5 DIFF RARE ORIG WW2 FASCIST SPAIN PICTORIAL MILITARY BONDS Some w SWAST or HITL
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5 DIFF RARE ORIG WW2 FASCIST SPAIN PICTORIAL MILITARY BONDS Some w SWAST or HITL:
$124.95
This listing is for FIVE DIFFERENT mostly FASCIST/FALANGIST Spanish Civil War bonds including Division Azul! May include 1-2 from other factions but all have MILITARY THEMES. If you want only Fascist bonds please advise. Selection may vary. Please email for price of any individual bond shown (please note we have many more!) If you order multiple lots all designs will be different and you will receive FREE SHIPPING on additional lots!!
We can also offer 5 Different International Brigade for $124.95, 5 Different Communist or Socialist (most with Red Star and Hammer/Sickle!) for $124.95 or 5 Different Mixed for $124.95. 10 Different from both groups for $224.95! 20 Different from ALL Groups (Wow!) only $299.95 with FREE SHIPPING!! Please email.
This listing is for5 DIFFERENTFULL COLOR PICTORIAL POSTER-STYLE BONDS that retail for as much as $150 each for only $24.95 each. Therefore, you can\'t pick and choose. You will receive5 of the 12 designs in the scans OR very similar ones so please allow for minor variations. We will send the best variety possible. If you want a specific design shown as an individual lot, it may stillbe available as little as $29.95- please email for availability!! Our collection contains over 60 different military designs!!
If you order multiple lots all designs will be different and you will receive FREE SHIPPING on additional lots!!
FASCIST SPAIN MILITARY BONDS
These very rare pictorial WW2bonds servedseveral purposes: 1) to raise money for the Fascist Cause 2) to socially, culturally and psychologically promote the Fascist/Falangist Cause 3) to promote enlistment in anti-Communist Legions or Brigades 4) to honor those serving in those groups and 5) to aid Spaniards impoverished by the still-ongoing Spanish Civil War, thereby garnering the support of the public whose loyalties were torn between the pro-Franco Falangists (Fascists) and anti-Fascist groups including Socialists, Communists, and the International Brigade. See below for some of the fascinating history behind these amazing paper relics.
Why are these BONDS as opposed to simplyPosters?Because the reverse of each one contains 10\"Ration\" couponsgood fora specific quantity of scarce commodities such as salt, corn,rice, sugar, etc. which the purchaser of the bond could use personally or donate to others. What further makes these bonds so unique is that each set of coupons is a) redeemable in a different Spanish city, village or town and b) adorned in designs and colors that are also different from coupons for other locations. This means that every individual bond is unique or very close to it.
The most prominent Fascist military group supported by these bonds was the Division Azul (the dreaded \"Blue Division\"), which was comprised of Volunteers who proudlyfought side-by-side with German Nazi Soldiers during the War!! This Fascist Spanish Foreign Legion was not conscripted as in German-occupied countries and territories, but an Elite Volunteer Fighting force that served with great distinction. They wore uniforms largely identical to those of the German Nazis. You will receiveat least one Division Azul piece!!
We will alsoinclude at least one bond that displays a Swastika or Adolf H. who was of course a hero to the Spanish Fascists and who forged an alliance with Francisco Franco, who may appear beside Adolf H.
Most of the other bonds show SOLDIERS in ACTION and/or NAZI PLANES and/or other weapons, military equipment or wartime vehicles! They also may commemorate specific battles, events or brigades!! 1-2 of the bonds may be issued by opposing forces i.e. the Popular Front but nonetheless have similarly dramaticmilitary themes and are just as rare if not more so.
All bonds are approx. 8.5\" x 11\" (small poster size, great for framing!). All remain in excellent condition without tears but may show faint aging (this can actually give them a lovely \"patina\"), very light surface soilor minor surface wrinkles. The bonds were printed with a silk screen type process that makes them look hand painted and also makes them virtually impossible to duplicate, especially with the perforations and coupons!
Your bonds will be shipped flat!
A full color panorama of WW2 comparable to original WW2 Allied Posters costing $1000\'s a piece!!! Limited Time Promotional Offer to persuade you to consider Collect-a-thon for ALL of you collectible purchases - we have approx. 5 millionunique antique originalsin our archives for you to select from!! But DON\'T LINGER - these are $75 to $150+ Retailers and we only have a few dedicated to a\"bulk lot\" sale like this one!!
Save on shipping by combining any items in our store. Muchas Gracias, Generalisimo!!
The Blue Division 250. Infanterie-Division (span.)250th Infantry Division (Spanish)
División Española de Voluntarios
Spanish Volunteer Division
ActiveJune 24, 1941 – October 10, 1943CountrySpainAllegianceGermanyBranch HeerTypeInfantrySize18,104 officers and other ranks;
47,000 through rotationNicknameDivisión Azul; Divisão AzulEngagementsWorld War II
- Siege of Leningrad
- Battle of Krasny Muñoz Grandes
Emilio Esteban InfantesThe Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division, officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army,) was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.
