Spain during World War II

• 1. Neutrality And Non-Belligerence

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  On the 19th of June 1940, Francisco Franco wrote to Adolf Hitler offering to join the war in exchange for help building Spain's colonial empire. This letter marked a shift from official neutrality to non-belligerence following the Fall of France. Franco seriously contemplated joining the Axis powers to support his allies Italy and Germany. These nations had brought the Spanish Nationalists into power during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Despite ideological sympathy, Franco 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. 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. Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.

• 2. The Hendaye Meeting

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  Hitler and Franco met only once at Hendaye, France on the 23rd of 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 demanded the territorial annexation of Morocco and other territories in French Africa. He also requested heavy fortification of the Canary Islands as well as large quantities of grain, fuel, armored 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!" The UK and the US used economic inducements to keep Spain neutral in 1940. Spain relied upon food and 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.

• 3. Military Mobilization Plans

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  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. 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. After the war, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel said: "Instead of attacking Russia, we should have strangled the British Empire by closing the Mediterranean." 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 was planned in May 1941 as a reaction to a proposed British landing on the Iberian peninsula near Gibraltar. Operation Ilona or Gisella was devised in May 1942, to be invoked whether or not Spain stayed neutral. Operation Nurnberg was devised in June 1943, purely a defensive operation in the Pyrenees along both sides of the Spanish-French border.

• 4. The Blue Division Volunteers

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  Hitler approved the use of Spanish volunteers on the 24th of 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 División Azul under Agustín Muñoz Grandes included an air force squadron called the Blue Squadron. It numbered 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. 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. 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.

• 5. Espionage And Sabotage Networks

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  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. 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 Sánchez Rubio, member of Falange and coordinator of the intelligence operations in the Campo. Sánchez Rubio designated Emilio Plazas Tejera, also a member of Falange, as operations chief of the organisation. The Spanish agents sank the armed trawler and destroyed the auxiliary minesweeper, which resulted in the deaths of six British seamen on the 18th of January 1942.

• 6. Refugee Policies And Jewish Transit

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  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. The Spanish head of mission in Budapest, Ángel Sanz Briz, saved thousands of Ashkenazim in Hungary by granting them Spanish citizenship. He placed them in safe houses and taught them minimal Spanish so they could pretend to be Sephardim. About 25,000 to 35,000 refugees, mainly Jews, were allowed to transit through Spain to Portugal and beyond. José María Finat y Escrivá de Romaní, Franco's chief of security, issued an official order dated the 13th of 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, Romaní 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.