This a brief resume of the book of Alfonso Escuadra "Bajo las banderas de la Kriegsmarine" (Under the flags of the Kriegsmarine)

Antecedents

In the period between World Wars we found some Spanish - German collaboration. The govern of Primo de Rivera authorized the construction of a certain number of submarines of german design that were going to de adopted by the spanish marine. With the Republic, these exchanges finished, but in 1935, with the govern  Lerroux and with Hitler in the power, the Marine Ministry made a commission to study the submarines constructed by the  I.V.S. in Finland, having in mind buying them, although this never happened. Soon after the National Rising, with the first consignment of material for the marine, that we must not forget that most of it rest loyal to the Republic government, arrived to Spain a group of 3 officials and 10 specialist in coast artillery, mine war and transmissions

Once the III Reich was completely compromised with the National Rising, arrived in november with the first members of the 'condor Legion' a group of volunteers ot the marine called "Gruppe NordSee", depending of the  "Büro Anker", part of the "SonderStäb W".

Inside the Naval program of 1939 promoted by the Marine Minister and Major State Head of the Marine, the Admiral Salvador Moreno Fernández, a commission of Spanish officials commanded by the marine aggregate in Berlin, Corvette Captain Manuel Espinosa Rodríguez, was invited to know the submarine bases of type II in Swinemünde Finally. the 25/09/41 was approved under secret the 'project 10' with the aim of building submarines of kind  VII in Cartagena, the first of them will be delivered in 1944 and the rest the following year. Due to the German was effort, the delivers was stopped in 1942, lefting the project unfinished. But all was not to receive the point technology, the qualified staff was also important. so after the signs of the agreements for buying navel weapons with the Rheinmetall Börsig, and the cession of the technology of the  Schnellbooten S-38 and French modified destructors destructors type "Le Fier" the Kriegsmarine authorized the arrival of Spanish staff to Germany for realizing courses and practises in his war unites in the Baltic sea, and here starts our history...

Comisssion "Fernandez Marin"

Inscribed the  03/11/42 -  Operations Instruction  nº166 E.M.A. 3ª Section - nº14150.
Components: Officials: Cap. Navío Pedro Fernández  Marín; Cap. Corbeta Antonio Cardona Rodríguez; Tte. Navío Fco. Reina Carvajal; Tte. de Navío Agustín Miralles de Imperial y Díaz; Ttes. Cuerpo de Máquinas  Ramón Rodriguez Dopico y Antonio Sánchez Gutiérrez; Alf. Navío Manuel Arzáiz Torres. Suboficiales: Sgtos. Mecánicos José Cernuda López; J.Mª Pérez Casanova; Antonio Martínez Lorenzo, Julio Barros Pereira.

The 13 of  November they received their instructions in the  Oberkommando der Marine and wer uniformed the next day and sent to units that operate in the zone of the Baltic Sea, as a request of Spanish authorities. So they depended of the maximum authority on land, that was the "Ostsee", the Marine Befehlshaber Ostland  KonterAdmiral Theodor Burchardi. After passing for Königsberg, they embark fro going to  Helsinki; one time in the army base of Kotka, they presented themselves to the Kommodore Kurt Böhmer in his führerboot, the F-3 Hai , a very capable and veteran command that served in the Spanish Civil War. to the 1.Räumflotille were assigned the  Obl.(Ingr) A.Sánchez, the Obl.z.See M.Arnáiz and the Feld.Mach. J.Barrios; they operated in the track of the mine barrier called  Corbetha, placed between the Estonian coast of Kallbada and the Finish point of  Porkala, where his mission consisted in avoiding the aerial throws and submarine sounds of enemy mines that could surprise the naval traffic of the Gulf of Finland. The bad weather and the cold storms were the daily tonic during the normal operations of this units.

Other destination for the Spaniards were the submarine hunters; The Ka.Leu Franciso Reina y el Feld. J.Cernuda arrived to the 12.U-Jägerflotille and in other side the Korv.Kap A.Cardona and the Feld. J.Mª Pérez went to the 3.Minensuchflotille, the  Ka.Leu A.Miralles was assigned to the Vorpostenboot 302 de la 3.Vorpostenflotille, also with the Feld. A.Martínez. All this different flotillas, that inside the  Jädgruppe Hochland closed by the east the access to the Bay of Kronstadt, operated in all kind of submarine hunting missions and mines searching under very bad weather and sea conditions, as the tempest that provoked the hollow of the  UJ-1205.  In  February of 1943, the Ka.Leu Fco. Reina arrived to the 25.Uboots-Ausbildunsflotille (instruction submarine flotilla nº25) in Libau, where under the orders of Korv.Ka Karl Jasper made some exercises in open sea  The 5 of March the spanish commission received the order to appear in the bombed Berlin, 2 day after they returned to Madrid

