The air power available to the Nationalists was divided into three independent forces: the Nationalist Air Force itself, the Italian air contingent (known. as the Avizione Legionaria), and the Condor Legion.

Each of these forces was organized differently and should be considered separately. The foreign contribution of flight crews and aircraft maintenance personnel was more important to the Nationalists than to the Republic. A large part of Franco's aircraft were being flown and maintained by foreigners even at the end of the war. These three forces operated together with admirable success and seemingly little friction.

The Nationalist Air Force began the war with around ninety pilots and a similar number of aircraft. This force grew to possess a frontline strength of around 350 aircraft. It was organized into fighter squadrons of nine aircraft and bomber and assault squadrons of six. These were put into grupos, usually of three (but sometimes more) squadrons. The grupos were mostly made up of aircraft of the same type, but there was some intermingling; for example, at the end of the war, Group 5G5 had two squadrons of HE-112s and two squadrons of Me-10913s.

Nationalist groups were numbered consecutively followed by the code for the type of aircraft dominant in the grupo. Therefore, 5G5 is the fifth (fighter) group, using aircraft #5, the HE-112. The Nationalist Air Force, in addition to receiving aircraft directly from German and Italy, received aircraft that the others had replaced with more modern types: Ju- 52s, He-70s, He-51s, and Me-109Bs from the Condor Legion, and SM.81s and CR.32s from the Aviazione Legionaria.

The Italian Aviazione Legionaria was organized like the Italian Air Force: squadriglia of 9 aircraft, gruppi of 3+ squadriglia, stormi of 2+ gruppi. The Italians were operating over 200 aircraft in Spain when the war ended. Equipment was initially CR.32s and SM.81s; by end of the war it was CR.32bis and G.50 fighters, SM.79 and BR.20 bombers.

The Condor Legion organized its aircraft like the Luftwaffe, staffeln of twelve aircraft. By February 1937, there was a fighter group (gruppe) of four staffeln equipped with HE-51 biplanes, a bomber gruppe of three staffein with JU-52 bombers, and three independent reconnaissance staffeln.

After numerous changes of equipment, the Condor Legion was operating Me-109Es, He-111Es, and Dornier 17Es in three gruppen: one fighter, one bomber, and one reconnaissance. In some ways, Germany's most important contribution to the Nationalist cause was the prompt dispatch of Ju-52 transports to Franco in July 1936. These 20 transports, soon joined by nine Italian SM-81s, airlifted some 13,500 troops with their equipment from Morocco to Spain, giving the Nationalists crucial reinforcements at a time when the Republican Navy still threatened movement across the straits of Gibraltar. This was the first largescale airlift in history.

Virtually every aircraft used by the Nationalist in the civil war was imported. Only a few licensed copies of the Fiat CR.32 were produced right at the end of the war. The Nationalists acquired around 1,500 aircraft in the course of the war. Types imported in some quantity include:

Fighters
Fiat CR32: 376
ME bf-109: 136
HE-51

Light Bombers

Imam RO-37bis : 68
HE-45 : 33

Bomber/Transports

Savoia SM-79 : 100
HE 111: 93
Savoia SM 81 : 84
JU-52 : 63
Dornier DO-17 : 31

Franco's Armed Forces Spanish Civil War

Introduction
Growth and Organization
Equipment
Army
Air Forces
Nationalist Navy