Seventy years ago they marched out of Barcelona for the last time, proud heroes who had risked their lives to fight General Franco's Fascist-backed rebels.
Yesterday, a small band of veterans of the International Brigades returned to mark the anniversary in Sitges, near Barcelona.
Frail, some in wheelchairs, they joined in a chorus of La Bandera Roja, or The Red Flag, an Italian song popular with anti-Fascist forces during the war.
Now the eight British and Irish survivors of the 2,300 men and women who joined the brigades are fighting a new battle against time to win an honour that has stayed out of their grasp: Spanish nationality.
Twelve years after first being offered citizenship for their contributions during the Spanish Civil War, they are yet to become Spaniards.
Times Online and “The Spanish civil war remembered” on the Guardian