A CUMNOCK man who fought alongside literary giants George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway in the Spanish Civil war is to feature in a television documentary this week.

And speaking to the Chronicle's Sandy Kilpatrick from his home in Car Road, Jim Gowans, 68, the son of Cumnock's George Gowans, recounts his father's amazing story. In 1936 Right-wing General Francisco Franco was engaged in a bloody civil war with forces loyal to the Spanish government.

Communists, socialists and idealistic freedom fighters flocked to Spain to join the struggle - and George was one of them.

They were not all professional soldiers. Some had never before fired a shot in anger, but they were bonded together in a common cause - to oppose the growing tide of Fascism.

As part of the famed International Brigade, George was quickly trained up as a sniper and demolition man by the Paras and members of the French Foreign Legion.

The civil war raged and more than 5,000 men lost their lives fighting in the International Brigade. The remaining five groups of Freedom Fighters were merged together and it was then that he met writers George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway.

The friendship forged saw the Cumnock man later collecting the pages for '1984' while Orwell was being treated for Tuberculosis at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride.

George supplied the writer with toilet paper on which he scribbled the text for his most famous novel.

And during his time at Morocco, George became good friends with the politically active American singer and actor Paul Robeson. Fighting escalated in Barcelona and George was shot twice - first through the shoulder, then a bullet burrowed dangerously close to his heart. He was taken for medical attention but as the air raid sirens sounded George was left strapped helpless on the operating table. He suffered excruciating pain when doctors returned to complete the procedure because they forgot to administer a local anasthaetic.

In 1939, based in Jarama, George quickly had to get to grips as a machine gunner when his comrade was killed by an enemy sniper. He had to take over and, dodging the bullets flying around him, he managed to identify the sniper's position and take him out.

Jim added: "My father told us that had they been given the proper weapons there would have been no Second World War. They were under-manned and under-armed, with little food or rations to keep them going.

"Once the war was over he managed to stow away on a Swedish freighter. My father suggested to his friend that they hide in the radio room as he knew it would be empty. His friend was afraid and they got separated.

"It wasn't until they reached neutral waters that my father found out the soldier had been found in a locker and was shot and thrown overboard." After the conflict was over, George was asked to return to Spain, this time to destroy coal mines in Santander. Franco was in tow with Hitler, and George was sent in with a crack team of explosives experts to destroy the shaft cutting off the fuel supply to Germany.

However, his action-packed past was to yield yet one more incredible story.

Years later, working as an Ambulance Radio Operator at Ballochmyle Hospital, George was asked to assist with a foreign patient who had collapsed outside.

Discovering he had a burst appendix, the man asked George how he spoke Spanish so well.

Jim said: "It was only after he explained his role blowing up the mines that the foreigner replied: "So you're the dirty rascal who put me out of business?

"My father was quite a character, He certainly saw a lot." The second part of 'The Scots Who Fought Franco' is on STV at 9pm on Thursday August 20.