文档介绍：By William Sariego and Wayne Turner
General Franco owed his position as dictator to Benito After a month of training the division entered the German
Mussolini and Adolf Hitler due to their support for the army as the 250. Infanteriedivision and began its long march
Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). to the front, where it was to be assigned to von Kluge’s
During that same conflict, the Union of Soviet Socialist Fourth Army in Army Group Centre. Problems with dis-
Republics had supported his Republican enemies. cipline continued, and the division was often paraded and
marched pointlessly to get them used to the German way of
Hitler had previously attempted to entice Spain into the war
doing things, which of course included not fraternizing with
after the fall of France. The Generalissimo was unimpressed,
local women.
and Hitler said he would rather have a tooth pulled than
meet with Franco again! However, some Falangists in the Forced to undergo such a parade in Grodno, an entire
Spanish government and military wanted to participate pany marched with condoms stretched across their rifle
“Crusade against Bolshevism“, having no love for the USSR. muzzles. On the road to Minsk the Germans had enough.
The idea of a volunteer division was promise solution. While still on route the division refused to yield right of
way to some members of von Kluge’s staff. He refused the
When the volunteers first mustered, the men wore the blue
Spanish unit, after which they were forced to march north to
uniforms of the Falangist Militia, hence the nickname of the
join the Sixteenth Army in Army Group North.
“Blue” division. General Munoz Grandes, a hero of the Civil
War and an officer known for his pro-Axis sympathies, was Attached to the 39th Corps, in October and November the
chosen mander. unit participated in essful attacks on Soviet positions, im-
pressing General Busch (CO 16th Army) who once