On Monday 26 April 1937, Gernika, a small historic Basque town close to the French border, held its weekly open-air market.
Culturally conservative and loyally Catholic, the Basque region nonetheless mostly supported the Republican cause during the civil war, in return for the promise of regional autonomy within a democratic Spain. In the Spring of 1937, the rebel forces seeking to overthrow the Republic were making slow but steady advances towards the heart of the Basque region, but General Franco and his German military advisers wanted to accelerate progress in this region. So they planned to start attacks on civilian settlements that lay well behind the military front line.
At around 4.30 in the afternoon, a single plane from the Condor Squadron – led by Colonel Wolfgang von Richthofen, and comprised mostly of German fighters and bombers, supplemented with some Italian planes – appeared over Gernika, and dropped a few bombs. Once it had departed, the townspeople rushed out of their shelters to survey the damage and provide help to the few wounded. Around fifteen minutes later, a full squadron of planes arrived, and more bombs were dropped onto the town centre. At the same time, a group of fighter planes strafed those attempting to flee into the fields beyond the town. The local hospital, staffed by nuns, was also attacked.
At 5.15, another wave of planes appeared overhead and for the next two-and-a-half hours, they carpet-bombed the town: this was a new aerial strategy that the Condor Squadron had recently developed for attacking enemy trenches, but which they now experimented with in an attack on a civilian settlement that lacked any form of defence. As well as bombs, numerous incendiary devices containing thermite and phosphorus were also dropped, burning alive the people and animals below, and setting fire to buildings. By evening, the town centre was flattened, a chaotic mass of charred ruins. Of the 7,000 population, more than one third were casualties: 1,600 dead and close to 900 wounded.
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