William Aalto William Eric Aalto was born in the United States . He was a member of the communist party , and he joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion , which was a unit that volunteered to fight during the Spanish Civil War for the Popular Front . Eatly life . William Eric Aalto , of Finnish extraction , was born in the Bronx , New York on 30 July 1915 . His mother , a militant member of the Finnish Communist Party , had fled to the United States due to her radical political beliefs . She enrolled in the local communist party , educating her son with Marxist ideology . After leaving school , he worked as a truck driver and was a member of the Young Communist League . Spanish Civil War . Aalto arrived in Spain on 17 February 1937 , joining the other International Brigades at Albacete . In March 1937 he joined the Spanish Communist Party . During the war , he volunteered for dangerous guerrilla operations which frequently required him to work behind enemy lines for up to weeks at a time . Working with International brigaders , Alex Kunslich and Irving Goff , Aalto was trained by Soviet instructors in the use of pressure - sensitive explosives to destroy railroad tracks , bridges and power lines . One of their objectives was the destruction of the main supply bridge spanning the Albarracín River . The operation may have been the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway ' s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls . At the end of 1937 , Aalto took part in the Battle of Teruel , working behind enemy lines again with Kunslich , Goff and Spanish guerrillas . On 23 May 1938 , Aalto , now a lieutenant , led the successful amphibious operation at Carchuna , Motril on the southern coast of Spain , which resulted in the rescue of 300 Republican prisoners held in the Fort of Carchuna . This raid constitutes the only operation of its kind ever undertaken by the Spanish army . In September 1938 , with a Republican defeat in sight , the Abraham Lincoln Battalion was withdrawn from the front line and shortly afterwards disbanded . William Aalto returned to the United States . During his time in Spain , Aalto wrote : " " A soldier who is politically conscious that he is right and who has a feeling of community with his society . . . will do his job well " . " . Second World War . In 1941 , Aalto ' s former comrade - in - arms , Irving Goff , recommended him for recruitment to the Office of Strategic Services . At this time , Aalto confessed to Goff that he was a homosexual . Goff and other OSS Lincoln veterans reported the fact to the organization ' s head , General William Donovan , requesting for him to be removed from their team . In 1942 , Aalto was transferred to a training camp at Camp Ritchie , Maryland . In September 1943 , while training soldiers in demolition work , Aalto saw someone drop a live grenade and lunged for it . Before he could throw it away , the bomb exploded , severing his arm at the wrist . Post - War . With the help of his disability pension and the G . I . Bill , he returned to further his education , studying poetry at Columbian University . At this time , he published several pieces of his writings in the " New Masses " . After his betrayal by the OSS Lincoln veterans , Aalto drifted away from contact with the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade . Aalto then travelled to Europe , where he met the poet W . H . Auden . Though sharing the company of other poets , Aalto now wrote little and tended towards alcoholism , frequently becoming violent . Toward the end of his life , he was poet James Schuyler ' s lover , and features in the latter ' s poem " Dining Out with Doug and Frank " . William Aalto died of leukemia in June 1958 , and was buried in Long Island National Cemetery .