Spanish Troops in the Nazi-Soviet War

Xosé M. Núnez Seixas’s The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front does a thorough job of informing the reader about the typically overlooked Spanish “Blue” Division, also known as the Third Reich’s 250. Infanterie Division (250th Infantry Division) in both the modern and postwar mind of the Spanish nation from the soldier’s perspective, not merely from above. This book is a succinct look at the German-allied unit that functioned until late 1943 as a division, with some volunteers remaining until early 1944, and a few even fighting on to the very end. Critically, this monograph delves into new ground for the English-speaking world.

The author, an historian at Spain’s University of Santiago de Compostela, is a prolific writer of such works as Beyond Folklore?: The Franco Regime and Ethnoterritorial Diversity in Spain, 1930–1975 (2023) and Sites of the Dictators: Memories of Authoritarian Europe, 1945–2020 (2021), he specializes in modern history, nationalism, conflict, and historical memory.

In his eight chapters, Núñez Seixos alludes to a larger, complicated, and yet important consideration for historians. In particular, what the Germans called the “European Crusade against Bolshevism” [p. 28] which gained some traction early in the war and would with time feature a large range of Axis allies, including volunteers from most European countries or ethnic minorities – Sweden, Norway, Holland, Croatians, Bosnians, etc. – fighting and dying on the Ostfront.

Núñez Seixas notes that, “Francoist Spain was not about to be left behind in the wave of anti-communist enthusiasm that swept through neutral and occupied Europe.” [p. 35]. Under this umbrella, the Spanish volunteers of the 250th Infantry Division served on the northern or Volkov front. Both the Germans and Franco realized they were of limited value, the Germans never expecting of them what they did of their own infantry units but the vast spaces for which there were never enough German troops meant that Spain or whoever else might contribute their blood to the struggle were welcome to fight the Bolshevists.

Formed in Spain, the Blue Division (BD) trained at Grafenwöhr in Germany, and left for the front having had only about half the 12 weeks German units received. Proposed as a motorized unit, the BD became a standard infantry division. The division headed for front in August 1941, but the journey involved long marches which proved challenging, especially for those unaccustomed to the slog. The “guirpas” (soldiers) of the division were called “rascals” by Organization Todt personnel [p. 80] who viewed them on the march, their lack of uniform appearance and disregard for German discipline and rigid expectations an issue that would characterize the division throughout its service. They were deployed near Novgorod, as part of Army Group North even as the Germans doubted their ability and disliked their shabby appearance.

The Spanish BD soldiers, known colloquially as “divisionarios”[p. 81], initially admired the Wehrmacht, which in contrast to the Spanish army seemed much more orderly, organized, and efficient. Besides better logistics, food, and health care, the divisionarios also felt that German officers and NCOs treated their own troops better than the Spanish officers did theirs, sharing their hardships, and did more to hold the units together, all things unfamiliar to those who had fought in the Spanish Civil War or knew their more elitist traditions.

Núñez Seixas observes revealingly,

“They [the Germans] saw in their Spanish colleagues a blend of social elitism, professional arrogance, and laziness, and felt particularly angry upon observing the privileges enjoyed by BD officers in terms of food allocations and accommodation… [which reveals] the difficulties of cooperation amongst allies with diverse military cultures that all reflected the social hierarchies of their respective countries.” [p. 83]

The friction between the Germans and their Spanish allies manifested itself in off-duty settings and when competing for women, while on the frontlines the Spanish rank and file seemed positively disposed towards the Germans, or at least on the average. The Spanish troops often felt sympathy for the Poles and other fellow Catholics, who suffered under communism that Franco averted and also they liked Lithuania and Latvia, as the last vestiges of Europe before heading into the ravaged Soviet Union.

The BD eventually joined the effort against Leningrad, which would not be attacked directly so much as besieged. This resulted from the “intersection of a mid-range ideological project to Germanize the region and the short-range project that served the immediate logistical and tactical needs of the Wehrmacht.” [p. 101]

The Blue Division soon found itself in combat and at times received praise from the Germans as to their fighting ability, as proof they were awarded a number of Iron Crosses and other decorations from November 1941 to March 1942 which reassured the troops of their value, and also kept Franco satisfied as to their ability, even if the Germans might have inflated their importance. After all, the Germans needed the BD to bolster their lines. With time it seemed clear that “the Spaniards excelled at small-scale warfare” but they struggled with the realities of the Eastern Front such as large direct assaults heavily supported by artillery and tanks. [p. 121]

Eventually, pressure from the Western Allies, persuaded Franco to recall the BD, and by mid-November 1943 it ceased to exist, leaving only a small Blue Legion to fight on which did so until March 1944 when it, too, disbanded. Some Spanish troops remained even then, to fight in the ruins of Berlin. But for most of the divisionarios the expedition on the Ostfront was over with about 5,000 killed in their wake along with some 2,000 disabled and thousands of wounded. [126]

Núñez Seixas offers a range of critical insights about the Spanish Blue Division experience in World War II, some of them potentially controversial, yet given the range of Ostfront literature, all of them warranted. First, the Spanish troops fought as part of the Volkov (Leningrad) part of Army Group North’s chunk of the Eastern Front. This meant they did not encounter the vast spaces like Army Group Center or South did, they did not fight partisans with the same relative frequency nor did they, due to lack of trust from their German allies, have much to do with rear-area reprisals. Yet they were not the “clean” BD myth perpetrated after the war, either - although no atrocities on their part of any scale have been documented.

The Spanish troops’ relations with Russian civilians tended towards coexistence rather than annihilation, although they did pillage with relative abandon, which had more to do with their logistics difficulties than anything else. yet this still unwittingly assisted the German larger goal of Slavic depopulation.

The BD did not remain in the line as long as German units usually did, and therefore did not necessarily have the exposure and hatred that their allies knew, not to mention their lack of the Wehrmacht’s ideological indoctrination, discipline, and combat training. This meant they did not meet the German expectations often, yet they fought with more coherence than some of the other allied contingents due to their core volunteer nature, the lack of conscripts making the Spanish different from the Hungarians or Romanians, better in combat, even with their foibles.

Núñez Seixas’s illuminating book fills a forgotten niche in the copious literature of World War II, covering a quixotic Axis ally which found itself in a shifting landscape, but still attempted to maintain some kind of moral high ground postwar, stressing that they fought bravely against communism and less about siding with the Nazis. Franco succeeded in navigating a neutral path, or at least as neutral as he dared, while also allowing his countrymen to assist the same foreigners who had provided critical aid to him during the Spanish Civil War. The question of fascist brothers-in-arms is an interesting one which has seen insufficient consideration over time but thankfully this work helps to address important questions about the soldier-level experiences often ignored by historians.

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Note: The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front is also available in e-editions.

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