When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941, he needed some help, as the Russians had far more men than the Germans. Using his political muscle, he convinced the Finns, Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, and Spanish to contribute forces to the mix, not counting the volunteers who flocked to the Waffen SS, or turncoat Russians, Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Georgians, Armenians, and other locals who weren’t too thrilled with Stalin and were willing to fight against him alongside the Germans.
Unlike the Hungarians and Romanians, however, the Spanish unit was completely volunteers. In fact, Franco was not keen on sending forces. Without a doubt, there is no way Franco could have won in Spain without Hitler’s help. German Ju-52s airlifted Franco’s army from Morocco to Spain, and the Condor Legion helped give Franco air superiority; German weapons and advisors were also extremely critical in securing the Fascist victory. Yet when it came to reciprocate for Hitler, Franco was extremely reluctant. Basically he walked out of the German restaurant without paying for his high quality schnitzel, schnapps, and a nice little BJ under the table from Helga.
But these men were eager to serve. Why? These were Falangists who were (A) grateful to Hitler for helping the Generalissimo eradicate the plague of communism from Spain, and (B) hated communism enough to go to the frozen swamps of North Russia to fight the Red Army. Just as the Waffen SS veterans serving in the French Foreign Legion in North Vietnam saw that conflict as an extension of their own battles on the Eastern Front in WWII, so did these Spaniards view the battle against the Red Army as an extension of the prior battle against communists in Spain in their own civil war, which had ended just two years before. In other words, what Franco was unwilling to do, these men were.
Sidetrack on anti-communism. These days it seems “communist” and “socialist” are terms bandied about recklessly by Republicans, used to describe not only true socialists like Michael Moore, Ralph Nader or Paul Wellstone, but also moderate liberal Democrats, including our own beloved Chocolate Jesus. And with the debacle of the Vietnam War, and Joe McCarthy’s defeat in the 1950s, the liberal establishment has quite effectively discredited anti-communism as a viable political agenda in the US. Legitimate refugees from communist dictatorships, such as Cubans escaping from Castro’s regime or the boat people from Vietnam, are pretty much ignored or written off as cranks. The Nazis remain perpetual bad guys, but when it comes to Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot, the general attitude is, “what’s the big deal?” Yet there is a thick volume, the Black Book of Communism, which chronicles the heavy body count of communist atrocities from the Russian Civil War (1917-22) all the way to the present day, with a natural focus on the USSR and Red China. I don’t recall Spain being included, mainly because the communists failed to win the Civil War. That doesn’t mean the PSUC didn’t have blood on its hands, not merely Falangists and Carlists, but innocent civilians, priests, nuns, monks, and even their fellow travelers of moderate socialists and anarchists (e.g. crackdown on POUM in Barcelona in May 1937). While the Falangists had their own crimes to answer for, Stalin’s minions in Spain were competitive in brutality and ruthlessness. To the Falangists of the Blue Division, communism was a very real threat, a very tangible octopus of evil, with its center in Moscow. Having cut off a tentacle in Spain, the obvious next step was to slay it at home, in Russia.
Their initial leader was General Agustin Munoz Grandes, who was well loved by his own troops and respected by the Germans. The unit operated in Army Group North, in the Leningrad sector, and was heavily mauled in the battle of Krasny Bor in 1943. The units were never large, and had no strategic impact, but they fought hard, fought well, and impressed both the Germans and the Russians with their skill and determination. This was even more impressive due to the horrendous cold and snow, and nasty summer swampy weather (with mosquitos and malaria), a climate completely alien to Spaniards and unknown in Spain or its colonies.
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