Mine Were of Trouble: A Nationalist Account of the Spanish Civil War

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A very interesting and singular perspective on the Spanish Civil War by an Englishman volunteer on the Nationalist side, first enlisted in the Requeté Army (Carlists), then on the Foreign Legion (the elite army unit).

REVIEW: Mine Were of Trouble – Peter Kemp (1957; Mystery

On his brief stint on the Madrid front, fighting house to house in the Carabanchel neighborhood in the south of the city… Spanish people of the older generations (older than me, at least) have told me that Spain is still divided between victors and vanquished: that which side your family was on makes a big difference in your life to this day. I don’t know if younger people feel the same way. MaybeThe sum of things to be known is inexhaustible, and however long we read, we shall never come to the end of our story-book." First Edition; Demy 8vo; pp. [x], 208; illustrated frontispiece, 4 text maps, index, bound in original red cloth, title lettered in gilt on spine, very good copy. The official number I see almost everywhere is the very precise figure of 6,832 people, including priests, nuns, bishops and other clergy.) If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. — Thomas Paine Boys of fifteen and old men of seventy alike rose to defend la Fé and la Tradición, following in the steps of their ancestors who had fought under Zumalacárregui in the last century.” Kemp, p 10.

Mine Were of Trouble (Peter Kemp) • The Worthy House Mine Were of Trouble (Peter Kemp) • The Worthy House

Kemp is primarily an adventurer and writing well about interesting situations, rather than one of truly great fiction writers of history (such as Hemingway), but the writing is quite good, honest, and the book is easy to follow. Unlike a lot of war writers, he writes about direct experiences without becoming overly gory, yet doesn't avoid dealing with greater philosophical issues than just direct experience. Pretty much the perfect war memoir. Here’s Kemp shooting at the Reds during the Battle of Jarama, one of the larger Civil War battles, immortalized in the song Jarama Valley by Woodie Guthrie:Puzzling, when you think about it, how the propaganda campaign succeeded so comprehensively when pretty much all of the propaganda turns out to be rubbish (does anybody take “For Whom The Bell Tolls” seriously?). But quantity matters…. The actual war itself was, like many civil wars, incredibly dirty. Summary executions of many classes of combatants were standard (of all non-Spaniards by the Nationalists, and of most prisoners by the Republicans), and there was harsh discipline (execution for any insubordination) on the Nationalist side, and outright crime (rape, murder of civilians) on the Republican side. Mine Were of Trouble : A Nationalist Account of the Spanish Civil War (1957) by Peter Kemp is an account of the Spanish Civil War from the Nationalist side. It’s a very interesting accompaniment to George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. Taking that into account, and knowing what I know, I don’t think the civil war was anybody’s fault in particular. The Spanish situation was bad, and one way or another there was going to be violence. There was plenty of violence happening before the war broke out, in fact.