Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell�s brutally honest account of his experience as a militiaman during the Spanish Civil War. When civil war broke out in Spain in 1936, Orwell, like many other European socialists, was quick to join the fight against Fascism. And so, in December that year, he found himself in Catalonia with a 40-year-old rifle, no helmet, uniform, maps or tools, and a platoon of near children under his command.