145 volunteers in his company, 42 others besides O'Reilly were Irish. On Christmas Eve 1936, O'Reilly battalion sent out to join the front around Córdoba. O'Reilly's commanding officers were George Nathan and Kit Conway; Nathan was controversial amongst the Irish volunteers who became aware that Nathan had previously served as a member of the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence. O'Reilly's unit took part in the Battle of Lopera but were defeated. Seven Irish volunteers died at Lopera and many were wounded. Overall, approximately 300 members of the battalion died and approximately another 600 were wounded. In an 1975 interview, O'Reilly described that a French volunteer officer named LaSalle was executed for treason after the battle by the republican leadership. O'Reilly complained that this paranoid behaviour set the tone for the rest of the war, and that unlike the formal discipline he had previously experienced in the British army, the republican army was plagued by chaos and infighting: "Because we had lost, that charge was made that he led us into a trap. Anytime anything went wrong, somebody would charge it was sabotage. This kind of suspicion was a problem throughout the war". O'Reilly opined that republican officers were not selected for merit, but "because they happened to be members of some political organisation". Second Battle of the Corunna Road On 11 January 1937 O'Reilly's company was redeployed to Madrid to take part in the Second Battle of the Corunna Road, which involved thousands of troops from both the republican and natioanlist sides. O'Reilly's company was tasked with retaking the suburban village of Las Rozas. The mission ended in failure when the republicans found that their opponents had superior weapons. In the aftermath, only 67 of the company's original 145 volunteers returned to the International Brigade base at Albacete. While O'Reilly's company had been on the frontline, a new company had been forming within the XV International Brigade; the British Battalion. However, many Irish volunteers had split off from this unit to form their own; the Connolly Column which attached itself to the American Lincoln Battalion. O'Reilly choose to stay with the British Battalion. Survivors of earlier engagements were kept in reserve and thus O'Reilly was assigned Quartermaster of the British cookhouse, a role that quickly left him disillusioned with his choice. Battle of Jarama As the Battle of Jarama commenced in February 1937, O'Reilly offered to