Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) (11 page)

Neither side was able to win a decisive victory in 1938, but the tide gradually turned against the government. Franco repulsed a major Republican offensive in the Teruel sector and then drove through the Aragon to the Mediterranean, with the objective of splitting Republican Spain in two. Well supported by the Condor Legion, he reached the sea near Vinaroz on April 14, cutting off the Valencia government from its forces in Catalonia. Two days later, forty He-111s bombed the Red fleet, harbor facilities, and oil refineries at Cartagena. Although they dropped eighty-two tons of bombs on their targets, one bomber was shot down and several others were seriously damaged by heavy antiaircraft fire. Volkmann decided not to renew the attack, as he had only twenty-seven operational bombers on April 18.

Franco now made a serious tactical mistake. Instead of pursuing the disorganized and shaken enemy north into Catalonia—as Volkmann and Plocher strongly urged—he turned south and drove on Valencia. This “Mediterranean offensive” led to one brutal air battle after another for the Condor Legion. It scored an impressive number of victories but also suffered serious casualties and loss of equipment. Volkmann’s headquarters was also bombed and strafed by forty airplanes but, remarkably, no one was hurt.
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While Franco’s advance on Valencia slowly gained ground, the enemy in Catalonia recovered, as Volkmann and Plocher had predicted. On July 25 the Republicans launched a major offensive across the River Erbo, and Franco turned north to meet the new threat. This began the Battle of the Erbo, which lasted until November 15.

During this battle, significant numbers of Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers were used in combat for the first time. The Stuka (an abbreviation for
Stukampfflugzeug
, or “dive-bomber”) could drop one 1,000-pound or two 500-pound bombs on a target with much greater accuracy than a horizontal bomber and was highly successful in Iberia, Poland, and France, but it would prove to be extremely vulnerable to enemy fighters in the Battle of Britain. Its vulnerabilities were not yet apparent, however, and the Luftwaffe—chiefly influenced by Richthofen—came to over-rely on this strictly tactical aircraft.

Also during the Erbo campaign a young lieutenant named Werner Moelders changed fighter tactics forever. Moelders had replaced Adolf Gal-land as commander of the 3rd (“Mickey Mouse”) Squadron of J/88 in July, 1938. He soon devoted his considerable talents to the problems of fighter tactics in Spain.

Until this point, Luftwaffe tactics (and those of air forces throughout the world) were based on the outmoded tactics of World War I, which had been built around slow biplanes. Moelders was not bound by these old ideas. He invented the “Finger Four” formation, based on the Schwarm of four aircraft. There were two
Rotten
of two aircraft each. Each
Rotte
could operate independently in defense or attack, but could cooperate with the other
Rotte
. The
Rotte
leader flew in the forward position, with the other aircraft protecting his rear. The rear aircraft flew 600 feet behind the leader, so that both pilots could concentrate on finding the enemy, rather than concentrating on maintaining a tight formation, as the British did early in the war. The British were extremely vulnerable, because they were too busy avoiding colliding with their neighbors, rather than looking for the Germans. After they were mauled by the Luftwaffe in the French campaign, the R.A.F. adopted Moelders’ tactics.

When both
Rotten
flew together, the aircraft usually adopted the “Finger Four” formation, so called because it resembled the extended fingers of a hand. Again the space between airplanes was considerable, so that maximum attention could be devoted to looking for the enemy. This formation also allowed for maximum visibility, cooperation, maneuverability, and concentration of firepower. This formation is still used by the high-powered aircraft of the U.S. Air Force today, except the distance between aircraft is far greater.

The brilliant Moelders, who was a gifted aviator as well, used his new tactics to maximum advantage and became the leading German ace in the Spanish civil war. Since it was standard procedure for Condor Legion fighter pilots to be rotated back to Germany as flight school instructors after they had shot down five airplanes, Moelders took to hiding his victories. He had fourteen kills before his deception was discovered and he was sent home as an inspector of fighter units for RLM.

The Battle of the Erbo was virtually won by November 1, when Col. Wolfram von Richthofen succeeded Volkmann as commander of the Condor Legion. Volkmann’s relief was not at all unexpected. He had quarrelled frequently with Berlin over its lack of support for the legion and had lost faith in the possibility of a Nationalist victory in Spain. Baron von Richthofen named Lt. Col. Hans Seidemann his chief of staff. Volkmann’s chief of staff, Plocher, now a lieutenant colonel, returned to Berlin as chief of plans and mobilization for the Luftwaffe General Staff, a post he held until the end of 1939. He would have more than enough to keep him busy before that year was out. For Plocher the war would end in the Netherlands on May 10, 1945, when, as a lieutenant general, he surrendered his 6th Parachute Division to the Canadian army. He was forty-four years of age. After the war he worked for the United States Air Force’s Historical Division and wrote three of the most detailed manuscripts in existence on the air war in Russia. Tragically, he died of leukemia before he could write a proposed history of the Condor Legion: an irreplaceable historical loss.

Volkmann, who had been promoted to lieutenant general on April 1, 1938, also returned to the fatherland, where he was promoted to general of flyers and named commandant of the Air War Academy. Unhappy in the Luftwaffe, he transferred back to the army on August 28, 1939, as a general of infantry. He took charge of the 94th Infantry Division, then forming in Saxony. Despite the fact that he was one grade too high in rank for such a command, Volkmann led his unit in the French campaign. He was killed in an automobile accident on August 21, 1940, at the age of fifty-one.
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Major General von Richthofen directed the Condor Legion in the closing operations on the Erbo with his usual skill and efficiency. When the fighting ended on November 16, the Reds and Loyalists had lost 15,000 men killed and another 55,000 wounded and/or captured. They had also lost 35 tanks, 60 guns, 400 machine guns, and 300 aircraft.
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Government power in north-central Spain was broken, and its northwestern forces were permanently cut off from the rest of the armies in eastern Spain.

