In 1939, the Second World War broke out in full swing, and the countries of Western Europe were also pregnant with ghosts, and the entanglement of interests in the middle was very complicated, including pro-German, pro-British and French, and some shouting neutrality. One of the countries, with the help of Germany, completed the civil war, but proposed neutrality, the German Fuehrer Hitler was not happy, I helped you to get more power, but now you want to be neutral? So they frequently exerted pressure to draw Spain over, but Spain did not want to be an enemy of Britain and France. This is very difficult to do, help Germany is not, not to help is not, at that time Germany's military strength, economic strength are very strong, servant country, pro-Germany although good and bad, but a lot.
Germany just wants to attack Gibraltar through Spain, and Spain has always refused, and it is not the way to do anything, and Germany will not shoot me. At this time, the Spanish Foreign Minister Lamón Serrano Suner proposed to Franco the formation of a Spanish volunteer division, which became the Blue Division. Spanish Prime Minister Franco agreed to the plan, and the Spanish foreign minister went to discuss the matter with Hitler. So the question is, is Spain not afraid to make enemies with Britain and France? How did this help Germany again? This is to mention, the relationship between Europe and the Soviet Union, ethnically the Soviet Union is dominated by Slavs, Western Europe, Northern Europe, central Europe is mostly Germanic, the three Baltic countries of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia are neither Germanic nor Slavic but also have historical grudges with the Soviet Union, Poland although it is the same Slavic race as the Soviet Union, but also has conflicts with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union in Europe can be said to be the same enemy. The Soviet Union was really unpopular in Europe, and if it were not for the common enemy of the powerful Nazi Germany, Britain and France would certainly not have had a half-cent relationship with the Soviet Union. This time, Spain was willing to send troops, also because Germany wanted to invade the Soviet Union.
Turning to the performance of this Blue Legion on the battlefield, its members were originally elected from the Spanish Lancers. After completing its initial formation, the Volunteer Division was transported by rail through the French occupation zone to Graffin-Wohl in Bavaria, Germany, for training, and on July 20, 1941, it officially joined the German armed forces and received the designation of the 250th Infantry Division. Here's a quick look at this unit.
Formally known as the 250th Infantry Division, the German Army was a Spanish volunteer division that assisted the Germans on the Eastern Front during World War II. Franco, both to repay Germany's support in the Spanish Civil War and to maintain peace with the Western Allies, agreed that the division could only fight Soviet troops. The division began with 15,492 soldiers and 2,612 officers, but later through rotation, a total of about 47,000 Spanish soldiers participated in the war.
The official uniform of the division was not a Spanish uniform, but a red beret of the Carlos faction, the clicker pants of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and the blue tunic of the Lancers, hence the name "Blue Division". They wore German uniforms plus Spanish armbands on the battlefield. Beginning with its arrival on 11 October, the Blue Division engaged the Soviets on the first line of the Volkhov River. In battle, since most of the officers and soldiers of the Blue Division had a stubborn anti-Soviet consciousness, they were very tenacious in battle. Since then, the Blue Division has basically fought on the front line in Leningrad.
However, with the increasingly unfavorable situation of the war situation against Germany, coupled with the diplomatic pressure of the United States and Britain, Franco decided in 1943 to withdraw the Blue Division, leaving only a symbolic unit of 1500 people, called the Blue Legion. In addition, hundreds of Spaniards sneaked across the border to join the German army in a private capacity. However, these are not within the scope of the Blue Division.
On 5-6 October 1943 the division was ordered to hand over its positions, and on 6-12 July the replacement of the 81st and 123rd Infantry Divisions was completed. On October 14, the division commander, Lieutenant General Esteban, was awarded the Knight's Cross, a day that officially announced the return of the division. On 29 October, after two years of fighting on the Eastern Front, the first soldiers of the Blue Division finally returned to their native Spain. The final casualties of the Blue Division on the Eastern Front were: 3334 killed, 8466 wounded and 326 missing. 321 were taken prisoner by the Soviets, 94 of whom died in prisoner-of-war camps. The remaining 230 Spanish prisoners of war were repatriated from the Soviet Union in 1954. Although this Spanish volunteer division was not German, its combat effectiveness was not weak at all, and the casualties of the two years of combat on the Eastern Front were also very large, with a casualty rate of up to 75%. Today, information about the Blue Division can still be found in the National Museum of Spanish Military in Madrid.
The survivors or wounded who joined the Blue Division after the war and those who needed support received pensions from the German government every year, and Germany spent hundreds of thousands of euros a year on this, for one reason, they had helped Germany during World War II, although Germany was also anti-Nazi, but Germany was such a nation, and for those who had helped them, even if they did not support Hitler, they would implement some of the correct orders he had issued, including this pension ordinance. This practice has been going on for more than 70 years.