On February 27, the French Chamber voted to recognize Franco and sent him a prestigious ambassador:Marshal Pétain. The gold bars stored by the Republic at Mont-de-Marsan, as well as the works of art, weapons, ammunition, Spanish fleet and vehicles will be handed over to the new government, including Great Britain, in turn, and, most countries, with the exception of the U.S.S.R. and Mexico, will recognize the legitimacy.
However, Madrid still stands. Azana is in France where he resigned, on February 27, by letter signed in Collongessous-Salève. Power is exercised by a defense junta led by Colonel Casado, who advocates negotiation with Franco. On the contrary, Negrin, in Valence, is for the resistance until the end. The Communists gather behind him. "Negrinists" and supporters of the junta are killing each other. But Franco rejects the proposals of Casado, who also flees shortly after Negrin, as well as Miaja, military commander of Madrid since the beginning of hostilities. Madrid and Valencia are taken. At dawn on March 30, the whole of Spain was in the hands of Franco who, on April 1, 1939, published his last war communiqué from Burgos:national troops have achieved their last objectives. The war is over."
This war, which was ended and won by Franco, will have been won only at the highest price:986 days of merciless fighting, 600,000 dead, including 300,000 in combat, 100,000 by execution and 200,000 victims of disease or bombardment, plus half a million exiles; without counting the cost of the war, estimated at around thirty billion pesetas. A crushing result in which, however, does not appear the most cruel:the ferocious hatred which presided over the combats and engendered inexpiable grudges. The Vae victis! of Brennus was not an empty word, when the cannon fired. you, on the evening of the civil war. But time has passed. While the Republicans, perhaps even more defeated by their political divisions only by nationalist weapons, will continue their ideological struggle in exile, Franco will apply to sick Spain his severe therapy and will prepare his "established monarchy". Today, new teams are preparing to exercise power with the fierce will to do everything to avoid another civil war; they will repeat with the old:Nuestra guerra...
Trenches are battle paths dug into the earth for the purpose of protecting troops from enemy attacks. They were never used as much as during the First World War, but they do not date from that time. Since the modern period (17th - 18th centuries), trenches have been dug for the siege of strongholds