Bombing of Guernica

The bombing of Gernika during the Spanish Civil War, 1937

The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War by planes of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and subordinate Italian Fascists from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie expeditionary force organized as Aviazione Legionaria. The raid was called Operation Rügen and resulted in widespread destruction and civilian deaths in the Republican held town of Guernica, Basque Country.

Guernica

Guernica, Basque Gernika, and officially Gernika-Lumo since 1983, was a centre of great significance to the Basque people both before, during and after the air raid which made it notorious. Traditionally, the important administrative body, the Biscayne assembly, had met in the town under an oak tree, the Gernikako Arbola, and in more recent years the assembly has continued to meet in Guernica at the Casa de Juntas— house of the historical archive of the Basque Country.

Autonomous Basque Country.

Military situation

Advances by Nationalist troops led by Generalísimo Francisco Franco had eaten into the territory controlled by the Republican Government. The Basque Government, an autonomous regional administrative body formed by Basque nationalists and leftists, sought to defend Biscay and parts of Guipuzcoa with its own Basque army.

At the time of the raid Guernica represented a focal strategic point for the Republican forces. It stood between the Nationalists and capture of Bilbao. Bilbao was seen as key to bringing the war to a conclusion in the North. Guernica also guarded the only path of retreat for the Republicans east of Bilbao.

Prior to the Condor Legion raid the town had not been directly involved in the fighting, although Republican Forces were in the area. At the time of the attack the town had no static air defenses and it is thought that it could expect no air cover due to recent losses of the Soviet supplied Republican Air Force.

Population at time of the raid

Guernica had a nominal population of around five thousand and the town is thought to have housed numerous refugees fleeing into Republican controlled territory. The raid also took place on a Monday, ordinarily a market day in Guernica. Generally speaking a market day would have attracted people from the surrounding areas to Guernica wishing to conduct business. There is still historical debate over whether a Market was being held that particular Monday however.

On the one hand the Basque government had, prior to the bombing, ordered a general halt to markets to prevent blockage of roads and restrict large meetings. While the issuance of a directive forbidding markets is indisputable, it is commonly argued that the directive had not been received by all areas, including Guernica, at the time of the raid, and therefore a market was being held. Despite the arguments it is accepted by most historians that Monday "..would have been a market day".

The raid

The Condor Legion was under total command of the Nationalist forces. The order to perform the raid was transmitted to the commanding officer of the Condor Legion in 1937, Oberstleutnant Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen from Spanish Command.

Mission planning

While questions are often raised over the intent of the raid, the diaries of the planner and commander of the mission made public in the 1970s indicate that an attack on Guernica represented part of a wider Nationalist advance in the area and were also designed to support Fascist forces already in place.

Richthofen, understanding the strategic importance of the town in the advance on Bilbao and restricting Republican retreat, ordered an attack against the roads and bridge in the Renteria suburb. Destruction of the bridge was considered the primary objective since the raid was to operate in conjunction with Nationalist troop movements against Republicans around Marquina. Secondary objectives were restriction of Republican traffic/equipment movements and the prevention of bridge repair via the creation of rubble around the bridge.

To meet these objectives, two Heinkel He 111s, one Dornier Do 17, eighteen Ju 52 "Behelfsbombers", and three Italian SM.79s were assigned for the mission and underwent a load-out consisting of medium explosive bombs (250kg), light explosive bombs (50kg) and incendiaries (1kg). The ordnance load for the twenty four bombers was twenty-two tons total. A follow up to the bombing raid was also planned for the next day involving Messerschmitt Bf 109 raids in the area. The order was noted on April 26 by Richthofen as:

Starting at once: A/88 and J/88 for free fighter bomber mission on the streets near Marquina-Guernica-Guerriciaz. K/88 (after Returning from Guerriciaz), VB/88 and Italians for the streets and the bridge (including suburb) east of Guernica. There we have to close the traffic, if we finally want a decision against personal and material of the enemy. Vigon agrees to move his troops for blocking all streets south of Guernica. If this succeeds, we will have trapped the enemy around Marquina.

First five waves of raid

Wave one arrived over Guernica around 1630 hrs. A Dornier Do 17, coming from the south, dropped approximately twelve 50-kilogram bombs.

The three Italian SM.79s had taken off from Soria at 1530 hrs with orders to "bomb the road and bridge to the east of Guernica, in order to block the enemy retreat" during Wave two. Their orders explicitly stated not to bomb the town itself. During a single sixty second pass over the town, from north to south, the SM.79's dropped thirty-six light explosive bombs (50kg). Vidal says that at this point, the damage to the town was "relatively limited... confined to a few buildings", including the church of San Juan and headquarters of the Izquierda Republicana ("Republican Left") political party.

Waves three through five of the first attack then occurred, ending around 1800 hrs. The third wave consisted of a Heinkel He 111 escorted by five Aviazione Legionaria Fiat fighters led by Capitano Corrado Ricci. Waves four and five were carried out by German twin-engined planes. Vidal notes:

"If the aerial attacks had stopped at that moment, for a town that until then had maintained its distance from the convulsions of war, it would have been a totally disproportionate and insufferable punishment. However, the biggest operation was yet to come."

