ABSTRACT
To an industrially under-developed country, as Spain was in the 1930s, foreign military equipment was a necessity. If non-intervention had been a reality, a simple lack of armaments would have forced a stalemate and a negotiated settlement. However, on both sides of the political and military divide foreign assistance flowed in – not only guns and planes, but fighting men as well. Through the organisation of the International Brigades, volunteers joined the Republican forces, while the German and Italian governments sent troops and pilots to fight with the Nationalists.
