Transnational Soldiers and Guerrilla Warfare from the Spanish Civil War to the Second World War

Abstract

This article analyses how military institutions incorporated innovations in their tactics using the intermediary role of transnational soldiers in the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet experience of guerrilla warfare during the Russian Civil War was transferred to foreign volunteers during the war in Spain thanks to the collaboration of Soviet experts advising the Spanish Republican Army. After the war, these soldiers’ knowledge and experience of guerrilla warfare were invaluable to the Allied Armies during the Second World War. This article analyses the role of International Brigaders in the OSS in the USA, North Africa, and Europe during the Second World War.