The Third Reich in Desperation

On the bright side, no matter how much Franco feels that the German side will surely win, he still forces himself to calm down, not to put his own destiny on the German Reinhardt's hands for a while. above the war policy.

At the beginning, the British and French sides were not aggressive, which made Franco feel that the chances of winning were quite high.As a result, not all of them were hanged and beaten like dogs in the water within two months of fighting the German army.

"What if the coalition forces organized by Germany lose and the Soviet army invades Europe. At that time, what should we do?"

When Franco said these words to Mora, there was no trace of blame or sarcasm.

At any rate, Mora was also an important general who followed Franco from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Before the German and Italian troops intervened, even in the most difficult time for Franco's camp, Mora was still fighting for Franco. Do your best to command the troops to resist.

For his confidant, Franco actually just wanted to consult and understand Mo La's thoughts and suggestions.

As for Mora wanting to use this to become a world famous player, Franco has no need to object.

It is also a good thing for him to have a world famous general under his command.

Facing Franco's inquiry, Moura nodded, then got up from his seat and said seriously: "In my opinion, it is not difficult to leave room for retreat."

"Oh? Tell me." Franco originally wanted to command the expeditionary army as Mora, but unexpectedly, he actually had a good idea.

After receiving Franco's continued consultation, Mora immediately went on to elaborate: "Externally, we just announced that Spain has changed from a neutral country to a non-belligerent country. In this way, if Germany loses the war with the Soviet Union in the end, we can also report to the Soviet government. Emphasize that "Spain sending volunteers does not mean joining the war on the side of Germany. "

Mora paused, showing a slight smile: "Since the allies of the Allied Powers have asked us to take out 11 German armorers, then we will take out these troops. But, not in the name of the Spanish Army, but in the name of the Volunteer Army In the name of..."

Using the name of the Volunteer Army to refer to wars in other countries is a common and common method in Europe, and it is no longer novel.But, it works!

Text 651 Chapter 250 Legion

According to Mora's suggestion, Franco finally sent 11 Spanish German armorers requested by Germany in the name of the Volunteer Army.

First of all, Franco dismissed all the officers of the German Armourer, and then went through the procedure and used a special channel to ask Ribbentrop to change Mora's nationality to German nationality.

After that, Mora bypassed the Spanish government and was "elected internally" by the Spanish Volunteer Army and became the commander of the Volunteer Army.

Of course, the fact that Mora became the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army was naturally not voted by the entire Volunteer Army.In that case, on the one hand, the workload is quite heavy, on the other hand, if a commander-in-chief is really to be elected, it will not be able to meet the deadline set by Germany.

As for the officer-level structure within the Volunteer Army, it also follows the previous internal command system of the German Armor.In this way, except for changing the name, the volunteer army is no different from the regular army in other respects.

According to the requirements given by Reinhardt, these German armorers will start all the way from Spain, pass through the Eremo International Bridge to the West-French border, and after crossing France with the assistance of the Vichy French government, they will pass through Saarbrück. Ken, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg, and finally Grafenwall, where he was assigned by the German High Command.

These 11 Spanish volunteer divisions will officially join the German armed forces during the reorganization, and will receive the designation of the 250th Army Group personally awarded by Reinhardt.To distinguish it from other German Army divisions, it is generally called the 250th Spanish Legion.

Another unofficial nickname for the division is the Blue Legion.

This name is basically used within the Volunteer Legion, which is equivalent to a blue shirt that claims to be derived from the blue shirts worn by the Falangists.As early as during the Civil War, the Blue Corps had already distributed German-made equipment according to the standards of the quasi-German Army. They uniformly wore the red berets of the Carlos, the standard khaki pants of the Spanish Foreign Legion, and the blue pants of the Falange Party. color top.In addition, they have a red and yellow Spanish flag shield on the right sleeve of the uniform, with "Spain" inscribed on the top of the logo.

This gives these volunteer troops a touch of Spanish characteristics, which can be regarded as distinguishing them from the German Army.

Moreover, these troops are basically all elite troops, unlike the Spanish volunteer army in history, there are a large number of non-professional soldiers mixed in.

This time, the volunteers are all well-equipped and well-trained regular troops who have experienced actual combat training in the Spanish Civil War.

In the original history, there were a lot of conditions for Franco to participate in the war.His conditions included such as expanding Spain's North African colonies, expanding the area of ​​​​Spain, operating on the French, Germany giving military and economic assistance to the Spaniards, etc...,

In the original history, these bargaining chips frightened the top German leaders. Hitler, the head of state at that time, even said privately: I would rather have my teeth pulled out than to discuss cooperation with the Spaniards.

But in this life, Reinhardt did not agree to any of Franco's demands at all, and won the new Azzurri that was ten times stronger than the Azzurri in history.

The reason is that the German-French-Norwegian Allied Forces under the leadership of Germany marched all the way in the British mainland and hit the city of London. The British Empire, which Franco feared most, was in jeopardy and would soon be wiped out.

In North Africa, the German-Italian-French coalition, which is also dominated by Germany, is also not at a disadvantage in the slightest, blocking the aggressive attack of Wavell's menacing Commonwealth coalition forces.Anyone with a discerning eye can see that sooner or later the British army in North Africa will face the same fate as the local British army.

