Who was in the "Blue Division", and why she opposed the Soviet Union

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Spaniards wanted to take revenge on the communists for the civil war, so they voluntarily left to fight against the USSR. Enemies from the Iberian Peninsula took part in several battles with the Red Army and helped the Germans in the blockade of Leningrad.

The way is open for volunteers to go to war

When the civil war ended in Spain, the question arose before the country: what to do next? Europe was overwhelmed by another bloody confrontation, and the state on the Iberian Peninsula was on the sidelines. The top of the Spanish government openly sympathized with Hitler, and the leader Francisco Franco himself shared his views. But Caudillo did not want to join the next war officially. But he allowed everyone to volunteer to go to the front and help Hitler.

This is how the "Blue Division" appeared, it is also the 250th division of Spanish volunteers who wanted to take revenge on the Soviet Union. Civil war veterans, members of the Phalanx and just ardent anti-communists could not forgive the USSR for interference in the internal affairs of their country. And Hitler, who attacked the Soviet Union, presented them with the opportunity to strike back.

A few words about the name "Blue Division". It appeared because of the clothes. For example, the Italian fascists wore uniform shirts in black, the Germans in brown, and the Spaniards in blue.

The formed division consisted of one artillery regiment and four infantry regiments. And the number exceeded fourteen thousand people. All of them, before being sent to the front, took a solemn oath to fight communism. True, then the soldiers also swore allegiance to Hitler. Without this ceremony, the Spaniards were simply not allowed into the slender ranks of the Wehrmacht soldiers.

The Blue Division moved eastward at the end of August 1941. Approximately at the beginning of October, the Spaniards reached Vitebsk. At first, the German command did not particularly count on bullfighting fans. The Nazis thought that it would be most rational to use them as "auxiliary workers" in the central sectors of the front. But the situation changed quickly, so a decision was soon made to send the heat-loving Spaniards to Leningrad to help Army Group North.

Underestimated adversary

It is curious that the Spaniards had a poor idea of what a real war meant. Yes, most of the volunteers actively fought for the Nationalists against the Republicans. But all the battles took place at home, in, let's say, a hothouse environment. They did not know what Russian winter was. And they were in for a big and frosty surprise.

I must say that the Spaniards came to Vitebsk in a rather deplorable state. Since the Germans did not take them seriously, they treated them accordingly. The Spaniards went to the USSR on foot with a load of up to forty kilograms behind their backs. And when they arrived, exhausted and tired, they met the first frost. Frostbite has become commonplace. Some volunteers could not stand it and deserted. Naturally, the Germans did not provide any assistance to the allies. In order to somehow alleviate the fate of his fellow citizens, Franco ordered to send them warm clothes. Only it was a trophy, taken from the defeated Republicans. Naturally, no one bothered to change the stripes. The Spanish nationalists, in their Republican uniforms, irritated the German commanders, but they could not remedy the situation.

The Germans threw the annoying allies into battle on the Novgorod-Terepets sector. Despite the poor general moral and physical condition, the Spaniards turned out to be very good soldiers, which frankly surprised their German leadership. In the USSR, the appearance of "friends" from the Iberian Peninsula was treated casually. One enemy more, one less … But intelligence, nevertheless, did its job. It became known that young people, whose age does not exceed twenty-five years old, are fighting on the side of the Third Reich. All of them are volunteers and ideological anti-communists who have decided to put their lives on the fight against the "red plague."

In mid-October 1941, the Germans launched an offensive. The Spaniards also supported the attack. The Blue Division fought bravely. The enemy managed to occupy several villages and hold them. This event did not go unnoticed. Hitler praised the actions of his allies. All soldiers of the division received a medal "For the winter campaign of 1941-1942."

Despite the information received from intelligence and armed clashes, the Soviet command perceived the Spaniards as a weak link. And this backfired during the operation "Polar Star". The commander of the 55th Army, Vladimir Petrovich Sviridov, was sure that his soldiers would get rid of the "snotty squabbles" in no time. But I was wrong. From February to March 1943, the Spaniards held their positions and fought off Sviridov's attacks. Particularly fierce fighting took place in the area near Krasny Bor. More than forty thousand Red Army men, supported by a pair of tank divisions, could not break through the defenses of the Blue Division infantry regiment, numbering less than five thousand men. And only after a large-scale attack, in which huge forces were involved, the Red Army men managed to achieve their goal. In just one day, about two thousand Spaniards died, while Soviet soldiers were killed several times more.

In general, the Spaniards at the front have established themselves as controversial people. On the one hand, they were excellent soldiers, brave and hardy. With an arc - they could go AWOL without permission, quit fasting or get carried away with strong drinks. The German general Halder described the Spaniards as follows: "If you see a German soldier unshaven, with his tunic unbuttoned and drunk, do not rush to arrest him - most likely he is a Spanish hero."

Role of the Blue Division

At one time it was widely believed that the Spaniards fully supported the Germans in their cruel treatment of Russians and Jews. But as numerous memoirs of the participants of the Second World War, archival documents and studies of historians show, this statement does not correspond to the truth. The Spaniards went to fight not with Russians or Jews, but with the communist regime, which was their main enemy. The Spaniards were amazed at the brutality with which the Germans dealt with the civilian population. This problem became especially acute in 1942. And many of the division's soldiers simply returned home. They were interrogated to find out the reason for the desertion. And the warriors honestly talked about all the horrors that the Nazis got up to people in the occupied territories. At the same time, the Spaniards themselves were neutral towards the Russian and Jewish population in the controlled settlements. After the liberation of the territories, a special commission conducted an investigation. And only one case of a war crime on the part of the Spaniards has been identified.

In 1943, the Blue Division was disbanded. By that time, its number was minimal. Many soldiers either died or returned home. And a new wave of ideological recruits did not follow. In addition, Germany had already begun to surrender its positions, Franco understood that the Third Reich would soon fall and no longer saw any point in helping his ally. But not all Spaniards returned home, of course. Some remained in the German army. And they fought until the very end of the war.

An interesting fact: in 1949 an unusual football match was held in Vologda. The local "Dynamo" and the team, which was formed from the soldiers of the "Blue Division" who were captured by the Soviet Union, met on the field. Attack of the "dead", or

There have been many glorious battles in the history of wars. Today, it seems like a scene from the film, the story of how the poisoned Russian soldiers repulsed the Germans and held the Osovets fortress.