Hans Amlie

Hans Amlie
Amlie in 1937
Born(1900-09-05)September 5, 1900
Cooperstown, North Dakota, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 1949(1949-12-14) (aged 49)
Somerton, Arizona, U.S.
Allegiance United States
Spanish Republic
Branch United States Army
 United States Marine Corps
International Brigades
Years of service1917–1919
1919–1921
1937
RankCorporal
Private
Battalion Commander
UnitThe "Abraham Lincoln" XV International Brigade
CommandsLincoln Battalion
Battles / wars
Resting placeGolden Gate National Cemetery
Alma materMontana State School of Mines
Political partySocialist (before 1937)
Communist (after 1937)
Spouse
​
(m. 1937)​
RelativesThomas 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 500-man Lincoln Battalion.

Early life

Amlie in his U.S. Army uniform c. 1917–1919

Hansford Amlie was born on September 5, 1900 in Cooperstown, North Dakota.[1] His family was of Norwegian descent.[2][3] He was active in radical politics as young as 14 years old, when he joined the Industrial Workers of the World[4] following the Ludlow Massacre.[5] He attended Cooperstown High School and was on the debate team with his brother, future congressman Thomas Ryum Amlie.[6]

Following American entry into World War I, Amlie enlisted in the Army at the age of 16,[7] serving in France as a Corporal.[8][9] After the war's end, he re-enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1919,[10] serving as a private until 1921.[1][11] Some sources also give his rank as sergeant.[5][12]

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.[4]

During the Great Depression, Amlie moved to California[4] and was involved in the labor movement there, taking part in the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike.[13] By 1937, he was living in San Francisco and working as an orderly at the French Hospital.[14]

Spanish Civil War

A United Press bulletin detailing Amlie's efforts to volunteer in the Spanish Civil War mistakenly identifies his brother Thomas as his father, January 9, 1937

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.[15][16] Amlie, having been a member of the Socialist Party since he cast his first vote for Debs in 1920,[17] 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,[15] and in the end only 25 men could be mustered. Amlie, disgusted by the party's actions, resigned to join the Communist Party.[18]

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.[19] 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.[20] As he 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.[21]

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[20] (now numbering less than 500 men after heavy losses),[22] with Belfast-born[23] International Seamen's Union organizer John Quigley Robinson assigned to him as battalion commissar.[19] Deeply caring for the wellbeing of his men,[18] one of Amlie's first acts as commander was ensuring those with poor eyesight had spare glasses in case theirs were broken in combat.[20]

Works

  • "At the Battle of Brunete". Blue Book. Vol. 68, no. 3. January 1939. pp. 135–136.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Amlie, Hans". alba-valb.org. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  2. ^ "Thomas Ryum Amlie Papers, 1888-1967". digicoll.library.wisc.edu. Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  3. ^ Hochschild, Adam (2016). Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. London: Macmillan Publishers. p. 242. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b Payne, Robert (1963). The Civil War In Spain, 1936-1939. London: Secker & Warburg. p. 168. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  6. ^ "Won Third Debate". The Wahpeton Times. Wahpeton. April 20, 1916. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  7. ^ "Marine Corps Week opens in United States". The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican. Fargo. June 11, 1917. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  8. ^ "Once N. D. Man Fights In Spain". The Fargo Forum. Fargo. July 25, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  9. ^ Fisher, Harry (1997). Comrades: Tales of a Brigadista in the Spanish Civil War. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 23. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  10. ^ "Local Army Enlistments". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. November 18, 1919. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "Hans Amlie Injured Fighting With Spanish Loyalist Army". The Capital Times. Madison. July 15, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  14. ^ "S. F. Recruiting Speed". San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco. January 8, 1937. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ Brooks, Chris (February 14, 2017). "Lorenz Kaufman and the Eugene Victor Debs Column". albavolunteer.org. The Volunteer. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  17. ^ "Recall Amlie As Bold Youth". The Fargo Forum. Fargo. December 12, 1937. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ a b Landis, Arthur H. (1968). The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. New York: The Citadel Press. pp. 172–173. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Amlie, Hans (January 1939). "At the Battle of Brunete". Blue Book. Vol. 68, no. 3. pp. 135–136.
  22. ^ Landis, Arthur H. (1989). Death in the Olive Groves: American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. New York: Paragon House. p. 66. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
  23. ^ "Robinson, John Quigley". alba-valb.org. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
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