This week, seventy years ago, the Spanish Blue Division was incorporated into the German Wehrmacht as the 250th Infantry Division.
    As word of the commencement of Operation Barbarossa (the Axis invasion of the U.S.S.R.) spread through Europe, there was much joy and exultation. However, there was no more exuberance than in Spain, and, in particular, its capital, Madrid. This may have been, because other than Rome, Bern and Lisbon, this was the only western European capital that was not under the heel of the German jackboot.
    In Madrid, crowds gathered and began marching down Avenida de José Antonio toward the headquarters of the Falange.  Avenida de José Antonio was, and is now, La Gran Vía - the main drag of Madrid. The name was changed, by Generalíssimo Francisco Franco, to honor José Antonio Primo de Rivero, the founder of the Spanish fascist party, the Falange Española, or Spanish Phalanx.
    Party Minister, José Luis de Arrese, who was in the building as the crowd approached, immediately called Ramón Serrano Súñer.  Señor Súñer was the brother-in-law of El Generalíssimo, Spain’s Foreign Minister and chief of the Junta Política of the Falange. Señor Súñer raced to Falange headquarters and went directly to the balcony, stepped outside and received a thunderous ovation. The Foreign Minister began addressing the crowd,   “Comrades, it is not the time for speeches but it is the moment for the Falange to dictate its sentence of condemnation!” The throng responded with one voice, “¡Arriba Espana!  ¡Viva Franco!”  The Foreign Minister continued, “Russia is guilty - guilty of our civil war, guilty of the murder of José Antonio, our founder.” The crowd interrupted, “¡Ruso es culpable! ¡Arriba Espana!  ¡Viva Franco!” The Foreign Minister ended his address by saying, “Guilty of the murder of so many comrades - so many soldiers who fell in that war brought on by the aggression of Russian communism.  The destruction of communism is a necessary condition for the survival of a free and civilized Europe.” The crowd shouted, “¡Arriba Espana! ¡Viva Franco! ¡Viva Alamana!” And then, finally, with one voice, “Muerte a Soviet Ruso.”
    The year before, the German Führer and his Foreign Minister had met with the Spanish Caudillo for nine loooong hours at Hendaye, on the Franco-Spanish border, as the German leader attempted to persuade/cajole the Spanish leader to enter the war against Great Britain. The Spanish Caudillo agreed - in principle. However, he placed so many conditions on his country’s entry into the war, that it was obvious that Spain was going to sit this one out, even though everyone knew that he owed his position as the Spanish Caudillo (leader) to the aid he received from the German Reich and the Italian Kingdom. After the meeting, the German Führer told the Italian Duce that he, “...would rather have three or four teeth extracted than go through that again!” But now, the Spanish dictator saw a way to repay his debt to the Axis nations without going to war with the British Empire.
    The Reich’s ambassador to Spain, Eberhard von Stohrer, communicated Spain’s offer of participation and help in the crusade against communism to the Reich’s Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Herr von  Ribbentrop immediately informed der Führer of the Spanish offer.  On June 24th, 3 days after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Herr von Ribbentrop cabled Herr von Stohrer, “All right, but tell them to hurry!”
    When the call for volunteers was issued, the recruiting stations were overwhelmed as hundreds of thousands of Spanish men rushed to enlist to fight communism.
    The Spanish government decided to send an infantry division and a squadron of fighter pilots. The official name for the infantry division was División Española de Voluntarios - DEV. However, the name by which it is universally known is La División Azul (The Blue Division). It took this name from the blue shirts it received from the Falange, as blue was the Falange color. The name was suggested by José Luis de Arrese. Although the Spanish soldiers wore regulation German uniforms when on duty, when they were in Spain, they wore the blue shirts of the Falange, red berets of the Carlist party and the khaki pants of the Spanish Foreign Legion. Their German uniform had a patch worn on the right shoulder with the Spanish national colors and the word ESPAÑA.
    On June 30th, a secret meeting was held at the Foreign Office on the Willamstrasse, in Berlin. The purpose of the meeting was to determine where the tens-of-thousands of expected foreign volunteers would be serving.  It was decided that Germanic and Scandinavian volunteers, such as Danes, Finns, Flemings, Dutchman, Norwegians, and Swedes, would serve in the Waffen SS.  Non-Germanic volunteers such as the Croats, Portugese, and Spaniards were assigned to the Wehrmacht.  So, when La División Azul arrived in Germany, it was given the designation of 250th Infantry Division.
    Even though Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer hated him, General Agustín Muñoz Grandes was named to lead La División Azul.  The British considered him, “...one of [Spain’s] best and most resolute generals.”
