Blue Division
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- For other uses, see Blue Division (disambiguation).
{{Unitbox
|unit_name=250. Infanterie-Division
|image=Image:Blue Division 263 Regiment.jpg
|caption=Soldiers from the Blue Division's 263. (Valencian) Regiment sharing jokes and cigarettes.
|nickname=División Azul
|colors=Red berets; blue shirts; khaki trousers (unofficial)
|type=Infantry
|branch=Heer
|dates=June 24, 1941 - October 10, 1943
|country=Spain
|size=18,104 officers and other ranks;
47,000 serving through rotation
|battles=Siege of Leningrad
Battle of Krasny Bor
|notable_commanders=Agustín Muñoz Grandes
Emilio Esteban Infantes
}}
The Blue Division (Spanish División Azul), also known as 250. Infanterie-Division, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served on the German side of the Second World War, mainly on the Eastern Front.
Contents |
Origins
Although generalissimo Francisco Franco did not enter the war on the side of Nazi Germany, he let volunteers join the German army. In this manner, he could maintain Spanish neutrality while simultaneously repaying Hitler for his support during the Spanish Civil War (see Condor Legion). Spanish foreign minister Ramón Serrano Súñer made the suggestion to raise volunteer corps, and at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Franco sent an official offer of help to Berlin.
Hitler approved the use of Spanish volunteers on June 24, 1941. Volunteers flocked to recruiting offices in all the metropolitan areas in Spain. Cadets from the officer training school in Zaragoza volunteered in particularly large numbers. Initially, the Spanish government was prepared to send about 4,000 men, but soon understood that there were more than enough volunteers to fill an entire division (18,104 men; 2,612 officers and 15,492 soldiers) - according to an estimate of the German ambassador, they could have formed 40 divisions.
Fifty per cent of officers and NCOs were professional soldiers, many of them being veterans of the civil war. Many others were members of the Falange (the Spanish fascist party). Others, like Luis García Berlanga (who later became a well-known cinema director), despite their left-wing political standing, volunteered in order to help their relatives in Franco's prisons.
General Agustín Muñoz Grandes was assigned to lead the volunteers. Because the soldiers could not use official Spanish army uniforms, they adopted a symbolic uniform comprising the red berets of the Carlists, khaki trousers used in the Spanish Legion, and the blue shirts of the Falangists - hence the nickname, "Blue Division". This uniform was used only while on leave in Spain; in the field, soldiers wore the Heer field gray uniform with a shield on the upper right sleeve bearing the word "España" and the Spanish national colors.
Deployment and action
Germany: training and organisation of the Division
On July 13, 1941, the first train left Madrid for Grafenwohr, Bavaria for a further five weeks of training. There they became the Heer's 250th Infantry Division and were initially divided into four infantry regiments. Following the standard Heer model, one of these regiments was dispersed among the others, which were named after three of the Spanish cities that volunteers largely originated from - Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Each regiment had three battalions of four companies. An artillery regiment of three batteries of 150-mm guns and one heavy artillery battery reinforced them. Aviator volunteers formed a "Blue Squadron" (Esquadrilla Azul) which, using Bf 109s and FW 190s, was credited with 156 Soviet aircraft kills.
Onto the Russian front (August-October 1941)
After swearing, on August 20, a modified military oath to fight communism, the Blue Division was assigned to combat duties. It was initially assigned to Army Group Center, the force advancing towards Moscow. The division was transported by train to Suwalki, Poland (August 28), from where it had to continue by foot on a 900 km march. It was scheduled to travel through Grodno (Belarus), Lida (Belarus), Vilnius (Lithuania), Molodechno (Belarus), Minsk (Belarus), Orsha (Russia) onto Smolensk and from there to the Moscow front. While marching towards the Smolensk front on September 26, the Spanish volunteers were rerouted from Vitebsk and reassigned to Army Group North (the force closing on Leningrad), and became part of German 16th Army.
