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The 250th Infantry Division (German: 250. Infanterie-Division), better known as the Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), was a unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain operating from 1941 to 1943 within the German Army (Heer) on the Eastern Front during World War II.
On February 15, the Blue Division reported casualties of 3,645 killed or wounded and 300 missing or taken prisoner, which amounted to a 70–75% casualty rate of the troops engaged in the battle. Because of these heavy losses and Allied pressure on the Spanish government , the Blue Division was withdrawn to Germany and later disbanded.
Blue Division Medal Ribbon bar The Medalla de la Campaña de Rusia ("Medal of the Russian Campaign"), commissioned 9 November 1943, was awarded by Nationalist Spain to those Spanish volunteers who served at the Russian front during World War II , as members of the Blue Division . [ 1 ]
At least 47,000 Spaniards served in the Blue Division. [4] Many Soviet citizens (Russians and other non-Russian ethnic minorities) joined the Wehrmacht forces as Hiwis (or Hilfswillige). [5] The Ukrainian collaborationist forces were composed of an estimated number of 180,000 volunteers serving with units scattered all over Europe. [6]
The Spanish Blue Division faced a major Soviet attempt to break the siege of Leningrad in February 1943, when the 55th Army of the Soviet forces, reinvigorated after the victory at Stalingrad, attacked the Spanish positions at the Battle of Krasny Bor, near the main Moscow-Leningrad road. Despite very heavy casualties, the Spaniards were able ...
Case Blue (German: Fall Blau) was the Wehrmacht 's plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II.
Despite Allied protests, Franco aided the Axis Powers by sending the Blue Division to the Soviet Union and seizing Tangier in 1940. Franco was a guilty party, with Hitler and Mussolini, in the conspiracy to wage war against those countries that later banded together as the United Nations.
Emilio Esteban-Infantes Martín (18 May 1892 – 6 September 1962) was a Spanish officer who served during the Spanish Civil War, and later in World War II as commander of the Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), or the 250th Infantry Division of the German Wehrmacht.