    On July 13, 1941, thousands packed Madrid’s Estación del Norte, as the young volunteers of Regiment Rodrigo made their way to the first train which would carry them on the first leg of their trip to the German Reich. General Muñoz Grandes was on the platform with other generals, ministers and government officials when Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer arrived, resplendent in a white uniform, as the band played “Cara al Sol (Face to the Sun).”  This was the song of the Falange, written by José Antonio Primo de Rivero. After a short speech, as the crowd sang “Cara al Sol,” the train, draped in Spanish, German and Italian flags and bearing the first of Spain’s contribution to the Axis war effort, pulled out of the station. The next day, a similar scene was repeated, sin Señor Súñer, as General Muñoz Grandes and his staff departed Madrid’s Barajas Airport. In the following days, the scene was replayed in the train stations of eighteen other Spanish cities.
    The first train carrying the Spanish volunteers stopped at Hendaye. There the volunteers boarded third-class coaches of the French National Railway. The reception, as the train rolled through France, was decidedly different. Frenchmen along the route hurled taunts, stones and other missiles. At several stops, fights occurred. The attitude changed, once again, when the train crossed into Germany. At Karlsruhe, as many as 12,000 Germans gathered to welcome the young Spaniards. On July 23, 1941, the last trainload of Spanish volunteers arrived in Grafenwöhr, in Bavaria, for outfitting and training. The Spanish soldiers swore their loyalty to the German Führer on July 31,1941. La Division Azul began moving toward the front on August 21, 1941.  Meanwhile, General Muñoz Grandes drove to Hitler’s headquarters in Rastenburg in East Prussia to meet with the German Führer on September 1, 1941.
    La División Azul, which with Escuadrilla Expedicionaria, a.k.a.: Escuadrilla Azul - the Spanish squadron of fighter pilots - was assigned to Army Group Center, whose objective was the Soviet capital of Moscow. It traveled, by train, to Grodno, which is a city, now, in Belarus. From Grodno, the Division marched 620 miles to Vitebsk, also in Belarus near the Polish and Lithuanian borders. On September 26, the division was diverted to join Army Group North, whose objective was Leningrad. Along the way, the Spanish soldiers began bedeviling their German allies with their disregard of the prohibition against fraternization with the Polish and Jewish girls. At Vitebsk, the division boarded other trains to the front, where it joined the Sixteenth Army, commanded by Ernst Busch.
    The Division was assigned a sector of the front, north of the ancient Russian capital of Novgorod, along the Volkhov River. It began to settle in during the second week of October, as the first snow fell. The temperature dropped to 29 degrees F. El Caudillo demonstrated more prescience than the Germans, when he ordered winter clothing shipped to La División Azul.
    On October 19, 1941, it joined the German offensive toward Tikhvin, aimed at joining with the Finns along the Svir River east of Lake Ladoga and completing the encirclement of Leningrad. However,  the Red Army’s tenacity and the plummeting mercury combined to stop the offensive on November 6. The temperature on that day was -23 degrees Fahrenheit. By early December, it was down to -40 degrees. By then, the Division had suffered more than 2400 casualties.
    General Muñoz Grandes was awarded the Knight’s Cross in March 1942. In August 1942 the Division was transferred closer to Leningrad, just south of the Neva River.
    General Muñoz Grandes was replaced by Emilio Esteban Infantes y Martin in December 1942. Upon his return to Spain, General Muñoz Grandes was greeted by almost every government official, promoted to Lt. General and awarded the Palma de Plata. This was the highest award of the Falange, which no one had received since José Antonio Primo de Rivero had received it, posthumously, during the Spanish Civil War. Before returning to Spain, he had been awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross, on December 14, by der Führer . He later served as Minister of Defense and First Vice-President of Spain.
    With the Allied invasion of North Africa, and the American occupation of French Morocco, El Caudillo, seeing the change of direction in the winds of war, and bowing to British and American pressure, ordered the Division home on October 10, 1943. Those that wished to stay - between 2 - 3000 - served in the Legión Azul, commanded by Col. Antonio García Navarro, former chief-of-staff of La División Azul. By November 1944 most of them had returned to Spain. Some stayed until the bitter end, with a company serving in, first, the Wallonian SS Panzergrenadier Division and then the Nordland SS Panzergrenadier Division, defending Berlin.
    Approximately 47,000 Spanish soldiers served in La División Azul, the Legión Azul and Escuadrilla Azul. About 5000 were killed, 8700 wounded, 1500 suffered frostbite and 372 were captured. Of those captured, 286 finally returned to Spain on April 2, 1954 - after Stalin’s death.
    La División Azul was the most decorated unit in Spanish history. The Spanish soldiers were awarded 138 German Iron Crosses, 2,359 Iron Crosses Second Class, eight Cruzes Laureadas de San Fernando (the Spanish equivalent to the Medal of Honor) and 44 Medallas Militares (the Spanish equivalent to the Silver Star). In addition to the Knight’s Cross awarded to General Muñoz Grandes, one was also awarded to General Infantes y Martin, (although without the Oak Leaves) who was also promoted to Lt. General upon his return to Spain. Both Generals also received the German Cross of Gold.
    Hitler said that La División Azul was, “...equal to the best German ones.”  

NEXT WEEK: THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.