During
World War II
, the
Spanish State
under
Francisco Franco
espoused
neutrality
as its official wartime policy. This neutrality wavered at times, and "strict neutrality" gave way to "
non-belligerence
" after the
Fall of France
in June 1940. Franco wrote to
Adolf Hitler
offering to join the war on 19 June 1940 in exchange for help building Spain's colonial empire.
[1]
Later in the same year Franco met with Hitler
in Hendaye
to discuss Spain's possible accession to the
Axis Powers
. The meeting went nowhere, but Franco did help the Axis—whose members
Italy
and
Germany
had supported him during the
Spanish Civil War
(1936?1939)—in various ways.
Despite ideological sympathy, Franco even stationed field armies in the
Pyrenees
to deter Axis occupation of the
Iberian Peninsula
. The Spanish policy frustrated Axis proposals that would have encouraged Franco to take
British
-controlled
Gibraltar
.
[2]
Much of the reason for Spanish reluctance to join the war was due to Spain's reliance on imports from the
United States
. Spain also was still recovering from its civil war, and Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the
Canary Islands
and
Spanish Morocco
from a British attack.
[3]
In 1941, Franco approved the recruitment of volunteers to Germany on the guarantee that they only fight against the
Soviet Union
and not against the western Allies. This resulted in the formation of the
Blue Division
which fought as part of the
German army
on the
Eastern Front
between 1941 and 1944.
Spanish policy returned to "strict neutrality" as the tide of war started to turn against the Axis. American pressure in 1944 for Spain to stop
tungsten
exports to Germany and to withdraw the Blue Division led to an oil embargo which forced Franco to yield. After the war, Spain was not allowed to
join the newly created United Nations
because of the wartime support for the Axis, and Spain was isolated by many other countries until the mid-1950s.
Domestic politics
[
edit
]
During World War II, Spain was governed by an
autocratic
government,
[4]
but despite Franco's own pro-Axis leanings and debt of gratitude to
Benito Mussolini
and
Adolf Hitler
, the government was divided between Germanophiles and Anglophiles. When the war started, Anglophile
Juan Beigbeder Atienza
was minister of foreign affairs. German victories convinced Franco to replace him with
Ramon Serrano Suner
, Franco's brother-in-law and a strong Germanophile (18 October 1940). After
Allied
victories in North Africa in summer 1942, Franco changed tack again, replacing Serrano Suner with pro-British
Francisco Gomez-Jordana Sousa
in September. Another influential Anglophile was the
Duke of Alba
, Spain's ambassador in London.
Diplomacy
[
edit
]
From the very beginning of World War II, Spain favoured the
Axis Powers
. Apart from ideology, Spain had a debt to Germany of $212 million for supplies of
materiel
during the Civil War. Indeed, in June 1940, after the
Fall of France
, the Spanish Ambassador to Berlin had presented a memorandum in which Franco declared he was "ready under certain conditions to enter the war on the side of Germany and Italy". Franco had cautiously decided to enter the war on the Axis side in June 1940, and to prepare his people for war, an anti-British and anti-French campaign was launched in the Spanish media that demanded French Morocco, Cameroon and the return of Gibraltar.
[5]
On 19 June 1940, Franco pressed along a message to Hitler saying he wanted to enter the war, but Hitler was annoyed at Franco's demand for the French colony of Cameroon, which had been German before World War I, and which Hitler was planning on taking back.
[6]
At first
Adolf Hitler
did not encourage Franco's offer, as he was convinced of eventual victory. In August 1940, when Hitler became serious about having Spain enter the war, a major problem that emerged was the German demand for air and naval bases in Spanish Morocco and the Canaries, to which Franco was completely opposed.
[7]
After the victory over France, Hitler had revived
Plan Z
(shelved in September 1939) for having a huge fleet with the aim of fighting the United States, and he wanted bases in Morocco and the Canary Islands for the planned showdown with America.
[8]
The American historian
Gerhard Weinberg
wrote: "The fact that Germans were willing to forgo Spain's participation in the war rather than abandon their plans for naval bases on and off the coast of Northwest Africa surely demonstrates the centrality of this latter issue to Hitler as he looked forward to naval war with the United States".
[8]
In September, when the
Royal Air Force
had demonstrated its resilience in defeating the
Luftwaffe
in the
Battle of Britain
, Hitler promised Franco help in return for its active intervention. This had become part of a strategy to forestall Allied intervention in north-west Africa. Hitler promised that "Germany would do everything in its power to help Spain" and would recognise Spanish claims to French territory in
Morocco
, in exchange for a share of Moroccan raw materials. Franco responded warmly, but without any firm commitment.
Falangist
media agitated for
irredentism
, claiming for Spain the portions of
Catalonia
and the
Basque Country
that were still under French administration.
