The Blue Division. 250th Division of Spanish Volunteers

The main allies of Germany in the attack on the USSR were Romania and Finland. These were later joined by Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania, Slovakia and Croatia. There was another country, Germany not occupied and not at war with the Soviet Union, but who provided volunteers for service on the side of Germany. It was Spain.

The history of Spain is marked by the fact that only once, during the Great Patriotic War, its soldiers opposed the Russians, although even then Franco avoided open participation in the war, maintaining neutrality. Other cases, when these two countries participated in battles on opposite sides, were not. More about these events during the Great Patriotic War, we will discuss in this article.

Touching upon this topic, it should be noted that only one division fought against the USSR. It was the Spanish "Blue Division", or 250th, which consisted of Spanish volunteers. It was they who fought during the Second World War on the side of Germany. Considering the nominally completed fighters of the Spanish phalanx, this division was in fact a mixture of regular soldiers, members of the phalanx militia and veterans of the civil war. The "Blue Division" was compiled according to the Spanish canons. It included one artillery regiment and four infantry. Because of the blue shirts, the division was called the "Blue Division". Blue was a form of phalanx.

Spain's position in the war

Not wanting to draw Spain openly into the war on the side of the Germans and while trying to ensure the security of the country and the phalanx regime, Francisco Franco adhered to armed neutrality at that time, while providing on the eastern front of Germany a division of volunteers who wanted to fight the Soviet Union on the side of the Germans. De jure, Spain decided to maintain neutrality, was not a member of Germany's allies and did not declare war on the USSR.

Motivation of volunteers

The history of Spain was connected with the fate of the USSR in the pre-war years. Souner, Foreign Minister, in 1941, June 24, announced the formation of this division, saying that the USSR is guilty of the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936, when the nationalist-led fighters led by Franco raised armed rebellion. Accused the Soviet Union and the fact that this war dragged on and went with non-judicial reprisals, mass executions. The oath was changed in agreement with the Germans. Soldiers swore the fight against communism, not the Fuhrer.

The motivations were different among the volunteers, of whom 250 divisions consisted: from the desire to avenge the relatives who died in the civil war, to the desire to hide (from the former Republicans who made up the bulk of those who decided to join the Soviet Army). There were fighters who sincerely wanted to redeem their recent republican past. Many also acted because of selfish considerations. A decent salary for those times was received by servicemen, plus there was still a German salary (7.3 pesetas from the Government of Spain and 8.48 from Germany per day).

The composition of the division

The 18693 soldier in the division (15,780 lower ranks, 2272 non-commissioned officers, 641 officers) departed in 1941, on July 13, from Madrid and was transferred to Germany for military training of five weeks duration in the city of Grafenver at the training ground. Augustin Muñoz Grandes, a veteran of the Civil War, was the first commander of this division. The soldiers advanced, starting from Poland, on foot to the front. After that, the "Blue Division" was transferred to the Wehrmacht as the 250th Infantry Division. Over 40 thousand people have passed through its structure for all of its existence (more than 50 thousand people - according to other sources).

Fights with the Russians during the defense of Leningrad

The "blue division" near Leningrad held defense and was considered a weak link in the Soviet command. Therefore, during the operation called "Polar Star", aimed at the liberation of the Leningrad region and conducted on a section almost 60 km long (under the Red Boron), minor forces were identified that could not provide a breakthrough in the conditions of bad weather and difficult terrain Front, though wedged in at a perceptible distance.

On this site the fighting was fierce on both sides. The advance detachments of the Red Army, which managed to break through, were cut off by flank counterblows from their reserves and rear and put in the end in a difficult position. Remains of assault units, left without ammunition and food, had to leave the encirclement precisely through the positions of the "Blue Division".

At the exit from the encirclement, the skirmishes with the Spaniards were marked by ruthlessness and suddenness. The researchers, in particular, give an episode when a group of Russians, who did not have practically grenades and cartridges, crept up to the dugout at night, where the soldiers of the Blue Division were restlessly resting. Bursting into the dug-out, the soldiers destroyed the enemy's cold steel.

