Hans Amlie
Hans Amlie | |
---|---|
![]() Amlie in 1937 | |
Born | Cooperstown, North Dakota, U.S. | September 5, 1900
Died | December 14, 1949 Somerton, Arizona, U.S. | (aged 49)
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Branch | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1917–1919 1919–1921 1937 |
Rank | Corporal Private Battalion Commander |
Unit | The "Abraham Lincoln" XV International Brigade |
Commands | Lincoln Battalion |
Battles / wars | |
Resting place | Golden Gate National Cemetery |
Alma mater | Montana State School of Mines |
Political party | Socialist (before 1937) Communist (after 1937) |
Spouse | |
Relatives | Thomas Ryum Amlie (brother) |
Hansford "Hans" Amlie (September 5, 1900 – December 14, 1949) was an American mining engineer, political activist and soldier who served in the United States Army and Marine Corps during and after World War I and in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. In the latter conflict, he rose from commanding the 25-man "Debs Column" to the 2,500-man Lincoln Battalion.
Early life
[edit]
Hansford Amlie was born on September 5, 1900 in Cooperstown, North Dakota.[1] His family was of Norwegian descent.[2] He was active in radical politics as young as 14 years old, when he joined the Industrial Workers of the World[3] following the Ludlow Massacre.[4] He attended Cooperstown High School and was on the debate team with his brother, future congressman Thomas Ryum Amlie.[5]
Following American entry into World War I, Amlie enlisted in the Army at the age of 16,[6] serving in France as a Corporal.[7][8] After the war's end, he re-enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1919,[9] serving as a private until 1921.[1][10] Some sources also give his rank as sergeant.[4][11]
After leaving the military, he attended the Montana State School of Mines and became a mining engineer. Turning away from the declining IWW, Amlie joined the United Mine Workers of America and supported Progressive Senator Robert M. La Follette in the 1924 presidential election.[3]
During the Great Depression, Amlie moved to California[3] and was involved in the labor movement there, taking part in the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike.[12] By 1937, he was living in San Francisco and working as an orderly at the French Hospital.[13]
Spanish Civil War
[edit]
Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Socialist Party of New York put out a call for 500 men to form a "Eugene V. Debs Column" to join the pro-Republican International Brigades.[14][15] Amlie, having been a member of the Socialist Party since he cast his first vote for Debs in 1920,[16] answered the call and was chosen to lead the column.[1] However, the officially pacifist national party was noncommital in its support for the column,[14] and in the end only 25 men could be mustered. Amlie, disgusted by the party's actions, resigned to join the Communist Party.[17]
Amlie arrived in Spain on March 17, 1937, joining the XV International Brigade's predominantly-American George Washington Battalion. He attended officer training school and was given command of the battalion's 1st Company ahead of the Battle of Brunete.[1] Assigned to him as political commissar was civil rights lawyer Bernard Ades.[18] During the advance on Villanueva de la Cañada, Amlie tried to lead his men out of a sniper's line of fire and was shot in the hip.[19] As Amlie later recalled:
I had gone only a few steps when I saw the head and shoulders of the foe lift. I knew that I'd made a blunder and started dropping. A bullet caught me low in the side and plowed through to the backbone. It felt as if I had been cut through the back with a hot cleaver. I remembered letting loose a long groan and thinking, "I've been killed," but I recovered my senses almost immediately. I had fallen in a small irrigation ditch a few inches deep. I was paralyzed from the waist down, but my arms were all right and my head was clear.[20]
Amlie was eventually pulled to safety and hospitalized at the Ritz Hotel in Madrid. Upon his recovery, he was promoted to battalion commander of the reorganized Lincoln-Washington Battalion.[19] Deeply caring for the wellbeing of his men,[17] one of Amlie's first acts as commander was ensuring those with poor eyesight had spare glasses in case theirs were broken in combat.[19]
Works
[edit]- "At the Battle of Brunete". Blue Book. Vol. 68, no. 3. January 1939. pp. 135–136.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Amlie, Hans". alba-valb.org. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ "Thomas Ryum Amlie Papers, 1888-1967". digicoll.library.wisc.edu. Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ a b c Marion, G. (July 19, 1937). "David White, Hans Amlie; Two Yank Fighters in Spain". Daily Worker. New York. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Payne, Robert (1963). The Civil War In Spain, 1936-1939. London: Secker & Warburg. p. 168. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ "Won Third Debate". The Wahpeton Times. Wahpeton. April 20, 1916. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ "Marine Corps Week opens in United States". The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican. Fargo. June 11, 1917. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ "Once N. D. Man Fights In Spain". The Fargo Forum. Fargo. July 25, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ Fisher, Harry (1997). Comrades: Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 23. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ "Local Army Enlistments". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. November 18, 1919. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ Bennett, Milly (1993). On Her Own: Journalistic Adventures from San Francisco to the Chinese Revolution, 1917-1927. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. p. xiii. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ Rosenstone, Robert A. (1969). Crusade of the Left: the Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. New York: Pegasus Books. p. 161. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ "Hans Amlie Injured Fighting With Spanish Loyalist Army". The Capital Times. Madison. July 15, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ "S. F. Recruiting Speed". San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco. January 8, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ^ a b Chatfield, Charles (1971). For Peace and Justice: Pacificism in America, 1914-1941. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. pp. 242–243. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ Brooks, Chris (February 14, 2017). "Lorenz Kaufman and the Eugene Victor Debs Column". albavolunteer.org. The Volunteer. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ "Recall Amlie As Bold Youth". The Fargo Forum. Fargo. December 12, 1937. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ a b Carroll, Peter N. (1994). The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 72–73, 155. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ Landis, Arthur H. (1968). The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. New York: The Citadel Press. pp. 172–173. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ a b c Eby, Cecil (1969). Between the Bullet and the Lie: American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp. 147–150. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ Amlie, Hans (January 1939). "At the Battle of Brunete". Blue Book. Vol. 68, no. 3. pp. 135–136.
External links
[edit]Media related to Hans Amlie at Wikimedia Commons
- Hansford “Hans” Amlie at Find a Grave
- Pictures at ancestry.com
- 1900 births
- 1949 deaths
- People from Griggs County, North Dakota
- Norwegian Americans
- Industrial Workers of the World members
- Montana Technological University alumni
- United Mine Workers of America people
- United States Army personnel of World War I
- United States Marine Corps personnel
- Abraham Lincoln Brigade members
- Members of the Socialist Party of America
- Members of the Communist Party USA
- California socialists
- Burials at Golden Gate National Cemetery