Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Pablo Picasso to create a large mural for the Spanish display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) Paris International Exposition in the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

The painting

Guernica is gray, black and white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a mural-size canvas painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. Picasso's purpose in painting it was to bring the world's attention to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by German bombers, who were supporting the Nationalist forces of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso completed the painting by mid-June 1937.[1] Picasso exhibited his mural-size painting at the Spanish display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) (Paris International Exposition) in the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and then at other venues around the world. The San Francisco Museum of Art (later SFMOMA) gave the work its first public, free appearance in the United States from 27 August - 19 September. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City then mounted an important Picasso exhibition on 15 November 1939 that remained on view until 7 January 1940, entitled: Picasso: 40 Years of His Art, that was organized by Alfred H. Barr (1902–1981), in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition contained 344 works, including Guernica and its studies.[2]

Guernica shows suffering people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos.

The overall scene is within a room where, at an open end on the left, a wide-eyed bull stands over a woman grieving over a dead child in her arms.

The centre is occupied by a horse falling in agony as it had just been run through by a spear or javelin. It is important to note that the large gaping wound in the horse's side is a major focus of the painting.

Two "hidden" images formed by the horse appear in Guernica: o A human skull overlays the horse's body.

o A bull appears to gore the horse from underneath. The bull's head is formed mainly by the horse's entire front leg which has the knee on the ground. The leg's knee cap forms the head's nose. A horn appears within the horse's breast.

The bull's tail forms the image of a flame with smoke rising from it, seemingly appearing in a window created by the lighter shade of gray surrounding it.

Under the horse is a dead, apparently dismembered soldier; his hand on a severed arm still grasps a shattered sword from which a flower grows.

On the open palm of the dead soldier is a stigma, a symbol of martyrdom derived from the stigmata of Christ.

A light bulb blazes in the shape of an evil eye over the suffering horse's head (the bare bulb of the torturer's cell.) Picasso's intended symbolism in regards to this object is related to the Spanish word for lightbulb; "bombilla", which makes an allusion to "bomb" and therefore signifies the destructive effect which technology can have on society.

To the upper right of the horse, a frightened female figure, who seems to be witnessing the scenes before her, appears to have floated into the room through a window. Her arm, also floating in, carries a flame-lit lamp. The lamp is positioned very close to the bulb, and is a symbol of hope, clashing with the lightbulb.

From the right, an awe-struck woman staggers towards the center below the floating female figure. She looks up blankly into the blazing light bulb.

Daggers that suggest screaming replace the tongues of the bull, grieving woman, and horse.

A bird, possibly a dove, stands on a shelf behind the bull in panic. On the far right, a figure with arms raised in terror is entrapped by

fire from above and below. A dark wall with an open door defines the right end of the mural.

Symbolism and interpretations

Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, for example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the

horse. Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's career."

When pressed to explain them in Guernica, Picasso said,

...this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse... If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are.[3]

In "The Dream and Lie of Franco," a series of narrative sketches also created for the World's Fair, Franco is depicted as a monster that first devours his own horse and later does battle with an angry bull. Work on these illustrations began before the bombing of Guernica, and four additional panels were added, three of which relate directly to the Guernica mural.

Picasso said as he worked on the mural: "The Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people, against freedom. My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. How could anybody think for a moment that I could be in agreement with reaction and death? ... In the panel on which I am working, which I shall call Guernica, and in all my recent works of art, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.[4]

However, according to scholar Beverly Ray[5] the following list of interpretations reflects the general consensus of historians:

The shape and posture of the bodies express protest. Picasso uses black, white, and grey paint to set a somber mood and

express pain and chaos. Flaming buildings and crumbling walls not only express the

destruction of Guernica, but reflect the destructive power of civil war.

The newspaper print used in the painting reflects how Picasso learned of the massacre.

The light bulb in the painting represents the sun. The broken sword near the bottom of the painting symbolizes the

defeat of the people at the hand of their tormentors. (Berger 1980; Chipp 1988)[5]

In drawing attention to a number of preliminary studies, the so called primary project,[6] that show an atelier installation incorporating the central triangular shape which reappears in the final version of Guernica, Becht-Jördens and Wehmeier interpret the painting as a self-referential composition in the tradition of atelier paintings such as "Las Meninas" by Diego Velázquez. In his chef d'oevre, Picasso seems to be trying to define his role and his power as an artist in the face of political power and violence. But far from being a mere political painting, Guernica should be seen as Picasso’s comment on what art can actually contribute towards the self-assertion that liberates every human being and protects the individual against overwhelming forces such as political crime, war, and death.[7]

