What would an Allied invasion of Franco's Spain have looked like?

Spain in the Axis camp? Portugal occupied? Salazar (or someone else) in the Azores heading the government in exile? A Free Portugal movement could make it possible to add a vastly greater chunk of the West and East African coasts to anti-sub detection. And having Spain's colonies would enhance this, as would having the Canaries as well as the Azores for anti-sub air bases. Angola and Mozambique in Allied hands would enhance South Africa's security, and South Africa in turn would make it easier for the Portuguese government in exile to crush any Portuguese officers who might want to declare loyalty to whatever puppet regime the Nazis install in Portugal itself. All of this could enhance the security of British convoys to Egypt (both from German subs and, after Dec. 7, 1941, from Japanese subs). Furthermore, the Angolan highlands could serve as a good route for shuttling U.S. planes (by way of Ascension Island) across Africa for use in the Battle of El Alamein. According to this fascinating study http://www.davidfmitchell.com/uploa...scension_island_and_the_second_world_war_.pdf a U.S. airbase on Ascension had been secretly constructed by mid-1942 and was used in shuttling planes from the U.S. to Brazil and from thence to Egypt, the Middle East and the CBI. Ascension's successful use at the same time in anti-sub warfare also suggests a role that Portugal's then colony, the Cape Verde Islands, might have played in defeating the U-boats.

Having the Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic islands and mainland African colonies in Allied hands would have increased the pressure on the Vichy governments in neighboring French colonies from Senegal to Madagascar to Reunion, making them less likely to collaborate in any way with the Germans or Japanese, and possibly even making them more open to joining the Free French.

Finally, the Free Portugal movement might have joined with Brazil in making the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy a joint force, or might have provided its own units for separate actions, for instance in the Battle of Madagascar or, earlier, in the fight to crush Mussolini's forces in Italian East Africa. If they gained such experience, then a Brazilian-Portuguese joint expeditionary force might have avoided some of the beginner's mistakes that Brazilian officers made OTL in their first months in Italy.
 
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The German involvement in Yugoslavia, and subsequent involvement in Greece/Crete were not planned so the reality that getting involved in the Spanish tarbaby would make these operations difficult if not impossible is not relevant in German strategic thinking after the fall of France. However once Germany occupied their conquests as of July, 1940, the next step was going to be Barbarossa. The resources needed to attack Gibraltar between July, 1940 and April, 1941 are going to make "adequately" resourcing Barbarossa on schedule extremely difficult. Certainly if Germany is involved with Spain/Gibraltar when Italy gets in trouble in Yugoslavia and subsequently Greece, Germany would have to choose between getting involved in the Balkans and putting off Barbarossa for a year. As it was the delay in starting Barbarossa caused problems. If involved in Spain as well as Yugoslavia/Greece there just is not enough to go around to attack Russia in the spring of 1941. I doubt that the Crete invasion would go off with Spanish involvement.

I can't see Hitler risking the invasion of Russia to play in Spain. Even with his vision of Russia collapsing quickly, Hitler was getting advice about the requirements of invading Russia simply because of the size of the country and the distances required.
 
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