What Did Spain Do in World War 2? | History of Spain 1939 - 1945 

TLDR: Hitler: "You coming to the party?" Fascist Spain: *seen

La nueve wasn't "one of the first" to enter Paris, was the first unit of the allied forces that entered the city. Not one of the fitrst, the absolute first. And that's why they got to lead the famous parade through Paris.

In HOI4 I usually conquer Portugal for the fun of it after the Civil War

My father was a navigator in the 8th Air Force. In 1943, his B17 was shot down over France. The Comet Line, a network based in Brussels to aid Allied airmen, helped him evade capture. His party was smuggled out of France and over the Pyrenees. Then escorted to the British Embassy in Madrid. After a stay in a Madrid hotel, he was taken to Gibraltar and thence back to England. I believe the Spanish part of the trip was discreet, but Spain knew what was going on.

Hello Hilbert. Something I learned quickly from spending time in Valencia province was that "Don't mention the war" was not just a joke from a sitcom.

"The time when Germany sent a crew to Tibet to see if the people there were racially pure or not" wat

I'm surprised I'm saying this, but I believe the sentence you say at 22:13 is incorrect. Spain isn't the only fascist state to survive WWII start to finish, without losing territory. Portugal also didn't lose territory. In fact, Portugal was even included in the Marshal Plan, something that Spain was excluded from. So not only did Portugal manage to stay neutral during the war, but it also played both sides, making substantial amounts of money, without sending troops to war. It is even said that Salazar and Franco were close friends and Salazar strongly advised Franco to stay out of the war, predicting the outcome would be bleak.

Its funny cause you'll often hear in Spain that we should've actually entered the conflict because the axis defeat and an eventual allied take-over would've not only rid us of fascism decades earlier - but we could've even benefitted from the Marshall plan.

"Franco was a poor diplomat" Franco: let me show you a pro gamer move tío.

My grandfather was a crew member on a B-17 over Europe during the war. He was given a map of Spain to help him potentially try to escape there if his plane was shot down over Germany or German-occupied France. Fortunately, his plane wasn't shot down, so he never had to use the map. I now keep that map as an heirloom.

I think the story of Spain in WW2 isn't really complete without a few words about Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the German Abwehr and his role in the Spanish-German relations. Edit: I forgot the word complete in the previous sentence and have now added it.

Fun fact - Portugal almost retook Olivenza (Olivença) during the Spanish civil war

Your comment that the Vichy French were very useful makes me want a video on Vichy France

I just watched Pan’s Labyrinth last night and was wondering what was going on in Spain in 1944 when the movie was based! Thank you for posting this just in time for me!

Paco Roca's graphic novel "Los surcos del azar" is an amazing read for anyone interested in Spaniards who fought for the Allies in WWII

The leader of the Abwehr, Wilhelm Canaris, was also working behind the scenes to make sure the negotiators failed as he had become disillusioned with Hitler. Great video!

Very well researched! Even as a spaniard there's a lot of things I didn't know about the subject till I saw this (most of all the japanese reparations)

Great documentry on Spain's role in WW2, but there is one important factor that stopped Spain joining the Axis that was not mentioned that is Spain's alliance with Portugal. Portugal was also neutral, but favoured the Allies and would have joined the Allies in the Second World War if Spain had joined the Axis. So by Spain remain neutral meant that Portugal remained neutral too.

This is amazing. There are so many twists to the story. Please keep up the good work.

Great video. Liked it very much.

Franco was no fool. Spain had everything to lose and little to he gained by joining the Axis.

it's crazy to see just how quickly Spanish-German relations deteriorated

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

Keep up thd good work with great videos

I have learnt more from this video. Than my history classes in Spanish high-school.

Can you imagine being the guy who came up with that decoy, and finding out that the Germans had diverted forces to reinforce the fake attack target? I hope he/she found out that happened. The information would have to pass through a lot of people to get back to them!

How am I just now finding your channel! Loved this video keep em coming

Good video!

I think Franco was smarter than people realize, and knew Hitler was not going to win. He played Hitler well, giving him just enough to prevent the Germans from invading Spain, as he consolidated his power. Franco knew that Spaniards had no interest in a new war, and it would have been the end of him ultimately.

I love this series!

very nice.well done mate-i really like your chanel

Very good video.

It’s so weird how the World Wars united the nations in common causes to defeat a singular enemy. Ironic that mass war makes people work together.

18:50 Dang. That’s playing dirty lol. But I guess as the saying goes, “Ain’t no rules in war”.

Interesting subjects as always 💯

I love learning about my country by your videos!

