1938 GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler gives General Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW), secret directives for Operation GREEN against Czechoslovakia.
March 28th, 1939 (TUESDAY)
POLAND: Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck tells the German Ambassador to Poland that ‘any attempt by Germany against Danzig, “would be regarded as grounds for war.”
SPAIN: Madrid, falls to Franco, marking the end of the Spanish Civil War. The war had been a testing ground for some German weapons and tactical developments. (Michael Ballard)
The Spanish Civil War ends when the Republican defenders of
Madrid surrender, bringing to an end the bloody three-year conflict. The war
began in July 1936 when General Francisco Franco led a right-wing army revolt in
Morocco, which prompted the division of Spain into two key camps: the
Nationalists and the Republicans. Franco's Nationalist forces rapidly overran
much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and northern Spain, and
Catalonia became a key Republican stronghold. During 1937,
Franco unified the
Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain's fascist party,
while the Republicans fell under the sway of the communists. Germany and Italy
aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet
Union aided the Republican side. In addition, small numbers of communists and
other radicals from Great Britain, France, the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and elsewhere formed the
International Brigades to aid the Republican cause. The most significant
contribution of these foreign units was the successful defence of Madrid until
the end of the war. In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean
and cut Republican territory in two. Later in the year,
Franco mounted a major
offensive against Catalonia. In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was
captured, and soon after the rest of Catalonia fell. With the Republican cause
all but lost, its leaders attempted to negotiate a peace, but
Franco refused. Up
to a million lives were lost in the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish
history.