion in front of me and I felt my face torn 
off. Naturally, I just dropped the grenade, my hand having been 
knocked out. My own grenade exploded at my feet filling my legs with 
shrapnel. 
“My comrades must have retreated again and I kept crawling blind- 
ly, dragging my body through those trenches over all kinds of obsta- 
cles calling “Comrade, Comrade”. Words cannot describe the agony, 
the exhaustion with which I dragged myself through those narrow 
trenches. Finally, I felt somebody near me and he touched me, and an 
hour or so later somebody was carrying me and I landed at the hos- 
pital here. Most of the shrapnel in my legs has been removed, also both 
my eyes. They were too bad for repair. Tell my comrades I said: ’No 
Pasarán!’ and I hope We didn’t lose those trenches.” 

Today, Robert Raven, blinded, is back in the United States, working 
for the unity of democratic forces in the fight against Fascism. His her- 
oism in battle and his stoicism in his affliction are an example to all 
humanity. 

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