Importance of the Bombing of Guernica

Alsina González
Specialist journalist and researcher

When one looks at Picasso's masterpiece, he is quick to grasp chaos, fear, destruction and death. This painting is not only the result of an inspiration, but it is a denunciation of a real fact: his name is that of the population savagely bombed Basque on April 26, 1937.

The fact quickly became an anti-fascist icon and about the horror of war. Picasso began painting his work after a few weeks, finishing it in June of the same year. The painting represents the horror experienced, becoming an iconic image immediately, serving throughout the history to illustrate murals and various acts in favor of peace and against war.

Guernica (in Basque, Gernika) is a very important Basque population for the history and collective imagination of that country.

In it is the Tree of Guernica, under which the General Meetings of Biscay met and, previously, the lords of Biscay were going to swear their privileges. This venerable tree symbolizes the freedoms of the Basque people.

So, more than a strategic location, Guernica had a symbolic charge: attacking it was equivalent to attacking the roots of the Basque people, from which the insurgents wanted to take away their own identity to replace it with the Castilian.

The pretext used for the attack was the presence of Republican soldiers who were withdrawing to prepare the defense of Bilbao, as well as three arms factories established in the location.

The real background of this action must be found in several factors, the first of which is the repressive will of the rebels, that they had already carried out various bloody acts against the civilian population and Republican combatants, such as the bloody takeover of Badajoz.

On the other hand, German military interests, whose Condor Legion (volunteer units serving on the rebel side and using newly minted German war material) carried out the attack. For the commanders, it was important to test tactics, materials and men to obtain results and draw conclusions from them, in the face of a world conflagration that was already in sight.

The bombardment began shortly after four in the afternoon, ending around half past seven.

In addition to the Condor Legion, Italian aviation also took part in the action. They were devices that would later see action during World War II: the German bombers Junkers Ju-52, Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17, escorted by Heinkel He 51 and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters on the German side, with Savoia S-79 bombers and Fiat CR.32 fighters on the italian.

Despite the fact that afterward, spokesmen for the rebels indicated that the objective was the bridge over the Oka River, the ammunition used (incendiary) was not suitable for such a task.

The town was completely devastated and the fact is that the bridge was left intact, really as if it had been brought up only as an excuse after the fact.

The proper ammunition if the objective was to blow up the bridge should have contained some type of high explosive. Meanwhile, the incendiary ammunition lacked penetrating and explosive power, but unleashed fires at high temperature, suitable for destroying houses and buildings.

Another proof that the real objective was not the bridge but to give a lesson to the civilian population was the fact that the fighters machine-gunned the columns of fleeing civilians.

The number of victims is under discussion, there are no definitive data, but the most current studies show a balance of between 250 and 300 deaths.

The first figure, which was reproduced by the international media, was provided by the government Basque, and pointed to 1,645 deaths, a figure that has subsequently been considered excessively large, despite the aforementioned impossibility of knowing the number of victims for sure.

Most of the town was reduced to ashes.

Initially, the Francoist side refused to recognize itself as the author of the attack.

The first statements of the rebels aimed to deny the facts, blaming the attack on the Basque forces themselves! Their argument is that they had carried out the bombing and then blamed them.

This argument was maintained by the Franco regime, and despite the evidence that denied it, until its final stages, later going on to speak of a "miscalculation".

Art Fotolia: rook76