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BBC History Magazine the Bombing of the Basque Town During the Spanish Civil War Heralded a Terrible New Age of Warfare

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BBC History Magazine the Bombing of the Basque Town During the Spanish Civil War Heralded a Terrible New Age of Warfare GUERNICA 50 BBC History Magazine The bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War heralded a terrible new age of warfare. But who was the main culprit – Hitler or Franco? Paul Preston considers the evidence Modern barbarism Pablo Picasso’s searing interpretation of the bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937. The raid triggered worldwide revulsion and inspired one of the most devastating denunciations of warfare in the history of art ALAMY BBC History Magazine 51 The destruction of Guernica rom 4.40 to 7.45 in the late The choice of think as we do.” Rebel forces did precisely that afternoon of Monday 26 April projectiles aimed in all of south-west Spain, the conservative 1937, the small Basque town of areas of Old Castile, and Galicia in the north. Guernica was destroyed by to cause the greatest Franco’s principal objective was the sustained bombing attacks by Republican capital, Madrid, but it held out Hitler’s Condor Legion and possible number of and, in mid-March 1937, his own troops and Mussolini’s Aviazzione those of Italian leader Benito Mussolini were Legionaria.F The operation was supervised by civilian casualties defeated at the battle of Guadalajara (40 miles Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, the Condor north-east of the capital). It was now that Legion’s chief of staff, a brilliant and ruthless Franco made a strategic volte-face. Prussian aristocrat with a doctorate in With the Republic concentrating its best aeronautical engineering. the streets wandered the animals brought to troops in the centre of Spain and neglecting A cousin of the First World War fighter ace market, donkeys, pigs, chickens. other fronts, Franco accepted the case for ‘the Red Baron’ Manfred von Richthofen, In the midst of that conflagration we saw victory by instalments elsewhere. Colonel Wolfram had planned the entire operation as people who fled screaming, praying, or Juan Vigón, chief of Mola’s general staff, an experiment in terror – as he would later gesticulating against the attackers… I had argued for priority to be given to operations mastermind the Blitzkrieg in Poland and other bombing experiences later in England in the north to strengthen the rebel war effort France. His choice of projectiles aimed to during the Second World War. But I never felt by the seizure of the coal, iron and steel cause the greatest possible number of civilian so unprotected and so much a defenceless reserves and armaments factories of the victims. A combination of explosive bombs victim as on that April 26th of 1937.” Basque province of Vizcaya. The commander and incendiaries rained on the residential The exact number of victims of the of the German Condor Legion, General Hugo sector of the town, which was largely made of bombing that day will never be known Sperrle, agreed, promising that Basque wood. And to prevent the fires being put out, because of the immediate chaos and the fact resistance would crumble under concerted the municipal water tanks and the fire-station that forces of General Francisco Franco – airborne attacks. were the first targets. leader of the military uprising that had Terrified civilians fleeing to the surround- triggered the Spanish Civil War the previous Rapid denials ing fields were herded back into Guernica by summer – occupied the town three days later. By the end of March, Mola had gathered a the machine-gun strafing of Heinkel He 51 No effort was made to clear debris until large army backed by the air support of fighters that circled the town in what after the end of the Civil War in 1939. All the Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Richthofen called “the ring of fire”. evidence of the bombing was removed, and Legionaria, all under Richthofen’s command. Monday was market day in Guernica. no record was kept of bodies recovered. Mola issued a threat that was both broadcast Between the townspeople, refugees, peasants Estimates as to how many people died in and printed in a leaflet dropped on the bringing goods to the market, and train loads Guernica have varied widely. Pro-Franco main towns: “If your submission is not of people from Bilbao coming to buy food, accounts suggest that the number was below immediate, I will raze Vizcaya to the ground, there were at least 10,000 people crammed 200. But, based on the testimony of medical beginning with the industries of war. I have into the town that day. They were attacked by personnel in Guernica on the day and in ample means to do so.” He then unleashed a 28 German and three Italian bombers nearby hospitals that received casualties, the massive four-day artillery and aircraft together