Tomorrow, Wednesday 28 March, marks 68 years since the fall of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War. It is thought about sixty Australians travelled to Spain to fight the fascists who eventually succeeded in overturning the democratically elected government. Mr Kevin Poynter from Charles Sturt University’s Visual and Performing Arts School is currently working on a play about what motivated these men to fight. He describes them as “passionate” and “romantic”. Mr Poynter says most Australians tended to join the British Brigade. “The war was particularly horrific. There are some very gruesome stories of those international brigades when they were flung into some desperate battles and lost half the brigade in 24 hours.” About 500 000 people lost their lives in the Spanish Civil War, and the war's end brought a period of dictatorship that lasted until the mid-1970s.