The Royal Navy and the Spanish Civil War
WITH THE ROYAL NAVY CURRENTLY TASKED TO SUPPORT THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE CIVIL WARS IN LIBYA AND SYRIA, AND TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO REFUGEES, ANDY BROCKMAN LOOKS BACK EXACTLY EIGHTY YEARS TO THE SIMILARLY SENSITIVE EVACUATION OF ALMOST 4,000 CHILD REFUGEES FROM BILBAO IN MAY 1937 DURING THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR.
Child refugees and their adult helpers disembark from SS Habana at Southampton on Sunday 23 May 1937
COURTESY OF THE BASQUE CHILDREN OF 37 ASSOCIATION
To the watch keepers on the compass platform of HMS Royal Oak, the shape of the approaching light cruiser with her rakish twin funnels would have been curiously familiar.