with 10 Heinkel He 51 and 12 Fiat Basque government estimated that 1,645 bombardment of eastern Vizcaya in which the CR32 biplane fighters and possibly six of the people were killed and a further 889 injured small country town of Durango was de- first ever Messerschmitt Bf109s. It was an in the attack. (It’s thought that hundreds died stroyed. One hundred and twenty seven operation on a scale that could hardly have asphyxiated in bomb shelters as the fires civilians were killed and a further 131 died been organised by the Germans behind the sucked up available oxygen.) The most recent shortly after of their wounds. Franco’s backs of the Spanish staff, with whom there research suggests that the truth lies near to, headquarters in Salamanca denied the was, in any case, constant liaison. The town or even higher than, the Basque government’s bombing and attributed the damage to the had no anti-aircraft defences. estimate. Basques themselves. Whatever the true death toll, as the first Franco was delighted to have the crack Diabolic forces near-total destruction of an ‘open’ town Condor Legion as part of his forces. He The horror unleashed that day was captured in European history, Guernica was burned allowed Sperrle and Richthofen a free hand to in the eyewitness account of the Basque priest into the continent’s conscience as Franco’s liaise directly with Mola and Vigón. This gave Father Alberto Onaindía. “The explosion of great crime. the Germans the decisive voice in the the bombs, the fires which were beginning to What happened at Guernica was consistent campaign. Sperrle wrote in 1939: “All break out and the harassment of the machine- with threats made by General Emilio Mola, suggestions made by the Condor Legion for gunning planes forced us to take cover under the man who masterminded the military the conduct of the war were accepted trees, under house entrances, dropping to the coup that aimed to unseat Spain’s Republican gratefully and followed.” ground in the field when we saw a plane government. “It is necessary to spread terror,” While the advance was being planned, approaching. There was no anti-aircraft he declared on 19 July 1936, just a day after Richthofen wrote in his diary on 24 March: defence, no defence of any kind, we were the coup began. “We have to create the “We are practically in charge of the entire encircled and corralled by diabolic forces in impression of mastery, eliminating without business without any of the responsibility.” pursuit of defenceless inhabitants. Through scruples or hesitation all those who do not On 28 March he added: “I have established BATTLEFIELDDESIGN 52 BBC History Magazine effective ground/air command.” In expecting Vizcaya to fall in three weeks, Franco and Mola had underestimated the determination of the Basques. Steep, wooded hills, poor roads and heavy rain and fog had helped the retreating Gudaris (Basque The attack on Guernica, which sits 260 miles north of Madrid, was soldiers) to delay the attacking forces. With central to the Nationalist plan to Franco and Sperrle frustrated by the slowness demoralise the Basque population of the advance, Richthofen used terror bombing to break the morale of the civilian population and to destroy communications where roads passed through towns. That was A French the purpose of the destruction of Durango poster invokes and the intense bombing on 4 April of the Jesus Christ to condemn the Basque town of Otxandiano. barbarity of the Sperrle, Richthofen, Mola and Vigón now bombing talked increasingly of reducing Bilbao to “debris and ash”. By 24 April, after merciless air bombardment and artillery pounding, the Basque forces were falling back in disarray. On 25 April, Vigón agreed to Richthofen’s plan to combine the tactical objective of blocking the retreat south of Guernica near Nationalist general Emilio Mola Marquina with the broader strategic coup of declared that it the devastating blow announced by Mola. was “necessary That night, rebel radio at Salamanca broad- to spread terror” cast the following warning to the Basque people: “Franco is about to deliver a mighty blow against which all resistance is useless. Basques! Surrender now and your lives will be spared.” A day later, Guernica would feel the full force of Mola’s threat. Distraught officials General Franco (centre) pictured in August 1937. The general’s On 26 April 1937, four journalists covering attempts to deny responsibility for the bombing of Guernica the conflict – the Australian Noel Monks of turned into a public relations disaster for his forces the Daily Express, the Scotsman Christopher Holme of Reuters, the South African George Steer of The Times and the Belgian Mathieu Corman of the Parisian Ce Soir – spent 15 minutes in a bomb crater west of Guernica being strafed by the machine-guns of six Heinkel 51s. Later that night, they were having dinner when a distraught Basque official came in with news that Guernica was burning.
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