OriginsAlthough Spanish leader Field Marshal (Generalísimo) Francisco Franco did not enter the war on the side of Nazi Germany, he permitted volunteers to join the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) on the clear and guaranteed condition they would fight exclusively against Bolshevism (Soviet Communism) on the Eastern Front, and not against the Western Allies or any Western European occupied populations. In this manner, he could keep Spain at peace with the Western Allies whilst simultaneously repaying Hitler for his support during the Spanish Civil War (see Condor Legion). Spanish foreign minister Ramón Serrano Súñer made the suggestion to raise a volunteer corps, and at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Franco sent an official offer of help to Berlin.
Hitler approved the use of Spanish volunteers on June 24, 1941. Volunteers flocked to recruiting offices in all the metropolitan areas of Spain. Cadets from the officer training school in Zaragoza volunteered in particularly large numbers. Initially, the Spanish government was prepared to send about 4,000 men, but soon realized that there were more than enough volunteers to fill an entire division: 18,104 men in all, with 2,612 officers and 15,492 soldiers.
Fifty percent of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were professional soldiers, many of them veterans of the Spanish Civil War. Many others were members of the Falange (the Spanish Fascist party). Others felt pressure to join because of past ties with the Republic or — like Luis García Berlanga, who later became a well-known cinema director — to help their relatives in Franco\'s prisons.
General Agustín Muñoz Grandes was assigned to lead the volunteers. Because the soldiers could not use official Spanish army uniforms, they adopted a symbolic uniform comprising the red berets of the Carlists, khaki trousers used in the Spanish Legion, and the blue shirts of the Falangists – hence the nickname \"Blue Division.\" This uniform was used only while on leave in Spain; in the field, soldiers wore the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) field gray uniform with a shield on the upper right sleeve bearing the word \"España\" and the Spanish national colors.
Deployment and actionGermany: training and organization of the DivisionOn July 13, 1941, the first train left Madrid for Grafenwöhr, Bavaria for a further five weeks of training. There they became the Heer\'s 250th Infantry Division, and were initially divided into four infantry regiments, as in a standard Spanish division. To aid their integration into the German supply system, they soon adopted the standard Heer model of three regiments. One of the original regiments was dispersed amongst the others, which were then named after three of the Spanish cities that volunteers largely originated from—Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Each regiment had three battalions (of four companies each) and two weapons companies, supported by an artillery regiment of four battalions (of three batteries each). There were enough men left over to create an assault battalion, mainly sub-machine gun armed. Later, due to casualties, this was disbanded. Aviator volunteers formed a Blue Squadron (Escuadrillas Azules) which, using Bf 109s and FW 190s, was credited with 156 Soviet aircraft kills.
To the Russian front (August–October 1941)On 31 July, after taking the standard personal oath to Hitler, under whose authority they were to be fighting, the Blue Division was formally incorporated into the Wehrmacht as the 250th Division. It was initially assigned to Army Group Center, the force advancing towards Moscow. The division was transported by train to Suwałki, Poland (August 28), from where it had to continue by foot on a 900km march. It was scheduled to travel through Grodno (Belarus), Lida (Belarus), Vilnius (Lithuania), Molodechno (Belarus), Minsk (Belarus), Orsha (Belarus) to Smolensk, and from there to the Moscow front. While marching towards the Smolensk front on September 26, the Spanish volunteers were rerouted from Vitebsk and reassigned to Army Group North (the force closing on Leningrad), becoming part of the German 16th Army.
Volkhov (October 1941 – August 1942)The Blue Division was first deployed on the Volkhov river front, with its headquarters in Grigorovo, on the outskirts of Novgorod. It was in charge of a 50km section of the front north and south of Novgorod, along the banks of the Volkhov river and Lake Ilmen. According to the museum curator in the church Spasa Preobrazheniya on Ilyin Street, the division used the high cupola as a machine-gun nest. As a result, much of the building was seriously damaged, including many of the medieval icons by Feofan the Greek. View area
Leningrad (August 1942 – October 1943)In August 1942, it was transferred North to the SouthEastern flank of the Leningrad siege, just South of the Neva near Pushkin, Kolpino and Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area. View Area
The Blue Division faced a major Soviet attempt to break the siege of Leningrad in February 1943, when the Soviet Army 55, reinvigorated after the epic victory at Stalingrad, attacked the Spanish positions at the Battle of Krasny Bor, near the main Moscow-Leningrad road. Despite heavy casualties, the Spaniards were able to hold their ground against a Russian force 7 times larger and supported by tanks. The assault was contained and the siege of Leningrad was maintained for a further year. This victory established the reputation of the Blue Division with the German general staff. It remained on the Leningrad front where they suffered heavy casualties both due to cold and to enemy action. Franco dispatched more reinforcements, which in time included conscripts in addition to volunteers.
Through rotation, as many as 45,000 Spanish soldiers served on the Eastern Front. They were awarded both Spanish and German military awards, and were the only division to be awarded a medal of their own, commissioned by Hitler.
After the collapse of the German front following the Battle of Stalingrad, the situation changed and more German troops were deployed southwards. By this time, general Emilio Esteban Infantes had taken command.