What Did Spain Do in World War 2? Short answer: SURVIVE!! That simple.

This series about minor countries in WW2 is quite interesting

Love these!!!!!

Buen video !

Spaniard here, thank you for telling the world our interesting (and quite shameful) history during ww2. I look forward to future videos about this topic, especially the La Nueve division which were the first to liberate Paris, I found that pretty interesting

Spain: Give Gibraltar pls 🥺 👉👈

Thank you! Ive been reading my history textbook out of curiosity and it doesn’t mention Spain and WW2 at all. Like- I’m pretty sure I could count how many times it was mentioned on one hand.

Haven't watched yet, it's defo on watch later, but boy I hope you mention "La nueve" and how Spaniards under French command liberated Paris, even though this fact was later covered up for many political reasons...

Thank you for this. I enjoyed the video. It is full of very interesting historical facts, some of them were even new to me, like the Japanese reparations to Spain after the war. I particularly liked the mention of the Republican Spaniards who fought for the allies (you could also have mentioned Garbo, a Spanish double agent who helped the Allies land safely on Normandy). Regarding the role of Spanish Republicans in the war, they were literally the first allied troops to enter Paris, not one of the firsts. You can check the photos taken at the time. You see Sherman tanks with names labeled after important battles of the Spanish Civil War, like Brunete, Belchite, Ebro, Teruel, etc. The allied officer who officially meet the Resistance when they entered Paris was actually from Valencia, Spain. The Spanish soldiers who fought for the Allies were highly regarded by the French army, both for their bravery, training, and reliability. Even De Gaulle used them as personal bodyguards when he entered Paris, although he did all he could, later on, to erase their role in history, especially, the vital role played by La Nueve in the liberation of Paris. However, I'm surprised to find that you didn't mention the role of Admiral Canaris in sabotaging Hitler's efforts to convince the Spanish government under Franco to join the war. Canaris, chief of the Abwehr, and personal friend of Franco was a convinced anti-Nazi who consciously thwarted every effort to convince Franco to join the war on Germany's side. He personally convinced Franco that Germany could not win the war and even couched him on what to say to Hitler when he met him in order to appear interested, but sadly unable to comply. Franco actually wanted to join the war on Germany's side and had very few territorial demands beyond Gibraltar -even French Morocco was negotiable. Canaris, however, convinced him to add Cameroon to the list. Canaris went as far as lying to Hitler about the "unfeasibility of operation Felix" (the plan to take Gibraltar from the British), which was actually a very easy operation that German special forces could have achieved even without Franco's consent. No wonder the Spanish government later expressed gratitude to the widow of Canaris after the war and even paid her a pension, no doubt as a reward to Canaris' efforts for helping Spain avoid entering the Second World War on the losing side. Any or all of those topics should have merited at least some discussion. Sadly, there is no mention of any of it in the video.

I'm interested in a video about spanish republican help in the making and enpowerment of the French resistance. Any subject you cover is interesting enough for me!

I'm excited to hear more of what Mongolia was doing during the war. I know they mainly sent supplies to the Soviets, and then joined them in taking over Manchuria.

Really good video, do another one about Sapin!!!

I feel like Spain directly joining the Axis would have been more of a detriment than a benefit for the Axis, creating much more coastline for the Allies to invade, same thing with Italy honestly.

I honestly do wonder what would've happened if Spain has joined World War II

a vid on the spanish and early french resistance would be cool

As a Brit who moved to southern Spain a year and a half ago, I've recently found Spanish/Iberian history very interesting (including the civil war and Spain's semi-neutrality in WW2)

i'm from the Philippines and i didn't know the war reparation of Japan to Spain, what a interesting facts

Something I had hoped to hear about (as so great is Hilbert bringing all these delicious historical anecdotes) was that there was, actually, an invasion of spain by forces fighting for the allies. In 1944, the spanish fighting in the French resistance tried their largest operation (against spain) in the Invasion of the valley of Arán, hoping to kickstart in such a way allied commitment to defeat Franco's spain. They however, failed. Thanks for the video Hilbert!

Hi. I want to thank you for your video. I was extreamly surprised by it because you mention the 9th compant of the 2 tank division. I was impressed by that. It is not an ordinary knowledge. Only a few people know about that company even in Spain. The French knew it but for evedent reasons (24/08/1944) they covered it up. I will watch your videos about the Spanish Civil War. That war is difficult for the anglosaxon world because you try to see things white and black. In that war both parties were grey color.....................Excelent video.

Portugal was also fascist and survived WW2 by being neutral and trading with both sides, playing them off of eachother.

