Editing Condor Legion (section)

== <span class="anchor" id="History of military aid to Spain"></span>Military aid to Spain ==
{{main|German involvement in the Spanish Civil War}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C0214-0007-013, Spanien, Flugzeug der Legion Condor.jpg|thumb|alt=A large plane on the ground, with men looking underneath|Condor Legion He 111E, 1939]]
After the 17 July 1936 [[Spanish coup of July 1936|military coup in Spain]] began the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists requested support from [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy]].{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=10}} The first request for German aircraft was made on 22 July, for 10 transport aircraft. [[Adolf Hitler]] decided to support the Nationalists on 25 or 26 July, but was wary of provoking a wider European war.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}}{{sfn|Thomas|1961|pp=231–232}} The [[Reich Air Travel Ministry]] concluded that Nationalist forces would need at least 20 [[Junkers Ju 52]]s, flown by [[Deutsche Luft Hansa|Luft Hansa]] pilots, to carry the Spanish [[Army of Africa (Spain)|Army of Africa]] from [[Spanish protectorate in Morocco|Spanish Morocco]] to Spain.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}} This mission became known as [[German involvement in the Spanish Civil War#Early intervention|Operation Magic Fire]] ({{langx|de| Feuerzauber}}).{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}}{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=230}} To carry it out, a joint venture was created between the Spanish-German "[[Spanish-Moroccan Transport Company]]" ({{langx|es|Companía Hispano-Marroquí de Transporte|links=no}}, HISMA) [[dummy corporation]] and the German Raw Materials and Goods Purchasing Company ({{langx|de| Rohstoffe-und-Waren-Einkaufsgesellschaft}}).{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}} German involvement was hidden from the foreign and the economic ministries, and was funded with three million [[Reichsmark]]s.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}}{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=230}}

The organisation and the recruitment of German volunteers<ref group="nb" name="volunteer"/> was also kept secret.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=13}} The first contingent (86 men) left Germany on 1 August 1936. Unaware of their destination, they were accompanied by six biplane fighters, anti-aircraft guns and about 100 tons of other supplies.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=13}} Many believed that the German troops would train the Nationalists and not engage in active combat.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=14}}

The volunteers were stationed at [[Seville Airport|Tablada Airfield]] near [[Seville]] and, with the support of German air transport, began the airlift of [[Francisco Franco]]'s troops to Spain. Germany's involvement grew in September to encompass the [[Wehrmacht]]'s other branches. Operation Magic Fire was renamed Operation Guido in November.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=13}} The [[Kriegsmarine]] provided submarines in 24 October, also providing surface ships and co-ordinated movement of German supplies to Spain.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=15}} German [[U-boat]]s were dispatched to Spanish waters under the codename Ursula.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=15}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-026-0122-32A, Griechenland, Kreta, Ju 52.jpg|thumb|alt=Another plane on the ground, being serviced by two men|A [[Junkers Ju 52|Ju 52]] plane in Crete in 1943]]
In the two weeks after 27 July, German transport moved nearly 2,500 [[Army of Africa (Spain)|Army of Africa]] troops to Spain.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=16}} By 11 October (the mission's official end), 13,500 troops, 127 machine guns and 36 [[field gun]]s had been transported to mainland Spain from Morocco.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=18}} Over that period, there was a transition from training and supply missions to overt combat. The operation commander, Alexander von Scheele, was replaced by [[Walter Warlimont]].{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=19}} In September, 86 tons of bombs, 40 [[Panzer I]] tanks and 122 personnel were deployed in Spain. They were accompanied by 108 aircraft from July to October, divided between aircraft for the Nationalist faction and planes for German volunteers in Spain.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=19}}

German air crews supported the August-to-October 1936 [[Siege of Madrid|Nationalist advance on Madrid]],{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=19}} and the successful relief of the [[Siege of the Alcázar]] on 27 September 1936.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=21}} Ultimately, the initial phase of the [[Siege of Madrid]] was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=21}} Soviet air support for the Republicans was growing, particularly through the supply of [[Polikarpov]] aircraft.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|pp=21–22}} Warlimont appealed to Germany to increase its support. After Berlin's recognition of Franco's government on 30 September, German efforts in Spain were reorganised and expanded.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|pp=22–23}} The existing command structure was replaced with the [[Winterübung Rügen]];{{sfn|Alpert|2019}} military units already in Spain were formed into a new legion, which was briefly called the Iron Rations ({{langx|de|Eiserne Rationen}}) and the Iron Legion ({{langx|de|Eiserne Legion}}) before [[Hermann Göring]] renamed it the Condor Legion ({{langx|de|Legion Condor}}).{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=23}} The first German [[chargé d'affaires]] to Franco's government, General [[Wilhelm Faupel]],<ref group="nb">See [[:de:Wilhelm Faupel]] {{in lang|de}}.</ref> arrived in November and was told not to interfere in military matters.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=333}}

===Motivation===
In the years after the Spanish Civil War, Hitler gave several possible motives for German involvement. They included providing distraction from [[German rearmament]], [[Cordon sanitaire (international relations)|preventing the spread of communism to Western Europe]], creating a state friendly to Germany to disrupt Britain and France, and creating possibilities for economic expansion.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}} Although the Nationalist offensive on Madrid was abandoned in March 1937, a series of attacks on weaker Republican-controlled areas was supported by the Condor Legion. Despite prolonging the Civil War, it helped distract the other Western powers from Hitler's ambitions in [[Central Europe]].{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=29}} The [[Biscay Campaign|offensive on Biscay]], a mining and industrial centre, helped to fuel German industry.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=30}} In a speech at [[Würzburg]] on 27 June 1937, Hitler said that he supported Franco to gain control of Spanish ore.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=459}}

Discussions about German objectives for intervention took place in January 1937. Germany was keen to avoid prompting a wider European war, which was a risk if it committed further resources to Spain.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=341}} There was no consensus among German officials; [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]] of the German Foreign Office suggested that it was a matter of graceful withdrawal, and Göring said that Germany would never recognise a "red Spain". A joint Italian–German agreement said that the last shipments would be made no later than early February.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=341}}

It has been speculated that Hitler used the Spanish Civil War to distract [[Benito Mussolini]] from Hitler's plans to [[Anschluss|annex Austria]]; the authoritarian, Catholic and anti-Nazi [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Vaterländische Front]] ran the government of Austria from 1933 to 1938, and had been allied with Mussolini. In 1934, the assassination of Austrian Chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] had given rise to Italian military assistance to prevent a German invasion.<ref>[http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/learnpremium/hitler_foreign/AnschlusswithAu/FirstattemptatA/Default.htm www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk]</ref>

A December 1936 communiqué from German ambassador to Rome [[Ulrich von Hassell]] said that Italy’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War kept it out of the Western powers' camp:
<blockquote>
The role played by the Spanish conflict as regards Italy's relations with France and England could be similar to that of the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|Abyssinian conflict]], bringing out clearly the actual, opposing interests of the powers and thus preventing Italy from being drawn into the net of the [[Western world|Western powers]] and used for their machinations&nbsp;... All the more clearly will Italy recognize the advisability of confronting the Western powers shoulder to shoulder with Germany.{{cn|date=May 2024}}</blockquote>