The Spaniards' special attitude to discipline

A special attitude of the Spanish fighters to discipline manifested itself in Poland. A few soldiers in civilian clothes took to the wagon. They were detained by the Gestapo, because they were like Jews because of their swarthy appearance. After the shooting, the comrades liberated their own. Morozov, burgomaster of Novgorod, died at the hands of a fighter from the "Blue Division".

The authorities arranged for the delivery of milk to pregnant women. The queue was lined up every morning. Slowly, soldiers of this division began to attach themselves to it. They stood peacefully mixed with the pregnant women, not demanding unnecessary themselves - they received only a common rate and retired. However, Morozov was outraged by the lack of milk. He, having come to the council, sent one of the Spaniards down the stairs. He jumped up and fired at him with a pistol.

The combination of sloppiness and high fighting efficiency

This combination of sloppiness and high fighting efficiency was noted by General Halder after the Battle of Red Bor. He warned his people that if they suddenly see an unshaven, drunk soldier with an unbuttoned tunic, do not rush to arrest him, since this is probably a Spanish hero.

Not infrequently among the servicemen of the division there were cases of transition to the Russian side, largely because of the meager food and rudeness of their officers.

The disbandment of the compound, its further fate

In 1943, on October 20, Francisco Franco, because of foreign policy pressure, decided to withdraw the Blue Division from the front and disband the formation. However, many Spaniards remained voluntarily in the detachments of the German army until the end of the war. Not wishing to lose their potential soldiers, the Germans opened propaganda for the entry of volunteers into the "German Foreign Legion", which was under the German command. They were, as a rule, in the SS troops (Wehrmacht infantry division), who fought to the very end. Before surrender, around 7,000 Spaniards fought in the encircled Berlin.

In post-war Spain, many former soldiers of this division subsequently made a successful military career.

The attitude of division fighters to the church and religion

The great authority in Francoist Spain was enjoyed by religion and the church. During the shelling, for example, several shells fell into the central dome of St. Sophia's temple in Veliky Novgorod. As a result, the cross began to fall to the ground. His Spanish sappers saved him, were restored during the war, and he was sent to their home country.

Even during Franco's life, in the 70s, this cross was in the Engineering Academy. The inscription made under it said that he is in Spain in storage and will return to Russia when the Bolshevik regime disappears. The Soviet regime after the war accused of robbing the Spaniards, who turned out to be a scourge of Novgorod antiquities. They turned the Church of the Entrance into Jerusalem into a smithy, and the Archbishop's palace was made a morgue. The "Blue Division" on the eastern front let most of the surviving iconostases for firewood. They completely burned the Cathedral of Znamensky "by imprudence".

It should be noted that on the doors of the ancient temples there were prohibitive inscriptions in Spanish and German, but the Spaniards did not pay any attention to this and continued to plunder the Russian churches. Almost all the temples of Novgorod suffered from the Spaniards. It turned out that in search of souvenirs the sappers took the cross from Spain to Sofia, allegedly for memory. He was returned in 2004.

The attitude of the Germans to the Spanish soldiers

All historians claim that there were big differences between the Spanish and German character. Germans of the Spaniards accused of debauchery, indiscipline, familiarity with the local population, in particular with the female sex. The attempt to feed the volunteers with the standard diet, which was fed by the Wehrmacht infantry division, turned out to be a scandal. From this meal the morale of the soldiers fell, from which the "Blue Division" consisted on the eastern front. It all ended with the fact that after negotiations at the highest level, the echelons with Turkish lentils and peas rushed to the eastern front.

However, over time, the Germans became convinced that the lack of discipline to perform heroic deeds of the Spaniards does not interfere. Soon after the victory began to repatriate the captive Germans, the Spaniards were able to "sit out" the death of Stalin, as well as a subsequent amnesty. On their fate negotiations were conducted, but to no avail. After all, Franco again had to conduct a diplomatic game in the conditions of the now "cold" war.

"The Blue Division" (Borzya)

In Russia there is also a division with the same name. Since 1972, since March, the 150th motorized rifle division, also called the "Blue" division, was stationed in Borza. It is a city located in the Trans-Baikal Territory, 378 kilometers from Chita. Its population is 29405 people. Borzya-3 ("Blue Division") has nothing to do with the Spanish troops.