British Espionage and Franco in the Second World War
From Hendaye until Torch
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:11th Nov '26
£171.99
This title is due to be published on 11th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This book challenges narratives of Spain as a neutral party during the Second World War by demonstrating the role of British diplomacy and espionage in maintaining Spain’s neutrality even as it became another theatre of war, enabling the Allies to carry out their landing in North Africa in 1942.
Until now, analyses of Spain’s wartime neutrality have largely focused on diplomatic documents from the Foreign Office, but this book makes more extensive use of files from the SOE (Special Operations Executive), sources such as The Government School and Cipher School, and the testimonies of German agents and other prisoners of war. It explores how Spanish communications were intercepted by both sides, production was controlled, the press was censored, and hundreds of spies operated within its territory. Meanwhile, Franco profited greatly from falsely leading the Spanish people to believe that he had spared the country from the horrors of more active involvement in the conflict.
British Espionage and Franco in the Second World War is aimed at both specialists and general readers interested in the history and politics of World War II.
"Luis Horrillo Sánchez is part of a fascinating generation of young Spanish researchers who are transforming transnational historiography. His study of the three tense years of Anglo-Spanish relations, from 1940 to 1942, is an original and valuable contribution. He clearly analyses the clandestine strategies employed by Churchill’s government to keep Franco’s Spain out of the clutches of the Axis."
Paul Preston, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, UK
"In this groundbreaking study Luis Horrillo-Sánchez demonstrates how Britain’s secret agents operating in Spain made a critical contribution to their country’s struggle to survive in the war against Nazi Germany, during the fraught years between 1940 and 1942. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified secret documents from the British archives, he reveals how these shadow warriors complemented the official diplomatic efforts of the British Government to restrain the Franco regime from joining the Axis Powers at war – and, also, to insure against the massive strategic damage (including the loss of the vital naval base at Gibraltar), which Spanish belligerency would entail. The author reaches a paradoxical conclusion, namely, that in helping curb Franco’s warlike inclinations, Britain’s clandestine operatives also enabled the Spanish dictator to survive into the postwar era, when he could pose as an astute statesman who had saved his country from the horrors of the Second World War."
Denis Smyth, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Canada
"[This] research adds important details that modify some aspects and undoubtedly manages to offer a unified and in-depth account of British sabotage."
Stanley Payne,Hilldale-Jaume Vicens Vives Professor of History Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
"This book is excellent. It is a very valuable contribution. Very well researched with excellent use of primary and secondary sources."
David Messenger, Professor and Chair of the Department of History, University of South Alabama, US; and President, Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
ISBN: 9781041398707
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
384 pages