The Spanish Civil War ended in Alicante. After Catalonia fell to the Hitler and Mussolini backed military rebellion of Franco-s Nationalists at the outset of 1939, the legitimate Republican government of Dr Negr-was faced with a choice between apparently futile resistance or unconditional surrender to the triumphant Nationalists. Choosing the path of continued defiance until they could force concessions or at least implement a mass evacuation of those Republicans most at risk in Franco-s new Spain, the government withdrew to Elda in the province of Alicante.However, their plans were thwarted by a new rebellion of Republican officers, led by Colonel Segismundo Casado, who resented Negr-s reliance on the Communist Party and the USSR and believed themselves better equipped to negotiate a peace settlement with Franco. They were misguided, Franco had no wish, and ultimately no need to negotiate. Meanwhile, faced with the imminent risk of arrest by the new junta, the Prime Minister and his c
