The Real Reason Hitler Never Invaded Spain

Why did Hitler never invade Spain in World War II? Franco wanted to join the Axis in 1940, Operation Felix was ready to seize Gibraltar, and German troops stood on the Pyrenees. The real reason Spain stayed out comes down to bread, oil and bribes. In the autumn of 1940, Francisco Franco's Spain was starving after the Spanish Civil War, had fuel for barely six weeks of fighting, and still dreamed of an African empire. At the Hendaye meeting on 23 October 1940, Hitler and Franco talked for hours and Spain secretly promised to enter the war. So why did German soldiers never cross into Spain, and why did Hitler never take Gibraltar? This documentary follows the money behind Spanish neutrality: the British navicert blockade, Allied control of Spain's wheat and oil imports, Churchill's secret Operation Bribes paying Franco's generals through the banker Juan March, Hitler's clash with Vichy France over French Morocco, and the shift of German forces to Operation Barbarossa. It also covers the Blue Division on the Eastern Front, the wolfram trade, Operation Torch, and the long debate over whether Franco outfoxed Hitler or was simply priced out of the war. Key topics covered: • Spain after the Civil War and the "Years of Hunger" • Operation Felix: Germany's plan to capture Gibraltar • The Hendaye meeting between Hitler and Franco, and the secret protocol • Why Hitler couldn't give Franco French Morocco without losing Vichy France • The Allied economic blockade: navicerts, wheat and oil • Churchill, Alan Hillgarth, Juan March and the bribing of Franco's generals • Admiral Canaris and the disputed claims about his advice to Franco • Operation Barbarossa and the shelving of Felix • The Blue Division, Leningrad and the Battle of Krasny Bor • Operation Torch, Directive 42 and Germany's later Iberian plans • Franco's neutrality myth versus the historical record Built from captured German foreign ministry documents, U.S. diplomatic records, British intelligence files, and the work of Spanish, British and American historians including Ángel Viñas, Paul Preston and Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco. Sources: https://videos-sources.notion.site/40... #WW2History #Hitler #Franco #SpanishHistory #Gibraltar #WorldWar2 #EconomicHistory #MarketsOfThePast