The Condor Legion

At the end of October 1936, Adolf Hitler decided to massively increase the support he was providing to the military rebels by sending an air force unit that would later be known as the Condor Legion. Unlike his initial decision to provide support, this one was not in response to a request from the rebels. Rather, it was an initiative of the German dictator, presumably to counteract the imminent pro-Republican intervention by the Soviet Union, as well as to accelerate the rebels’ victory.

The Reich’s Air Ministry organized the unit and selected the “volunteers” who would man it. Service in the Legion brought its members a reduction in the length of their national service as well as extra pay. To keep the operation secret, the aviators traveled to Spain in civilian clothes, posing as people on their summer holidays. Once in Spain, they were given olive-brown uniforms with no markings to indicate their origin.

The Condor Legion was ready for action at the beginning of November 1936. Under the command of General Hugo Sperrle (1885–1953), it counted 100 planes and 5,000 men. With its members rotating through, a total of 19,000 German soldiers were deployed in Spain. As well as providing air support for rebel military operations, the Luftwaffe used the Spanish theatre of war as a testing ground. It was in Spain that newly-developed combat planes like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the notorious (Stuka) Junkers Ju 87 bomber made their debut.

From 1937 onward, the Condor Legion took part in all the major battles of the war, including Bilbao, Brunete, Teruel, and the Ebro. One of the first bombardments of an unprotected city it carried out occurred on 31 March 1937, when it joined Italian planes in the attack on Durango, part of the Francoists’ offensive on the northern front. This photo of the attack was taken from one of the Italian planes. The bombing of Guernica four weeks later received much more publicity and became the symbol of this new military strategy for terrorizing civilian populations. The historic capital of the Basque Country, which lacked any military significance, was almost completely destroyed by explosive and incendiary bombs. Low-flying German planes also fired on fleeing civilians. Three hundred people died, and 80 percent of the town’s buildings were destroyed. The horrors of the unprovoked attack inspired Pablo Picasso to create his famous painting Guernica, which was displayed shortly afterward in the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Universal Exposition in Paris.

SB