alternatehistory.com

Operation Felix was the codename for a proposed German seizure of Gibraltar during World War II, subject to the co-operation of Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco. It never went ahead, chiefly because of Franco's reluctance to enter the war. Hitler was unaware that his own envoy, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (intelligence service), was running a secret resistance movement and liaising closely with Franco by specifying particular terms that Hitler was certain to refuse. This ensured that the negotiations would fail.

Suppose Operation Felix happened, either because Franco was more willing to join the war or because Canaris wasn't working against the Nazis.

Could this have led to the Axis taking Gibraltar? If they did, how would that have hurt the British and Allied war effort?
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