Condor Legion: The Wehrmacht's Training Ground

Spearhead #15

by Ian Westwell

The new ‘Spearhead’ series is designed to look at the cutting edge of war, dealing with units capable of operating completely independently in the forefront of battle. Each volume in the series examines the chosen unit’s origins and history, its organisation and order of battle, its battle history theatre by theatre, its insignia and its markings. Also covered are biographies of the most important commanders of each unit. Each title ends with an assessment of unit effectiveness — as seen by the unit itself, by its opponents and the light of more recent historical research. The books also include a detailed reference section with a critical bibliography, a listing of relevant museums and web sites, information about re-enactment groups and memorials. On 27 July 1936, Adolf Hitler sent the Nationalists 26 German fighter aircraft. He also sent 30 Junkers 52s from Berlin and Stuttgart to Morocco. Over the next couple of weeks the aircraft transported over 15,000 troops to Spain. In September 1936, Lieutenant Colonel Walther Warlimont of the German General Staff arrived as the German commander and military adviser to General Francisco Franco. The following month Warlimont suggested that a German Condor Legion should be formed to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Hitler gave permission and the initial force consisted a Bomber Group of three squadrons of Ju52 bombers; a Fighter Group with three squadrons of He51 fighters; a Reconnaissance Group with two squadrons of He99 and He70 reconnaissance bombers; and a Seaplane Squadron of He59 and He60 floatplanes. Under the command of General Hugo Sperrle, the legion was an autonomous unit responsible only to Franco. Initially equipped with around 100 aircraft and 5,136 men, the legion would eventually total nearly 12,000 men and include ground forces. Naval units (especially Deutschland) took part, too. Sperrle demanded higher performance aircraft from Germany and he eventually received the Heinkel He111, Junkers Stuka and the Messerschmitt Bf109—Spain being the perfect testing ground for this new equipment. The Condor Legion participated in all the major engagements including Brunete, Teruel, Aragon and Ebro. During the war it threw up a number of important names—such as Werner Moelders, credited with fourteen kills, more than any other German pilot and Adolf Galland. It also allowed the Germans to practise the tactics that Blitzkrieg would make famous, such as close-air support. In the Asturias campaign in September 1937, Galland experimented with new bombing tactics. This became known as carpet bombing. German aircraft dropped 16,953,700 kilos of bombs during the war and air units expended 4,327,949 rounds of machine-gun ammunition—the most obvious casualty was the market town of Guernica whose obliteration has been immortalised by Picasso. A total of 19,000 Germans served in the Spanish Civil War. Of these, 298 were lost, with 173 being killed by the enemy. This included 102 aircrew, 27 fighter pilots and 21 anti-aircraft crew. A large number were killed in accidents and others died of illness. The Condor Legion lost 72 aircraft to enemy action. Another 160 were lost in flying accidents. The Condor Legion returned home in 1938 and there was a big parade through Berlin to commemorate its success. For all those interested in military history, the new ‘Spearhead’ series is an excellent account of each of the individual units. Written by acknowledged experts in the subject, each volume is a detailed account of the development and operational record of some of the most famous military units in history

Genres: Military History

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spearhead at its best, with the causes and events of the Spanish civil war run by with great maps. The actions of the Legion are told in such a way that between the lines, the tactical development of Blitzkrieg in 40-41 becomes clearer than it has any right to be, based on the few paragraphs explicitly devoted to it.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this format might look very similar to Osprey books, it is much more detailed, with very good maps and presentation of troop movements and lots of photographs, only art being medals, insignia and one view of Bf109 fighter plane with Legion's markings.

Spanish Civil War was an opportunity that Germans, preparing for the clash in Central Europe over Czechoslovakia and Poland, just could not miss. Huge country caught in conflagration of civil war (not unlike recent events) was very fast used by external forces (predominantly Fascist/Nazi powerhouses of Germany and Italy on one end, Soviet Union and France on the other end) as a test bed for new tactics and weapons (even name of Condor Legion armor wing - Drone Force - sounds terribly prophetic) and of course as an arena for conflict of ideologies. Interestingly enough other major powers (UK and US) remained neutral, but left their citizens to join Republican or Nationalist forces on their own volition [and of course thus remaining in legal gray area]. While Republicans were supported by very large number of so called International brigades populated by volunteers from all over the Europe, Nationalist forces also received great influx of various pro-Nazi/pro-Fascist organizations, various organizations that were highly religious and worried about the socialist influence (especially considering that Soviets were behind these social movements which alienated support from UK for example - hate towards Soviets from 1920's was still very very fresh, while Soviets saw Spain as a holy ground to achieve a huge victory for their ideology). While Franco did not see these volunteers as a true productive force (for this check fantastic Crhistopher Othen's book) Condor's Legion was a very worthy addition to Franco's battle hardened African Army, and especially Spanish Foreign Legion units.

First third of the book is dedicated to major events and battles in Spanish Civil War - from the very start of the war (cause and effects), Spanish generals organizing for the putsch and finally introduction of German (and Italian) forces in the conflict. What started as a support operation to get Franco's African troops into Spain as fast as possible soon evolved into the full fledged combined arms combat group that acted as a pure volunteer force (again echoes from modern times - incredible), for public eyes under Franco's control with goal of introducing modern tanks, airplanes and artillery onto the battlefield, operating these high tech weapon systems, providing intelligence information (again....echoes.....) and training Franco's army in both tactics and technology (majority of weapon systems, except those that were marked as latest versions were left to Franco's regime when the war ended).

Germans definitely gained very precious experience during these 4 years. While breakthroughs in air force utilization are always mentioned (Germans developed several models of combat airplanes, from fast bombers, to fighter planes (Bf109's) and so called dive bombers (Ju57 Stukas), combat tactics were developed, procedures for carpet bombings that will destroy Republican cities but also spread destruction from England to Russia in coming years) this was also time when mechanized warfare was stress tested [of sorts]. While not all theories could be fully tested (tanks in this period were relatively light in armor but they were already looking like tanks of modern days) and later Soviet/Russian and German military confirmed that some wrong conclusions were made as a result, very activity of Von Thoma's Drone group paved the way to fixing deficiencies found in first tank versions - predominantly in introduction of heavier armor and weapons. All of these will be felt in coming years and especially in colossal armor battles in the Eastern Front.

Interestingly enough while air war confirmed the dominance of Germans technology and tactics over Republican forces, it did not prepare them for direct clash against countries that are geographically isolated in a way that air defense systems could prove to be quite an obstacle even with minimal number of modern interceptors supporting it.

And as it happens with every war theater, Germany raised quite a respectable mid-level command cadre with huge combat experience that will help them to achieve initial successes in WW2. As time went on though attrition rate went up and leveled the field.

Considering how first half of 21st century so far starts to look very much like first half of 20th century there are numerous parallels here, and this is one of the values of this book (and in general history). Only hope remains that it wont escalate in the same manner.

Very interesting book, lots of information and very rich bibliographical section at the end with more information on the subject.

Highly recommended.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2004, 'Condor Legion - The Wehrmacht's Training Ground' is a well illustrated short history of the German armed forces involvement in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's. The background detail of the origins of the war are covered surprisingly well, unusually for a book on German involvement in this conflict. The photos are well picked if somewhat well known, whilst the accompanying basic maps help make up for the concise text. My only gripe was the regularly mis-identified aircraft types, but I realise that will not bother most readers.