Modern Military History of Andorra
Fought Imperial Germany for 25 Years among Other Accomplishments
The tiny landlocked country of Andorra, (69,000 population-2006 census), has a unique modern military history. This includes fighting Imperial Germany for three decades.
Since 1278 Andorrans practiced a one of a kind government. The country lies surrounded by Spain to the south and France to the north. Its government was a co-principality (until 1993). This was made up of whoever was the French chief of state and the Spanish Bishop of Urgel, neither of whom maintained a residence in Andorra. With the exception of being annexed briefly by France on at least three different occasions, the isolated mountain kingdom was at a peaceful crossroads until 1914.
In August 1914, with seemingly all of Europe caught up in the Great War, Andorra chose sides. She chose to declare war on Kaiser Wilhelm II's Imperial Germany. The Andorran military was small, composed of only ten part-time soldiers that assembled a few times a year for ceremonial reasons. Their only budget (Andorra has never had an income tax) was to purchase blank cartridges to be fired on those occasions as uniforms and arms were passed from generation to generation. With no effective expeditionary force to send to the far away frontlines, World War One passed relatively quietly for Andorra. So quietly on fact that the country was not even invited to the Versailles Peace Treaty negotiations. The active army was replaced by the Servei de Policia dAndorra (Andorran National Police) in 1931. They were assisted by French Gendarmes in 1933 during a period of unrest brought about by national elections. In 1934 an attempt to seize the country by Boris Skossyreff, a White Russian adventurer who declared himself Boris I of Andorra was repulsed with the help of a squad of Spanish Civil Guards. Finally, when the anarchy of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) threatened to spill over the border, a seven man French border guard unit was lent to the country by the President of France. It is known that Andorran volunteers served on both sides of the Spanish Civil War in unknown numbers.
Since Andorra and Germany signed no peace a defacto state of war existed between the two countries until September 25, 1939 (some sources incorrectly state 1958) when a reparation-free treaty was signed, finally ending World War One. The fact that World War Two had started twenty four days before on September 1, 1939 has been largely lost on historians. Andorra, after living in a state of bloodless world war for twenty five years, decided to sit out World War Two. The French garrison that had been in place to watch Franco withdrew in early 1939 and Andorra policed its own borders again. With the fall of France in 1940 and the rise of the Vichy regime Andorra again felt threatened. In 1942 when the Germans occupied southern France a German unit was sent to occupy the country but they were beat to the punch by Spanish Civil Guards. However a Sonderstab F (Special Staff F) processing station was set up for Spanish volunteers for the Blue Division which fought on the Eastern Front against the Soviets. With the 1944 Allied invasion of southern France and the subsequent German withdrawal Andorra interned trapped German troops. By an odd twist of fate Andorra fought Germany in World War One and never saw German troops but was occupied by them in World War Two, where it was obstensively neutral. The end of the war left Andorra free of foreign troops again and since then has remained so.
Today France and Spain, both NATO members, are pledged to protect tiny Andorra. Andorra, for its part, maintains a modern and efficient 240-person police force along with the Grup d'Intervenció Policia d'Andorra (GIPA), a special unit capable of hostage rescue and counter-terrorism. The reserve 'army' is composed of all males who own firearms in which service is mandatory. In the Andorran army service is without pay and all members are ranked as officers. The country's motto:
"Togoy se gausaus", means, 'Touch me if you dare', and they mean it.
Sources
The World War I Data book: The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants (2002) Ellis, John and Mike Cox.
Talk of Other Things, Time Magazine November 30, 1942.
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF ANDORRA Josep Quereda Vàzquez -Translated by Xavier Pi i Garcia.
US Department of State page on Andorra, Last retrieved July 23, 2007
"World War I Ends in Andorra", UPI story in the New York Times, Sep 25, 1939.
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