Blue division

Not wanting to openly draw Spain into World War II on Hitler’s side and at the same time striving to strengthen the Phalanx regime and ensure the country's security, Francisco Franco assumed an armed neutrality position, leaving a division of volunteers who wished to fight on the German side against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. De jure, Spain maintained neutrality, was not part of Germany’s allies and did not declare war on the USSR. The division acquired its name from the blue shirts - the form of the phalanx.

Foreign Minister Sunnier , declaring the formation of the Blue Division on June 24, 1941, said that the USSR was guilty of the Spanish civil war , that this war was delayed, that there were mass executions, that there were extrajudicial killings. In agreement with the Germans, the oath was changed - they swore allegiance not to the Führer, but swore to fight against communism ^[2] .

The wording translated into Spanish by Colonel Tronskos was:

Volunteers' motivations were different: from wanting revenge for loved ones killed in the Civil War to wanting to hide (ex-Republicans, they had at least the total number of soldiers of the division - they, as a rule, made up the bulk of defectors to the Red Army , as a result The defectors spent, like all the prisoners of war of the “Blue Division,” held the maximum term in the labor camps, they were not encouraged or allocated from the total number, they sat like everyone else. The first part of the division was formed mainly from Phalanx volunteers, and to a lesser extent from people who sincerely wanted to redeem their republican past or - like later became famous director Louis Garcia Berlang - to alleviate the fate of their relatives with the republican past ^{[5] [6]} . Few guided by mercenary considerations (the first part of the division was exclusively Falangist in its mass) - the division’s military received a decent salary in Spain at that time, plus a German salary (respectively, 7.3 peteta from the Spanish government and 8.48 pesetas from the German command per day) ^[2] . On June 26, the leaders of the Phalanx in the Spanish provinces received a circular which set forth the criteria for recruiting volunteers: they had to be members of the Phalanx or military men aged from 20 to 28 years. 75% of the contingent were to be formed from former participants in the civil war, and 25% were the remaining volunteers. According to these criteria was formed the first part of the division. According to the recollections of the divisions, many servicemen of the second composition were not just volunteers, but actually purposefully called upon. People who were not politically acceptable to the regime were also supposed to go to the front. But in the future, with the exception of the first part of the division, the recruitment was made from military personnel.

The former chairman of the division brotherhood, her former fighter, spoke about his way to her ranks:

I had no ideology. I quietly lived near Teruel , a Soviet-made plane flew in, dropped a Soviet bomb. And, most likely, the pilot was Soviet. My whole family died. I repeat: at that moment I was 14 years old. By the time the war with the Soviet Union began, I was 17 years old. Of course, I wanted revenge. And I went to Russia to return the visit of courtesy.

- Blue Division and other Spaniards

On July 13, 1941, a division with 18,693 men (641 officers, 2,272 non-commissioned officers, 15,780 lower ranks) ^[7] , under the command of the civil war veteran General Agustin Munoz Grandesa, left Madrid and was transferred to Germany for a five-week military training Grafenwer training ground. There (July 31, after taking the oath) she was included in the Wehrmacht as the 250th Infantry Division. To ensure that the division staff is in line with the German troop supply system, the division was soon reorganized into a Wehrmacht standard three-regimental structure. The personnel of the "superfluous" regiment was distributed among the remaining regiments of the division, called "Madrid", "Valencia" and "Seville" (according to the place of residence of the majority of volunteers in these regiments). Each infantry regiment consisted of three battalions (four companies each) and two mouths of fire support. The division's artillery regiment consisted of four battalions (three batteries each). An assault battalion, armed mainly with a submachine gun, was formed from a part of the released personnel. Subsequently, after heavy losses, this battalion was disbanded. Of the volunteer pilots was formed "Blue Squadron" ( Escuadrillas Azules ), armed with airplanes Bf. 109 and FW-190. At the expense of the pilots of the squadron was recorded 156 downed Soviet aircraft.

Also in the division included 1 thousand members of the Portuguese Legion "under the Spanish flag."

On August 28, 1941, the division was delivered by rail to the city of Suwalki ( Poland ), from where it had to make a 900-kilometer foot march ^[2] to Smolensk, and then to Moscow. On September 26, the division that was on the march near Vitebsk was redirected to Leningrad, where it was incorporated into the German 16th Army (Army Group "North").

During the entire existence of the division, more than 40 thousand people have passed through its composition (according to other sources and estimates - more than 50 thousand).

The division was recruited former imperial officers of the Russian Imperial Army with knowledge of cartography. According to the available official archive data - 29 people.

From October 1941 to August 1942, the division occupied positions north and south of Novgorod along the r. Volkhov and oz. Ilmen (50 km front area). The headquarters of the division was located not far from Novgorod in the village of Grigorovo . Then the division was transferred to Leningrad and took blockade positions in the region of r. Izhora (Pushkin, Kolpino, Krasny Bor). By this time, the command of the division took over General Emilio Esteban.

