Spanish volunteers 1941-1945

[Marcus]

The thread has been cleaned up. Drop the personal commentary and get back on topic.

/Marcus

[Piotr Mikołajski]

Ironmachine, can we compare 250. Infanterie-Division with 162. Infanterie-Division or 600. Infanterie-Division?

[Ironmachine]

Ironmachine, can we compare 250. Infanterie-Division with 162. Infanterie-Division or 600. Infanterie-Division?

Well, I would say that with regard to this thread they are comparable as they were units of the German Army made up from non-Germans, but there were differences between them, also.

[George Lepre]

Hi guys -

This started as a good thread but it deteriorated.

Hi Truthfinding -

You have good arguments but when you wrote this:

It seems our Spanish friend is not happy about the fact that his country used to be a Nazi war-time ally, which is understandable. Just wanna say, even when Franco Regime was allied to Nazis, it does not mean all the good people of Spain have to be seen as Nazi sympathizers, don't be so sensitive and/or emotional.

This is obviously a baiting statement. Wondering aloud about whether another forum member is offended or not does not further the discussion about the Blue Division.

For what it's worth, the fact that the Spanish volunteers swore an oath to Hitler and were subject to German court-martial jurisdiction during their time in the division strongly suggests that the division was German.

Best regards,

George

[AlifRafikKhan]

In June 1943 Lt. Angel Eustaquio Gil Martin obtained the necessary permission to go to Wolchow Germanic looking for the grave of his brother Marcelino, fallen the previous year...

Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... e=1&ref=nf

[wardenhill]

Hello,

are there any photos of Blue legion troops (1940-41) either in Spain or newly arrived in Germany wearing the Spanish uniform

with helmet, equipment and the canvas anlets or short gaiters ?

Pete.

[Ironmachine]

If we are in 1940-1941, then it should be the Blue Division, not the Blue Legion.
Then, as it was not a unit of the Spanish Army, the men of the Blue Division were never given a standard Army uniform. Instead, a new uniformity was created using Army khaki trousers and blouse, blue shirts from Falange and Carlist red beret. No helmet was used (there was a shortage of helmets in Spain, and anyway they were not going to need one before being clothed by the Wehrmacht).
It is quite easy to find photos of this uniform, a simple google search will provide many of them. Here you have some:

02.jpg (30.55 KiB) Viewed 1669 times

[Ironmachine]

03.jpg (20.96 KiB) Viewed 1669 times

04.jpg (45.86 KiB) Viewed 1669 times

[Ironmachine]

06.jpg (56.67 KiB) Viewed 1668 times

Regards.

[Panzermahn]

Ironmachine is correct. From 1941-1942, the Spanish volunteers were grouped into the Division Azul (the Blue Division). In the aftermath of German reversals at Stalingrad as well as Allied pressure on General Franco, the latter was forced to pull back Spanish volunteers from the Eastern Front. However a significant numbers of Spanish volunteers still wanted to fight the Soviets, resulting many Spanish volunteers remained in the Eastern Front to continue the anti-communist struggle together with their German and European comrades.

In fact, during the recruitment of Spanish volunteers for the war at Eastern Front, there were so many volunteers that the Spanish command had to reject more than 10,000 of them. Battle-hardened Spanish officer veterans of the Civil War were willing to be demoted to privates and NCOs in order join the Blue Division since the officer quotas had been fulfilled. Even more interesting that the Russian white emigres who settled in Spain flock to the recrutiment centers for the Spanish volunteers in order to participate in the struggle against communism, resulting the Blue Division had a cadre of volunteers that could speak Russian and other Slavic languages. Also, there were numerous anecdotal and testimonies of Spanish volunteers finding some rapport with Russian civilians (to the irritation of the German command but unable to do anything about it)

As a result a smaller unit (many of the Spanish volunteers were required to return as they were under the orders of the Spanish government, resulting those who stayed had to "desert" the Spanish Army in order to remain in Eastern Front) called the Blue Legion (which had a quasi-approval from Franco himself)

In fact during the early years of the battle in the Eastern Front (1941-42), the German forces in the Army Group North were used to offensive operations and were dumbstruck when the Soviets launched counteroffensives. It was the Spaniards who taught the Germans how to fight a defensive war with construction of proper defensive lines and fortifications as the former had been experienced in fighting a war even before WW2 (the Spanish Civil War where during the initial phases, the Nationalists were outnumbered by the Republicans in mainland Spain). As a result the German forces learned from the experience of their Spanish comrades and were put to use and in no small part, consequently Soviet offensives against the Army Group North progressed the slowest compare to Soviet offensive against Army Group Center and South.

As the final swansong of Spanish participation in the war at the Eastern Front, around 100 to 150 Spanish volunteers (they were volunteers among volunteers since the Blue Legion was repatriated back in early 1944) under SD Sturmbahnfuehrer Miguel Ezquerra Sanchez (Einheit Ezquerra) fought in an unequal struggle during the Battle of Berlin near the RLM building together with a Latvian Waffen SS battalion (the 15th SS Fusilier Battalion). There were around 40+ Spanish volunteers that were repatriated from Soviet Union in 1955, a price to pay for the struggle against communism.

Panzermahn

[Marcus]

Ironmachine, please remember to include the source of the images you post.

/Marcus

[Ironmachine]

Sorry, Marcus.
They were taken from some Spanish blogs and forums, mainly from http://memoriablau.foros.ws/
Regards.

[Ironmachine]

Ironmachine is correct. From 1941-1942, the Spanish volunteers were grouped into the Division Azul (the Blue Division).

Actually, from 1941 to 1943. The withdrawal of the division was formally requested by Spain on 1 October 1943.

As a result a smaller unit (many of the Spanish volunteers were required to return as they were under the orders of the Spanish government, resulting those who stayed had to "desert" the Spanish Army in order to remain in Eastern Front) called the Blue Legion (which had a quasi-approval from Franco himself)

Not really, those who formed the Blue Legion did not have to "desert"; what you are talking about was more like the situation of those who remained after the Blue Legion was withdrawn.
For the Blue Legion volunteers were asked for, but there were too few even for such an small unit and finally men from the last march battalions were forced to enlist in the unit.
The unit was repatriated in March 1944, together with the last Escuadrilla Azul, which had remained ignored by the Allies till then.

Regards.

[Panzermahn]

You are right and thanks for the correction, Ironmachine

[wardenhill]

Thanks for all the information , photos and links, much appreciated,

Pete.