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April 26, 1937Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Luftwaffe Bombs Guernica

Franco's German allies test a new kind of war on a Basque market town

On the timeline · around April 26, 1937 · Modern SpainModern SpainThe Luftwaffe Bombs Guernica180018251850187519001925195019752000

Quick facts

Date
April 26, 1937
Attacking force
Nazi Germany's Condor Legion, with Franco's approval
Casualties
Roughly one-third of Guernica's 5,000 residents killed or wounded
Cultural legacy
Inspired Picasso's painting Guernica

What happened

With Franco's approval, Nazi Germany's Condor Legion, flying for his Nationalist faction, bombed the Basque town of Guernica on the afternoon of April 26, 1937. The attack killed or wounded roughly one-third of the town's 5,000 residents and set fires that burned for days. HISTORY describes the assault as an unprovoked attack against a town with no significant military garrison, one of the first instances of aerial bombing deliberately targeting a civilian population to draw sustained international attention.

Why it matters

The bombing of Guernica became, in HISTORY's words, a symbol of fascist brutality that aroused world opinion, immortalized soon after in Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, and it stands as one of the earliest and most widely condemned examples of the deliberate aerial bombardment of civilians in modern warfare.

How we know

The bombing is documented in contemporaneous news reports, Basque government casualty records from 1937, and later historical investigation into the Condor Legion's operational role in the Spanish Civil War.

Sources

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