Out of the shadows: two comrades of Ponzán Vidal [Book Review]

Spanish anarchists played a key role in the WW2 escape lines, getting escaped servicemen (and others) out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Two new biographies shed extra light on this.

Bruce Dowding was a Francophile Australian and escaped POW who became a key figure in the ‘Pat O’Leary’ (or Pat-Ponzan) Line. His nephew Peter Dowding and historian Ken Spillman faced a challenging task in reconstructing his clandestine work but do give a sense of his experiences and motivations. They don’t just look at this young man who ‘once sat two tables from Picasso’, either: telling his story does justice to all the workers on the line. They don’t share British Intelligence’s view that the anarchists were just ‘expensive subcontractors’. In fact, Ponzan Vidal comes across as reliable and the opposite of Harold ‘Paul’ Cole, a chancer who found ‘escape and evasion’ a nice little earner but sold his comrades to the Gestapo ‘with a smile’ (and not to save his own life, but out of spite).

This is not an easy read. Dowding was executed and his name supposed to be erased by the ‘Nacht und Nebel’ (night and fog) decree. The Australian military weren’t very interested in his fate since he wasn’t under their orders. Secret Agent, Unsung Hero has its roots in family tragedy but makes a fine tribute to a life cut short.

Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France by Imanol records the life of another of Ponzan’s comrades. Huet’s clandestine activities stretched from Barcelona before the civil war, through the French resistance, to the anarchist resistance to Francoism after the second world war into the 1970s. Until now, Huet largely kept himself out of the historical record. Imanol uncovers his life and does justice to all of Huet’s comrades without sugar-coating anything. See Huet’s comment on the failed attack on Franco from the air in 1948: ‘I would have put the barrel of my gun to the pilot’s head and, had another pass been impossible, we could have crashed the plane into the yacht. Because when it comes to organizing an attentat, one has to see it through to the finish, no matter the cost.’ 

Secret Agent, Unsung Hero: The Valour of Bruce Dowding by Peter Dowding, Ken Spillman. Pen & Sword Military, 2023 ISBN 9781399055437

Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France by Imanol, translated by Paul Sharkey, Kate Sharpley Library, 2024 (online) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/q575q3