Gibraltar after the rebuff at Hendaye
, master of Western Europe in the autumn of 1940, seeks to strangle Great Britain without ever setting foot on her shores. The Mediterranean becomes his obsession: closing its 2 locks would deprive London of its route to Suez and the Empire.
The western lock bears a name — Gibraltar — and a plan: Operation Felix. Special units of the Wehrmacht would cross Spain to storm the Rock, then hand it over to Madrid. Everything rests on one man: Franco, whose bled-white country depends on the wheat and fuel that others are willing to supply.
On 23 October 1940, at Hendaye, Hitler spent long hours courting the Caudillo. In vain: Franco multiplied his demands — Gibraltar, French Morocco, provisions, weapons — and voiced doubts about a German victory so long as England held out. Hitler emerged exasperated, confiding that he would rather 'have 3 or 4 teeth pulled out' than go through it again.
On 12 November, he nonetheless signs Directive No. 18: Felix is to drive the British from the western Mediterranean, the attack envisaged for January 1941. But Admiral Canaris, dispatched once more to Madrid, brings back a clear message: Franco will not enter the war so long as Great Britain is not on her knees. Hitler keeps his troops ready — and a deadline that is approaching.
Berlin, late 1940, you are Hitler: what to decide about Gibraltar in the face of Franco's obstinate refusal?
Hitler abandons Felix and postpones the Gibraltar affair: in early December 1940, after Canaris reported the Caudillo's definitive refusal, the Führer abandons Felix. Around 11 December, the order comes down: the operation is cancelled 'because the necessary political conditions no longer exist'. To Mussolini, Hitler writes of his resentment — he fears that Franco is committing there 'the greatest mistake of his life'. He refuses to violate Spanish neutrality by force, a gesture that would have antagonised Madrid and opened a costly front. A final overture, on 6 February 1941, will run into the same wall; Ribbentrop will conclude that 'Franco has no intention of ever entering the war'. From now on, Hitler's gaze turns away from the western Mediterranean: the divisions promised to Gibraltar will soon be required in the East, for Barbarossa. Gibraltar will remain British to the very end of the conflict.
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