On This Day: Spanish Civil War ends as Franco enters Madrid following three-year insurgency that killed 500,000

APRIL 1, 1939: The Spanish Civil War ended on this day in 1939 after fascist General Francisco Franco captured Madrid following his three-year insurgency that cost 500,000 lives.

The dictator, who went on to lead Spain for 36 years, celebrated by holding a huge victory parade in the capital.

A British Pathé newsreel shows a flyby of planes donated by the Nazis, who helped fight the Republic, which had existed since voters abolished the monarchy in 1931.

Franco was filmed embracing a comrade on a platform as he watched his troops march down one of the avenues.

Most of them appeared to be Moors from Spanish Morocco, where the Generalisimo launched his coup also with the support of Fascist Italy.

Madrid had been a Republican stronghold since the outset of the war, which began with the uprising on July 17, 1936.

Initially the rebel generals failed to take any of the major cities, except Seville in the south, which allowed Franco to cross the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco.

But by November the Generalismo’s troops were able to attack Madrid and so launched one of the longest sieges in history.

Forces loyal to the Republic, which grew from liberal democracy into a revolutionary state backed by the Soviet Union, lost 100,000 lives in the initial battle.

Thousands of left-wing citizens, including trade unionists and teachers, took arms and the International Brigade of foreign volunteers, including 4,000 Britons, helped them.

Meanwhile, almost 20,000 right-wingers had his in foreign embassies in the capital as banners were unfurled everywhere with the slogan “No pasaran (“they shall not pass).

But one by one cities fell to Franco’s forces, who were much better armed and organised, and by July 1938 Republic’s territory had been cut in two.

After the January 1939 fall of Barcelona, which became controlled by Anarchists who collectivised all industry, the war became unwinnable for the Republic.

It prompted Prime Minister Juan Negrin and the Popular Front coalition government to flee Spain before the French border was closed weeks later.

Britain and France, which had supported neither the democratic government nor the insurgents when the war began in 1936, recognised Franco’s regime in February.

But many Republican loyalists in Madrid held out as long as they could while 500,000 others from across Spain fled the country.

When Franco’s forces finally entered the city, which by then was half starved and devastated by bombing, vicious reprisals began.

At least 50,000 people were executed by Franco’s forces, which had been supported by the fascist Falange party, and many more went “missing” during the White Terror.

In 1940, when German SS leader Heinrich Himmler visited Spain, which remained neutral but supplied the Nazis during World War II, he noted that around 250 shootings took place every day in Madrid.

Franco was keen to wipe out traces of the Republic, which had initially been governed by a middle -lass liberal collation before becoming increasingly left-wing.

He encouraged citizens to denounce their neighbours, with fellow coup organiser General Emilo Mola warning: “Anyone who helps or hides a Communist or a supporter of the Popular Front will be shot.”

The widows of Republican  fighters and other women who had supported the cause were often raped, had their heads shaved or forced to march naked through the streets.

Others were forced to drink castor oil so that they would soil themselves in public.

Around 350,000 Republicans were sent to labour camps and those deemed “unrecoverable” – i.e. refused to conform – were shot.

At the same time, around a quarter of all teachers lost their jobs.

Franco wanted to return Spain to a more traditional society centred around private ownership, the family and Catholic Church.

Anyone who did not attend mass regularly was suspected of being a “red” and risked losing their job.

Regionalism – a central tenet of the Republic - was also heavily discouraged and the use of languages other than Spanish, such as Catalan and Basque, were banned.

Francoism only ended with his death in 1975, which saw the return of democracy and the monarchy, with King Juan Carlos I, whose grandfather was forced to abdicate in 1931, taking the throne.

Those who participated in the White Terror were protected by an amnesty, despite the United Nations and other calling for an investigation into crimes against humanity.