Subsequent raids

Earlier, around noon that day, the Junkers Ju 52s of the Condor Legion had carried out a mission around Guerriciaz (Gerrikaraiz). Following this they landed to rearm and then took off to complete the raid on Guernica. The attack would run from north to south, coming from the Bay of Biscay and up the course of the Urdaibai estuary.

The 1^st and 2^nd Squadrons of the Condor Legion took off at about 1630 hrs, with the 3^rd Squadron taking off from Burgos a few minutes later. They were escorted from Vitoria by a squadron of Fiat fighters and Messerschmitt Bf 109Bs of Lutzow squadron. A total of twenty-nine planes.

From 1830 to 1845 hrs, each of the three bomber squadrons attacked in a formation of three Ju 52s abreast — an attack front of about 150 metres. At the same time, and continuing for around fifteen minutes after the bombing wave, the Bf 109Bs and Heinkel He 51 biplanes strafed the roads leading out of town adding to civilian casualties.

Outcome of the Raid

Luftwaffe 1kg incendiary bomb dated 1936.

The attacks destroyed the majority of Guernica. Three quarters of the city's buildings were reported completely destroyed, and most others sustained damage. Among infrastructure spared were the arms factories Unceta and Company and Talleres de Guernica along with the Assembly House Casa de Juntas and the Oak. Richtofen recorded that the bridge was not destroyed or even hit during the raid and the mission was considered a failure as a result, although the rubble and chaos that the raid created severely restricted the movement of Republican forces.

Casualties

Figures indicating the civilian casualties caused are debated. After Nationalist forces led by General Emilio Mola's forces took the town three days later, no effort to establish an accurate number seems to have been made. The Basque government figures released at the time put the toll at a minimum of 1,654 dead and 889 wounded. These were adopted by most commentators outside of the conflict as accurate. The most recent study on casualties resulting from the raid, which have been espoused by numerous intellectuals, academics and professionals, range between 250 and 300 total dead.

Views on the attack

It remains a matter of debate whether an objective of the raid was "terror bombing" — the deliberate bombing of civilians to sap the morale of the enemy and cause chaos. As such it would constitute a war crime. While the planner, Richthofen, was ignorant of Guernica's cultural significance and considered a ruthless commander, neither the planning nor his diaries reveal that large numbers of civilian casualties or the destruction of Guernica were the desired outcome. The attack has, nonetheless, entered into the lexicon of war, along with Rotterdam, London, Dresden, and Hiroshima, as a powerful symbol of terror bombing. It is also remembered by the surviving inhabitants and people of Basque as such. Due to the lingering divisions of the conflict, the event remains a source of emotion and public recrimination.

Military intentions

A commonly held viewpoint is that the involvement of the Luftwaffe in the Civil War constituted a proving ground for troops employed later during World War II. This view is supported by the comments of then Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials:

"I urged him [Adolf Hitler] to give support [to Franco] under all circumstances, firstly, in order to prevent the further spread of communism in that theater and, secondly, to test my young Luftwaffe at this opportunity in this or that technical respect.

Alongside the potential for gains in combat experience it is also thought that various strategic initiatives were first tried as part of Luftwaffe involvement in the conflict. Theories on strategic bombing were first developed by the Luftwaffe with the first exhibition of "carpet bombing" in the September 1937 Asturias campaign. Comparisons between the raid on Guernica and the fate of other cities during the conflict are also telling. As the fighting progressed into March 1938 Italian pilots flying as Aviazione Legionaria under Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle were involved in thirteen raids against Barcelona involving fire and gas bombs. These particular raids resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

On the Spanish side, threats made prior to the raid by General Emilio Mola to "end the war in the North of Spain quickly" and threats apparently made against Republicans in Bilbao afterwards implied a blunting of strategy and that air raids were to become an increasingly favorite instrument in the Nationalist war effort.

Other theories

Other explanations for the widespread destruction as deliberate could include that of a revenge attack. The bombing occurred shortly after the capture and lynching of a German pilot who had been shot down near Bilbao. This summary execution is claimed to have angered his colleagues and led to a deliberate attack against civilians in Guernica as a collective punishment.

Vidal outlines some other commonly voiced theories on the raid:

• The lack of reconnaissance missions before the bombing suggests to him that the Legion intended the destruction of the town rather than a specific target. Reconnaissance missions had been ordered as a prerequisite before raids around built-up areas on January 6 1937. The intent of the order was to minimize civilian deaths and it had been issued by Mola, then Supreme Commander of the Fascist Air Force Salamanca.
• Since the raid appears to have ignored Mola's earlier plans for reconnaissance prior to the raid, Vidal concludes that Richthofen must have received direct orders from Mola or Franco.
• In Vidal's view, such a mission would have typically used 10-kilogram bombs, and no incendiaries. Vidal also argues that the twenty-two ton load-out used in the raid represented a relatively large quantity for an attack on the stated primary objective. By way of comparison, Vidal indicates sources which give total tonnage of bombs dropped on the front during the first day of the offensive as sixty-six.
• Vidal argues that the Italians had been trying to obtain a separate peace agreement with the Basque nationalists and were not inclined to jeopardize those efforts by deliberately inflicting civilian casualties.