[9]
[10]
Hitler and Franco met only once at
Hendaye
, France on 23 October 1940 to
fix the details of an alliance
. By this time, the advantages had become less clear for either side. Franco asked for too much from Hitler. In exchange for entering the war alongside the alliance of Germany and Italy, Franco, among many things, demanded heavy fortification of the
Canary Islands
as well as large quantities of grain, fuel, armed vehicles, military aircraft and other armaments. In response to Franco's nearly impossible demands, Hitler threatened Franco with a possible annexation of Spanish territory by Vichy France. At the end of the day, no agreement was reached. A few days later in Germany, Hitler famously told Mussolini, "
I prefer to have three or four of my own teeth pulled out than to speak to that man again!
" It is subject to historical debate whether Franco overplayed his hand by demanding too much from Hitler for Spanish entry into the war, or if he deliberately stymied the German dictator by setting the price for his alliance unrealistically high, knowing that Hitler would refuse his demands and thus save Spain from entering another devastating war.
[11]
The UK and the US used economic inducements to keep Spain neutral in 1940.
[12]
Spain relied upon oil supplies from the United States, and the US had agreed to listen to British recommendations on this. As a result, the Spanish were told that supplies would be restricted, albeit with a ten-week reserve. Lacking a strong navy, any Spanish intervention would rely, inevitably, upon German ability to supply oil. Some of Germany's own activity relied upon captured French oil reserves, so additional needs from Spain were unhelpful. From the German point of view, Vichy's active reaction to British and
Free French
attacks (
Destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir
and
Dakar
) had been encouraging, so perhaps Spanish intervention was less vital. Also, in order to keep Vichy "on-side", the proposed territorial changes in Morocco became a potential embarrassment and were diluted. As a consequence of this, neither side would make sufficient compromises and after nine hours, the talks failed.
[
citation needed
]
In December 1940, Hitler contacted Franco again via a letter sent by the German ambassador to Spain and returned to the issue of
Gibraltar
. Hitler attempted to force Franco's hand with a blunt request for the passage of several divisions of German troops through Spain to attack Gibraltar. Franco refused, citing the danger that the
United Kingdom
still presented to Spain and the Spanish colonies. In his return letter, Franco told Hitler that he wanted to wait until Britain "was on the point of collapse". In a second diplomatic letter, Hitler got tougher and offered grain and military supplies to Spain as an inducement. By this time, however, Italian troops were being routed by the British in
Cyrenaica
and
Italian East Africa
, and the
Royal Navy
had displayed its freedom of action in Italian waters. The UK was clearly not finished. Franco responded "that the fact has left the circumstances of October far behind" and "the Protocol then agreed must now be considered outmoded".
[
citation needed
]
At Hitler's request, Franco also met privately with Italian leader
Benito Mussolini
in
Bordighera
, Italy on 12 February 1941.
[13]
Hitler hoped that Mussolini could persuade Franco to enter the war. However, Mussolini was not interested in Franco's help after the series of defeats his forces had recently suffered in North Africa and the Balkans.
[
citation needed
]
Franco signed the
Anti-Comintern Pact
on 25 November 1941. In 1942, the planning of
Operation Torch
(
Allied
landings in North Africa) was considerably influenced by the apprehension that it might precipitate Spain to abandon neutrality and join the Axis, in which case the Straits of Gibraltar might be closed. In order to meet this contingency, it was decided by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to include a landing in Casablanca, in order to have an option of an overland route via Moroccan territory bypassing the Straits.
[
citation needed
]
In 1945 the widow of the executed Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris
was awarded a pension for life by Franco's government, in recognition of the advice given to
Franco
by Canaris to keep Spain out of the war; "advice Franco took and was forever grateful for."
[14]
Franco's policy of open support to the Axis Powers led to a period of postwar isolation for Spain as trade with most countries ceased. U.S. President
Franklin Roosevelt
, who had assured Franco that Spain would not suffer consequences from the
Allies
, died in April 1945. Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman, as well as new Allied governments, were less friendly to Franco. A number of nations withdrew their ambassadors, and Spain was not admitted to the
United Nations
until 1955.
[
citation needed
]
Military
[
edit
]
Although it sought to avoid entering the war, Spain did make plans for defense of the country. Initially, most of the
Spanish Army
was stationed in southern Spain in case of an Allied attack from Gibraltar during 1940 and 1941. However, Franco ordered a gradual redeployment to the
Pyrenees Mountains
along the French border in case of a possible German invasion of Spain as Axis interest in Gibraltar grew. By the time it became clear that the Allies were gaining the upper hand in the conflict, Franco had massed all his troops on the French border and received personal assurances from the leaders of Allied countries that they did not wish to invade Spain.
[
citation needed
]
Spanish Armed Forces during the war
[
edit
]
At the end of the
Civil War
in April 1939, the
Ministry of the Army
and the
Ministry of the Navy
were reorganized, and the
Ministry of the Air Force
was established. The
Captaincies General
were reestablished, based on eight Army Corps in the peninsula and two in Morocco. In 1943, the IX Military Region (
Granada
) and the
First Armored Division
(August 20, 1943) were created within the General Reserve.
