ANNVERSARES

26 APRIL 1937

Guernica is battered by a three-hour bombing raid

Franco’s allies unleash hell on an unsuspecting Basque town

The afternoon of 26 April 1937 began like any other for the inhabitants of Guernica, a Basque town east of Bilbao. The weekly market was in full swing, with visiting shoppers swelling the town’s population to around 10,000 people. Soon, though, the peace was shattered when a fleet of bombers descended from the skies.

At 4.40pm, the first wave of bombers screamed into the airspace over the town. Over the course of that afternoon, dozens of German and Italian aircraft arrived, carpet-bombing the town and killing indiscriminately.

As well as obliterating houses, the bombers targeted the municipal water supply to prevent the townspeople from extinguishing the raging fires. The town’s residential buildings were largely