SPAIN'S BLUE DIVISION AND THEIR CRUSADE AGAINST BOLSHEVISM DURING WORLD WAR 2

SPANISH POST CARD PICTURING  "BLUE DIVISION" SOLDIERS INSPECTING A CAPTURED SOVIET TANK

(Series 1, Card 6)

GERMAN WEHRMACHT FELDPOST CARD

FELDPOST NR. 14929, INFANTRY REGIMENT 263, SPANISH

SPAIN'S VOLUNTEER "BLUE DIVISION"

POSTMARKED OCT. 7, 1943, LENINGRAD AREA AND THEIR WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EASTERN FRONT

The Blue Division (Spanish: "División Azul", German: "Blaue Division"), or 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.

The 250. Infanterie-Division was formed in Spain during the last week of June 1941, immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union. The unit was an offical Spanish sponsored formation created to partially repay the debt owed Germany for its vitally important assistance during the Spanish Civil War during 1936-1939. It was formed with Spanish volunteers from across Spain who flocked en masse to serve in the unit, originally named simply the Spanish Division of Volunteers, or more properly, Division Espanola de Voluntarios (DEV). The division was exclusively a foreign volunteer unit, designed for service within the German Wehrmacht, but to consist soley of Spaniards and to be led soley by Spanish officers.

Initially, the DEV had been formed with four infantry regiments (as was traditional in the Spanish army) and each was named after their respective commanding officers. The DEV thus consisted of Regiment Esparza, Regiment Pimentel, Regiment Vierna, and Regiment Rodrigo. As German divisions consisted of only three infantry regiments at the time, upon acceptance into the Wehrmacht, one of the Spanish regiments of the newly formed unit was disbanded - Regiment Rodrigo. Its three battalions were transfered to each of the other remaining regiments, and thus the men were not lost from the division but meerly reorganized within it. The other Regiments were thereafter renumbered to conform to the German regimental numbering system and they became respectively Infanterie-Regiment 262, 263, and 269.

On July 31, 1941, the Blue Division was formally incorporated into the Wehrmacht as the 250. Infanterie-Division.  It was initially assigned to Army Group Center, the force advancing towards Moscow. The division was transported by train to Suwałki, Poland (August 28), from where it had to continue by foot on a 900 km march.   While marching towards the Smolensk front on September 26, the Spanish volunteers were rerouted from Vitebsk and reassigned to Army Group North ("Armeegruppe Nord", the force closing on Leningrad), and became part of German 16th Army.

In August, 1942 it was transferred North to the Southeastern flank of the Leningrad siege, just South of the Neva near Pushkin, Kolpino and Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area.  A buildup of German units stationed around Leningrad prepared for the eventual assault on the fortified city.  New units were brought in to reinforce the German lines and special preperations were put under way for the battle to come. Then, all plans to assault Leningrad suddenly changed.  Far to the south on November 19, 1942, Stalingrad had been encircled by the Soviets. As a result of this major offensive set-back, the planned assault against Leningrad was called off. 

Even with the calling off of the planned Leningrad offensive, there was still much fighting along the lines of Armeegruppe Nord.  On February 10, 1943, to clear the main Moscow-Leningrad highway upon which the eastern lines of the division were positioned, the Soviets launched a three hour long artillery barrage, 44,000 Soviet troops and 100 tanks against the 250.Infanterie-Division. When the Soviets attacked, they came up against a mere 5,600 well positioned Spanish troops. For almost 24 hours, a battle raged in which the eastern sector of the divison took 75% casualties, loosing 3,645 men!

This massive battle was to be known as the Battle of Krasny Bor - amazingly, it proved to be a bloody and costly victory for the division. They held against the full weight of the Soviet attack, and in the process inflicted nearly 11,000 casualties upon them. By the middle of February the fighting had died down and the lines had stabilized once more.  In April the positions in and around Krasny Bor were relieved by the 254.Infanterie-Division, reducing the divisions lines to about 21 miles in length. Krasny Bor was largely to be the divisions last major action.

On March 19th the Soviets launched a relatively weak attack on the lines of the division, but it too was beaten back soon after. For the next seven months the divisional lines saw sporadic fighting, but no more raging battles. Individual units assaulted small Soviet positions, held off smaller Soviet attacks, and withstood strong Russian artillery barrages, and extensive defensive works were constructed, but no more large-scale offensive or defensive actions took place.

Finally, on October 5th and 6th, 1943, the division was ordered to fall back from its positions. Between October 6th and 12th, 1943, the division was relieved by the 81.Infanterie-Division and the 123.Infanterie-Division. The division was transfered to the region of Volosovo where soon after it was ordered to return to Spain, leaving in its place the Spanish Legion, a battalion-sized unit consisting of about 1,500 Spanish troops that choose not to return to Spain but to instead continue fighting the Soviets.

The division had seen nearly 50,000 men serve within its ranks over the period of more than two years at or near the front, and 12,726 men had become casualties while in its service.  They were awarded both Spanish and German military awards, and were the only division to be awarded a medal of their own, commissioned by Hitler.

(References: Wikipedia and "250.Infanterie-Division" by Jason Pipes at http://www.feldgrau.com/InfDiv.php?ID=163)