At the end of the Civil War, the Spanish (
Francoist
) Army counted with 1,020,500 men, in 60 Divisions.
[15]
During the first year of peace, Franco dramatically reduced the size of the Spanish Army to 250,000 in early 1940, with most soldiers two-year conscripts.
[16]
A few weeks after the end of the war, the
eight traditional Military Regions
(Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Burgos, Valladolid, and the
VIII Military Region
at A Coruna) were reestablished. In 1944 the
IX Military Region
, with its headquarters in Granada, was created.
[15]
The
Air Force
became an independent service, under its own
Ministry of the Air Force
.
Concerns about the international situation, Spain's possible entry into the Second World War, and threats of invasion led Franco to undo some of these reductions. In November 1942, with the
Allied landings in North Africa
and the German occupation of
Vichy France
bringing hostilities closer than ever to Spain's border, Franco ordered a partial mobilization, bringing the army to over 750,000 men.
[16]
The
Air Force
and
Navy
also grew in numbers and in budgets, to 35,000 airmen and 25,000 sailors by 1945, although for fiscal reasons Franco had to restrain attempts by both services to undertake dramatic expansions.
[16]
During the Second World War, the Army in metropolitan Spain had eight Army Corps, with two or three Infantry Divisions each.
Additionally, the
Army of Africa
had two Army Corps in Northern Africa, and there were the Canary Islands General Command and the Balearic Islands General Command, one Cavalry Division, plus the Artillery's General Reserve. In 1940 a Reserve Group, with three Divisions, was created.
[15]
Accustomed to a fixed-position war, without major strategic changes, the
Spanish Army
lacked the operational mobility of the armored units of large European armies, as well as experience in combined tank-infantry operations. The most modern tanks used in the Civil War had been the Russian
T-26
, the German
Panzer I
and various
Fiat
Italian tanks, already out of date by 1940.
On the main ships of the
Spanish Navy
; of the six cruisers, only four were operational: the flagship, the heavy cruiser
Canarias
, the light cruiser
Navarra
, the light cruiser
Almirante Cervera
, and the obsolete
Mendez Nunez
. The other two, the cruiser
Galicia
and the cruiser
Miguel de Cervantes
(both
Cervera class
), were in shipyards, without crew, undergoing refitting. The destroyers were of the
Churruca classes
and
Alsedo classes
. Some surviving ships included a few submarines which were
C class
and some
Archimede class
.
The
Spanish Air Force
had a few hundred fighters, mainly of Italian or German manufacture:
Fiat C.R.32
,
Heinkel He 112
,
Messerschmitt Bf 109
,
Fiat G.50
and
Heinkel He 51
. Among the bombers, the
SM.79
,
SM.81
,
Junkers Ju 52
,
Heinkel He 111
,
Dornier Do 17
and
Fiat BR.20
. In addition, it owned Soviet-made aircraft, mainly
Polikarpov I-15
and
Polikarpov I-16
, used in the civil war by republican aviation.
At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Spanish Army had 300,000 enlisted men, 25,000
non-commissioned officers
and 25,000 chiefs and officers in the Army. Their weapons were by now very obsolete, due to the rapid technological evolution that had occurred by the Allied and Axis armies during the war.
Operation
Felix
[
edit
]
Before Franco and Hitler's October 1940 meeting in
Hendaye
, there had been Spanish-German planning for an attack, from Spain, upon the British territory of
Gibraltar
, a British dependency and military base. At the time, Gibraltar was important for control of the western exit from the Mediterranean and the sea routes to the
Suez Canal
and
Middle East
, as well as Atlantic patrols. The Germans also appreciated the strategic importance of north-west Africa for bases and as a route for any future American involvement. Therefore, the plans included the occupation of the region by substantial German forces, to forestall any future Allied invasion attempt.
The plan, Operation
Felix
, was in detailed form before the negotiations failed at Hendaye. By March 1941, military resources were being ear-marked for
Barbarossa
and the Soviet Union. Operation
Felix-Heinrich
was an amended form of
Felix
that would be invoked once certain objectives in Russia had been achieved. In the event, these conditions were not fulfilled and Franco still held back from entering the war.
[20]
After the war, Field Marshal
Wilhelm Keitel
said: "Instead of attacking Russia, we should have strangled the British Empire by closing the Mediterranean. The first step in the operation would have been the conquest of Gibraltar. That was another great opportunity we missed."
[21]
If that had succeeded,
Hermann Goring
proposed that Germany "offer Britain the right to resume peaceful traffic through the Mediterranean if she came to terms with Germany and joined us in a war against Russia".
[20]
As the war progressed and the tide turned against the Axis, the Germans planned for the event of an Allied attack through Spain. There were three successive plans, progressively less aggressive as German capability waned:
Operation
Isabella
[
edit
]
This was planned in May 1941 as a reaction to a proposed British landing on the
Iberian peninsula
near Gibraltar. German troops would then advance into Spain to support Franco and expel the British wherever they landed.
