The final battle began on 18 February. Aranda and Yagüe cut off the town from the north and then surrounded it, as the Republicans had accomplished in December. On 20 February, Teruel was cut off from the former Republican capital in Valencia, and with the Nationalists entering the town, Hernández Saravia gave the order for withdrawal. Most of the army escaped before the route was cut off, but about 14,500 men were trapped. The colourful communist Republican commander El Campesino was surrounded but eventually broke out to escape. He always claimed that Lister and other communist commanders had left him to his fate in the hope that he would be killed or captured. The Nationalists finally recaptured Teruel on 22 February.