Historical context

See also: Spanish Civil War and Spanish Civil War, 1937

Guernica is a town in Spain's Basque country. During the Spanish Civil War, it was regarded as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and the epicenter of Basque culture, adding to its significance as a target.[8]

The Republican forces were made up of assorted factions (Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, to name a few) with wildly differing approaches to government and eventual aims, but a common opposition to the Nationalists. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, were also factionalized but to a lesser extent. They sought a return to the golden days of Spain, based on law, order, and traditional Catholic family values.[9]

At about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. Germany, at this time led by Hitler, had lent material support to the Nationalists and were using the war as an opportunity to test out new weapons and tactics. Later, intense aerial bombardment became a crucial preliminary step in the Blitzkrieg tactic.[5][8]

In his journal for 30 April 1937, von Richthofen wrote:

When the first Junker squadron arrived, there was smoke already everywhere (from the VB [VB/88] which had attacked with 3 aircraft); nobody would identify the targets of roads, bridge, and suburb, and so 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. Most inhabitants were away because of a holiday; a majority of the rest left town immediately at the beginning [of the bombardment]. A small number perished in shelters that were hit."[10]

This account contains striking discrepancies from other accounts that state that the town's inhabitants were in fact congregated in the center of town, as it was market day, and when the bombardment commenced, were unable to escape the inferno because the roads leading out of the center of the town were full of debris and the bridges leading out of town had been destroyed.

Guernica's location was at a major crossroads 10 kilometers from the front lines and between the front lines and Bilbao, the capital of Bizkaia. Any Republican retreat towards Bilbao and any Nationalist advance towards Bilbao had to pass through Guernica. "During 25 April, many of the demoralized (Republican) troops from Marquina fell back on Guernica, which lay 10 kilometers behind the lines."[11] Wolfram von Richthofen's war diary entry for 26 April 1937 states, "K/88 [the Condor Legion bomber force] was targeted at Guernica in order to halt and disrupt the Red withdrawal which has to pass through here." The following day, Richthofen wrote in his war diary, "Guernica burning."[12] The Republican retreat towards Bilbao did pass through Guernica, before and after the bombing, and, as Beevor points out, "At Guernica the communist Rosa Luxembourg Battalion under Major Cristobal held back the nationalists for a time".[12]

Guernica was a quiet village. The nearest military target of any consequence was a factory on the outskirts of the town, which manufactured various war products. The factory went through the attack unscathed. Thus, the motivation of the bombing was clearly one of intimidation. Furthermore, a majority of the town's men were away as they were fighting on behalf of the Republicans. Thus, the town at the time of the bombing was populated mostly by women and children.[13]

These demographics are reflected in the painting because, as Rudolf Arnheim writes, for Picasso: "The women and children make Guernica the image of innocent, defenseless humanity victimized. Also, women and children have often been presented by Picasso as the very perfection of mankind. An assault on women and children is, in Picasso's view, directed at the core of mankind." Clearly, the Nationalists sought to demoralize the Republicans and the civilian population as a whole by demonstrating their military might on a town that stood for traditional Basque culture and innocent civilians.[8]

After the bombing, it was through the work of the Basque and Republican sympathizer and London Times journalist George Steer that propelled this event onto the international scene and brought it to Pablo Picasso's attention. Steer, who rushed to town, compiled his observations into an article that was published on 28 April in both The Times and The New York Times, and which on the 29th, appeared in L'Humanité, a French Communist daily. Steer wrote:

Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three types of German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000 lbs. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machinegun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields."[13]

It was through this article that Picasso was made aware of what had gone on in his country of origin. At the time, he was working on a mural for the Paris Exhibition to be held in the summer of 1937, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government. He deserted his original idea and on 1 May 1937, began on Guernica. This captivated his imagination unlike his previous idea, on which he had been working somewhat dispassionately, for a couple of months. It is interesting to note, however, that at its unveiling at the Paris Exhibition that summer, it garnered little attention. It would later attain its power as such a potent symbol of the destruction of war on innocent lives.[5][13]

1937 Paris International Exhibition

Guernica was initially exhibited in July 1937 at the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition.[14] The Pavilion, which was financed by the Spanish Republican government at the time of civil war, was built to exhibit the Spanish government's struggle for existence contrary to the Exposition's technology theme. The Pavilion's entrance presented an enormous photographic mural of Republican soldiers accompanied by the slogan:

We are fighting for the essential unity of Spain.We are fighting for the integrity of Spanish soil.We are fighting for the independence of our country and forthe right of the Spanish people to determine their own destiny.