Operation
Ilona
or
Gisella
[
edit
]
Ilona
was a scaled down version of
Isabella
, subsequently renamed
Gisella
. Devised in May 1942, to be invoked whether or not Spain stayed neutral. Ten German divisions would advance to
Barcelona
and, if necessary, towards
Salamanca
to support the Spanish army in fighting another proposed Allied landing either from the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts.
Operation
Nurnberg
[
edit
]
Devised in June 1943,
Nurnberg
was purely a defensive operation in the
Pyrenees
along both sides of the Spanish-French border in the event of Allied landings in the Iberian peninsula, which were to repel an Allied advance from Spain into France.
Resupply of German submarines
[
edit
]
Sources differ and list 25?26 cases of German submarines serviced in Spanish ports documented,
[22]
taking place between January 1940 and February 1944: 5 in 1940, 16 in 1941, 3 (2) in 1942, none in 1943 and 1 (0) in 1944.
[23]
Most were scheduled operations and 3 were emergency cases. The ports used were
Vigo
(7?8),
Las Palmas
(6),
Cadiz
(6) and
El Ferrol
(5). Overall, there were 1,508 tons of gas, oil and 37.1 tons of heavy oil pumped; in most cases there was also lubricants, water and food delivered, in some cases navigation charts and first-aid kits. Also 3 cases that were delivered are torpedoes.
[24]
In a few cases injured or sick German sailors were taken off the ship. Almost all cases were overnight operations, though two emergency repairs took a few days. There were four German supply ships (
Thalia
,
Bessel
,
Max Albrecht
and
Corrientes
) involved. In one case the replenishment operation was abandoned, as it turned out that the submarine in question was damaged and unfit for the process.
[25]
The
Corrientes
was the target of a limpet mine attack while at port in Las Palmas on 9 May 1940, but the damage was minor and she was back in service a few weeks later.
[26]
Occupation of Tangier
[
edit
]
Spanish troops occupied the
Tangier International Zone
on 14 June 1940, the same day
Paris fell to the Germans
. Despite calls by the writer
Rafael Sanchez Mazas
and other Spanish nationalists to annex Tangier, the
Franco regime
publicly considered the occupation a temporary wartime measure.
A diplomatic dispute between Britain and Spain over the latter's abolition of the city's international institutions in November 1940 led to a further guarantee of British rights and a Spanish promise not to fortify the area.
In May 1944, although it had served as a contact point between him and the later Axis Powers during the
Spanish Civil War
, Franco expelled all German diplomats from the area.
The territory was restored to its pre-war status on 11 October 1945.
[30]
In July 1952 the protecting powers met at
Rabat
to discuss the Zone's future, agreeing to abolish it. Tangier joined with the rest of
Morocco
following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956.
[31]
Volunteers
[
edit
]
The main part of Spain's involvement in the war was through volunteers. They fought for both sides, largely reflecting the allegiances of the civil war.
Spanish volunteers in Axis service
[
edit
]
Although Franco did not bring Spain into World War II on the side of the Axis, he permitted volunteers to join the German Army on the clear and guaranteed condition they would fight against Bolshevism (Soviet Communism) on the Eastern Front, and not against the western Allies. In this manner, he could keep Spain at peace with the western Allies, while repaying German support during the Spanish Civil War and providing an outlet for the strong anti-Communist sentiments of many Spanish nationalists. Spanish foreign minister Ramon Serrano Suner suggested raising a volunteer corps, and at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Franco sent an official offer of help to Berlin.
Hitler approved the use of Spanish volunteers on 24 June 1941. Volunteers flocked to recruiting offices in all the metropolitan areas of Spain. Cadets from the officer training school in Zaragoza volunteered in particularly large numbers. Initially, the Spanish government was prepared to send about 4,000 men, but soon realized that there were more than enough volunteers to fill an entire division: ? the
Blue Division
or
Division Azul
under
Agustin Munoz Grandes
? including an air force squadron ? the
Blue Squadron
, 18,104 men in all, with 2,612 officers and 15,492 soldiers.
The Blue Division was trained in Germany before serving in the
Siege of Leningrad
, and notably at the
Battle of Krasny Bor
, where
General Infantes'
6,000 Spanish soldiers threw back some 30,000 Soviet troops. In August 1942, it was transferred north to the southeastern flank of the Siege of Leningrad, just south of the Neva near Pushkin, Kolpino and Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area. After the collapse of the German southern front following the Battle of Stalingrad, more German troops were deployed southwards. By this time, General Emilio Esteban Infantes had taken command. The Blue Division faced a major Soviet attempt to break the siege of Leningrad in February 1943, when the 55th Army of the Soviet forces, reinvigorated after the victory at Stalingrad, attacked the Spanish positions at the Battle of Krasny Bor, near the main Moscow-Leningrad road. Despite very heavy casualties, the Spaniards were able to hold their ground against a Soviet force seven times larger and supported by tanks. The assault was contained and the siege of Leningrad was maintained for a further year. The division remained on the Leningrad front where it continued to suffer heavy casualties owing to weather and enemy action. In October 1943, with Spain under severe diplomatic pressure, the Blue Division was ordered home leaving a token force until March 1944. In all, about 45,000 Spaniards, mostly committed volunteers, served on the Eastern Front, and around 4,500 died. Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin
's desire to retaliate against Franco by making heavy sanctions of Spain and provide support to democratic forces, with the intent of destroying the regime from the inside, the first order of business at the
Potsdam Conference
in July 1945, was not supported by
Harry S. Truman
and
Winston Churchill
. Truman and Churchill persuaded Stalin to settle instead for a full trade embargo against Spain.