Commission "Fernandez de la Puente"

Before this first commission returned from Germany, the Spanish Army have ready the 2nd commission in the Kriegsmarine.
Components: Cap.de Corbeta Federico Fernández de la Puente y Gómez; the Alf. of Navío José García de Quesada, Alfonso Gómez Suarez, Isidoro González Rodríguez y Fernando Moreno Reyna; los Ttes. de Máquinas Gumersindo Vila Otero y Amadeo Ferro Freire and the Sgtos. Mecánicos Bienvenido Manrrubia Ruiz, José Carneiro Camiño and Constantino García  Martínez, all with experience in combat

The 12 of April of 1943 they were assigned to the Minensuchverbände Ost under the orders of KonterAdmiral Böhmer; except the Alf. de Navío J.García and the boos leader, the Cap. de Corbeta F. Fernández, that were assigned to the Ausbildungsverbänd der Flotte (Training Agrupation of the Fleet ), commanded by the VizeAdmiral August Thiele. The biggest group arrived to Riga the 16 of April, going immediately to the base of Reval were they were assigned to the following destinations:
The Obl.z.See A.Gómez and theObl.(Ingr.) G.Vila to the 3.Minensuchflotille; the Obl.z.See I.González and theObl.(Ingr.) A.Ferro to the   25.Minensuchflotille and the sub officials in group to the Nettelbeck , main ship of the  1.Räumbootsflotille were just arriving to their destination they used the anti aerial weapons to repel a hard attack of planes Iyushin IL2, being congratulated by his aiming. During his stay in the Nettelbeck they supported the  1.Räumbootsflotille in his join actions of mine searching with the 3.Minensuchflotille, in the Seeigel barrier
During the month of May the intense work of protection of the   Weg  Orange route, was accompanied with the continue attacks of soviet bombers, that whip without pause the german mine - dredger

The activity of the  31.Minensuchflotille was oriented to reinforce the 'Baltic latch', and especially the wide submarine net that united the Estonian island of Närgo and the Finish light - house of Porkala, to defend of possible submarine attacks the important Weg Orange route. During his mission the spanish could prove the efficiency os the systems of submarine detection called  S-Gerät.   In the Emdem were assigned the  Korv.Kap Fernández de la Puente  and Obl.z.See García de Quesada, being his welcome an aerial  attack .
The Spanish commission received the order to appear in Berlin for the 7 of May of 1943, from Berlin they went to Swinemünde with final destiny in the Admiral Scheer. In the first days of June they returned to Spain, except the Obl.z.See García de Quesada and Gómez Suarez, that waited in Berlin for a destination

Commission "Urzaiz"

The 28 of May, under the lead of the  Cap. de Corbeta Alvaro Urzáiz, departured a train with 38 spanish marines in direction to Berlin
Between them were  3 suboficials: the Torpedista1º M.Salazar, the Mechanic 1º J.Hervás and the Mechanic 2º G.Ares. The future commandant of the first 2 Spanish schnellboote dotations were García de Quesada and Gómez Suarez, that we remeber, were in Berlin. This two officials joined the rest of the group in the
Potsdammer Hauptbahnhof  forming the expedition called "Bär I", and his final destination was the schnellboote base of  Swinemünde, more exactly the Schnellbootsschulflotille, under the lead of the Führer der Schnellboote, Freg.Kap. Rüdolf Petersen.
The spanish contingent were divided in two dotation; the LT-21 under the lead of Alf. de Navío García de Quesada and LT-22, assigned to Gómez Suarez, the 1 of July 1943 they appear in the presence of his direct boss, the young and veteran Ka.Le Von Mirbach, an as of the fast boats that has the Cross Of Knight of The Iron Cross Order.  After some theoretical and practise training they pass to the 'double lead' were they get the lead of a boat, and the german crew was substituted in phases by spaniards

Posteriorly they were two relief of crew and officials, inside the "Bär Program" in the schnellboote, called "Bär II" and "Bär III", operating also in the  9.Schnellbootsflotille,
The complete process of delivery of the boats finished  in July 1943 in Burdeos, receiving the boats model S124 and S134  called LT-21 and LT-22, and in August of the same year were received the boats model S125 and S126 (LT-25 y LT-26) and the veterans models S73 (LT-23) and S? (LT-24).