The display of Guernica was accompanied by a poem by Paul Éluard, and the pavilion displayed works by Joan Miró and Alexander Calder, both of whom were sympathetic to the Republican cause.

Post-exhibition experiences

After the Paris Exhibition, the painting went on tour, first to the Scandinavian capitals, then to London, where it arrived on 30 September 1938, the same day the Munich Agreement was signed by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. The London exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery included preparatory studies and was organized by Roland Penrose with Clement Attlee addressing a public meeting. It then returned briefly to France; after the victory of Francisco Franco in Spain, the painting was sent to the United States to raise funds and support for Spanish refugees. At Picasso's request the safekeeping of the piece was entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. It formed the centerpiece of a Picasso retrospective at MoMA which opened six weeks after the Nazi invasion of Poland.[1][15]

Between 1939 and 1952, the painting traveled extensively in the United States; between 1953 and 1956 it was shown in Brazil, at the first-ever Picasso retrospective in Milan, Italy, and then in numerous other major European cities, before returning to MoMA for a retrospective celebrating Picasso's seventy-fifth birthday. It then went on to Chicago and Philadelphia. By this time, concern for the state of the painting resulted in a decision to keep it in one place: a room on MoMA's third floor, where it was accompanied by several of Picasso's preliminary studies and some of Dora Maar's photos. The studies and photos were often loaned for other exhibitions, but until 1981, Guernica itself remained at MoMA.[1]

While living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, Picasso suffered harassment from the Gestapo. One officer allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of Guernica in his apartment, "Did you do that?" Picasso responded, "No, you did."[16]

During the Vietnam War, the room containing the painting became the site of occasional anti-war vigils. These were usually peaceful and uneventful, but in 1974, Tony Shafrazi — ostensibly protesting Richard Nixon's pardon of William Calley for the latter's actions during the My Lai massacre — defaced the painting with red spray paint, painting the words "KILL LIES ALL"; the paint was removed with relative ease from the varnished surface.[15]

As early as 1968, Franco had expressed an interest in having Guernica return to Spain.[1] However, Picasso refused to allow this until the Spanish people again enjoyed a republic. He later added other conditions, such as the restoration of "public liberties and democratic institutions". Picasso died in 1973. Franco, ten years Picasso's junior, died two years later, in 1975. After Franco's death, Spain was transformed into a democratic constitutional monarchy, ratified by a new constitution in 1978. However, MoMA was reluctant to give up one of their greatest treasures and argued that a monarchy did not represent the republic that had been stipulated in Picasso's will as a condition for the painting's return. Under great pressure from a number of observers, MoMA finally ceded the painting to Spain in 1981. The Spanish historian Javier Tusell was one of the negotiators.

During the 1970s, it was a symbol for Spaniards of both the end of the Franco regime and of Basque nationalism. The Basque left has repeatedly used imagery from the picture.

A tiled wall in Gernika claims "Guernica" Gernikara, "The Guernica (painting) to Gernika."

In 1992 the painting was moved from the Museo del Prado to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, both in Madrid, along with about two dozen preparatory works. This action was controversial in Spain, since Picasso's will stated that the painting should be displayed at the Prado.

However, the move was part of a transfer of all of the Prado's collections of art after the early 19th century to other nearby buildings in the city for reasons of space; the Reina Sofía, which houses the capital's national collection of 20th century art, was the natural place to move it to. A special gallery was built at the Reina Sofía to display Picasso's masterpiece to best advantage.

When first displayed in Spain, the painting was placed at El Casón del Buen Retiro, an annex to the Prado that housed early nineteenth century paintings but had a large enough wall. It was kept behind bullet-proof glass and guarded with machine guns. However, since that time there has never been any attempted vandalism or other security threat to the painting. In its present gallery, the painting has roughly the same protection as any other work at the Reina Sofía.[17]

Basque nationalists have advocated that the picture should be brought to the Basque country,[18] especially after the building of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. Officials at the Reina Sofía claim[19] that the huge canvas is now thought to be too fragile to move. Even the staff of the Guggenheim do not see a permanent transfer of the painting as possible, although the Basque

government continues to support the possibility of a temporary exhibition in Bilbao.[17]

Guernica at the United Nations

A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room. Commissioned in 1955 by Nelson Rockefeller, and placed on loan to the United Nations by the Rockefeller estate in 1985,[20] the tapestry is less monochromatic than the original, and uses several shades of brown. On 5 February 2003 a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations.[21] On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Some diplomats, however, in talks with journalists claimed that the Bush Administration pressured UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war on Iraq.[22]

According to The Washington Times in 2003,[23] the sequence was as follows:

1985: The tapestry copy of Guernica is hung at the U.N. Security Council, paid for by the estate of Nelson Rockefeller

2003, Monday 27 January: Guernica found covered by journalists with a baby-blue banner and an UN-logo. "It's only temporary. We're only doing this until the cameras leave," said UN-spokesperson Abdellatif Kabbaj. He clarified: "We had a problem with, you know, the horse" (that is, in the background of a camera-shoot).

