Even more extraordinary is the case of Frenchman Henri Dupré. Member of the "Cagoule", a secret far-right organization financed by Mussolini, he joined the Communist Party with several of his friends at the start of the Spanish Civil War and left with his group for Albacete.
Playing the intractable, he deceived the yet extreme mistrust of Marty and was given the key position of chief of the quartermaster services of the 11th brigade. It will rage until the end of 1937 and will never be worried. In a book written in 1942, he voted himself for his exploits:“We systematically pursued the destruction of equipment, the revolt of souls, the encouragement of desertion. I placed the most incapable men in the most important posts. Trucks and machine guns were sabotaged with emery pot, after which, to deceive me, I myself cried very loudly about treason. Having become an agent of the Gestapo during the German occupation, Dupré was shot in 1946.
Sabotage also raged in the other camp. It is not uncommon for Rebel shells, made in Italy and Germany, to fall without bursting. Sometimes, the "internationals" discover little papers like this:That's all we can do for you - at least for now. Hello and good luck!
In the Republican camp, acts of treason, passing over to the opposing camp — inevitable in any civil war — develop a psychosis of espionage. It was in Spain that the expression "fifth column" was born. When Francoist General Mola was asked which of his four columns would enter Madrid first, he replied with a laugh:"The fifth", alluding to the agents and sympathizers he had in the capital.
As the war turns in Franco's favor, this psychosis will develop. The international brigades will not escape it:there will be summary executions which will cause a lot of ink to flow. If some were justified, others are a matter of the political settling of accounts between rival factions:the Stalinists do not spare the Trotskyists or those who pass for being such; in Moscow, it is the time of the great trials.
In the Caribbean, the use of privateers was particularly popular. The cost of maintaining a fleet to defend the colonies was beyond the capabilities of national governments in the 16th and 17th centuries. These governments therefore granted private vessels a letter of marque (or commission of war)