During World War II, the Spanish State under Francisco Franco espoused neutrality as its official wartime policy. This neutrality wavered at times, and "strict neutrality" gave way to "non-belligerence" after the Fall of France in June 1940. Franco contemplated joining the Axis powers in support of his allies Italy and Germany, who brought the Spanish Nationalists into power during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). On 19 June, he wrote to Adolf Hitler offering to join the war in exchange for help building Spain's colonial empire.Weinberg, Gerhard. A World in Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 177. Later in the same year Franco met with Hitler in Hendaye to discuss Spain's possible accession to the Axis. The meeting was unsuccessful, but Franco did help the Italians and the Germans in various ways.
Despite ideological sympathy, Franco stationed field armies in the Pyrenees to deter Axis occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish policy frustrated Axis proposals that would have encouraged Franco to take British-controlled Gibraltar.The History Channel. "November 19, 1940: Hitler urges Spain to grab Gibraltar." http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-urges-spain-to-grab-gibraltar Much of the reason for Spanish reluctance to join the war was due to Spain's reliance on imports from the United States and the United Kingdom as well as fear of the latter's military power. Spain also was still recovering from its civil war, and Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.Sager, Murray (July 2009). "Franco, Hitler & the play for Gibraltar: how the Spanish held firm on the Rock". Esprit de Corps. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012.
In 1941, Franco approved the recruitment of volunteers to Germany on the guarantee that they only fight against the Soviet Union and not against the western Allies. This resulted in the formation of the "Blue Division" which fought as part of the German army on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1944. In addition, Franco allowed German U-boats to refuel in Spanish ports, a pro-Axis propaganda campaign in the Spanish press, allowed transport of tungsten and foodstuffs to Germany, permitted Gestapo spies to operate in the country and created the Jewish Archive in case the Germans wanted Spanish Jews.
Spanish policy returned to "strict neutrality" as the tide of war started to turn against the Axis. American pressure in 1944 for Spain to stop tungsten exports to Germany and to withdraw the Blue Division led to an oil embargo which forced Franco to yield. After the war, Spain was not allowed to join the newly created United Nations because of the wartime support for the Axis Powers, and Spain was isolated by many other countries until the mid-1950s after which it became an anti-communist ally of the United States' Western Bloc during the Cold War.
Domestic politics During World War II, Spain was governed by an autocratic government, but despite Franco's own pro-Axis leanings and debt of gratitude to Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, the government was divided between Germanophiles and Anglophiles. When the war started, Anglophile Juan Luis Beigbeder was minister of foreign affairs. German victories convinced Franco to replace him with Ramón Serrano Suñer, Franco's brother-in-law and a strong Germanophile (18 October 1940). After Allied victories in North Africa in summer 1942, Franco changed tack again, replacing Serrano Suñer with pro-British Francisco Gómez-Jordana Sousa in September. Another influential Anglophile was the Duke of Alba, Spain's ambassador in London.
Diplomacy
From the very beginning of World War II, Francoist Spain favoured the Axis powers (see: ). Moreover, Spain under Franco had grandiose imperial ambitions, influenced by Falangist ideas, beginning with the reclamation of Gibraltar from Britain, followed by the annexation of French Morocco and other French African territories. In fact, the Franco regime implemented a program of rearmament and expansion of the Spanish military, along with maintaining an army of over half a million men and building fortifications near Gibraltar, the Pyrenees, the Balearic Islands, the Canaries, and Spanish Morocco, and a possible attack on Gibraltar and French Morocco as early as October 1939. Apart from ideology, Spain owed Germany $212 million for supplies of matériel during the Civil War.
In June 1940, after the Fall of France, Franco sent General Juan Vigón to meet with Hitler to discuss Spanish demands for entering the war and the Spanish Ambassador in Berlin had presented a memorandum in which Franco declared he was "ready under certain conditions to enter the war on the side of Germany and Italy". Franco had cautiously decided to enter the war on the Axis side in June 1940, and to prepare his people for war, an anti-British and anti-French campaign was launched in the Spanish media that demanded the return of Gibraltar and French Morocco, alongside the annexation of parts of French Cameroon and Mauritania into Spanish Sahara and Guinea.Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 133. Additionally, Spanish forces would seize control over the French-controlled Tangier International Zone after the fall of France as the first step towards territorial expansion.
On 19 June 1940, Franco pressed a message to Hitler saying he wanted to enter the war, but Hitler was annoyed at Franco's demand for the French colony of Cameroon, which had been German before World War I, and which Hitler was planning on taking back.Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 177.
