Chapter 31: The Squeezer and the Squeezee - February 15 - March 1
On the 15th of February, the situation in France was stable, , but the line had some holes in it, due to sending the two mountain divisions back to southern Spain to help contain the British. The French still had not responded to our incursion into their territory. In North Africa, Spain had captured Oran, and were slowly pushing eastwards.
In Southern Spain, troops were pushing westwards to the port of Malaga, while others were pushing east towards Marbella. the 23rd infantry division was pushing towards Seville, and now, only Cadiz would need to be retaken. However, until Malaga could be secured (as well as the spreading threat of the British troops be contained), Cadiz could be a problem. The 5th infantry division was ordered to Cordoba to hopefully squeeze the British supply lines and cut off those troops on the eastern half of the invasion force.
On February 16th, two battles were lost, at Logrosan and Agudo. But in fact, these were the two battles that our armoured division was involved in. At 2000 hours, Seville had been retaken. This would help our industry once again, and give our aircraft airfields from which to fly.
On the 17th, our Garrison division from Tanger was ordered to board transports to Gibraltar to hold in order to free up another stronger division for offensive and defensive efforts elsewhere.
On the 21st of February, the first attempt to take on the British armour was undertaken by three divisions that had moved into position surrounding Linares. This attack would serve to weaken the British incursion and beat down their armour allowing the Spanish infantry to close gaps in the line.
The rest of the month continued with more of the same. The British were threatening south and east of Cadiz, but Spanish troops were holding out as long as they could. A long strip connecting the British fronts was constantly under threat, from Seville in the north, to Gibraltar in the south, but again, the Spanish troops were holding.
By March 1, the troops had closed up a main line of advance of about four provinces closing in on the port of Malaga, while troops defended an "L" shaped area that stretched from Seville to Gibraltar. The rest of the situation was quite stable, with the French not responding to the holes in our battle line at all.
With the weather improving, and the promise of a German offensive in the spring, Franco's hopes for kicking the British out of Spain were improving.
