The main allies of Germany in the attack on the USSR were Romania and Finland. They were later joined by Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania, Slovakia and Croatia. There was another country that was not occupied by Germany and was not at war with the Soviet Union, but which provided volunteers for service on the side of Germany. It was Spain.
The history of Spain is marked by the fact that only once, during the Great Patriotic War, its fighters opposed the Russians, although even then Franco avoided open participation in the war, while maintaining neutrality. There were no other cases when these two countries participated in battles on opposite sides. More details about these events of the Great Patriotic War we will describe in this article.
Touching on this topic, it should be noted that only one division fought against the USSR. It was the Spanish Blue Division, or 250th, which consisted of Spanish volunteers. It was they who fought during World War II on the side of Germany. Considered nominally staffed by fighters of the "Spanish phalanx", this division was in fact a mixture of regular troops, members of the phalangist police and civil war veterans . The Blue Division was composed according to Spanish canons. It included one artillery regiment and four infantry. Because of the blue shirts, the division was called the Blue Division. Blue was the shape of the phalanx.
Spain's position in the war
Not wanting to openly drag Spain into the war on the side of the Germans and while striving to ensure the security of the country and the phalanx regime, Francisco Franco maintained at that time armed neutrality, while providing a division of volunteers on the eastern front of Germany who wanted to fight against the Soviet Union on the side of the Germans. De jure, Spain decided to remain neutral, did not join the allies of Germany and did not declare war on the USSR.
Volunteer motivation
The history of Spain was connected with the fate of the USSR in the pre-war years. Suner, the foreign minister, announced the formation of this division in 1941, June 24, saying that the USSR was guilty of the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936, when Franco-led nationalist fighters launched an armed rebellion. The Soviet Union was also blamed for the fact that this war dragged on and took place with non-judicial reprisals and mass executions. The oath was changed by agreement with the Germans. The soldiers swore allegiance to the struggle against communism, not the Fuhrer.
The motivations of the volunteers, of which the 250 division consisted, varied: from the desire to avenge loved ones who died in the civil war, to the desire to hide (among the former Republicans, who made up the bulk of those who decided to go over to the side of the Soviet army). There were fighters who sincerely wanted to atone for their recent republican past. Many also acted out of mercenary considerations. A decent salary for those times was received by military personnel, plus there was also a German salary (7.3 pesetas from the government of Spain and 8.48 from Germany per day).
Division Composition
A division of 18,693 fighters (15,780 lower ranks, 2,272 non-commissioned officers, 641 officers) left in 1941, July 13, from Madrid and transferred to Germany for military training lasting five weeks in the city of Grafenver at a training ground. Augustine Munoz Grandes, a civil war veteran, was the first commander of this division. The soldiers advanced, starting from Poland, on foot march to the front. After that, the “Blue Division” was transferred to the Wehrmacht as the 250th Infantry. Over its entire history, more than 40 thousand people have passed through its composition (more than 50 thousand - according to other sources).
Fights with Russians during the defense of Leningrad
The "Blue Division" near Leningrad held the defenses and was considered the weak link of the Soviet command. Therefore, during an operation called the Polar Star, aimed at liberating the Leningrad Region and carried out on a site almost 60 km long (under Krasny Bor), insignificant forces were allocated that could not completely break through in bad weather and difficult terrain. front, although wedged into a tangible distance.
On this site, the fighting was fierce on both sides. The advance troops of the Red Army, which managed to break through, were cut off by flanking counterattacks from their reserves and rear and, as a result, were put in a difficult position. The remnants of the assault units, left without ammunition and food, had to leave the encirclement precisely through the positions of the Blue Division.
When leaving the environment, skirmishes with the Spaniards were ruthless and sudden. Researchers, in particular, cite an episode when a group of Russians, who had practically no grenades and cartridges, crept at night to the dugout, where the soldiers of the Blue Division rested nonchalantly. Bursting into the dugout, the soldiers destroyed the enemy with edged weapons.
