Winston Churchill 'bribed Franco's generals to stay out of the war'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4944902.ece

From The Times

October 15, 2008




Winston Churchill 'bribed Franco's generals to stay out of the war'


Barriers between Britain and Spain March, who earned a fortune during the First World War dealing in contraband tobacco, seemed an unlikely ally because during the Spanish Civil War he sided with Franco.

Ferrer said that questions remained as to whether March was a double agent. He claimed that documents suggested March may have stayed in the pay of the Germans while working for the British. When he was approached by the British in 1940, however, March accepted the role. He approached 30 generals who had fought in the Spanish Civil War. Though their sympathies had been with the Nazis they switched sides.

The $10 million bribe money was deposited in a bank account in New York in 1940 but the plot nearly fell apart a year later when the US Treasury thought that March was using the money to support Hitler.

The British Ambassador in Washington convinced President Roosevelt that British military interests depended on the account being unfrozen. The Americans relented and in 1942 alone the generals received between $3 million and $5 million.

The book said that some generals were not simply bought off by bribes - many loathed Franco. In a reference to Franco, General Alfredo Kindelan wrote in his memoirs: “You could sense vertigo in him above all else because, like climbers who go higher than they are able, he felt dizzy from having reached such heights with limited abilities.”

After the Second World War March returned to the sedate life of finance, dying in 1962 aged 82.

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Not suprised at all. Would like to know all the names and figures actually...

 

I was surprised even though I knew Franco was getting pressure from the allies to remain truly neutral which is why Franco withdrew all of the volunteers at Hitler's service.

More information would be great.

 

It would be interesting to see which generals got how much money, or even if Franco had any idea that this was going on. I also wonder how the US thought the money was going to the Nazis, or if there was evidence to actually think this.

 

Great article. I always wondered how much more difficult the war would have been if Spain had allied itself with the Axis. Definitely would have been a problem for Gibraltar. Got to wonder why Hitler wouldn't give up some French Colonies. Maybe he didn't want to piss the Vichy off.

 

Hitler couldnt care less about the Vichy government.
Thats the impression I get.
Franco did order all troops under German command to return home.
Some did, many did not and fought until the end of the war alongside the Germans.

Interesting article, I often wondered how Franco stayed out of the war like that.

Cheers

Herr

 

Here's another article re Spain's neutrality called "The Allies, Spain, and Oil in World War II" The Allies, Spain, And Oil In World War II

another article similar to the first How Churchill kept Spain out of the Second World War

and Churchill bribed Franco's men to stay out of war | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET many of these seem to be part of the publicity for a book being published by David Stafford for his book "Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets"

and from someone who did not think the bribes made any difference Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II by Stanley G Payne review | Non-fiction book reviews - Times Online (this one took awhile to load - but interesting)

found some names of generals in an excerpt on JSTOR include Aranda, Kindelan, Quiepo de Llano and Orgaz
Spain During World War II - Google Book Search

For your perusal

 

The MI5 planted some bribes in Portugal too, not to keep Salazar from going to Axis - something he never thought would be a good idea - but to recruit the local police and intelligence service (what a misnomer!) to keep tabs on the German spying activities. Lots of crazy cloak and dagger stuff going about

We discussed this several times in the What-Ifs area, even recently.

http://www.ww2f.com/what-if/11723-what-if-spain-had-joined-axis.html

http://www.ww2f.com/what-if/24796-spain-portugal-joined-axis.html

http://www.ww2f.com/what-if/19959-what-if-spain-joined-axis.html

From Michelle's first source:

Would Germany ever be able to make up for this? Let's be realistic, at least Franco was.