Media reporting

The first reports in the English language media of the destruction in Guernica appeared two days later. George Steer, a reporter for The Times of London, was covering the Spanish Civil War from inside the country and authored the first full account of events. Steer's reporting set the tone for much of the subsequent reportage. Steer made efforts to point out the clear German complicity in the action. The evidence of three small bomb cases stamped with the German Imperial Eagle made clear that the official German position of neutrality in the Civil War and the signing of a Non-Intervention Pact was a sham. Steer's report was syndicated to the New York Times and then worldwide, generating widespread shock, outrage, and fear.

Nationalists attempted to claim that Guernica had been deliberately burned and dynamited by fleeing Republican forces; the implication being that reports of destruction had been exaggerated and were atrocity propaganda. Although not denying that the air raid had happened, foreign journalists such as the distinguished writer Brian Crozier (at that time a Republican sympathiser) who were the first to arrive on the scene, believed that the effects of the bombing had been exaggerated by judicious dynamiting on the part of the Republican garrison. While Republican forces had been previously involved in pursuing a scorched earth strategy in the past, (notably in Irun which was dynamited), Steer's reporting was supported by the reporting of other journalists who witnessed the same levels of destruction. As already noted, the view that civilian casualties had been kept to a minimum was not widely accepted. The delay in arrival of firemen from Bilbao and their supposed inaction in containing fires was also reported on.

Legacy

Steer's reports on the horrors of Guernica were greatly appreciated by the Basque people. Steer had made their plight known. The Basque authorities later honored his memory by naming a street in Guernica Calle George Steer, and commissioning a bronze bust with the dedication:

"George Steer, journalist, who told the world the story about Guernica."

Despite Francoist efforts to downplay the reports they proliferated and led to widespread international outrage at the time.

Picasso's painting

Picasso's "Guernica"

Guernica rapidly became a world-renowned symbol of civilian suffering resulting from conflict and inspired Pablo Picasso to name a painting he was already working on Guernica. The display of Picasso's work at the Republican Spain Pavilion during the 1937 World's Fair reflected the impact on public conciousness. The painting went on to become a symbol indicative of Basque nationalism during the Spanish transition to democracy. Today a reproduction hangs in the United Nations Security Council lobby as a reminder to delegates of the day's events.

German apologies

Recrimination for the activities of the Condor Legion and shame at the involvement of German citizens in the bombing of Guernica surfaced following German reunification in the 1990s. In 1997, the 60th anniversary of Operation Rügen, then German President Roman Herzog wrote to survivors apologizing on behalf of the German people and state. Herzog said he wished to extend "a hand of friendship and reconciliation" on behalf of all German citizens. This sentiment was later ratified by members of the German Parliament who went on to legislate in 1998 for the removal of all former Legion members' names from associated German military bases. This process was then carried out but the issue surfaced again in 2005 following media revelations about the role of pilot Werner Mölders who had volunteered to serve in Spain. Although not involved in the bombing of Guernica, it was decided by then German Defense Minister Peter Struck that, in keeping with the law, Mölders' name should be removed from the barracks at Visselhoevede and from association with Luftwaffe squadron 74 based in Neuburg an der Donau.

70th Anniversary

On the 70th anniversary of the bombing, the president of the Basque Parliament met with politicians, Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and deputies from Hiroshima, Volgograd, Pforzheim, Dresden, Warsaw, and Oswiecim (Auschwitz), as well as several survivors from Guernica itself. During the meeting they showed images and film clips of the bombing, took several minutes to remember the dead, and read the Guernica Manifesto for Peace, pleading that Guernica become a "World Capital for Peace".

Further reading

• Coverdale, John F. - Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War. (Princeton University Press, 1975
• Maier, Klaus A. - Guernica 26.4.1937: Die Deutsche Intervention in Spanien und der "Fall Guernica." Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach, 1975
• Patterson, Ian - Guernica and Total War (London: Profile; USA, Harvard University Press, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-1-86197-764-9)
• Moa, Pío - Los Mitos de la Guerra Civil, La Esfera de los Libros, 2003.
• Ramírez, Juan Antonio - Guernica: la historia y el mito,Electa, Madrid, 1999
• Arias Ramos, Raúl; El Apoyo Militar Alemán a Franco:La Legión Cóndor En La Guera Civil, La Esfera de los Libros, 2003
• Rankin, Nicholas - Telegram From Guernica: The Extraordinary Life of George Steer, War Correspondent (Faber & Faber, London, ISBN 0-571-20563-1)
• Southworth, Herbert Rutledge - Guernica! Guernica!, a study of journalism, diplomacy, propaganda, and history, Berkley, 1977
• César Vidal, Chapter 9 of La Destrucción de Guernica, translated into English by Peter Miller. A detailed account of the attack and an account of its likely motivations. The sections of the article on the timing of the attacks and the particular planes and armaments used draw heavily on this source.