The special attitude of the Spaniards to discipline
The special attitude of the Spanish fighters to the discipline manifested itself in Poland. A few soldiers in civilian clothes went into the AWOL. They were detained by the Gestapo, because they looked like Jews because of their dark appearance. After the shootout, the comrades released their own. Morozov, the burgomaster of Novgorod, died at the hands of a fighter from the Blue Division.
Authorities organized the issue of milk to pregnant women. A line lined up every morning. Slowly, soldiers of this division began to attach themselves to it. They stood peacefully mixed with pregnant women, not demanding too much for themselves - they received only the general norm and retired. However, Morozov was outraged by the lack of milk. Having come to the council, he lowered one of the Spaniards from the stairs. He jumped up and shot him with a pistol.
Combination of sloppiness and high combat efficiency
This combination of sloppiness and high combat efficiency was noted by General Halder after the battle in Krasny Bor. He warned his people that if they suddenly saw an unshaven, drunk soldier with his tunic unbuttoned, there was no need to rush to arrest him, since this was probably a Spanish hero.
There were frequent cases of switching to the Russian side among the division’s military personnel, largely due to the poor nutrition and rudeness of their officers.
The dissolution of the compound, its further fate
In 1943, on October 20, Francisco Franco decided to withdraw the Blue Division from the front and disband the formation because of foreign policy pressure. However, many Spaniards remained voluntarily in the German army until the end of the war. Not wanting to lose their potential soldiers, the Germans opened propaganda for the entry of volunteers into the German Foreign Legion under the German command. They were, as a rule, in the SS troops (Wehrmacht infantry division), who fought to the very end. Before surrender, about 7,000 Spaniards fought in surrounded Berlin.
In post-war Spain, many former soldiers of this division subsequently made a successful military career.
The attitude of the fighters of the division to the church and religion
Religion and the church enjoyed immense authority in Franco-Spain. During shelling, for example, several shells hit the central dome of the Hagia Sophia located in Veliky Novgorod. As a result, the cross began to fall to the ground. Spanish sappers rescued him, restored during the war, and he was sent to their home country.
Even during the life of Franco, in the 70s, this cross stood at the Academy of Engineering. The inscription made under it stated that he was in storage in Spain and would return to Russia when the Bolshevik regime disappeared. After the war, the Soviet regime accused the Spaniards of robbery, who turned out to be the scourge of Novgorod antiquities. They turned the Church of the Entrance to Jerusalem into a forge, and the archbishop's palace was made a morgue. The Blue Division on the eastern front launched most of the surviving iconostases for firewood. They completely burned the Znamensky Cathedral "by negligence."
It should be noted that on the doors of ancient temples there were prohibitive inscriptions in Spanish and German, however, the Spaniards paid no attention to this and continued to rob Russian churches. Almost all of the temples of Novgorod suffered from the Spaniards. It turned out that in search of souvenirs, sappers took the cross to Spain from St. Sophia Cathedral, supposedly as a souvenir. He was returned in 2004.
German attitude towards Spanish soldiers
All historians claim that there were great differences between the Spanish and German character. The Germans of the Spaniards were accused of licentiousness, indiscipline, familiarity with the local population, in particular with the female sex. The attempt to feed the volunteers with the standard ration that the Wehrmacht infantry division was fed on turned into a big scandal. From this food the morale of the soldiers, of which the Blue Division on the eastern front consisted, fell. It all ended with the fact that after negotiations at the highest level, trains with Turkish lentils and peas rushed to the eastern front.
However, over time, the Germans became convinced that the lack of discipline to perform heroic deeds of the Spaniards does not interfere. Shortly after the victory, the Germans captured began to repatriate, while the Spaniards were able to "sit out" the death of Stalin, as well as the subsequent amnesty. Negotiations were held on their fate, but to no avail. After all, Franco again had to wage a diplomatic game in the conditions of the now cold war.
Blue Division (Borzya)
In Russia, there is also a division of the same name. Since 1972, since March, the 150th motorized rifle division, also called the "Blue", was stationed in Borz. This is a city located in the Trans-Baikal Territory, 378 kilometers from Chita. Its population is 29405 people. Borzya-3 (Blue Division) has nothing to do with Spanish troops.