Spain and the Axis

[Zaf1]

Hi,

At some point during WW2 Spain was said to be joining the Axis Pact against the British and later it didn't join but instead Japan joined the pact. Why was it so and what would the war be had Spain entered the war?

Regards

Zaf

[ljadw]

Spain joining the Axis would have been a desaster(for Spain )and a second Italy (for the Germans )

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a query.........................

Visit of the Spanish Minister Serrano Suñer 1940.

Sources: fotos. Año IV Nro 186.
https://www.todocoleccion.net/coleccion ... x128777359

Did something interesting come up here? Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello to all ; more........................

Visit of the Spanish Minister Serrano Suñer 1940.

Sources: https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/mi ... 269159.jpg

Cheers. Raúl M .

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Zafi,

Spain was starving after the civil war amd imported much of its food and all its oil.

The British naval blockade of continental Europe gave them a stranglehold over Spain's wheat supply from Argentina, oil from the Caribbean and much of its sugar from Cuba. The Spanish fishing fleet was also stopped from trawling for cod in the north Atlantic as British convoy routes passed through the fishing grounds. The Axis powers couldn't replace any of these things. Furthermore, Spain's remainng colonies were vulnerable to British attack. It was primarily these factors that held Spain back from joining the Axis in 1940-41.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Kelvin]

Franco was uncertain whether Hitler won the war in 1940. The failure of the Luftwaffe over the English Channel and British attitude made him very cautious. His troop numbered About Million but Equipment was backward. His Navy is much inferior to that of Italy. Her sea LOC is under British threat in many key items like oil and Food.

[Ironmachine]

His troop numbered About Million

That's not true. At the end of the SCW, on April 1949, there were indeed slightly more that one million men in Franco's army (plus those in the Republican armies). But by 1940 the forces had been demobilized, and there were only slightly more than 350.000 men in the Army. Even with partial mobilizations and changes of TO&Es, the number never went near one million. For example, by the summer of 1941, a good estimate would be 430,000 men in the Army. And of course, even if there were enough men for mobilizing a one-million-men army, there were not enough weapons and equipment. There was a lack of basic equipment even for the actual number of men in service.

His Navy is much inferior to that of Italy

That's not saying much because, first, the Italian Navy was quite powerful (at least on paper) and, second, the same can be said of most European Navies at the time. But yes, the Spanish Navy was just a handful of weak cruisers and worn-out destroyers, not much help for the German war effort in any case.