Disbandment and the Legión AzulEventually, the Allies and conservative Spaniards (including many officials of the Roman Catholic Church) began to press Franco for the withdrawal of troops from the Eastern Front quasi-alliance with Germany. Franco initiated negotiations in the spring of 1943 and gave an order of withdrawal on October 10th.
Some Spanish soldiers refused to return. Some believed that Franco gave his unofficial blessing as long as their number was below 1,500. But the Spanish Government on November 3, 1943, ordered all troops to return to Spain. In the end, the total of \"non returners\" was close to 3,000 men, mostly Falangists. Spaniards also joined other German units, mainly the Waffen-SS, and fresh volunteers slipped across the Spanish border near Lourdes in occupied France. The new pro-German units were collectively called the Legión Azul (\"Blue Legion\").
Spaniards initially remained part of the 121st Infantry Division, but even this meagre force was ordered to return home in March, 1944, and was transported back to Spain on March 21st. The rest of the volunteers were absorbed into German units.
Platoons of Spaniards served in the 3rd Gebirgs Division and the 357th Infantry Division. One unit was sent to Latvia. Two companies joined the Brandenburger Regiment and German 121st Division in Yugoslavia to fight against Tito\'s partisans. Fifty pro-Fascist Spaniards (some of whom were former Spanish Communist militiamen of the Second Spanish Republic) entered the French Pyrenees to combat the French Resistance.
The 101st Company (Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101, \"Spanish Volunteer Company of the SS Number 121\") of 140 men, made up of four rifle platoons and one staff platoon, was attached to 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien and fought in Pomerania and Brandenburg as Soviet troops invaded Eastern Germany. Later, as part of 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland and under command of Hauptsturmführer der SS Miguel Ezquerra, the Company fought the last days of the war against Soviet troops in Berlin itself.
The casualties of the Blue Division and its successors included 4,954 men killed and 8,700 wounded. Another 372 members of the Blue Division, the Blue Legion, or volunteers of the Spanische-Freiwilligen Kompanie der SS 101 were taken prisoner by the victorious Red Army; 286 of these men were kept in captivity until April 2, 1954, when they returned to Spain aboard the ship Semiramis, supplied by the International Red Cross.
OrganizationOrder of battle (July 1941)262nd, 263rd, and 269th Infantry Regiments
250th Artillery Regiment of four battalions (1 thru 4)
250th Panzerjäger Battalion
250th Reconnaissance Battalion
250th Feldersatz (replacement) Battalion
250th Pioneer Battalion
250th Signals Battalion
Supply Troops
Order of battle (September 1943)262nd, 263rd, and 269th Grenadier Regiments
250th Artillery Regiment of four battalions (1 thru 4)
250th Panzerjäger Battalion
250th Reconnaissance Battalion
250th Pioneer Battalion
250th Signals Battalion
Supply Troops
AwardsSoldiers and officers of the Blue Division were awarded:
- 3 Knight Crosses (Oak Leaves).
- 3 German Crosses in Gold.
- 138 Iron Crosses First Class.
- 2,359 Iron Crosses Second Class.
- 2,216 War Merit Crosses with Swords.
Many of the generals that took part in the attempted coup d\'état on February 23, 1981, both for it and against it, had served in this unit during World War II. Amongst them were generals Alfonso Armada and Jaime Milans del Bosch. Other Blue Division veterans, for example José Luis Aramburu Topete, at the time (1981) Director of the Guardia Civil, and José Gabeiras remained loyal to the legal democratic government under the young Juan Carlos I. Hitler referred to the division as \"equal to the best German ones\". During his table talks, he also said:
\"To troops, the Spaniards are a crew of ragamuffins. They regard a rifle as an instrument that should not be cleaned under any pretext. Their sentries exist only in principle. They don\'t take up their posts, or, if they do take them up, they do so in their sleep. When the Russians arrive, the natives have to wake them up. But the Spaniards have never yielded an inch of ground. One can\'t imagine more fearless fellows. They scarcely take cover. They flout death. I know, in any case, that our men are always glad to have Spaniards as neighbours in their sector.
Later when Hitler considered an invasion of Spain to remove Franco and replace him with Agustín Muñoz Grandes he decided against it, saying \"The Spaniards are the only tough Latins. I would have a guerrilla war in my rear.\"
The Cross of Saint Sophia of NovgorodDuring the German occupation of Velikiy Novgorod, the Kremlin was heavily damaged from the battles. However, the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia itself survived. The large cross on the main dome (which has a metal bird attached to it, perhaps symbolic of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove) had fallen during one of the shellings of the city while it housed the headquarters of the División Azul during World War II. The cross was carried back to Spain, first to Burgos and afterwards to the Spanish Army Engineers Academy in Hoyo de Manzanares near Madrid.For over 60years it resided in the Madrid\'s Military Engineering Academy Museum, until 16 November 2004 when it was handed back to the Russian Orthodox Church by the Spanish minister of defense José Bono
Grateful Ration Recipients Saluting the Fascists:
5 DIFF RARE ORIG WW2 FASCIST SPAIN PICTORIAL MILITARY BONDS Some w SWAST or HITL:
$124.95