On the battlefield on the Eastern Front, the German army not only relied on its own strength to build a defense line like a copper wall, which caused the Soviet army to suffer a bloody situation that was worse than the Soviet-Finnish battle, but also quickly pulled up the three-nation coalition forces of Delofn. , There is a backhand blow, and the posture of completely defeating the Soviet army.

This made Franco unable to sit still.

If Germany finally won the Soviet-German War, it would lead a group of younger brothers to destroy the Soviet Union.Spain, which was so sloppy all the way, not only won't get any leftovers and spoils from the victory of the war, but it is very likely to be squeezed out by the victorious countries participating in the war, spit out a lot of vested interests.

If he wanted to keep Spain's position in the Allied Powers, Franco had to show some appearance, at least he had to refer to this war, so that the Allied Powers could see that Spain also contributed.

In the beginning, Franco planned to take the initiative to collect a volunteer army teacher to be loyal.But he didn't expect that Reinhardt "helped" Spain to make a plan before he said anything, and the Lion asked for 11 of the most elite divisions in Spain.

Among them, it also includes the only armored division in Spain!

This can make Franco, the most successful wall grass in the original history, start to feel heartbroken.

If the Royal Navy hadn't lost so badly, Franco still had reason to be conservative.He can claim that Spain is only a second-class power after all, and its land is surrounded by the sea on three sides. If it openly becomes an enemy of the British, the already lonely Spanish navy will be destroyed by the strong ships and guns of the Royal Navy.

In Europe, Spain's Armada was the first to become famous, but as the overwhelmingly dominant Armada was defeated by the British Navy, Spain forever gave up the title of maritime supremacy and was suppressed by the British Navy for several times. century.

No matter how arrogant the Germans are, it is impossible to ask Spain to accompany them to fight the Soviet Union regardless of their own territorial safety.In a hurry, if Spain defected to the United Kingdom, the German navy might not be able to beat the British-Spanish combined fleet.

However, the British suffered a crushing defeat, which made Spain, which was sitting on the wall at both ends, lose the capital to fall to one of them.Spain now can only choose to defect to the German side, or is willing to stand still and become a specimen for Germany to kill chickens and monkeys for other members of the Allied Powers.

Without Britain's food, oil, and economic and trade wooing, there is no German military deal to provide troops with combat effectiveness.In the future, Spain can only become weaker and weaker, and less and less able to rank among the international ranks.

Germany has basically conquered Europe, so it is not up to the German government to decide who to block and suppress in the future.

The most important thing is that Spain's more than 500 tons of gold reserves were basically cheated by the Germans with a batch of old and backward weapons during the civil war.After the civil war, the remaining population of Spain, not to mention compared with the European countries with large populations such as Germany, Britain and France, and even half of the population of Italy, was larger than the total population of Spain, which had a population of less than 2000 million at that time.

There is no foreign exchange reserve, the population of the country is not prosperous, and the local war has left everything waiting to be rebuilt.This makes Spain inseparable from external material dependence, otherwise, it will be completely unable to develop.

For Germany, which used the Allied Powers and the League of Nations to control the entire Europe, it has actually controlled the lifeline of Spain.

Text Chapter 652 Italian Russian Expeditionary Force

The news that Spain sent 11 divisions of volunteers spread quickly, causing a lot of shock to countries all over the world.

While many countries were amazed that Franco, who had always been a mouse-head, would send 11 divisions abroad to assist the German army in combat, they also felt a little sorrow for the Soviet Union.

If the Soviet army had been able to attack a few years earlier, he would have faced only a Germany that had aroused public outrage in Europe.Even the Kingdom of Italy at that time might not necessarily help Germany fight together because of Mussolini's personal reasons.

But now, all European countries are basically integrated by Reinhardt.Countries that are willing to join the military alliance can join the Iron Allies camp founded by Germany and Italy, and countries that are only willing to enter the political circle can also join the League of Nations after the reconstruction led by Germany.

The military and the government worked together, allowing Germany to integrate a large force of European countries, which can be used to contend with the Soviet Union.

In addition to Franco of Spain's unexpected large-scale dispatch of troops, what is even more shocking is the attitude of the new Italian Prime Minister Rossi.

Under Rossi's single-handed leadership, the Italian Russian Expeditionary Force Air Force Task Force was established in Tuo Duran, a city on the border between Romania and the Soviet Union, and has now joined the Soviet-German air battle.

意大利派来的空军兵力中，装备82架“闪电”战斗机，8架“蝙蝠”中型运输机和8架Ca.133后勤军用运输机，52架“西北风”多用途侦查机和4架“袋鼠”大型轰炸机。

This is already the largest expeditionary force that the Italian Air Force can produce after years of reforms, and its sincerity is even touching.

In addition to the Air Force, Rossi also sent more expeditionary troops than the Spanish Volunteer Army for the German High Command to dispatch.

The Italian Russian Expeditionary Force sent by Rossi included the 9th Pasubio Semi-Motorized Division, the 52nd Turin Semi-Motorized Division, the 3rd Rapid Division and the 3st, 27nd, and 29th Blackshirts. The 33 major black shirt army main armies, in addition, there is an Italian native light armored division, and the 3th, [-]th, and [-]rd main infantry divisions of the Italian Army.

If one roughly converts the main force of the Italian blackshirts into two main Italian divisions, then the army sent by Italy this time is equivalent to 2 divisions equipped with 13 L170 light tanks.It is much more than the troops and tanks sent by the Spaniards.