On April 26, 1937, German Luftwaffe pilots from the Condor Legion and the Italian Avaizione Legionaria bombed the city of Guernica in Basque Country during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica had been a Republican held city and seen as key to the war in the North and was mostly destroyed in the attack. About one hundred to two hundred civilians also died in the attack which was later made famous by a painting of the same name by Pablo Picasso.

For centuries, Basque has tried to secure independence, but has come under the authority of Spain and/or France again and again. It has, however, enjoyed brief periods of autonomy as it did during the Spanish Civil War. At the time of the raid, the autonomous Basque government resisted the fascists forces of Generalissimo Fransisco Franco just as did the Republican forces. Like the Republican forces, they were ultimately defeated, however, and Basque lost its independence.

As the Basque forces tried to defend several key cities in Basque, the fascists continued to advance with their sights on taking Bilbao. They could not take Bilbao, however, until they dealt with a smaller, less important city called Guernica. Guernica was under the control of Republican forces, but it was not well defended. Although it was home to two battalions of Basque troops and five thousand civilians, it did not have any air defense.

The motivation for the attack on Guernica remains unclear. It seems that the Nationalists wanted to destroy a key bridge. The loss of this bridge would cut of the Republican forces and support the Nationalists in the area. The attack may have also been the reaction to the lynching of a German pilot or a simply attempt at terror bombing. In any event, the Condor Legion probably received orders from Franco himself or his chief lieutenant to carry out the attack.

The attack on Guernica began at 1630 hours. A total of eight waves of at least twenty-four German and Italian bombers dropped at least twenty-two tones of explosives, including incendiary devices, on the town until about 1900 hours. While the bombers destroyed at least three-fourths of the city’s strictures, fighters added to the civilian casualties by strafing the major roads.

It is not known exactly how many people died in the attack nor how much of the destruction at Guernica was the result of the bombing. As a city that housed two battalions of troops, much ammunition was stored in Guernica. These stores were either destroyed in the bombing or they were intentionally dynamited to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. The initial casualty reports of over 1600 may have also been inflated. Most historians now believe that less than 300 died in the attack.

Over the years, Guernica has been seen as a testing ground for the German Luftwaffe. In fact, the testimony of Hermann Goring at the Nuremberg Trials seems to indicate that the major reason Germany was involved with the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War was to allow the Luftwaffe to practice flying real combat missions in the real war. Whether this was chief reason for German involvement in the war or the Guernica mission, it must have been a factor.

Although news of the attack spread quickly, it gained greater public awareness when Pablo Picasso altered a painting he was working on and titled it Guernica. For seventy years, this painting has come to represent the horrors of war in the eyes of many. Today, a replica hangs by the entrance to the Security Counsel at the United Nations as a reminder of the destruction that war can unleash upon the innocent.