The División Azul, or Spanish Blue Division, was a unit of about 45,000 volunteers from
Francoist Spain that fought alongside the Germans on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Although Spain remained neutral during the war, Franco sympathized with Hitler after
the German Condor Legion helped him win the Spanish Civil War.
The unit was officially designated the 250th Infantry Division by the Wehrmacht
and saw action against the Soviets from June 1941 to October 1943,
proving themselves at the Battle of Krasny Bor, where over 5,900 brave men
halted the advance of an entire Soviet Army composed of more than 30,000 Russians.
The Spanish men went on to fight near Moscow and Leningrad,
and they are credited for not letting the Eastern Front collapse thanks to their sacrifice.
The Reich Goes to War
The raged on for four years. From 1936 to 1939,
the population was divided by two opposing ideologies. Those who supported the new
Atheist Republic and those who favored Monarchy and religious liberty, particularly Catholicism.
A violent struggle ensued,
and for the first time, modern weapons and military tactics were used on a grand scale.
Submachine guns, tanks, artillery strikes, and bombing raids were all a prelude to a war to come.
Franco ultimately prevailed, but his triumph was only possible
because of the support of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
While the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and other countries
helped the Spanish communists through the International Brigades, Franco was able to
outmatch them with the help of the German Condor Legion and the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie.
Franco owned Germany and Italy, and the time to
pay back would come sooner rather than later with the outbreak of World War II.
After the unexpected Fall of France in 1940 at the hands of the unstoppable Blitzkrieg
forces of the Third Reich, the Fuhrer tried to convince Franco to join the war effort.
Hitler warned Franco of the dangers of Communism and its expansion throughout Europe,
and the Spanish dictator blamed Marxist ideas for the terrible war that had left
300,000 casualties and a politically divided Spain. Still, during a meeting held at the
border of Spain and France on October 23, 1940, Franco told Hitler that Spain would
only be a burden to the Axis and that the country would officially remain neutral.
Hitler saw this as an act of ingratitude but respected Franco’s decision.
However, the situation quickly changed within hours after the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet
Union on June 22, 1941. Several Spanish officers asked Foreign Minister Ramón
Serrano to talk to Franco about forming a unit of volunteers to fight the Soviets.
Franco agreed to the proposal and ordered the Spanish Army to unofficially coordinate the
volunteers. The Third Reich officially accepted the unit on June 24, 1941.
The unit was seen with good eyes by the population and the army,
and several veterans from the Civil War enlisted to continue fighting the Communists.
By July 2, 1941, over 18,000 men had volunteered,
and the Army began the selection process, choosing those that were fit enough.
In the end, 50 percent of the officers came from the Army.
Most of the men in the unit were Falangists, a right-wing political faction,
and a fifth were students. General Agustín Muñoz was then appointed to lead the men.
As the soldiers were not officially representing the Spanish Army because of neutrality reasons,
the men used a symbolic outfit that resembled the Carlist Faction with a red beret,
the khaki trousers of the Spanish Legion, and the blue shirts of the Falangists.
It was from this shirt that the unit would earn the nickname Blue Division,
although the Germans would eventually give them the standard Feldgrau uniform
with a Spanish Flag logo in the upper right sleeve.
The first train full of volunteers left Madrid for Bavaria on July 13, 1941.
Their slogan was: (QUOTE) “We pay the Russians a return visit!”
The Spanish Blue Division
The first men from the Blue Division arrived at Grafenwöhr, Bavaria, for five weeks of
intensive training. The unit was incorporated into the Heer as the 250th Infantry Division.
The four Spanish regiments were integrated into the German three-regiment model so as to
not disrupt the Wehrmacht’s supply system. The regiments were Madrid, Valencia, and Seville.
Each was divided into three battalions of four infantry companies and an artillery
regiment. The Blue Division was also given its own assault battalion
of soldiers armed with MP40s and an aircraft squadron of Messerschmitt Bf 109s.
Although it is still debated, the traditional Wehrmacht Oath to swear
fidelity to the Fuhrer had to be modified for the Blue Division,
as most of the men were Catholic and refused to swear loyalty to someone other than the Pope.
Instead, the Spaniards committed to fight Communism until the last man,
and they would prove it later in combat.
