10 Underhanded Ways The Spanish Franco Regime Aided Hitler And The Axis Powers in WWII

 

Many people forget a major country involved in World War Two—Spain. Though Spain was not a member of the Axis military alliance, it was politically and ideologically aligned with the Axis Powers.

Francisco Franco was the fascist dictator of Spain just before, during and after WWII. Germany and Italy helped Franco overthrow the government of Spain’s Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War. France, the USSR and many United States and British citizens supported the Republic. The Spanish Civil War ended mere months before the beginning of WWII.

During WWII, Franco kept close ties to his fellow fascist dictators, Hitler and Mussolini. He traded war supplies, weapons and ammunition to the Axis. He also allowed monitoring stations and saboteurs from the Axis to enter Spain to thwart the Allied Powers. Publicly, Franco applauded the Axis and denounced the Allies in speeches and letters. His boldest aid to the Axis, however, was the Blue Division—an army of Spanish volunteer (and later conscripted) soldiers that were sent to the Eastern Front to fight the Soviet Union.

All of this was done under Spain’s formal claim of neutrality. Franco’s aid to the Axis only diminished once the Allied Powers were clearly gaining the upper hand.  WWII ended with the Axis Powers defeated, Hitler and Mussolini dead, and Francisco Franco left as the last remaining major fascist dictator in Europe.

Read more here at War History Online.