British Espionage and Franco in the Second World War

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.