The drapes were installed Monday, 27 January and Wednesday, 29 January only. Other days of the week, including Tuesday in between, there was no drape. On these other days the UN-Security Council's agenda included Afghanistan, Western Sahara and Lebanon.

On 17 March 2009, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Marie Okabe announced that the Guernica tapestry had been moved to a gallery in London in advance of extensive renovations at UN Headquarters. The Guernica tapestry is the showcase piece for the grand reopening of the Whitechapel Gallery. It is located in the 'Guernica room' which was originally part of the old Whitechapel Library.[24]

Spanish Civil War, 1937

In 1937, the Nationalists, under the leadership of Francisco Franco began to establish their dominance. An important element of support was their greater access to foreign aid, with their German and Italian allies helping considerably. This came just as the French ceased aid to the Republicans, who continued, however, to be able to buy arms from the Soviet Union. The Republican side suffered from serious divisions among the various communist and anarchist groupings within it, and the communists undermined much of the anarchists' organisation.

With his ranks being swelled by Italian troops and Spanish colonial soldiers from Morocco, Franco made additional attempts to capture Madrid in January and February 1937, but failed again.

On February 21 the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign volunteers went into effect. The large city of Málaga was taken on February 8. On March 7, the German Condor Legion equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes arrived in Spain; on April 26 they bombed the town of Guernica (Gernika) in the Basque Country; two days later, Nationalist General Emilio Mola's men entered the town.

After the fall of Guernica, the Republican government began to fight back with increasing effectiveness. In July, they made a move to recapture Segovia, forcing Franco to pull troops away from the Madrid front to halt their advance. Mola, Franco's second-in-command, died in a plane crash on June 3, and in early July, despite the fall of Bilbao in June, the Republican government launched a strong counter-offensive in the Madrid area, which the Nationalists repulsed with some difficulty. This was the Battle of Brunete (Brunete is a town in the province of Madrid).

Franco soon regained momentum, invading Aragon in August and then taking the city of Santander (now in Cantabria). On August 28, the Vatican, recognized the Franco government.[citation needed] Two months of bitter fighting followed and, despite determined Asturian resistance, Gijón fell in late October, effectively ending the war in the North. At the end of November, with the Nationalists closing in on Valencia, the government moved again, from Valencia to Barcelona.

Detailed chronology

January–March

January 5Nationalist General Orgaz with 18,000 men attacks the roads north west of Madrid in an attempt to cut the city's supply lines. Madrid is suffering several air raids daily, and sometimes nighttime raids as well.

January 6Nationalists take Boadilla. The International Brigades (IBs) defended the town; one of the few survivors of the Internationals is Romilly, 17-year-old nephew of Winston Churchill. Romilly volunteered despite his famous uncle's open sympathy for Francisco Franco, like that of most of his colleagues in the ruling British Conservative Party.

January 11The Nationalist offensive northwest of Madrid is stopped. Both sides, temporarily exhausted after heavy casualties, start to build trenches and dig themselves in.

January 17The Nationalists begin the battle to take Málaga. Three Nationalist columns converge on the city from Sevilla and Granada.

January 19General Enrique Líster with the IBs gains back the Cerro de los Angeles next to Madrid. This hill overlooks the city; the heavy Nationalist artillery there had been shelling the city. The IBs become more and more the key units in the Republican Army.

February 5A Nationalist army approaches Málaga. The situation in Málaga epitomizes the worst conditions existing in the Republican zone: perhaps 600 hostages are held on a prison ship in the harbor, and groups of them are shot in reprisal for the air raids over the port. The sailors' committees in the fleet and the city administration are divided in mortal rivalry between the CNT and the Communist Party of Spain. Like all Republican cities, there is no anti-aircraft defense. Its militiamen, mostly anarchists, and not yet reorganized into the new Popular Army, built no trenches or roadblocks, because they consider this cowardice[citation needed]. The government assigns Colonel Villalba, a professional officer, to organize the defense, but without guns to place on the heights, without ammunition to give his soldiers, and without the slightest possibility of controlling the rivalries within the city, there is virtually nothing he can do. The invading force consists of some 10,000 Moors, 5,000 Requetés (right-wing militiamen), 5,000 Italians and plentiful supplies of trucks and artillery. They have only a few tanks and planes, but they can use these with maximum effectiveness in the virtual absence of effective deterrents.

