Nazi support for General Franco was motivated by several factors, including as a distraction from Hitler's central European strategy, and the creation of a Spanish state friendly to Germany to threaten France.

[citation needed] After a Republican air attack on the German warship Deutschland, Germany and Italy said they would withdraw from the Non-Intervention Committee and from maritime patrols.

[citation needed] In Operation Rügen, waves of planes bombed and strafed targets in Guernica leaving 1,685 people dead and over 900 injured.

At sea, the Maritime Reconnaissance Staffel of the Condor Legion acted against Republican shipping, ports, coastal communications and occasionally inland targets.

The German North Sea Group around Spain, part of the Kriegsmarine, consisted of the pocket battleships Deutschland and Admiral Scheer, the light cruiser Köln, and four torpedo boats.

Among these were the distraction it provided from German re-militarisation; the prevention of the spread of communism to Western Europe; the creation of a state friendly to Germany to disrupt Britain and France; and the possibilities for economic expansion.

[3] Although the offensive on Madrid was abandoned in March 1937, a series of attacks on weaker Republican-controlled areas was supported by Germany; despite prolonging the Civil War, it would help to distract the other western powers from Hitler's ambitions in central Europe.

[9] On 27 June 1937, Hitler (in a speech at Würzburg) declared he supported Franco to gain control of Spanish ore.[10] Discussions over German objectives for intervention occurred in January 1937.

[11] Contradictory views were held by German officials: Ernst von Weizsäcker suggested it was merely a matter of graceful withdrawal; Hermann Göring stated that Germany would never recognise a "red Spain".

The German position was that such a declaration was not needed, but discussions could be held on preventing the spread of the war to the rest of Europe, so long as the USSR was present.

[23] Admiral Erich Raeder urged the German government to either back the Nationalists more completely, and bring Europe to the brink of war, or abandon them.

[33] Observers were posted to Spanish ports and borders, and both Ribbentrop and Grandi were told by their governments to agree to the plan, significant shipments already having taken place.

[3][44] The Reich Air Travel Ministry concluded that Nationalist forces would need at least 20 Ju 52s, flown by Deutsche Luft Hansa pilots, to carry the Army of Africa from Spanish Morocco to Spain.

The operation leader, Alexander von Scheele, was replaced by Walter Warlimont, and was moved into Franco's headquarters to coordinate military and diplomatic efforts.

[56] The first German chargé to Franco's government, General Wilhelm von Faupel,[nb 1] arrived in November, but was told not to interfere in military matters.

[57] By mid-November, 20 German shipments had arrived in Spain, carrying supplies like ammunition, aviation fuel, rifles, grenades, radio equipment and both civilian and military vehicles.

An earlier shipment from Hamburg to Alicante on 1 October 1936 by the Welsh ship Bramhill had 19,000 rifles, 101 machine guns and more than 20 million cartridges for the CNT militia in Barcelona.

[60] However, the military situation in Madrid remained poor for the Nationalists, and both German and Italian aircraft (under Franco's direction) began bombing raids on the city as a whole.

The defeat of a significant Italian force and the growing Soviet superiority in tanks and aircraft led the Germans to support a plan to abandon the offensive on Madrid and instead concentrate a series of attacks on weaker Republican-controlled areas.

[76] The Basque ground forces were in full retreat towards Bilbao, through the town of Guernica, which was attacked on 26 April in one of the most controversial events of the Spanish Civil War.

German test aircraft, with the latest models, faced an outdated Basque section (Escuadrilla vasca) of the Spanish Republican Air Force.

[108] Overtly, the Kriegsmarine was part of the force enforcing the non-intervention agreement signed on 28 September 1936, which barred its signatory countries[nb 3] from interfering in the Civil War.

However, the German pocket battleships Deutschland and Admiral Scheer stood guard in the Strait of Gibraltar to prevent interference from Republican ships while Franco transported his troops to the Spanish mainland.

[109] By mid-October, the German North Sea Group around Spain consisted of the pocket battleships Deutschland and Admiral Scheer, the light cruiser Köln, and four torpedo boats.

[113] Operation Ursula (named after the daughter of Karl Dönitz) saw a group of German U-boats active around the waters near Spain against the Spanish Republican Navy, under the overall command of Hermann Boehm (Konteradmiral since 1934, and Vizeadmiral since 1 April 1937) in Berlin.

[115] Early intervention helped to ensure that the Nationalist faction survived the initial stages of the war; German involvement then steadily expanded.

The air superiority which allowed certain parts of the Legion to excel would be replicated in the first year of World War II, until ultimately failing to prevail in the Battle of Britain.

Historian James S. Corum states: As an ardent Nazi, [Ambassador Wilhelm] Faupel disliked Catholicism as well as the Spanish upper classes, and encouraged the working-class extremist members of the Falange to build a fascist party.

Faupel's interference in internal Spanish politics ran counter to Franco's policy of building a nationalist coalition of businessmen, monarchists and conservative Catholics, as well as Falangists.

[122]Historian Robert H. Whealey provides more detail: Whereas Franco's crusade was a counterrevolution, the arrogant Faupel associated the Falange with the "revolutionary" doctrines of National Socialism.