Bombing of Guernica

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Die Ruinen von Guernica 5603/37

Noticia sobre el bombardeo de Guernica

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El pueblo de Gernika en ruinas tras el bombardeo.

Paragraph from George L. Steer Report in New York Times on Destruction of City - Museum of Peace - Gernika (Guernica) - Bascay - Spain

After the Battle of Guadalajara, the Nationalist troops gave up in the attack to Madrid. In the meantime, the North, Asturias, Cantabria, and Bilbao, in the Basque Country, one of the most industrialized and modern regions of the country, had prepared an impregnable line of defence so that the coup forces could not occupy it. On 26 April 1937, several planes from the Nazi Germany ‘Condor Legion’ dropped thousands of incendiary bombs over the unoccupied city of Guernica uninterruptedly for three hours, killing up to 1,500 civilians in what is believed to be the first air attack targeting only civilians. The operation was totally acknowledged by Franco and the Nationalists, who later led a propaganda campaign to appease the international media claiming they didn’t know nothing. And then, Alejandro Goicoechea deserted. Goicoechea was the engineer who had planned the whole defence of the North. With this information in the hands of the Nationalist, the line was useless. To distract the enemy, the Government led the Battle of Brunete, which ended with an indecisive result, with higher casualties in the Republican side. Then, the Nationalists attacked further North, occupying Zaragoza in the East -approaching Catalonia-, being eventually stopped in the city of Belchite, which was destroyed to the grounds. By the end of 1937, the North was practically conquered. With the occupation of Northern Valencia in the first half of 1938, only Madrid, Catalonia, La Mancha, the island of Menorca, and the Eastern regions were still controlled by the Republicans. The Spanish colonies had also been defeated and were now in Nationalist hands. Without foreign reinforcements, and with the professional troops used by the Rebels, the war would end very soon. Caption: The ruins of the destroyed city of Guernica, 1937. Bodies can be seen. #historiansunion #colored #colorized #colourised #colorization #colourisation #color #colour #history #military #ww1 #wwi #worldwarone #greatwar #thegreatwar #ww2 #wwii #worldwartwo #military #war #warfare #allies #axis #spanishcivilwar #guerracivilespañola #franco #franciscofranco #cassowaryscw

Chronicle of the bombing of Guernica made the day after the bombing and published in "The Times".