Describe the characteristics of the Bombing of 26 April 1937 in this artwork's Historical context.
During the Spanish Civil War the Republican forces, made up of communists, socialists, anarchists, and others with differing goals, united in their opposition to the Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, who sought to establish a fascist dictatorship. The Nationalists perceived Guernica, a quiet village in the province of Biscay in Basque Country, as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and the center of Basque culture.On Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the Nazi Germany Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. In his 30 April 1937 journal entry von Richthofen noted that when the squadron arrived "there was smoke everywhere" from the attack by three aircraft, and since nobody could see the roads, bridges, and suburbs "they just dropped everything right into the center. The 250s toppled a number of houses and destroyed the water mains. The incendiaries now could spread and become effective. The materials of the houses: tile roofs, wooden porches, and half-timbering resulted in complete annihilation."Monday was Guernica's market day, and many of its inhabitants were congregated in the center of town. When the main bombardment began the roads were already full of debris and the bridges leading out of town destroyed, and they were unable to escape.
Guernica, the capital of Biscay, was 10 kilometers from the front lines and in-between the front lines and Bilbao. A Republican retreat towards Bilbao, or an advance towards it, had to pass through it. von Richthofen's 26 April 1937 diary entry states Guernica was targeted "...to halt and disrupt the Red withdrawal which has to pass through here." The following day, Richthofen wrote in his diary, "Guernica burning". The nearest actual military target, a war product factory on the village's outskirts, went through the attack unscathed, so the attack was widely condemned as a terror bombing.
center Bilbao Biscay town Wolfram von Richthofen Francisco Franco right Basque Country The Nation Nazi Germany Condor Legion Nationalists Guernica Franco Spanish Civil War