The oath took place on July 31, 1941. During the ceremony, General Muños allegedly said: (QUOTE)
“Spanish volunteers! Soldiers of honor of my motherland!
Before the glorious flags of Germany and Spain, you have sworn to die before allowing barbarous
Bolshevism to continue its work of hatred and destruction which has already bloodied
our motherland and which today criminally attempts to impose itself on all of Europe.”
“You only wish to destroy this monster in its own lair….
Tell the Führer that we are ready and at his orders. Tell him that we have sworn the oath,
and tell him that my people fulfills what it swears.”
Showing Its Worth
The Blue Division was initially assigned to Army Group Center, but after a 900-kilometer
march towards Moscow, it was rerouted to Leningrad to support Army Group North.
The highly disciplined Germans were initially taken aback by their Spanish compatriots.
Some officers described them as a bunch of macho men who refused to march in perfectly
aligned formation, to practice drills, or wear the military uniform properly.
Field Marshal Hans Günther von Kluge even asked out loud if they were real soldiers or gypsies.
However, Spanish soldiers were used to fighting on their own terms,
resembling the conduct of the invincible Spanish Tercios of the late 16th century.
The Blue Division saw combat for the first time on October 12,
when they swiftly conquered the city of Dubrovka near Moscow
under the war cry of “Long live death!” and defended it from Soviet counterattacks for
three weeks even though they struggled with the bitter cold of the Russian Motherland.
The Germans soon started to respect and admire these men with unpolished beards and uniforms,
and during the following months, the Spaniards held the line between Moscow and Leningrad
with such ferocity that the Soviets began to fear them significantly.
On January 12, 1942, a battalion of 800 men was wiped out by a superior Soviet force,
as the persistent Spaniards refused to give ground to the enemy. Only 40 men survived.
Two months later, the Blue Division was on the battlefront of a large-scale Soviet offensive
whose objective was to split the Axis line. The Spaniards braced for impact, fought back, and
were eventually saved by the foreign volunteers of the Walloon division led by Leon Degrelle.
As the Ruskies retreated, the Blue Division taunted them by yelling:
(QUOTE): “Manden otro toro!” “Send in another bull!”
Because of this impressive display of force, the Fuhrer awarded General Muñoz
the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves on April 26, 1942.
During the ceremony at Berlin’s Kroll Opera House, Hitler said: (QUOTE)
“The Spaniards have done all that we ask of our own soldiers. They
and their general know the meaning of loyalty and bravery unto death.”
The Battle of Krasny Bor
When the Wehrmacht renewed its offensive,
the Air Force squadron of the Blue Division racked up an impressive streak of shutdowns,
as 20 Spanish pilots managed to shoot down more than 150 Soviet aircraft.
However, it was a different story on the ground.
The Spanish began losing their vision of a Christian crusade against Communism
as the fight turned more personal against the Soviet guerillas in small towns.
Still, the Spanish did their best to rebuild and clean Orthodox churches
that had once been destroyed when the Soviet Union abolished religion decades ago.
Sent to Bolshoye Shamoshe east of the Keresti River,
the Blue Division managed to get rid of more than 5,000 Soviets at the cost of only 270 men.
However, the unit’s most impressive achievement would come in the Battle
of Krasny Bor between February 10 and 13 of 1943.
The Battle of Krasny Bor was part of a Soviet offensive whose
objective was to liberate the city of Leningrad from the German siege.
The entire 55th Soviet Army was dispatched to get rid of the area.
5,900 men from the Blue Division stood against 33,000 infantry,
1,000 artillery pieces, and 30 tanks.
By the end of the brutal battle, the Spaniards miraculously held the line,
but when Axis support finally arrived, the division had lost 3,700 men,
and the bodies of more than 22,000 Soviets lay around them.
However, the days of the Blue Division were counted,
as Franco was soon forced to retrieve the unit after the Allies threatened to invade Spain.
By October of 1943, most of the unit’s men were back in Spain to receive a hero's welcome.
The rest stayed with the Germans and were incorporated into several Waffen-SS divisions.
Several Spanish men were among the last soldiers to defend the Reichstag
before Berlin surrendered in 1945, and the Blue Division was the only foreign unit in the German
Army to be awarded a commemorative medal for their service in the war.
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