Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Spanish conflict lasted three years and was a smaller-scale prelude to the world war which broke out in 1939. Nazi support for General Franco was motivated by several factors, including as a distraction from Hitler's central European strategy, and the creation of a Spanish state friendly to Germany to threaten France. It further provided an ...
At Hitler's request, Franco also met privately with Italian leader Benito Mussolini in Bordighera, Italy on 12 February 1941. [13] 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 ensured that Spain was neutral at the start of World War II but seriously contemplated joining the conflict as a German ally in the aftermath of the Fall of France in 1940. He met Adolf Hitler on 23–24 October 1940 but was unable to gain promises that Spain would gain colonial territories from France in North Africa because Hitler ...
Hitler did not wish to disturb his relations with the Vichy French regime. The only concrete result was the signing of a secret agreement under which Franco was committed to entering the war at a date of his own choosing, and Hitler gave only vague guarantees that Spain would receive "territories in Africa".
Strategically, Nazi support for Franco provided a distraction from Hitler's central European strategy and created a friendly Spanish state to threaten France. [185] Hitler wanted to help Franco just enough to gain his gratitude and to prevent the side supported by the Soviet Union from winning, but not large enough to give the Caudillo a quick ...
In September 1939, World War II began. Franco had received important support from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War, and he had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. He made pro-Axis speeches, [162] while offering various kinds of support to Italy and Germany. His spokesman Antonio Tovar commented at a Paris conference ...
Franco answered negatively to another request from Hitler to join the war that was received on 6 February citing the precarious state of Spain's economy and army. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop told Hitler that in his opinion, "Franco has no intention of ever joining the war". In February 1941, the OKW advised the naval high ...
Hitler and Franco during Meeting at Hendaye (23 October 1940). World War II in the Basque Country (a region in northern Spain and southwestern France) refers to the period extending from 1940 to 1945.