Chronologically the next battlefield visited should have been the Corunna Road. In December 1936 and January 1937, the frontal assault on Madrid having failed, the Nationalists tried to cut the capital off from the north west by seizing part of the Corunna Road. We did not visit this battlefield because the whole area west of the Casa de Campo as far as Boadilla is now one vast sprawl of residential suburbs, roundabouts and new roads. We therefore moved straight on to February 1937 and the Battle of Jarama. This battlefield proved far more rewarding to visit. The Jarama River Valley, some 15 miles south east of Madrid and flanked by impressive heights remains largely unspoiled. It was the scene of the Nationalists' determined effort to cut Madrid off from the Republican areas around Valencia.

Two viewpoints were used on this battlefreld. The first was the Pindonque railway bridge. Now in ruins, this was the scene of a daring, pre-dawn coup de main operation in which Moroccan Light Infantry overwhelmed the Franco-Belgian Battalion of the International Brigade defending the bridge. Throughout the next day Russian T26 tanks and Italian anti-fascist machine gunners battled against Moroccan cavalry charges, German 3.7 cm anti tank guns and the very first appearance in battle of the deadly German 88 mm gun, used here to prevent Russian 'Ratas' and 'Chatos' from destroying the bridge.

The second viewpoint used was the top of Suicide Hill. This proved a memorable one for two reasons, firstly the plethora of first hand accounts of the fighting left by members of the British Battalion of the International Brigade who took part in their first action as a unit there and suffered terrible casualties and secondly the sheer amount of battlefield debris still lying about.

Using British survivors accounts it is easy to find Pingarron Hill, Casa Blanca Hill (the white ruins still lie there) and Suicide Hill itself where the veterans of Number One Company suffered for 7 long hours,supported from the east by Harry Fry's Maxim guns, once they had sorted out their ammunition problems.

As the area later stabilised to become the Nationalist front line it is honeycombed with trenches, dugouts, shrapnel, bullet heads, empty cases and, amazingly, an 18" Mauser sword bayonet, complete except for its wooden furniture.

The only area of the battlefield that is hard to gain access to is the summit of Pingarron Hill which is private property. The Abraham Lincoln Battalion found it similarly hard to get onto in their baptism of fire in 1937.

A Battlefield Tour of the Madrid Front

Introduction
Siege of Alcazar
Battle for Madrid
Battle of Jarama 1937
Battle of Guadalajara 1937
Battle of Brunete 1937
Other Places of Interest