[32]
372 members of the Blue Division, the
Blue Legion
, or volunteers of the
Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101
, were taken prisoner by the victorious
Red Army
; 286 of these men were kept in captivity until 2 April 1954, when they returned to Spain aboard the ship
Semiramis
, supplied by the
International Red Cross
.
[33]
[34]
Spanish volunteers in Allied service
[
edit
]
After their defeat in the Spanish Civil War, large numbers of
Republican
veterans and civilians went into exile in France; the French Republic interned them in
refugee camps
, such as
Camp Gurs
in southern France. To improve their conditions, many joined the
French Foreign Legion
at the start of World War II, making up a sizeable proportion of it. Around sixty thousand joined the
French Resistance
, mostly as
guerrillas
, with some also continuing the fight against Francisco Franco.
[36]
Several thousand more joined the
Free French Forces
and fought against the Axis Powers. Some sources have claimed that as many as 2,000 served in
General Leclerc
's
Second French Division
, many of them from the former
Durruti Column
.
[note 1]
The
9th Armoured Company
comprised almost entirely battle-hardened Spanish veterans; it became the first Allied military unit to enter Paris upon its
liberation in August, 1944
, where it met up with
Spanish Maquis
fighting alongside French resistance fighters. Furthermore, 1,000 Spanish Republicans served in the
13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion
.
[37]
In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union received former Communist Spanish leaders and child evacuees from Republican families. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, many, such as communist General
Enrique Lister
, joined the
Red Army
. According to Beevor, 700 Spanish Republicans served in the Red Army and another 700 operated as
partisans
behind the German lines.
[37]
Individual Spaniards, such as the double-agent
Juan Pujol Garcia
(code name GARBO), also worked for the Allied cause.
Bribes by MI6
[
edit
]
According to a 2008 book, Winston Churchill authorised millions of dollars in bribes to Spanish generals in an effort to influence General Franco against entering the war on the side of Germany.
[38]
In May 2013 files were released showing
MI6
spent the present-day equivalent of more than $200 million bribing senior Spanish military officers, ship owners and other agents to keep Spain out of the war.
[39]
Resources and trade
[
edit
]
Despite lacking cash, oil and other supplies, Francoist Spain was able to supply some essential materials to Germany. There was a series of secret war-time trade agreements between the two countries. The principal resource was
wolfram (or tungsten) ore
from German-owned mines in Galicia, northwestern Spain. Tungsten was essential to Germany for its advanced precision engineering and therefore for armament production. Despite Allied attempts to buy all available supplies, which rocketed in price, and diplomatic efforts to influence Spain, supplies to Germany continued until August 1944.
[
citation needed
]
Payment for wolfram was effectively set against the Spanish debt to Germany. Other minerals included iron ore, zinc, lead and mercury. Spain also acted as a conduit for goods from South America, for example, industrial diamonds and platinum. After the war, evidence was found of significant gold transactions between Germany and Spain, ceasing only in May 1945. It was believed that these were derived from Nazi looting of occupied lands, but attempts by the Allies to obtain control of the gold and return it were largely frustrated.
[
citation needed
]
Espionage and sabotage
[
edit
]
As long as Spain permitted it, the
Abwehr
? the German intelligence organisation ? was able to operate in Spain and Spanish Morocco, often with cooperation of the Nationalist government. Gibraltar's installations were a prime target for sabotage, using sympathetic anti-British Spanish workers. One such attack occurred in June 1943, when a bomb caused a fire and explosions in the dockyard. The British were generally more successful after this and managed to use
turned agents
and sympathetic anti-Fascist Spaniards to uncover subsequent attacks. A total of 43 sabotage attempts were prevented in this way. By January 1944, a Gibraltarian and two Spanish workers, convicted of attempted sabotage, had been executed.
[40]
The Abwehr also financed, trained and equipped saboteurs to attack British naval assets. The Germans contacted a Spanish Army staff officer from
Campo de Gibraltar
, Lieutenant Colonel Eleuterio Sanchez Rubio, member of
Falange
and coordinator of the intelligence operations in the Campo,
to establish a network of saboteurs with access to Gibraltar. Sanchez Rubio designated Emilio Plazas Tejera, also a member of Falange, as operations chief of the organisation.
