wwii axis reenactment forum

Greetings
Here's a few pics of men from the Azul Division which apparantly was attached to the
Wehrmacht and were part of the Spainish Blue Division.

They were known to wear blue shirts underneath their regular tunics (see bottom pic)
and were a Royalist group formed to fight the Communists and mostly saw action in Russia.

Please add any other information.
PS: Post edited because picture images distorted

Peiper

Hi Peiper,

They weren't PART of the Blue Division they WERE the Blue Division (Azul=Blue)!! As you say, they got their nickname from their blue shirts - blue being the colour of the Spanish "Nationalist Movement".

They were a bit of a "thank you" to Germany from Spain, for Germany's help for the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.

Manpower for the Div was drawn from the Spanish Army and Falange Militia (well over 50% were professional soldiers of the Spanish Army, and all above the rank of Lieutenant were regular officers). So many volunteered that many officers who served in the Div were willing to join at lower ranks than they had held in the Spanish Army.

Formed as the Spanish Volunteer Division, it was formed/trained at Grafenwohr, near Bayreuth, Bavaria, and re-designated as the 250th Infantry Div of the Wehrmacht. The 4 initial Spanish Regts were amalgamated into 3: 262nd, 263rd and 269th Inf Regts. There were also the usual supporting Divisional units. Volunteers had to swear the normal oath of allegiance to Hitler, but modified to only relate to the battle against Communism (i.e. as opposed to fighting the Western Allies).

They fought exclusively on the Eastern Front (Lake Ilmen, The Volkhov Pocket, Poselok, Krasny Bor) and were eventually withdrawn by Franco, under pressure from the USA and Britain to prove his neutrality (plus the war was not going Germany's way by that time, and Franco wasn't stupid..!!).

Some individual Spaniards decided to fight on of their own accord after the "official" withdrawl of the Azul Dv - they were formed into the "Unit Ezquerra" of the Waffen-SS. There were also Spanish Luftwaffe volunteers (formed into the "Expeditionary Air Squadron").

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ade

Thanks Jagdpanther

That's what i meant, the Azul/Blue Division.

Cheers Peiper

Jagdpanther wrote: Some individual Spaniards decided to fight on of their own accord after the "official" withdrawl of the Azul Dv - they were formed into the "Unit Ezquerra" of the Waffen-SS.
Ade

Ade the unit took its name from Miguel Ezquerra a SS-Hauptsturmführer ,Sorry if you knew this already

Franz repper wrote:

Jagdpanther wrote: Some individual Spaniards decided to fight on of their own accord after the "official" withdrawl of the Azul Dv - they were formed into the "Unit Ezquerra" of the Waffen-SS.
Ade

Ade the unit took its name from Miguel Ezquerra a SS-Hauptsturmführer ,Sorry if you knew this already

Cheers for that - yep, quite a chap apparently - captured by the Soviets in Berlin, then managed to escape back to Spain..!! I'd don't know any more than that about him though (apart from him being ex-Blue Div), I'd be interested to know more.

I also forgot to mention the Spanish Volunteer Legion ("Blue Legion") that existed briefly (fighting in the Baltic states area) after the Blue Div was called back to Spain..

Cheers,

Ade

Apparantly while the majority of the Azul Div's were called back to Spain some of the die hard
facists and Falangists fought on, even still having some volunteers still sneaking over the
border at Lourdes etc.

The rests of the Spainish troops who were left were absorbed into other German Units, such
as 140 men were formed into a Unit attached to the 28th Wallonien Div which later formed
part of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier "Nordland", this Unit was under the command
of Hauptsturmfuhrer der Waffen SS Miguel Ezquerra (previously mentioned).

These men fought the Soviets in the last days of Berlin in 45, the survivors of this Unit were
taken prisoner by the Soviets and remained in captivity until 1952.
(some more pics)
Peiper

A few more pics
(One of the commanders, Major Garrido)

Peiper

Very good Photos!

Jeppsson |11.SS| wrote:Very good Photos!

Thanks kamerad

Peiper.

At the last reenactment event in switzerland I spoke with a spanish visitor ...he liked my DRK uniform a lot and then he told me that his dad was with the AZUL in Russia .... very interesting talk we had!

Hi:

Here is a link to a great amount of original Photos of the Blue Division, some of them I have never seen before.

http://picasaweb.google.es/guripad250/A ... bedwebsite#

This one is great; they are three Spanish Officers in good mood.

http://picasaweb.google.es/guripad250/A ... 7038907618


Cheers.

Max.

Max here is a link to a great artical about the Div viewtopic.php?f=25&t=11905

A great article indeed, the guy has put a lot of effort in it.
Here is an interesting link to the 250 Infanterie Division story in the Feldgrau page.

http://www.feldgrau.com/InfDiv.php?ID=163

By the way Peiper, as far as I know the Falange movement was not a Royalist one, it was a National Syndicalist movement inspired by the Italian Fascist movement. The first commander of the “Blue Division” was Agustin Muñoz Grandes, a member of Falange and a professional soldier too, who was seen by Hitler as a possible substitute for Franco in case Spain’s dictator didn’t decided to enter the war alongside Germany.

Cheers.

Max.

Some more Blue Division pics
Pipes

Some more pics
Pipes