Spanish Civil WAr: The German Kondor Legion A Firepower Force Package in Combat

FA Journal, July, 2001 by Prisco R. Hernandez

Conclusion. Today's Field Artillery eagerly awaits the fielding of Crusader-the innovative howitzer system. At the same time, fire support doctrine is moving toward effects-oriented fires from a variety of platforms. All these developments represent a paradigmshift, which requires the development of new TTP. As in the Germany of the 1930s, no one can predict with certainty how the new weapons and systems will perform in battle. Artillerymen and members of the combined arms team will have to be alert to the unsuspected possibilities that may result from new technologies.

It will take the efforts of all military professionals, whether in the field or in the weapons or combat development arena, to work together and apply the results of practical experience to fully realize the potential of the new systems and employ their firepower force packages to best advantage.

Major Prisco R. Hernandez, Army National Guard (ARNG), won Second Place in the US Field Artillery Association's 2001 History Writing Contest with this article. He is assigned as a Training Officer in the Training Section of the 4th Brigade, 75th Division, Training Support, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Previously, he served as the S3 in the 1st Battalion, 120th Field Artillery, an M1098A5 howitzer battalion in direct support to the 32d Infantry Brigade of the Wisconsin ARNG. He also served as the Assistant S3 for this battalion, Commander of a mechanized infantry company, Executive Officer for both an infantry and anti-armor company, and Platoon Leader for both a rifle and anti-armor company. Major Hernandez holds a master's degree from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Music History from the University of Wisconsin.

Endnotes:

(1.) The best one-volume history of the Spanish Civil War in English is Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961).

(2.) The Spanish Civil War was fueled by fierce class and ideological hatreds. In many instances, entire villages were massacred by the winning side. Prisoners were routinely shot, and people associated with the enemy's Ideology were summarily murdered. Peter Wyden. The Passionate War (New York: Simon and Schuster 1983).

(3.) Larry H. Addington, "Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century." 2d Edition (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994), 178-180.

(4.) During the 1920s, the German weapons firm Krupp sent some gun designers to Sweden where they designed an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun. Production began in Germany in 1033. Ian V. Hogg, "The Guns" 1939-45 (New York: Ballantine Books, 1970), 87.

(5.) The best study of German involvement in the Spanish Civil War and the Kondor Legion's contribution is Raymond L. Proctor, "Hitler's Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War" (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983).

(8.) Even soldiers from the Wehrmacht were temporarily transferred to the Luftwaffe for service in Spain to avoid inter-service rivalry. Proctor, 42.

(7.) This is the same motivation for those who argue today for "air campaigns" in places such as the Balkans.