Orwell volunteered to fight as an infantryman for the Republicans against Franco’s Nationalist uprising. He joined the militia of the non-Stalinist Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification. Orwell was shot in the neck, near Huesca, on May 20, 1937. Image Description: On the Aragon front at Huesca: Orwell is the tallest standing figure; Eileen Blair is crouching in front of him (March 1937).