When planning the operation “ Polar Star ”, the Soviet command considered the “Blue Division” as a weak link of the German defense. In particular, the commander of the 55th Army , V.P. Sviridov, was of the following opinion of the Spaniards: “rabble, snotty hoops. They licked, froze, cursed that day when they found themselves in Russia ... Now I will show them. As soon as we take Krasny Bor, I will send a rifle brigade across the Neva to the flank ... Now the Germans are not the same, and we are different ” ^[8] .

However, from February 10 to April 2, 1943, the "Blue Division" withstood two blows of the many times superior forces of the Soviet 55th Army and, having suffered huge losses, was able to hold its positions. In the area of ​​the front near Red Border almost 6 kilometers long, four Soviet divisions (about 44 thousand people) and 2 tank regiments could not break through the defense of the Spaniards (about four and a half thousand people). Soviet troops suffered great losses on this sector ^[2] . The defense was actually broken, the Soviet troops advanced 6 km. The loss of the Spaniards in just one day of fighting amounted to more than 2 thousand people killed and wounded. The divisions of the two German divisions, the 212th and 215th, came to replace the defeated units of the Spanish division. For details, see the Krasnobor operation (1943) .

More in Poland showed a special attitude to the Spaniards discipline. Several soldiers went AWOL in civilian clothes and were detained by the Gestapo - because of their appearance, they were mistaken for Jews. Comrades released their after the shootout ^[2] . On the discipline in the division says the following fact:

... the mayor of Novgorod Fedor Ivanovich Morozov died at the hands of a Spanish soldier from the "Blue Division". The authorities organized the issue of milk to pregnant women. Every morning a line was lined up, in which the soldiers of the Blue Division slowly began to join in. They stood peacefully mixed with pregnant women, without demanding themselves too much. Received a general rate and sedately removed. But the burgomaster Morozov, indignant at the fact that there was a catastrophic lack of milk, somehow came to the council in a state of average alcoholic intoxication and let one of the Spaniards down the ladder kick in the ass. Counting all the steps with his nose, the Spaniard jumped up and discharged his gun shop in the city head ...

- ^[9]

This combination of high fighting efficiency and sloppiness was noted after the battle in Red Bor with the statement of General Halder:

This phrase still hangs in the veteran club of the Blue Division in Madrid ^[2] .

Due to strong foreign policy pressure, Francisco Franco on October 20, 1943 decided to withdraw the Blue Division from the front and disband the unit. However, many Spaniards refused to return home, and on November 3, 1943, the Government of Spain ordered its citizens to return to the country. Even after that, about 2,000 Spaniards remained on the Eastern Front, mainly Phalangists, of whom the volunteer “ Blue Legion ” was formed under the German command. Later, its number increased to 3 thousand people at the expense of volunteers who crossed the border of Spain in the area of ​​the French city of Lourdes . After Franco began negotiations with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition , most of the members of the Blue Legion were repatriated by the Germans on March 21, 1944 ^[10] . The few hundred remaining Spaniards joined the SS forces and fought until the very end of the war. In the encircled Berlin, 7 thousand Spaniards fought before the surrender ^[2] .

The soldiers and officers of the Blue Division received the following awards:

• 3 Knight crosses with oak leaves.
• 3 German crosses in gold
• 138 Iron Crosses of the First Class
• 2 359 Iron Crosses of the Second Class
• 2 216 Crosses of military valor with swords

Losses

During the fighting with the Red Army, the Blue Division suffered the following losses: ^[2]

• 4957 killed
• 8766 wounded
• 326 missing
• 372 captured (most returned to Spain in 1954).
• 1600 got frostbite
• 7800 are sick.

General Emilio Esteban Infantes , who commanded the Blue Division, in his book, The Blue Division. Volunteers on the Eastern Front "cites the following loss figures for the division: 14 thousand - on the Volkhov front and 32 thousand - on the Leningrad (winter - spring 1943) ^[11] . In a Karl Hofker documentary film, Azul Blue Division. The history of Spanish volunteers "gives the following data of the total losses of Spanish volunteers on the Eastern Front" out of 47,000 people, total losses amounted to 3,600 people killed, in addition 8,500 wounded, 7,800 sick with various diseases, and 1,600 people got frostbite and 321 people were captured " ^{[12 ]} . At the same time, the losses of the “Blue Division” killed on the Volkhov front are estimated by Karl Hofker at 1,400 people.

In Franco Spain, the Catholic Church enjoyed enormous prestige. In this connection, the following case is characteristic. During the Soviet shelling, several shells hit the central dome of Hagia Sophia in Veliky Novgorod , and the cross of the main dome began to fall to the ground. Spanish sappers saved the cross, restored during the war and he was sent to Spain. In the seventies, while Franco was still alive, the cross stood at the Engineering Academy. Under it was the inscription that this cross is in storage in Spain and will return to Russia when the "godless Bolshevik regime" disappears (after the war, the Soviet government accused the Spaniards of robbery). The cross was returned in 2004 ^[2] .

