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 two 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 three or four 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.
Faced with Franco's obstinate refusal, what does Hitler decide about the plan to take Gibraltar through Spain?
Hitler chooses A: 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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