At first Hitler did not encourage Franco's offer, as he was convinced that Britain would eventually ask for terms of peace after the fall of France. In August 1940, when Hitler became serious about having Spain enter the war amidst strong British resistance during the Battle of Britain, a major problem that emerged was the German demand for the annexation of one of the Canaries and air and naval bases in Spanish Morocco, to which Franco was completely opposed.Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 pp. 176–177. After the victory over France, Hitler had revived Plan Z (shelved in September 1939) for having a huge fleet with the aim of fighting the United States, and he wanted bases in Morocco and the Canary Islands for the planned showdown with America.Weinberg, Gerhard A World In Arms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 page 178. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote: "The fact that Germans were willing to forgo Spain's participation in the war rather than abandon their plans for naval bases on and off the coast of Northwest Africa surely demonstrates the centrality of this latter issue to Hitler as he looked forward to naval war with the United States". In September, when the Royal Air Force had demonstrated its resilience in defeating the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, Hitler promised Franco help in return for its active intervention. This had become part of a strategy to forestall Allied intervention in north-west Africa. Hitler promised that "Germany would do everything in its power to help Spain" and would recognise Spanish claims to French territory in Morocco, in exchange for a share of Moroccan raw materials. Franco responded warmly, but without any firm commitment. Falangist media agitated for irredentism, claiming for Spain the portions of Catalonia and the Basque Country that were still under French administration.Serrano Suñer, tragedia personal y fascismo político, Javier Tusell, El País, 2 September 2003: "Serrano ante él [Hitler] llegó a sugerir que el Rosellón debia ser español, por catalán, y que Portugal no tenía sentido como unidad política independiente."El último de los de Franco, Santiago Pérez Díaz, El País 7 September 2003
Hitler and Franco met only once at Hendaye, France on 23 October 1940 to fix the details of an alliance. By this time, the advantages had become less clear for either side. Franco asked for too much from Hitler. In exchange for entering the war alongside Germany and Italy, Franco, among many things, wanted the territorial annexation of Morocco and other territories in French Africa, heavy fortification of the Canary Islands, as well as large quantities of grain, fuel, armoured vehicles, military aircraft and other armaments. In response to Franco's nearly impossible demands, Hitler threatened Franco with a possible annexation of Spanish territory by Vichy France. At the end of the day, no agreement was reached. A few days later in Germany, Hitler famously told Mussolini, "I prefer to have three or four of my own teeth pulled out than to speak to that man again!"
The UK and the US used economic inducements to keep Spain neutral in 1940.
Spain relied upon food and oil supplies from the United States, and the US had agreed to listen to British recommendations on this. As a result, the Spanish were told that supplies would be restricted, albeit with a ten-week reserve. Lacking a strong navy, any Spanish intervention would rely, inevitably, upon German ability to supply oil. Some of Germany's own activity relied upon captured French oil reserves, so additional needs from Spain were unhelpful. From the German point of view, Vichy's active reaction to British and Free French attacks at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar had been encouraging, so perhaps Spanish intervention was less vital. Also, in order to keep Vichy "on-side", the proposed territorial changes in Morocco became a potential embarrassment and were diluted. As a consequence of this, neither side would make sufficient compromises and after nine hours, the talks failed.
In December 1940, Hitler contacted Franco again via a letter sent by the German ambassador to Spain and returned to the issue of Gibraltar. Hitler attempted to force Franco's hand with a blunt request for the passage of several divisions of German troops through Spain to attack Gibraltar. Franco refused, citing the danger that the United Kingdom still presented to Spain and the Spanish colonies as well as Spanish reliance on food, oil and other supplies from the UK and the US. In his return letter, Franco told Hitler that he wanted to wait until Britain "was on the point of collapse". In a second diplomatic letter, Hitler got tougher and offered grain and military supplies to Spain as an inducement. By this time, however, Italian troops were being routed by the British in Cyrenaica and Italian East Africa, and the Royal Navy had displayed its freedom of action in Italian waters. The UK was clearly not finished. Franco responded "that the fact has left the circumstances of October far behind" and "the Protocol then agreed must now be considered outmoded".
At Hitler's request, Franco also met privately with Italian leader Benito Mussolini in Bordighera, Italy on 12 February 1941. Quotation of Mussolini, Album di una vita by Mario Cervi at the Bordighera site. Accessed online 18 October 2006. Hitler hoped that Mussolini could persuade Franco to enter the war. However, Mussolini was not interested in Franco's help after the series of defeats his forces had recently suffered in North Africa and the Balkans.
Franco signed the Anti-Comintern Pact on 25 November 1941. In 1942, the planning of Operation Torch (Allied landings in North Africa) was considerably influenced by the apprehension that it might precipitate Spain to abandon neutrality and join the Axis, in which case the Straits of Gibraltar might be closed. In order to meet this contingency, it was decided by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to include a landing in Casablanca, in order to have an option of an overland route via Moroccan territory bypassing the Straits.