Condor Legion

I mean, that it's like the, who was arming and equipping and providing NKVD, uh, functionaries to slaughter people behind the lines it was the soviet union doing that okay you weren't they weren't fighting to create like 21st century sweden not that that would be any great shakes either but you know then oh and you know we there were some russians there too um so that that didn't make any sense and the you know as i got into before um before consumer internet was a thing you know like i've said um you had to rely basically on the resources of your local library.

And I was blessed in that regard because I live in Chicagoland or stuff like the Institute for Historical Review and, uh, the IHR, they, they were always putting out stuff related to Condor Legion.

Okay.

I mean, in part because there's a lot of like aviation buff old guys like buying their stuff, I assume, but it's also guys like Mark Weber, um, or Weber, I guess he goes by, um, you know, and, uh, and some, a lot, a lot of their kind of best contributors and editors, they were, they were always coming back to the, the war in Spain, you know, the battle in Spain, how that, how that shaped, you know, conceptual horizons strategically and, um, how it was really, you know, kind of the precursor to everything that followed.

Among other things, he came to notice that although there was many volunteers, like for the tank branch, a bunch of other men had simply been ordered there by Spanish commanders who wanted to get rid of them.

You know, so I will send this guy as a troublemaker or like I don't like him or like maybe I want to even screw his wife or something.

I know I'll send him to the Condor Legion.

And Vontoma pulled no punches, and he threatened to leave.

And there's a note here.

The Condor Legion, the famed German volunteer force, isn't formally organized until November.

The Italians go all in on supporting the Nationalists and provide 48 aircraft in the first month, along with an increasing flow of small arms, company-level weapons, vehicles, advisors, observers, technical experts, and combat personnel.

U.S. and British companies provide technically non-military support to the nationalists, which passes the muster under the Future Neutrality Agreement.

Henkel, yep.

Henkel H-51 fighters for the July 1936 airlift operation, which carried the Army of Africa and Foreign Legion across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain.

Germany's initial commitment was only the Operation Magic Fire operation Fjordsaber transport mission, which was then followed by an effort to train Spanish air crews, then was expanded September 30th, 1936 into a full military expedition soon to be dubbed the Condor Legion.

In addition to an expanded air wing, German ground forces were soon added to the mission, including machine gun batteries, a tank division, and anti-aircraft guns.