If Spain had asked for either Algeria or Gabon instead of Cameroon things could have so much different.

Hi there, how were Orleans and Paris called and writen in Old English?? (the time of The Franks)

18:00 That right there is the amazing Giorgio Perlasca for you.

I Love to know that people will learn the history of "La nueve" Their help to the alies was never recognized.

There are several misinterpretations and other facts missing, something normal being Spanish fascism rather akin to a schizophrenic ideology. In the first place, the Franco government was bribed by the British government to convince Franco to enter the Axis, the Spanish dictator in principle was in the same orbit as the Falange, a party practically the same as the Nazi party: anti-capitalist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic, and that they even investigated paranormal phenomena as their great references the Nazis. Soon, Falange became the only fascist party in Spain, but then it became another party that included the rest of ideologies, such as ultra-Catholics not so close to Nazism. After the Spanish Civil War, many republican Spaniards were imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camps, some survivors gave their testimony in the 2005 best-selling Spanish book "The last Spaniards of Mauthausen", an example of the History of Spain unknown until very few years ago. The book narrates not only the daily life of the prisoners in the Mauthausen concentration camps, but also key historical events. The book begins with the exile of the republicans, many ended up in refugee camps in France, a country where a new right-wing government elected by the French treated them like animals, then forced many to serve the inept or faint hearted French soldiers, sometimes the Republicans, very experienced in the war, had to teach the French the minimum so that the Nazis did not pass them more than they were already doing. Many of these Spaniards ended up in Dunkirk waiting to be rescued, but the Allies forgot them. Some became part of the French resistance, others formed the 9th Company of Free France, known as La Nueve, which were the first to enter liberated Paris. But around 9,000 were soon captured by the Nazis, a few more were later captured. In the Mauthasusen concentration camps, the Spanish republicans were among the first prisoners and at first they were among the worst treated by the Nazis, considering them atheistic communists and enemies of their great friend Franco, although shortly afterwards the Nazis decided to focus more on other prisoners and this is how they managed to create a clandestine organization within the camp, to call it somehow. Franco's Spain was no more democratic after World War II, it continued to be a fascist dictatorship that offered help and refuge to Nazi criminals, the only change was that Franco soon saw the end of Hitler's Germany approaching and began to make preparations to approach the Allies and avoid reprisals, for example Franco's brother-in-law, the nazi falangist Serrano Suñer, ordered the destruction of all official documents that linked fascist Spain to Hitler's Germany. Franco send 50,000 Falangists to help in the mediocre Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, by the way, partly financed with money extorted from Spanish Jews, but soon there were no Falangist volunteers and the fascists had to send prisoners and republicans who wanted to clear their file, and soon Franco ordered all the divisionaries to return. Although some of these Falangists wanted to stay with the Nazis and a few went to Germany to fight in the last days of Nazi Germany. After the war, Franco once again sent a few other Falangists, along with Nazi fighter planes and bombers that Hitler sold him, as well as weapons and ammunition, to help the Arab countries against Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, until 1953 when fascist Spain signed the military agreements with the United States, then Spain stopped being isolated in exchange for becoming an ally of the West and of several air bases in Spanish territory. Then the Falange disappeared from the international media and came to govern the ultra-Catholic sect of Opus Dei.

A huge reason for non participating was the absolute bankruptcy of the country for decades after the war. I think you haven't emphasized it enough

This is kinda scary cause i was wondering about this last night but never said it out loud but popped up in my recommended lol

Your German pronunciation is immaculate! Love your videos x

Fun fact: Franco was usually underestimated and people thought that he was an idiot, but actually he just listened, thought and observed, big chad ngl

Can someone tell me what Portugal did in World War II? In Churchill's 1946 "Sinews of Peace" speech he remarks, "The British have an alliance with Portugal unbroken since 1384, and which produced fruitful results in critical moments in the late war." Officially Portugal remained neutral during the Second World War. I am curious as to what Churchill was referring to when he said that.

I just randomly thought to myself yesterday, "What did Spain even do during WW2?"

In the part of Spaniards fighting in the war, you could add the "Blue Squadron" spanish pilots that volunteered to fight in the air in the eastern front, plus adding that some spanish soldiers of the blue division stayed in the war until the very end at Berlin as the "Blue Legion". You could also add that if the war in the pacific happend to be longer, we would be talking about another Blue Division in Asia, but this time in the Allies side, and yeah against Japan, via the same reason Japan paid the money as an apology to Spain

You say Spain was the only country to come into the war facist, and leave the war facist without losing any territory, but what about Portugal and their Estado Novo

Spain was very lucky to not get involved

I watched a documentary about Operation Mincemeat, and they introduced the idea that the homeless man story was not actually what happened in the end. There had been a sinking that was covered up (HMS Dasher) as it would damage US-UK relations (it was a converted carrier made by the US for the UK) and therefore they used a body from the shipwreck, as rat poison would have been identifiable in the post mortem.

