Spain during World War II

The Spanish State under the dictatorship of General Franco did not officially join the Axis Powers during World War II. However Franco's regime supplied material and military support to the Axis, in recognition of the heavy assistance it had received from Germany and Italy in the Spanish Civil War. Despite ideological sympathy and allowing volunteers to serve on the Eastern Front, Franco later stationed field armies in the Pyrenees to dissuade a German occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish policy frustrated German proposals that would have encouraged Franco to take British-controlled Gibraltar. Franco considered joining the war and invading Gibraltar in 1940 after the Fall of France, but knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.

Following the Spanish Civil War, many supporters of the former Republican government decided to start a movement to overthrow Franco; these members were called the Spanish Maquis. Several guerrilla raids occurred during the timeline of World War II, with most of them happening in 1944. One major confrontation happened in the Val d'Aran valley where a large group of rebels, organized, trained and armed by the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), attacked from France and briefly occupied a small territory in the Pyrenees, while the government of France looked the other way.

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