“Because this was Spain, everything was being issued piecemeal.”
George Orwell's complaint about the poor organization of the Spanish forces. Throughout the book, Orwell points out how poorly supplied and drilled the Spanish forces were overall. A trait which he attributes to the character of Spanish society. The chain of command failed to properly support the already disorganized forces. The inability to acquire proper supplies lead to a dissolution of morale on the battlefield. A lack of morale ideology and goading from the commanders could not fix. A critical failure in the war effort.
“I admit, too, that I felt a kind of horror as I looked at the people I was marching among. You cannot possibly conceive what a rabble we looked. We straggled along with far less cohesion than a flock of sheep; before we had gone two miles the rear of the column was out of sight. And quite half of the so-called men were children — but I mean literally children, of sixteen years old at the very most. Yet they were all happy and excited at the prospect of getting to the front at last.”
As Orwell observes among the Republican/Leftist forces, despite their state, warfare was still idealized among them. The young men arrive to the front to make themselves heroes. Though, as Orwell describes, their sorry states make them anything but. The desperation of the Republican forces allowed these young men (almost children) to enlist to bolster the deflating war effort. The lack of momentum caused by the poor state of the troops. All of this reflects Orwell's greater disappointment in the reality of the Spanish Civil War.
“A little while later, however, a bullet shot past my ear with a vicious crack and banged into the parados behind. Alas! I ducked. All my life I had sworn that I would not duck the first time a bullet passed over me; but the movement appears to be instinctive, and almost everybody does it at least once.”
The reality of warfare strikes Orwell in his first brief exchange of gunfire. Despite much bravado, humans do still have fear in war no matter their dedication to the cause. Orwell justifies his fear (and he is correct) but it is also symbolic of a larger failing of ideology. Once reality sets in, ideas and opinions are put into question. Even with all his dedication, Orwell could not totally brave the bullet. His human reflexes kicked in all the same. A microcosm of the pliability of ideology in the Spanish Civil War.
“When we left Monte Pocero I had counted my cartridges and found that in nearly three weeks I had fired just three shots at the enemy. They say it takes a thousand bullets to kill a man, and at this rate it would be twenty years before I killed my first Fascist.”
Orwell's reflection on the overall disappointment the war was. He hoped to fight Fascists (or Nationalists) in Spain, but experienced very little actual fighting. What combat he did participate in was rather disappointing. The statement is a humorous observation on that reality. The war, to Orwell, feels more like a waiting game than an actual conflict. The reality of word is that it is dreadfully boring.