Following their victory on the Erbo, Franco and his insurgents turned northward for a major offensive against Catalonia in the northeast. He divided his forces into five Spanish corps of three divisions each, plus an Italian corps of four divisions. These units faced twenty Red divisions, all of which were at one-half to one-third their authorized strength.

The supremacy of the Messerschmitt 109 fighter over the Loyalist Curtiss and Rata aircraft (from the United States and Russia, respectively) had by now been clearly established. Richthofen had forty-five Me-109s in his J/88 fighter group and forty He-111 bombers in his K/88 bomber group, as well as a squadron of dive-bombers. He also controlled a reinforced Luftwaffe flak battalion, which lent heavy artillery support to Franco. In all, Richthofen contributed 98 operational aircraft to the offensive, compared to 146 for the Nationalist Air Force and 134 for the Italians. The Reds had about the same number of fighters as their opponents, but had only about a dozen operational bombers left.
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Bad weather forced Franco to postpone the start of the offensive until December 23. When the attack began, the Condor Legion was given the task of supporting the Moroccan and Navarre Corps. This was the largest offensive of the Spanish Civil War. The legion bombed and strafed Loyalist positions and artillery emplacements just before the insurgent infantry units struck. Fighting was bitter and lasted for days, but the Navarre Corps slowly pushed forward and took Tarregona on January 14, 1939. A third of the Red Catalonian Army had been encircled.

The victory at Tarregona left Richthofen free to attack and harass government forces throughout the Catalonian coastal plain. German airmen shot up supply lines, sunk transports, and generally disrupted the enemy’s rear, while Franco pursued his beaten enemies. On the 21st and 22nd Richthofen bombed Barcelona, in order to prevent its relief by the Reds. The major Spanish Mediterranean port fell on January 26.

The Condor Legion was given only twenty-four hours’ rest following the fall of Barcelona, while its ground support units repaired the airfields at Lerida and Sabadell; then the legion was sent on pursuit operations in the Pyrenees. Franco’s Nationalist troops were advancing all along the front by January 27. Their objective was to crush the Loyalist forces in the Pyrenees region and thus seal off Red Spain from France—its only land bridge to the rest of the world and its main supply line. Richthofen’s men attacked trains, ships, and fighters heading to and from France and again disrupted Red supply lines.

By now, Richthofen had learned that the He-51, although obsolete as a fighter, made an effective low-level bomber, strafer, and ground support airplane. He armed them with clusters of small, twenty-two-pound incendiary bombs known as “flambos.” A flambo consisted of a can filled with a mixture of high-octane aviation fuel and motor oil, connected to a small fragmentation bomb. Fighter pilot Adolf Galland called it an “early prototype of the modern napalm bomb.”
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The legionnaire pilots dropped them on retreating Republicans with deadly effect.

By February 1, Doctor Negrin, the Republican minister of defense, was making peace overtures to the Nationalists, and he even suggested a possible surrender. Franco, however, had little interest in such proposals now, as total victory was within his grasp.
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At dawn on February 6, the fighters of the Condor Legion launched a surprise attack on the last major Republican airfield in Catalonia. They destroyed twenty-five Curtiss and Rata aircraft on the ground. This blow eliminated the Loyalist air force in Catalonia. By February 10, Nationalist forces reached the French border all along the line, and the conquest of Catalonia was complete. Meanwhile, the Condor Legion was in action over Valencia, which it raided on the 10th.

Manuel Azana, the president of the Spanish Republic, had fled to Paris and could not be persuaded to return to Madrid. The defense of the Republican capital fell to Dr. Negrin, who was preparing a last-ditch stand. On February 27, Great Britain and France extended official diplomatic recognition to Franco, which prompted the resignation of Azana. Dr. Negrin took charge and placed the command of the remains of the central army under pro-Communist Colonel Modesto. Other elements of the Popular Front, led by Colonel Casado, demanded Negrin resign. Finally, on March 5, the Republican navy mutinied and sailed to Algiers (French territory) with three cruisers and eight destroyers. Colonel Casado in Madrid was openly calling for an honorable surrender, while Richthofen bombed Madrid, Toledo, and Valencia in an effort to speed up the Republican capitulation.
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Franco took advantage of the Loyalists’ confusion by returning to the offensive on March 26. He was closely supported by the low-level attacks of the Condor Legion. Toledo soon fell, and the Reds were in full retreat. Ten thousand prisoners were captured the first day. By 10
A
.
M
. on March 27, white flats were already appearing in Madrid. Franco ordered Richthofen to halt his attacks on the fleeing Republicans, to prevent needless loss of life. The government surrendered on March 29, 1939. The Spanish Civil War was at an end. The Condor Legion left Spain on May 28, 1939, and returned to Germany, where it was greeted by Field Marshal Goering and where it was disbanded. Most of its members were incorporated into the 53d Bomber Wing, the 9th Flak Regiment, or the 3rd Air Signal Regiment, all of which were authorized to wear the “Condor Legion” cuff on the sleeves of their uniforms.
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