German and Italian Aircraft Bomb Guernica

On the afternoon of 26 April 1937, German and Italian aircraft launched an aerial assault on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Operating under the code name Operation Rügen, the raid was carried out on behalf of Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces by the Nazi German Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria. Guernica sat roughly thirty kilometres east of Bilbao and served as a communication point behind the Republican front lines. Many accounts hold that Nationalist planners sought to disrupt transport links, including a key bridge and nearby roads, in order to encircle retreating Basque battalions and expedite the offensive across Biscay, though other historians argue the raid was designed chiefly to terrorize the population.

The aerial force deployed roughly two dozen bombers, mostly German aircraft such as the Junkers Ju 52, alongside a smaller number of Italian bombers, supported by fighter escorts. Estimates of the weight of bombs dropped range from about thirty to more than forty tonnes, made up of high-explosive bombs and one-kilogram incendiaries. Beginning around half past four in the afternoon, successive waves struck the settlement over several hours. Whatever the intended targets, the attackers blanketed the urban core with explosives, triggering widespread fires that destroyed most of the town's buildings.