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A few more points concerning this topic that, perhaps, will clarify matters somewhat. The work from which I originally retrieved the figures (Michael Clodfelter's _Warfare and Armed Conflicts_) relied in turn heavily on the first edition of Hugh Thomas's _The Spanish Civil War_. Indeed Hugh Thomas averred that some 20,000 Portuguese volunteers served alongside Franco's troops. In the third, revised and enlarged edition of his monumental work, Thomas notes "In a previous edition, I spoke of 20,000 volunteers from Portugal: this probably was an exaggeration." (p.979, fn.5). In the text he refers to "several thousand Portuguese volunteers who fought in the Foreign Legion and in some other units". Also, Thomas states that "the total number of foreigners who fought for the Spanish republic was probably about 40,000, about 35,000 being in the International Brigades." (p.982). And the accompanying footnote reads "[Ramon Salas Larrazabal]..., also argues, implausibly, that the figures were 120,000. Perhaps Salas....went wrong in including Spanish volunteers for the Brigades as if they were foreigners." (p.982, fn.2). BTW, the number of German troops deployed in Spain was somewhere between 17,000 and 19,000 men (see Robert Whealey _Hitler and Spain: The Nazi Role in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939_, p.102). The higher figure probably includes civilian instructors and technicians. All in all, it seems evident that Franco received more assistance in terms of manpower. Nonetheless I am looking forward to Mr. Albert Nofi's sources and their figures. Cheers, Joerg Bottger Independent Scholar
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