Your channel, especially this series, seems very well thought out, and the presentation is top notch. However, since your closed captioning is only available in Indonesian, I doubt that I will subscribe. I am hearing impaired, and obviously don’t understand Indonesian, so this is a lose lose situation. Hope you can rectify this glitch.

George Orwell fought in the spanish civil war

Neutrality is all very well, but didn't work out for Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg.

Please, make that video on French resistance and Spanish assistance.

A book (in spanish) "La Batalla del wolframio" of Juan Tomás. About the fight for the spanish tungsten during the WWII.

My US History and World History teachers back in high school said that WWII was started by the Japanese in 1936 when they invaded Korea and Manchuria. And not when Germany invaded Poland.

Hilbert can you make a video about Portugal during World War 2?! They were very fascist leaning just like Spain yet I never hear about them talked about during this time period!

"Mine Were of Trouble", book by Peter Kemp, journals his time with the Requeté's in the Spanish Civil war. A recommended read on the Spanish civil war, as mentioned in this video. It makes clear the Spanish Civil war is a large (and hot) clash between the (various faces) of fascism and communism, that appear all over Europe in the 1930s.

I really think that if Spain had entered the war there would have been another peninsular war. Spanish industry and infrastructure would have been a soft beachhead for the allies. This would have drawn German troops from vital areas to fight against the Anglo Portuguese coalition Force in Spain following Portugal joining the allies. But in this alternate reality the Germans would have been more cautious on the Eastern front leading to situations like Stalingrad not happening. A Germans with a weaker presence on the Eastern front not have focused on Moscow and Leningrad instead of the Caucasus. I believe that German overconfidence lead to some of the mistakes on the Eastern front with a weaker position Hitler may have listened to some of his generals causing the German army to pull back and hold a line during the winter to prepare for a spring offensive which ultimately might not have made a difference in the ultimate outcome but may have wronged The war out further allowing the Germans to focus on the defensive earlier in the war Viking landing such as Normandy and Sicily harder because of their lack of confidence and their defensive footing.

18:50 *Weekend at Huelva’s*

What history has taught us is not to believe, never ever, an english speaking man talking about Spain.

Your Spanish pronunciation is spot on!

Great video thank you! I just wanted to mention that Portugal was also a fascist regime that survived ww2

You forgot México when they literally flew to the Philippines and helped the Philippines against Japan

De Valera, Franco and Salazar: all fascists in their own right that went unchecked. Though I must say I quite like Salazar

A set of "Instant photo histories" of WWII it posits the war beginning in Manchuria 1931.

As a Spaniard I have to say that it's a really complete video about the spanish role during the WW2. This is something that is not usually treated on the text books, because, in fact, Spain did not officially enter the war, but Francisco Franco almost entered in the war on the axis side a few times, which could have completely changed the history of Europe, hopefully it never happened.

I’ve learned fairly recently that “The” French Resistance were multiple factions that fought each other nearly as much as the German occupiers, probably more so.

0:08 what?

There's a lot of people myself included who originally thought Pablo Picasso was alive with like Leonardo da Vinci instead of during the last hundred years

I'd love a video about the spaniards refugees in the resistance and in the french foreign legion!

We should be careful on money useage,if you are not spending to earn back,then stop spending.

You should do a video on Mexicos contribution to the war, it's pretty interesting

What about the middle east in ww2 ? Can you do a video on those countries

Where's the pack between Portugal and Spain, where they agree to not enter the war. Where is this part of the story?

I'll give you an even crazier prospect: what if after D-Day commenced the Spanish realized which way the winds were blowing and threw in with the allies?

En el cantar del Mio Cid,el Califa de Zaragoza le dice al Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar,el Cid Campeador,Que buen vasallo de tener un buen Señor,eso es lo que le ha faltado a España,buenos mandatarios,buenos Reyes y Patriotas,solo la casa de los Trastamara fueron los mejores,Isabel y Fernando,ambos primos y Trastamara,o sea Portugal también entra aquí...

Cameroon was not a French colony. The German Kamerun was split between the British and French after WW1 and were League of Nation Mandates governed by both countries, the British mandate being governed from Nigeria, which it borders.

Japan: 'Oh, looks like this used to be your colony, time to pay you reperation' Also Japan: 'China? Reparations? Nanking? What are you talking about?