The Spanish air force may well have been quite impressive. The opening post on
this thread on another website mentions five squadrons (presumably of 'volunteers') having served on the Eastern Front, and post #11 refers to Spain (at least at the end of the Spanish civil war) having '...one of the most powerful and modern air forces in the world...'
Edit:
Found another site (
link) which is slightly more conservative and actually gives some numbers. Seem to have been a couple of hundred fighter planes in Spain in the first few years of the war, and upwards of a hundred bombers.
Which is still somewhat more aircraft, than the Allies seem to have ever crammed into Gibraltar though (wikipedia lists nine RAF squadrons operating at
Gibraltar in 1943 in the original timeline, at the apparent peak of use of Gibraltar as an airbase; as far as I can determine 'at most' at the time an RAF squadron seems to have consisted of 16 planes, but more usually of 15, 14, 13, or 12 (
link) ).
All of which seems to me to support a definite threat of air-attack to Allied ships attempting the straits in at least daylight, if Gibraltar is friendly but Andalusia and Spanish Morocco are hostile.
Further Edit:
And should I be flattered or concerned that you refer to me as 'wise and dear one'?