Most people don’t realise that although officially neutral Spain had an active part in WW2 in the form of the Blue Division, otherwise known as the Spanish Volunteer Division, Division Azul, or by its official German title of the 250th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. Individual Spaniards were also involved on both sides during WWII, often in quite large numbers. In a few cases these individuals were collected into units.
Eastern Front
During World War II the Axis powers tried and failed to defeat the Soviet Union. The Germans called this theatre the “Eastern Front Campaign” or “Russian Front Campaign” but to the Soviet citizens it was the “Great Patriotic War”. The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. Fighting in this theatre was characterised by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. Fighting lasted from the Axis invasion of the USSR (22 June 1941) to until the Soviet capture of Berlin (9 May 1945).
Timeline of the Blue Division
This is a rough outline of the life and times of the Spanish fighting on the Eastern Front during WW2 – the Blue Division. I’ve included some detail about higher level operations to provide context and ditto for nearby operations. The 250th (Blue) Division’s finale was at Krasny Bor. If you’re looking for maps then try here.
Ian Galley’s WW2 Gallery
Thanks to my mate Ian Galley who sent me some photos to liven up my pages. Ian likes Russians so you’ll see a lot of Human Wave shots. By the way, Ian’s figures are based for Flames of War – the dominant WWII rule set in NZ at the moment.
Multiplayer Pocket – A Three Table Crossfire Scenario
I was asked to run a one-day Crossfire game for 6-8 members of the Guildford Wargames Club. This is what I came up with. It was designed to use all the WW2 / Eastern Front infantry I had at the time – one battalion a side – plus supporting equipment, however, with play testing I decided to increase the forces of each player to at least 1 company. This meant the total forces on each side ended up being 4 Infantry Companies + 1 Infantry Platoon + 2 AFV + 2 or 3 ATG.
Political Commissar Rule for Crossfire
The Political Commissar Special Rule for Crossfire. Standard Crossfire doesn’t cover this but it is described in Hit the Dirt (p. 8). The rule is optional but is applicable to Soviets in WWII – in particular between July 1941 and November 1942 – and communists in any number of civil wars and insurgencies, e.g. the Spanish Civil War and the Portuguese Colonial War.
Variable Morale for Soviets in Crossfire
An idea from Rapid Fire. It gives soviet battalions a random quality attribute.
Even “Regular” German Divisions could be Green
An excerpt from “Standing Fast: German Defensive Doctrine on the Russian Front During World War II. Army Group received six brand-new German divisions in Jun 1943 but by 1 Oct the Army group declared these units “no longer fully reliable”.