the martin krauss papers

richard cloke

"Would you answer as many of these questions as possible? If the right question has not been asked, please feel free to add and answer at the same time."

A letter from Martin "Mac" Krauss, presumably sent to all of the ambulance drivers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, acknowledges that very little information was recorded of these people. A questionnaire was thus sent, asking a variety of questions, to inquire the circumstances regarding the involvement of each driver, and their opinions on the brigade.

One such questionnaire returned by Richard Cloke, mistakenly recorded as "Dick Clarke" on the list of 19 drivers whose addresses were known, reflects a very placid experience in the war.

Cloke is cited to have had a couple of vocations in the war, first having served as a machine gunner, and then as an ambulance driver after being hospitalised with injuries to his left arm which he sustained in the Washington Battalion. His experience on the field likely contributed to his use as an ambulance driver, as Edward Barsky states in Facing Fascism that ambulance drivers with many different skill sets were sought after, and that merely being able to drive was not enough. Cloke reflects that "the most valued qualities an ambulence driver could have" was a "cool head.:

The ALBA website states that Cloke attended UC Berkeley and was initially a journalist, a fact which makes me wonder if Cloke had initially gone to Spain with his greatest motivation being to write about it, rather than serve in the fight. However, an obituary writetn in the Cape Cod Times² alleges that Cloke one day found himself so angry by the rise of fascism in Europe, he simply left his car by the edge of the road and enlisted in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

He contests that there was no such thing as a typical day in the service, and though this suggests a variety of experiences, Cloke cites his "most vivid memory of Spain" as "the people, with whom [he] was most friendly." It seems significant that Cloke's most vivid memory of Spain are the people, especially when he himself was wounded badly enough to have been taken out of direct action. From Richard's response to the questionnaire we see that he has kept in contact with some of the men he met in the Brigade, though only some of those who, like him, resided in California.

According to a 1998 article in the Los Angeles Times¹, featured, interestingly, in the "Nazi" Collection, Richard Cloke was blacklisted and faced persecution during his lifetime for his "leftist" activities - involvement in the Spanish Civil War - by the FBI and Hoover's administration.


1: Richard Cloke, Los Angeles Times, October 25 1998. <http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/25/local/me-36015>
2: Cape Cod Times, October 10 1998. <http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981010/NEWS01/310109593>