I am not sure if this is the proper forum for this? If not feel free to move it to it. I recieved this from my grandmother awhile back but never really knew to much about it. My friend said it was from the Spanish war which would make sense with the Spanish writing on it. Also it looks to be on the top right there is the bundle of sticks with a axe. Spanish Civil War. I’m guessing some sort of commemoration plaque from a soldier in the German Kondor Region who helped the Nationalists.
Makes sense relating to the Spanish Civil war. The Spanish civil war was between 1936-1939 and on that thing it has a date: 1936-1938.
The Spanish text on the left tranlates to: Great Spain a free one
The text on the right translates somthing like this: Spain Arrives
The bottem text in German: In the Kampfum(?) a National Spain
The bottom part is in German and is
Im kampf um ein nationales spanien.
Using google i translated it into
“in the fight for a national Spain”
The bundle of sticks with the axe is called a “fasces” and is a symbol from Roman times used in more recent times by the fascists. I note there is also (fairly faintly) a swastika in the centre of the top. I concur with the previous posts that this is about the German troops used in the Spanish Civil War. This was the first chance for Hitler to try out the tactic of Blitzkrieg.
Blitzkrieg “Lighting War” was henged on speed and mobility of ground forces, supported by airpower and coupled with a combined arms doctrine. So in what sense was it tested in Spain? Do you mean this was the first time to try out his new weaponery and small scale tactics? Just dont see the correlation between this and the true lighting war’s of … well Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland…etc. Not knocking your post just seeing if you had some specific examples or maybe I missed something.
Blitzkrieg “Lighting War” was henged on speed and mobility of ground forces, supported by airpower and coupled with a combined arms doctrine. So in what sense was it tested in Spain? Do you mean this was the first time to try out his new weaponery and small scale tactics? Just dont see the correlation between this and the true lighting war’s of … well Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland…etc. Not knocking your post just seeing if you had some specific examples or maybe I missed something.[/quote]
Well, it was in the Spanish Civil war that the German military really used their full power. With the Spanish Civil war, the German troops finally got experience and I suppose they tried out their different tactics. It was also this war that Britain and other countries got to see the technology and power that the Germans had. They knew something was up and so they researched in new technology.
Blitzkrieg “Lighting War” was henged on speed and mobility of ground forces, supported by airpower and coupled with a combined arms doctrine. So in what sense was it tested in Spain? Do you mean this was the first time to try out his new weaponery and small scale tactics? Just dont see the correlation between this and the true lighting war’s of … well Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland…etc. Not knocking your post just seeing if you had some specific examples or maybe I missed something.[/quote]
The Spanish Civil War predated the other campaigns you mentioned. Correct me if I am wrong, but true Blitzkrieg had not been used in a war setting before. This was why Hitler sent his troops to Spain, so they could gain experience in using these tactics.
Blitzkrieg “Lighting War” was henged on speed and mobility of ground forces, supported by airpower and coupled with a combined arms doctrine. So in what sense was it tested in Spain? Do you mean this was the first time to try out his new weaponery and small scale tactics? Just dont see the correlation between this and the true lighting war’s of … well Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland…etc. Not knocking your post just seeing if you had some specific examples or maybe I missed something.[/quote]
The Spanish Civil War predated the other campaigns you mentioned. Correct me if I am wrong, but true Blitzkrieg had not been used in a war setting before. This was why Hitler sent his troops to Spain, so they could gain experience in using these tactics.[/quote]
Well I did do a bit more research and I guess you could say Blitzkrieg was used in Spain. Just tested in small quanities. But you might find this interesting. I am not a big fan of media but I do generally trust things that I hear from the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/blitzkrieg_04.shtml
:? :shock: :?:
Fair enough, I guess you could say that both points have merit. I also think that Hitler supported Franco so that France would be flanked on three sides by fascist countries. Discuss.
Yup that was probably what Hitler was thinking. But Wilhelm Carnis (Head of Intelligence) gave a nervous Franco enough info to help keep him out of the Axis Alliance. He gave Franco the demands to ask for that Hitler could not do? Carnis is an interesting guy. Not exactly sure which side he was on.