Volkhov (October 1941-August 1942)
It was first deployed on the Volkhov front, with its HQ stationed in Grigorovo, in the outskirts of Novgorod. It was in charge of a 50 km section of the front north and south of Novgorod, along the banks of the Volkhov river and Lake Ilmen. View area
Leningrad (August 1942-October 1943)
In August, 1942 it was transferred North to the Southeastern flank of the Leningrad siege, just South of the Neva near Pushkin, Kolpino and Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area. View Area
The Blue Division remained on the Leningrad front where they suffered heavy casualties both due to cold and to enemy action. Franco dispatched more reinforcements, which in time included conscripts in addition to volunteers. Through rotation, as many as 45,000 Spanish soldiers served on the Eastern Front. They were awarded both Spanish and German military awards, and were the only division to be awarded a medal of their own, commissioned by Hitler.
After the collapse of German front following the Battle of Stalingrad, the situation changed and more German troops were deployed southwards. By this time general Emilio Esteban Infantes had taken command.
Disbandment and the Legión Azul
Eventually, the Allies began to pressure Franco to withdraw his troops. Franco initiated negotiations in the spring of 1943 and gave an order of withdrawal on October 10. The number of casualties of the Blue Division and its sequels accounted for 4,954 dead, and 8,700 wounded. In addition, 372 members of the Blue Division, the Blue Legion or volunteers of the Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101 were taken as prisoners by the Russian forces. Of these, 286 were kept in captivity until 1954 when they returned to Spain in the ship Semiramis fleeted by the Red Cross (2 April, 1954).
Some Spanish soldiers refused to return and Franco gave his unofficial blessing as long as the number would stay below 1,500 - in reality, the total was closer to 3,000. Spaniards also joined other German units, mainly the Waffen-SS, and fresh volunteers slipped across the Spanish border in Lourdes, France. The new units were collectively called the Blue Legion (Legión Azul).
The Spaniards initially remained part of the 121st Infantry Division, but even this meager force was ordered to return home in March 1944 and was transported back to Spain on March 21. The rest of the volunteers were absorbed into German units.
Platoons of Spaniards served in the 3rd Gebirgs Division and the 357th Infantry Division. One unit was sent to Latvia. Two companies joined the Brandenburger Regiment and German 121st Division in Yugoslavia to fight against Tito's partisans. Fifty Spaniards entered the Pyrenees to combat French Resistance.
The 101st company Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101 of 140 men, made up of four rifle platoons and one staff platoon, was attached to 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien and fought in Pomerania. Later, as part of 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland and under command of Haupsturmführer der SS Miguel Ezquerra, it fought the last days of the war against Soviet troops in Berlin.
The military contribution of the Blue Division was entirely disproportionate to its modest strength. Soldiers and officers of the Blue Division were awarded 2 Knight Crosses (one with Oak Leaves), 2 Golden Crosses, 138 Iron Crosses First Class, 2,359 Iron Crosses Second Class and 2,216 War Merit Crosses with Swords.
Influence of the Blue Division in later Spanish Army history
Although this is yet to be properly studied and assessed, the fact that many (if not most) of Spanish Army high ranking officers in the 60s and 70s had served in the "División Azul" certainly had an influence on their role in and views about the transition to democracy in Spain in the late 70s. Many of the generals that took part in the attempted coup d'Etat on February 23, 1981, both for it and against it, had served in the unit during World War II. Amongst them were generals Alfonso Armada, Jaime Milans del Bosch and José Gabeiras. Other División Azul veterans, for example José Luis Aramburu Topete, at the time Director of the Guardia Civil, remained loyal to the legal government.
The Cross of Saint Sophia of Novgorod
In 2004 the Spanish Government returned the cross of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia of (Veliki) Novgorod to the city. The cross had fallen during one of the shellings of the city while it housed the headquarters of the División Azul during World War II. The cross was carried back to Spain, first to Burgos and afterwards to the Spanish Army Engineers Academy in Hoyo de Manzanares near Madrid. See news item
See also
Books
- Gerald L. Kleinfeld & Lewis A. Tambs - Hitler's Spanish Legion: The Blue Division in Russia
- Xavier Moreno Juliá, La División Azul. Sangre española en Rusia, 1941-1945, Barcelona, Crítica 2005
External links
es:División Azul nl:Blauwe divisie pl:Błękitna Dywizja ru:Голубая дивизия sr:Плава дивизија