IBMT tour of Aragon Front

‘Tomorrow we’ll have coffee in Huesca’

A six-day International Brigade Memorial Trust tour to the Aragon Front in October 2014 (9th to 15th)

The group will assemble on Thursday 9th October at Callafell, a small seaside town, easily accessible by rail from both Barcelona El Prat and Barcelona Reus airports. The following morning a coach will take the group to Huesca where we will spend two nights. The group will then move on to Caspe for a further two nights before returning to Callafell for the final night. Accommodation will be reserved at group rates in hotels of minimum 3-star rating.

The tour, with local historians, will feature:

• A commemoration at Tardienta to Felicia Browne, the first British volunteer to fall in Spain along with her Italian comrade Paulo Comida. This will be followed by a visit to the trenches at Santa Quiteria.

• A visit to a monument in Huesca to Republicans killed by Primo de Rivera in 1930, where flowers will be laid.

• Walk through the Estrecho Quinto trenches where John Cornford wrote ‘Letter from Aragon’. From this location there is a splendid view of the Castillo de Montearagon mentioned by George Orwell in ‘Homage to Catalonia’.

• At Alcubierra we will see both the original and the reconstructed trenches of the Ruta Orwell.

• En route to Caspe we visit the battle sites at Belchite, left in ruins since the end of the Aragon campaign, and Quinto, where we will be joined by a local historian to show us the bombed church and Purburrel Hill.

• From Caspe, local expert Anna Marti will lead the group to the Maelle-Batea area to visit sites related to the Great Retreat of the Lincoln and Thälmann Battalions towards Gandesa.

• A visit will be made the new and superb Battle of the Ebro museum at Fayon.

Names of interested parties should be forwarded to Pauline Fraser at: pbf262@googlemail.com who will send out further details of cost and accommodation as soon as they have been finalised.