July 5th, 1940
It was a warm afternoon in the Berchtesgaden, the sweet smell of the mountains of Bayern surrounded the Alpine nest. In his staff car, Keitel drove to the checkpoint. The vehicle came to a brief halt for checking identification before continuing onward. After parking, the General quickly exited his car and headed inside to meet with the Fuhrer. He found the man with a couple of other officials in the main room pondering over a map of German conquests.
"Mein fuhrer I have traveled a long way to bring you my report may we begin? The Austrian nodded in approval. "Reports from occupied France have been strenuous and concerning. Resistance has propped up throughout France, supplied by the British and the genuine hatred of our occupation. Railways, industry, garrison forces are at risk as a result of these activities. However, the most concerning point of my report come from the Franco-Iberian border.
It is the belief of the Gestapo that French resistance fighters have used the friendly left-leaning government in Spain to their advantage to cross across borders, hide in Spain and receive aid from the Republicans. This creates a severe problem for both our friends in Vichy and the Northern Occupation. With a friendly left-leaning government on the border, the resistance will most likely continue if not increase". Hitler sat down in contemplation with his chin attached to his hand. Keitel continued his report "the Spanish Third Republic is in a fragile position due to recently recovering from the recent civil war, it would not take much effort to pacify the Spanish".
"Pacify" Hitler questioned. "I have consulted many generals within the High Command and a plan is being drawn up for a potential pacification of the Spanish. It would only take about 15 good German infantry divisions with air and perhaps a couple of panzer divisions as support to deal with the Spanish. From our analysis, the Spanish Republican Army has a good 8 Infantry divisions none with artillery support and no comprehensive air force. This also gives the opportunity to take the Rock of Gibraltar which holds the key to the Mediterranean.
This plan has been given the title of "Operation Felix" and could be ready by late September". Hitler examined the documents "these 10 infantry divisions will need to come from somewhere", "exactly mein fuhrer, we could pull 100,000 troops from our Norwegian occupation and other less vulnerable resources". Hitler paused to think over the plan even further, "this will have to be well thought over but thank you for bringing this to my attention". Keitel exited the room, feeling content with the meeting which took place.
Divergences: The Republicans win the Spanish Civil War due to the following factors
More support from France, Germany not sending transport aircraft to airlift the Army of Morroco (Goering convinces Hitler not to), Republicans give arms faster to socialist militias, CNT-FAI and rest of the Popular Front reach a compromise on collectivization. This leads to a lot of generals switching sides once they see the coup failing. Civil War ends by late 1938. The third Spanish Republic is established and is a democratic socialist country with workers controlling industry through unions and cooperatives. everything else goes relatively normal in Europe until the start of this timeline.
Current Map of July 5th, 1940
