Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. William Ash MBE, (born November 30, 1917 in Dallas, Texas) was a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, writer, and Marxist.Born into a lower middle-class family in Dallas, Texas, Ash was a migrant worker during the U.S Great Depression and took a University course, doing privileged pupils' essays in order to gain money and also for his personal development as an author. It was around this time when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and the largely apolitical Ash, driven by a hatred of bullies and fascism, decided that if the war was still going when he was old enough to fight (aged 21), he would join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.