Further fate

Many former soldiers of the Blue Division made a successful military career in post-war Spain. On their order slats, next to the Spanish medals, the Iron crosses were visible, and on their sleeves some continued to wear the Spanish flag, as a distinctive sign, similar to the one that was sewn on the German uniform. As Spanish specialists write, the best book on the treatment of frostbite, available in the 1940-1950s, was written by the military doctor of the 250th division. In some cities to this day there is a street of the Blue Division.

In 1949, a football match was held in Vologda between the local Dynamo team and the team formed of Spanish prisoners of war who served in the Blue Division ^[13] .

• "Crusade to Russia": Collection of articles. - M .: Yauza, 2005. ISBN 5-87849-171-0
• Elpatyevsky, AV , “Blue Division, Prisoners of War and interned Spaniards in the USSR” - Aletheia, 2015. ISBN 978-5-9905926-5-0
• Esteban-Infantes, E. “Blaue Division. Spaniens Freiwillige an der Ostfront. Aus dem Spanischen von Werner Haupt. ” Hamburg , 1958. (ger.)
• Gerald R. Kleinfeld and Lewis A. Tambs. Hitler's Spanish Legion: The Blue Division in Russia . Southern Illinois University Press (1979), 434 pages, ISBN 0-8093-0865-7 . (eng.)
• Xavier Moreno Juliá. La División Azul: Sangre española en Rusia, 1941-1945 . Barcelona: Crítica (2005). (isp.)
• Wayne H. Bowen. Spaniards and Nazi Germany: Collaboration in the New Order . University of Missouri Press (2005), 250 pages, ISBN 0-8262-1300-6 . (eng.)
• Antonio de Andrés y Andrés - Artillería en la División Azul
• Eduardo Barrachina Juan - La Batalla del Lago Ilmen: División Azul
• Carlos Caballero & Rafael Ibañez - Escritores en las trincheras: La División Azul en sus libros, publicaciones periódicas y filmografía (1941-1988)
• Fernando J. Carrera Builder & Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto - Batallón Román: Historia fotográfica del II / 269 Regimiento de la División Azul
• Juan Chicharro Lamamié - Diario de un antanquista en la División Azul
• Jesús Dolado Esteban (etc) - Revista de comisario: el cuerpo de Intervención Militar de la División Azul 1941—1944
• Arturo Espinosa Poveda - Artillero 2º en la gloriosa División Azul
• Arturo Espinosa Poveda - ¡Teníamos razón! Cuando luchamos contra el comunismo Soviético
• Emilio Esteban-Infantes Martín - Blaue Division: Spaniens freiwillige an der Ostfront
• Miguel Ezquerra - Berlin a vida o muerte
• Ramiro García de Ledesma - Encrucijada en la nieve: Un servicio de inteligencia desde la División Azul
• José García Hispán - La Guardia Civil en la División Azul
• César Ibáñez Cagna - Banderas españolas contra el comunismo
• Gerald R. Kleinfeld & Lewis A. Tambs — Hitler's Spanish Legion: The Blue Division in Russia
• Vicente Linares — Más que unas memorias: Hasta Leningrado con la División Azul
• Torcuato Luca de Tena — Embajador en el infierno: Memorias del Capitán de la División Azul Teodoro Palacios
• Xavier Moreno Julia — La División Azul: Sangre española en Rusia 1941-45
• Juan José Negreira — Voluntarios baleares en la División Azul y Legión Azul (1941—1944)
• Ricardo Recio — El servicio de intendencia de la División Azul
• José Mª Sánchez Diana — Cabeza de Puente: Diario de un soldado de Hitler
• John Scurr & Richard Hook — Germany's Spanish Volunteers 1941-45
• Luis E. Togores — Muñoz Grandes: Héroe de Marruecos, general de la División Azul
• Manuel Vázquez Enciso — Historia postal de la División Azul
• Enrique de la Vega - Arde la Nieve: Un relato histórico sobre la División Azul
• Enrique de la Vega Viguera - Rusia no es culpable: Historia de la División Azul
• José Viladot Fargas - El espíritu de la División Azul: Possad
• Díaz de Villegas - La División Azul en línea.

• S.P. Pozharskaya . Spanish "Blue Division" on the Soviet-German front (1941-1943)
• Anthem of the Blue Division (not available link)
• Blue Division poster (not available link)
• The 250. Infanterie-Division by Jason Pipes
• The 250. Infanterie-Division on the Axis History Factbook

  Awarding the Spanish soldiers of the Blue Division with iron crosses, winter 1942

  Historian Boris Kovalev. “Blue Division. Spanish fascists in the USSR "