Hood vs Deutchland and Graf Spee

[lwd]

According to:
http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic277a.asp
There's actually a historical precident for this one.

In September and October of 1938, the British battlecruiser Hood defeated two German “pocket battleships,” the Graf Spee and the Deutschland, crushing them both in football matches, at Tangier and Gibraltar respectively.

[hammy]

They were all down there for the "Neutrality Patrol" ( Arms Blockade ) of Spanish ports during the Civil war . Very one sided , it chiefly affected the Republican side .
Shame on us .
And in the longer term a bad move , for a Republican Spain might have been a factor which kept Mussolini from declaring war in mid 1940 , and if he still had , then overt or covert use of Spanish Naval facilities would have made the Mediterranean war a much more certain thing .
Also no U-boats creeping in and out of Vigo and Ferrol .
Also no Blue division ( 30,000 strong ? ) fighting in Russia .
Looks like we won the football games , but lost the important one !

[RF]

And in the longer term a bad move , for a Republican Spain might have been a factor which kept Mussolini from declaring war in mid 1940 , and if he still had , then overt or covert use of Spanish Naval facilities would have made the Mediterranean war a much more certain thing .
Also no U-boats creeping in and out of Vigo and Ferrol .
Also no Blue division ( 30,000 strong ? ) fighting in Russia .
Looks like we won the football games , but lost the important one !

A Republican Spain would presumably be neo-communist and as such pose the liklihood of France going communist.

The likely result of that is that Chamberlain would have got closer to Hitler because of the perceived threat of communism, and that WW2 could have been very different. It would not have deterred Mussolini at all, and given British policy it is likely we would have been on the German side.

The political left doesn't like Franco. He is the only general to have defeated communism in a war and was a far more canny leader than many give him credit for. He was the best leader for Spain at that time.