Active March-April 1937 Branch International Brigades Role Home Defence | Allegiance Spain Type Battalion - Infantry | |
Part of XV International Brigade | ||
The Veinte Battalion (Spanish: 20.º Batallón Internacional or Batallón 20) was a short-lived battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
History
The high number of casualties suffered by the XV International Brigade during the month of February 1937 prompted the General Staff of the Spanish Republican Army to create the 20th Battalion at the time of the Fascist Italian attack in Guadalajara in March.
The 20th Battalion was formed by remnants of the 21st Battalion garrisoned at Pozo Rubio, Albacete, new volunteers, as well as some soldiers and officers who had recovered from their wounds. It was made up of three companies of fusiliers, a German, a French and an English one, as well as a mixed machine-gun company, and was moved to Puertollano —at the edge of the Sierra Morena— and put under the orders of the Chief of the Army of Andalusia on 20 March. Later the 20th Battalion would be joined by two battalions, one of militias and a Carabineros battalion.
Eventually the 20th Battalion became the nucleus around which the 86th Mixed Brigade would be established around the first half of April 1937.