Ni División Azul, ni División Española de Voluntarios: El personal forzado en el cuerpo expedicionario enviado por Franco a la URSS

Abstract

The article presents a new interpretation of the Spanish Volunteer Division, official denomination of the military unit added to the Wehrmacht in order to collaborate in 1941 in the invasion of the USSR, and named Blue Division by the leaders of Falange. With douments from several archives, particularly the Public Military Record in Ávila, it can be proved that the number of civil volunteers from the Militia of Falange did not exceed the 50% of the whole contingent, that the number of fascists was lower than that amount, that the quarters of the Army ought to contribute with half of the troops and, gradually, a part of the personnel sent to the eastern front was forced to enlist and, afterwards, was rejected, as undesirable, by the staff of the Division. The article focuses on the analysis of this personnel, often hostile to the Francoist dictatorship, and pay attention to the defectors. The conclusion is that Division 250 of Wehrmacht neither was a Volunteer Division nor a Blue Division.