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Basic hand-wavey premise:

Despite a bad start from the Republicans, a stroke of luck comes, when on 5th October 1936, 4 day after being declared Generalisimo of the National army and head of state, he is killed when he is kicked from his horse, breaking his neck. The shock of this, not long after the death of Sanjurjo, lead to the splintering of the Nationalists armies into essentially independant fiefs, loyal only to their commander. With the news of this, a more unified Republic is able to begin to counter attack, aiming to divide and conquer the Nationalists 'kingdoms'. With the help from several British and French regular army divisions disgusied under the banners of the International Brigade, the Republican forces are able to enflict significant defeats on the disarrayed nationalist forces. Even coming so close, in 1937, as to miss capturing the Condor legion by mere minutes as the last airplanes were evacuated, after being ordered to return by Hitler. But the germans would still leave their mark as the flew over the town of Guernica on their escape route, they released all of their excess bombs and explosives on to the un-suspecting town, killing hundreds of civilians.

By 1938 the nationalists had surrendered and the fledgling democracy, under the leadership of Azaña once more, began to return some semblance of normality. Despite sporadic nationalist guerrilla actions in and around Salamanca and Cadiz, and also in Morrocco (Still a Nationalist stronghold) and the Baleric islands, Spain would remain relativly stable and quiet for another 2 years.

In September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, dragging the world and Spain into the Second World War. With his armies taking France in late June 1940, and Britain evacuating bloodily at the Calais pocket, Azaña looked to his borders with France. Moving his battle-hardened troops to the Pyrenees, later joined by elements of the Free French, evacuating from the South of France, he would secure Spain's position as the Last Sentinal of Europe.

Soon enough, Azaña's fears came true, as the Wermacht, fresh from it's victory in france, with a month of recuperation, moved South, there joined by the Italians and a hand picked battalion of Vichy Facists. on on the 10th of August crossed the border into Spain. Determined to support the Spanish in their fight, Winston Churchill, freshly sworn in after the capitulation of Norway to the Nazis, sent the majority of remaining British, French and Commenwealth, stationed on the Home Islands to Spain from then first known as the 1st British Army, and then the 1st International Army, when Spanish regiments were seconded to it's command.

Despite the stiff resistance, helped by the experiance gained by the Allies in the Civil War of the Blitzkrieg-style of combat favoured by the Wermacht and the mountainous and defensable terrain, the Germans still managed to push stifly on, taking Pamlona on the 12th and Bilbao, and Santander a few days later. Even in the south the Italians and Vichy French managed to capture Barcelona on the 14th, after one of the most controversial withdrawals by Republic forces defending the city, later justified as "an orderly retret in the face of superior enemy numbers".

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And that's about where I got to in the evolution of my thoughts, so any suggestions, ideas, comments, on how a Spanish front would affect the War, the Battles for the Mediterranian and for North Africa etc, etc.

This is basically just a way for me to get more ideas to continue my map of the Axis invasion of Spain that I posted in the Map Thread here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=2737553&postcount=9545

Now remember my PoD's etc are pretty much just hand wavery and not really researched, so any flaws in my reasoning can be pointed out but will mostly likely be ignored for reasons of "It seemed cool" :p

Also my search was messing up, so if there were any past threads of this sort of area, please let me know.
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