[42]
The Spanish agents sank the armed trawler
HMT
Erin
, and destroyed the auxiliary minesweeper
HMT
Honju
, which resulted in the deaths of six British seamen on 18 January 1942, among them an officer from
HMS
Argus
.
[43]
[44]
[45]
Plazas was assisted by the Spanish naval commander of
Puente Mayorga
, Manuel Romero Hume, who allowed him to beach a
rowboat
there.
[40]
The Abwehr also maintained observation posts
along both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar
, reporting on shipping movements. A
German
agent in
Cadiz
was the target of a successful Allied disinformation operation,
Operation Mincemeat
, prior to the invasion of Sicily in 1943. In early 1944, the situation changed. The Allies were clearly gaining the advantage over the Axis and one double agent had provided enough information for Britain to make a detailed protest to the Spanish government. As a result, the Spanish government declared its "strict neutrality". The Abwehr operation in southern Spain was consequently closed down. The rail station of
Canfranc
was the conduit for the smuggling of people and information from Vichy France to the British consulate in San Sebastian. The nearer border station of
Irun
could not be used as it bordered
occupied France
.
[
citation needed
]
Jews and other refugees
[
edit
]
In the first years of the war, "Laws regulating their admittance were written and mostly ignored."
[46]
They were mainly from Western Europe, fleeing deportation to concentration camps from occupied France, but also Jews from Eastern Europe, especially
Hungary
. Trudi Alexy refers to the "absurdity" and "paradox of refugees fleeing the Nazis'
Final Solution
to seek asylum in a country where no Jews had been allowed to live openly as Jews for over four centuries."
[47]
Throughout World War II, Spanish diplomats of the Franco government extended their protection to Eastern European Jews, especially in
Hungary
. Jews claiming Spanish ancestry were provided with Spanish documentation without being required to prove their case and either left for Spain or survived the war with the help of their new legal status in occupied countries.
Once the tide of war began to turn, and Count
Francisco Gomez-Jordana Sousa
succeeded Franco's brother-in-law Serrano Suner as Spain's foreign minister, Spanish diplomacy became "more sympathetic to Jews", although Franco himself "never said anything" about this.
[46]
Around that same time, a contingent of Spanish doctors travelling in
Poland
were fully informed of the Nazi extermination plans by Governor-General
Hans Frank
, who was under the misimpression that they would share his views about the matter; when they came home, they passed the story to Admiral
Luis Carrero Blanco
, who told Franco.
[48]
Diplomats discussed the possibility of Spain as a route to a containment camp for Jewish refugees near
Casablanca
, but it came to naught without Free French and British support.
[49]
Nonetheless, control of the Spanish border with France relaxed somewhat at this time,
[50]
and thousands of Jews managed to cross into Spain (many by smugglers' routes). Almost all of them survived the war.
[51]
The
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
operated openly in Barcelona.
[52]
Shortly afterwards, Spain began giving citizenship to
Sephardic Jews
in
Greece
,
Hungary
,
Bulgaria
, and
Romania
; many
Ashkenazic Jews
also managed to be included, as did some non-Jews. The Spanish head of mission in
Budapest
,
Angel Sanz Briz
, saved thousands of Ashkenazim in
Hungary
by granting them Spanish citizenship, placing them in safe houses and teaching them minimal Spanish so they could pretend to be Sephardim, at least to someone who did not know Spanish. The Spanish diplomatic corps was performing a balancing act: Alexy conjectures that the number of Jews they took in was limited by how much German hostility they were willing to engender.
[53]
Toward the war's end, Sanz Briz had to flee Budapest, leaving these Jews open to arrest and deportation. An Italian diplomat,
Giorgio Perlasca
, who was himself living under Spanish protection, used forged documents to persuade the Hungarian authorities that he was the new Spanish Ambassador. As such, he continued Spanish protection of Hungarian Jews until the Red Army arrived.
[54]
Although Spain effectively undertook more to help Jews escape deportation to the concentration camps than most neutral countries did,
[54]
[55]
there has been debate about Spain's wartime attitude towards refugees. Franco's regime, despite its aversion to
Zionism
and "Judeo"-
Freemasonry
, does not appear to have shared the rabid
anti-Semitic
ideology promoted by the Nazis. About 25,000 to 35,000 refugees, mainly Jews, were allowed to transit through Spain to Portugal and beyond.
Some historians argue that these facts demonstrate a humane attitude by Franco's regime, while others point out that the regime only permitted Jewish transit through Spain.
[
citation needed
]
After the war, Franco's regime was quite hospitable to those who had been responsible for the deportation of the Jews, notably
Louis Darquier de Pellepoix
, Commissioner for Jewish Affairs (May 1942 ? February 1944) under the
Vichy Regime
in
France
, and to many other former Nazis, such as
Otto Skorzeny
and
Leon Degrelle
, and other former Fascists.
