| Guernica |
 |
 |
| menu: |
|
| shorts... |
| The Mayor of Guernica's; Jose Labauria was a former sea captain and had spent most of his life commanding a large fishing ship. He organised the Town Hall basement to be used as an air-raid shelter since the airborne assult was, to some extent, expected, especially after the, nearby town, of Durango was bombed on 31 March 1937. |
| Fascist German Planes Bombing Of Civilians German And Italian Intervention Aircraft Picasso And The Painting Effects On The Basques And Spanish Civil War |
 |
|
|
|
|
| Home Page |
|
| A rare photograph of a squadron of aeroplanes belonging to the Nationalist Air Force. |
| The German Dornier-17 which was used repeatedly on bombing expeditions. The Condor Legion had 2 such operational aircraft at the time of the bombing of Guernica based at Burgos. |
| The Town Hall with children in the Plaza. |
|
| A bombed street of Guernica on 26 April 1937. (see more) |
|
|
| The main thrust of the bombing of Guernica and indeed the rest of the aerial bombardment of Spain were the Junker-52/3m. It was these types of plane which were used to transport troops from Morocco to Spain with Franco, who began the Nationalist assault on Spain. (see more) |
| The Condor L:egion's Chief of Operations for the assault on Guernica: Captain Klaus Gautlitz. He ordered the use of 3 squadronsof Junkers-52's with fighter support. |
| A map showing the organised and precise attack on Guernica using Condor Legion airbases at Burgos and Vitoria. The Day Guernica Died by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts Lieutenant Colonel (Chief of Staff) Wolfram von Richthofen stated that the Condor Legion would only bomb military targets "without regard for civilian population". |
| < > |
Peasant women and children were going quietly about the streets. Then at four o'clock the rebels began a brutal bombardment which continued without stopping until seven in the evening. More than fifty German planes rained bombs on the town and machine-gunned the streets incessantly. The surrounding villages were similarly bombarded. The rebel planes even machine-gunned the flocks in the fields. At eleven o'clock at night the whole town was in flames, not a single house standing. The streets and the square were crammed with goods and chattels snatched from the inferno. The people are still searching for missing relatives, for wives, daughters, husbands, sweethearts and children. Elizabeth Wilkinson, Secretary of the Spanish Women's Committee for Help to Spain |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| e-mail us on: editor@spanishrefugees-basquechildren.org |
| Was Guernica bombed because it was a military target? |
| "I have decided to terminate rapidly the war in the north. Those not guilty of assassinations and who surrender their arms will have their lives and property spared. But if submission is not immediate, I will raze all Vizcaya to the ground, beginning with the industries of war" General Emilio Mola, Nationalist Army 1937. |
| The sacred oak tree of Guernica. |
|