Distribution of arms at outbreak of civil war

[Ironmachine]

The Republicans did indeed receive German weapons and by this I mean brand-new weapons built at the time in Germany (not WWI-vintage weaponry that could came from a third country): specifically, Mauser rifles. A Greek arm dealer, Podromos Bodosakis Athanaidis, ordered new Mauser rifles from the Augsburg factory supposedly for the Greek Army and then, surely with the connivance of the Greek governmen, sold a part of them to the Spanish republicans (IIRC, this was made through an Austrian firm, that embarked them on Greek ships bound for Marseille, to later cross the Spanish border).
Athamaidis, who had bought the old factory of Rheinmetall Borsig en Greece and had imported new machinery from Germany, also began to manufacture and sell to the Republicans ammunition for the Mauser rifles.
When in 1938 the National authorities began to complain repeatedly to the Germans after capturing increasing amounts of new German material (rifles and ammunition) in Republican positions, the operation stopped. AFAIK no explanation was given to the Spanish authorities (probably because it was a big embarrassment for the Nazi Party?).
Now, some authors claim that Goering was directly involved in the operation (IIRC, Beevor for example claims something like that). Certainly Goering made a profit from the sale of the rifles, but from the sale to Greece, and I have not seen any evidence of his direct involvement in the diversion of the rifles to Spain.

[Ironmachine]

And PZ I 's were shot up plenty by the republicans..not all of them were manned by spanish crew..so condor legion participation on the ground may not have been massive.. but they saw some action for sure..and took some casualties too ..

From El Ejercito Aleman en la Guerra de España. Los hombres de Von Thoma, Panzer Gruppe Drohne had 6 killed in combat (plus 5 in accidents and 2 from illness).