[56]
Jose Maria Finat y Escriva de Romani
, Franco's chief of security, issued an official order dated 13 May 1941 to all provincial governors requesting a list of all Jews, both local and foreign, present in their districts. After the list of six thousand names was compiled, Romani was appointed Spain's ambassador to Germany, enabling him to deliver it personally to
Himmler
. Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, the Spanish government attempted to destroy all evidence of cooperation with the Nazis, but this official order survived.
[57]
Japanese war reparations
[
edit
]
At the end of the war, Japan was compelled to pay high amounts of money or goods to several nations to cover damage or injury inflicted during the war. In the case of Spain, the reparations were due to the deaths of over a hundred Spanish citizens, including several
Catholic missionaries
, and great destruction of Spanish properties in the
Philippines
during the
Japanese occupation
. To that effect, in 1954 Japan concluded 54 bilateral agreements including one with Spain for $5.5 million, paid in 1957.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
The number of Spaniards that served in the Second French Armoured Division in World War II remains disputed. The official French
Annuaire des anciens combattants de la 2e DB, Imprimerie de Arrault, 1949
claimed there were less than 300 Spaniards.
- ^
Weinberg, Gerhard.
A World in Arms
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 p. 177.
- ^
The History Channel. "November 19, 1940: Hitler urges Spain to grab Gibraltar."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-urges-spain-to-grab-gibraltar
- ^
Sager, Murray (July 2009). "Franco, Hitler & the play for Gibraltar: how the Spanish held firm on the Rock". Esprit de Corps. Archived from the original on 2012-07-08.
- ^
"Opinion | Liberation in Spain"
.
The New York Times
. 31 October 1982.
- ^
Weinberg, Gerhard
A World In Arms
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 133.
- ^
Weinberg, Gerhard
A World In Arms
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 177.
- ^
Weinberg, Gerhard
A World In Arms
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 pp. 176?177.
- ^
a
b
Weinberg, Gerhard
A World In Arms
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 178.
- ^
Serrano Suner, tragedia personal y fascismo politico
,
Javier Tusell
,
El Pais
, 2 September 2003: "Serrano ante el [Hitler] llego a sugerir que el Rosellon debia ser espanol, por catalan, y que Portugal no tenia sentido como unidad politica independiente."
- ^
El ultimo de los de Franco
, Santiago Perez Diaz,
El Pais
7 September 2003
- ^
Eder, Richard.
"Germany's ambivalent ally"
.
Boston.com
. Retrieved
21 January
2024
.
- ^
Crawford, Timothy W. (2021). "8. Britain and the United States Neutralize Spain, 1940?41".
Britain and the United States Neutralize Spain, 1940?41
. Cornell University Press. pp. 133?156.
doi
:
10.1515/9781501754739-010
.
ISBN
978-1501754739
.
S2CID
242358793
.
- ^
(in Italian)
Quotation
of
Mussolini, Album di una vita
by
Mario Cervi
at the Bordighera site. Accessed online 18 October 2006.
- ^
Trigg, Jonathan (2019).
D-Day through German eyes: How the Wehrmacht lost France
. Stroude, Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing. pp. 300, 301.
ISBN
978-1445689319
.
- ^
a
b
c
Munoz Bolanos, Roberto (2010). "La institucion militar en la posguerra (1939?1945)". In Fernando Puell de la Vega y Sonia Alda Mejias (ed.). Los Ejercitos del franquismo. Madrid: IUGM-UNED. 2010. pp. 15?55.
- ^
a
b
c
Bowen, Wayne H.; Jose E. Alvarez (2007).
A Military History of Modern Spain
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 114.
ISBN
978-0275993573
.
Archived
from the original on 5 May 2016
. Retrieved
2 July
2015
.
- ^
areamilitar.net.
"As forcas preparadas para a invasao (Portuguese)"
.
- ^
Bill Stone.
"Second World War Books: Operation Felix: Assault on Gibraltar"
. stone&stone.
- ^
a
b
Shulman, pp. 66?67
- ^
Shulman, p. 68
- ^
Monte, Peter,
U-Boats in Spain
, [in:]
Deutsches U-Boot Museum
service; see also Juan J. Diaz Benitez,
The Etappe Kanaren: A case study about the secret supply of the German Navy in Spain during the Second World War
, [in:]
International Journal of Maritime History
30/3 (2018)
- ^
Diaz Benitez 2016, p. 16, see also Monte
- ^
Diaz Benitez 2016, p. 16
- ^
Monte
- ^
Benitez, Juan Jose Diaz (2014).
"El ataque contra el buque aleman Corrientes en el Puerto de La Luz en mayo de 1940"
.
XX Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana, 2014, pags. 1161?1170
. Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria: 1161?1170.
- ^
"Reestablishment of the International Regime in Tangiers"
.
Department of State Bulletin
.
XIII
(330). Department of State: 613?618. 21 October 1945.
- ^
"Final Declaration of the International Conference in Tangier and annexed Protocol. Signed at Tangier, on 29 October 1956 [1957] UNTSer 130; 263 UNTS 165"
. 1956.
