In an eleventh-hour decision the command of the Eastern Region Army Group was transferred to Enrique Jurado Barrio, but he was not able to organize a line of defence while the whole Northeastern section of the Republican Army was unfit for battle and in the middle of a hasty retreat. Cold, ill-equipped and hungry both the troops and the average citizens were exhausted and had stopped listening to the official propaganda telling that a victory against Fascism was at hand; fear was the pervading mood and what most hoped was not to be treated too badly by the advancing Francoists during the purge of the conquered territory. Since Barcelona was already in rebel hands the most that Jurado Barrio could do was to try to limit the chaos of the desperate withdrawal of the long civilian and military columns towards the border and to evacuate the demoralized Republican troops in a manner as orderly as possible.