In April 1938, Catalonia was cut off from Valencia beyond the Ebro and the Republican territory split into two sections. Franco's troops march on Valencia. But there they come up against a powerful Republican defense, commanded by Hernandez Sarabia and Melendez. On the initiative of General Rojo, Chief of Staff, the Republican troops cross the Ebro by surprise and vigorously attack the Nationalists. They advance as far as Gandesa, then stop. Then began the "battle of the Ebro", which will recall those of the Marne and Verdun, twenty years earlier. The enemy, this time, is no longer the cold, but the mud. From one trench to another, we fight with knives. The Republican resistance is so bitter that one wonders if it will not reverse the course of the war. Azana shouts victory. Mussolini confides to his son-in-law Ciano that in his opinion Franco has lost. He will win.
Christmas is near. The fight has changed its soul. While, meter by meter, the nationalists reject the republicans beyond the river, the wind turns in favor of Franco. Negrin informed the League of Nations that he accepted the withdrawal of the international brigades. In Munich, Hitler and Mussolini imposed their law on the democracies, trembling with fear. Stalin, premeditating his agreement with the Führer, turns away from the Spanish battlefield. The Republic is alone. On Christmas Eve, the nationalists launched a lightning attack on the Segre and the Ebro. Introducing a new tactic - breakthroughs using motorized "spikes" and encircling "pockets" - they reached the last defenses of Barcelona in ten days.
The year 1939 begins. It will be
"the year of victory" for Franco, that of bitterness for the Republic and that of total war for the world.
January 26 1939, Nationalist troops enter Barcelona. While Negrin unites what remains of the Cortes in Figueras, Azana and Companys, President of the Catalan Republic, cross the French border on foot, at La Junquera. It is then the heartbreaking spectacle of the Spanish exodus. The day after the capture of Barcelona, soldiers and civilians flocked to the Pyrenean passes where the French had established reception and marshalling camps. Nearly 500,000 refugees, including 250,000 soldiers, 10,000 wounded, 170,000 women and children and 60,000 male civilians! Negrin and his government were able to win Valencia, where the struggle continues.
The northernmost part of Norway, the one that borders Russia to the East and prevents Sweden and Finland from having access to the Arctic Ocean, is the province of Finnmark . It is currently the largest county in Norway. Its extension is such that it is even larger than, for example, Denmark. But