(Spanish). This was only the beginning of foreign interference in Spain's affairs. The German and Italian influence in the Spanish Civil war cannot be overlooked, as Hitler and Mussolini blatantly treated it a testing ground for their new equipment and tactical ideas. In October of 1936, upon the urging of Lieutenant Colonel Walther Wailmont, the German commander and military adviser to General Franco, the Condor Legion was formed. The Condor Legion was initially equipped with around 100 aircraft and 5,136 men but by the end of the war over 19,000 Germans had fought alongside the Nationalist Army(Gallo). It had participated in all the major engagements including Brunete, Teruel, Aragon and Ebro. Even after the Non-intervention Agreement of 1936 was drawn up Hitler continued to give aide but attempted to disguise this by sending men, planes, tanks and munitions via Portugal (Fraser). It was the pilots of Hitler's Condor Legion reduced the Basque's holy city of Guernica to rubble, and in march of 1938 the offensive aimed toward the Levante and Catalonia were the tactical creation of German military strategists(Paz). It involved 100,000 men and over six hundred Italian and German planes, and delivered continuous bombing from the air and a Panzer-style massed tank assault at key points. The bombing of Guernica was also a taste of things to come, as it was the Blitzkrieg attack in its infancy. .
The Italian forces also played a strong role in the conflict, in addition to their aide in the initial transport of troops from Morocco to Spain, Benito Mussolini also began to supply the Nationalists with men and equipment in December of 1936. Beginning in March 1934, Mussolini met a group of Spanish politicians and generals in Rome who were opposed to the Second Republic. At the meeting Mussolini promised the group 10,000 rifles, 10,000 hand grenades, 200 machine-guns and a million pesetas in cash in event of a military uprising.