- ^
Office, United States Department of State Historical (1960).
The Conference of Berlin (the Potsdam Conference), 1945
. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1173.
- ^
Candil, Anthony J.
"Post: Division Azul Histories and Memoirs"
. WAIS ?
World Association for International Studies
. Retrieved
3 June
2014
.
- ^
Luca de Tena, Torcuato (1976).
Embajador en el infierno (Ambassador to Hell)
. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta. p. 252.
ISBN
8432051640
.
- ^
Crowdy, Terry (2007).
French Resistance Fighter: France's Secret Army
. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
ISBN
1846030765
p. 13
- ^
a
b
Beevor, Antony (2006).
The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936?1939
. London: Penguin Books. p. 419.
- ^
Keeley, Graham (16 October 2008).
"Winston Churchill 'bribed Franco's generals to stay out of the war'
"
.
Aftermath News
.
- ^
"MI6 spent $200m bribing Spaniards in second world war"
.
TheGuardian.com
. 22 May 2013.
- ^
a
b
Stockey, Gareth (2009).
Gibraltar: A dagger in the spine of Spain?
. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 151?152.
ISBN
978-1845193010
.
- ^
Ros Agudo (2005), pp. 232?234
- ^
"Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, January 1942"
.
www.naval-history.net
.
- ^
"Russian Convoy PQ8, January 1942"
.
www.naval-history.net
.
- ^
HMS
Erin
ASW Trawler
Uboat.net
- ^
a
b
Alexy, p. 77.
- ^
Trudi Alexy,
The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot
, Simon and Schuster, 1993.
ISBN
0671778161
. p. 74.
- ^
Alexy, p. 164?165.
- ^
Alexy, p. 77?78.
- ^
Alexy, p. 165.
- ^
Alexy, p. 79,
passim
.
- ^
Alexy, p. 154?155,
passim.
- ^
Alexy, p. 165 et. seq.
- ^
a
b
"Giorgio Perlasca"
.
The International Raoul Wallenberg foundation
. Retrieved
21 July
2006
.
- ^
"Franco & the Jews"
.
Hitler: Stopped by Franco
. Archived from
the original
on 11 July 2011
. Retrieved
21 July
2006
.
- ^
Nicholas Fraser, "Toujours Vichy: a reckoning with disgrace",
Harper's
, October 2006, p. 86?94. The relevant statement about Spain sheltering him is on page 91.
- ^
Haaretz, 22 June 2010, "WWII Document Reveals: General Franco Handed Nazis List of Spanish Jews,"
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/wwii-document-reveals-general-franco-handed-nazis-list-of-spanish-jews-1.297546
, citing a report published 20 June 2010 in the Spanish daily El Pais.
Sources
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]
- Bowen, Wayne H. (2000).
Spaniards and Nazi Germany: Collaboration in the New Order
. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 250.
ISBN
978-0826213006
.
OCLC
44502380
.
- Bowen, Wayne H. (2005).
Spain During World War II
. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 279.
ISBN
978-0826216588
.
OCLC
64486498
.
- Brenneis, Sara J.; Herrmann, Gina, eds. (2020).
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. University of Toronto Press.
ISBN
978-1487505707
.
- Hayes, Carlton J. H.
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978-1121497245
. by the U.S. ambassador
- Leon-Aguinaga, Pablo. "The Trouble with Propaganda: the Second World War, Franco's Spain, and the Origins of US Post-War Public Diplomacy."
International History Review
37.2 (2015): 342?365.
online
[
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- Mogaburo Lopez, Fernando (2017).
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(PDF)
. Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa ? Mando de Adiestramiento y Doctrina
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- Marquina, Antonio (1998). The Spanish Neutrality during the Second World War.
American University International Law Review
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- Payne, Stanley G (2008).
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- Payne, S.G. (1987).
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- Pike, David Wingeate (2000).
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{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- Thomas, J. ed.
Roosevelt and Franco During the Second World War: From the Spanish Civil War to Pearl Harbor
(Springer, 2008).
External links
[
edit
]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
- 1939?1945: The Spanish Resistance in France
- Nueve Company (French Second Armoured Division)
Archived
24 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
- The
Blue Division
- Spanish Involvement in World War II
- Operation Felix: Assault on Gibraltar
- Excerpt from Christian Leitz, "Spain and Holocaust"
- Libro Memorial. Espanoles deportados a los campos nazis (1940?1945)
, Benito Bermejo and Sandra Checa, Ministerio de Cultura de Espana, 2006. Re-published in
Portable Document Format
.
- Los vascos y la II Guerra Mundial
,
Mikel Rodriguez
, Euskonews & Media 301.
- Jimmy Burns,
Papa Spy: Love, Faith & Betrayal in Wartime Spain
. London, Bloomsbury, 2009.
[1]
- Museo Virtual de Espanoles en la Segunda Guerra Mundial
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