February 6Nationalists start a powerful offensive in the Jarama Valley. Nationalist General Orgaz is in command of around 40,000 troops, most of them Spanish Foreign Legion and Moroccan cavalry, supported by anti-tank artillery, two battalions of German-operated heavy machine guns (German ground troops under the command of the Condor Legion), German-operated tanks and planes (Condor Legion), and 600 Blueshirts under the command of the right-wing Eoin O'Duffy. The Nationalists want to cut the main Madrid-Valencia highway. General Pozas, commander of the new Central Army of the Republic, is planning his own offensive against the Nationalist line and is therefore massing men and material in the same area. Due to their own planned offensive, the Republicans fail to fortify their high ground, and the Nationalist offensive takes them completely by surprise. The hills are quickly lost, as are the two principal bridges. The Republican guards on the bridges are killed in the night by Moorish commando units. The guards on the Pindoque Bridge manage to mine the bridge during the attack, but it remains usable for enemy tanks and trucks. Citizens flee Málaga. About 100,000 people begin a disorganized mass exodus along the coastal road to Almería. The road is blocked by slow vehicles and wounded people; for the next two weeks, the Nationalist air force and navy bomb the road at will. German warships of the Non-Intervention Committee participate in the shelling, sometimes in the presence of Royal Navy vessels which do nothing to intervene. (Until the 1960s, truck drivers continued to find skeletons of those who fled Málaga in February 1937)

February 8Málaga taken by Franco's troops. The militiamen resisted rifle and grenade fire, but broke at the totally unfamiliar sight of tanks. The Nationalists start immediately to take an enormous amount of prisoners and to execute them. For example, participation in a strike several years previously is grounds for execution. The Italian military authorities are horrified at the number of executions and the mutilations practiced on the corpses and those who were wounded, as well as the mass rape of women.Nationalists advance in the Jarama Valley. Soviet tanks slow down the advance for brief periods, but the Nationalists quickly concentrate heavy artillery fire and force their withdrawal. The planes of the Condor Legion control the air.

February 10The XIV and XV IBs fortify the Republican army in the Jarama. The troops stop the Nationalist advance, but take horrible losses in doing so. At one point the Nationalists force approximately 30 survivors of a captured British machine gun group to advance in front of their attack; half of these men die under fire of their own comrades.

February 12

Air supremacy for the Republic at the Jarama front, all-out attack on the last Republican positions. 40 new Russian airplanes arrive at the Jarama front, giving the Republic air supremacy in the area. These planes consist of 15 ground strafers and 25 fighters, the fighters are nicknamed "Chatos". The arrival of these planes forces the enemy planes to retreat. On the night of February 12, Nationalist General Orgaz commits all his reserves to gain control over the last key positions that still prevent his forces from cutting the Valencia highway. Several companies of the IBs — including British and Polish — as well as Spanish companies, were "cut to pieces" attempting to hold these positions.

February 15The force of the offensive in the Jarama had spent itself. As in the Battle of the Corunna Road, the Nationalists have gained ground, but strategic victory had escaped them. The Foreign Legion is broken. Around 20,000 men died in the 10 days of the Jarama Battle, two thirds of them Republicans.

February 17The anarchist writer Pedro Orobon dies in an air raid at Madrid.

February 20Republican General Asensio Torrado resigns.

February 21League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national and stateless "volunteers" went into effect.

February 27The newly formed Abraham Lincoln Battalion, part of the IBs, consisting mostly of North Americans had arrived at the Jarama front February 13; they are ordered to carry out a suicidal attack. 127 men die and more than 200 are wounded. Responsibility for poorly planned attack lies on Brigade Commander Copic, who refuses to see the wounded leader of the "Lincolns", Robert Hale Merriman, after the disastrous, failed action.

March 5First council of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain) in the war. The PCE makes a declaration in favor of democracy and against revolution and Trotskyism. The delegates sharply attack the government and the CNT.

March 8Strong Nationalist attack in the Guadalajara starts at 7 a.m. Italian troops quickly break the front and, by the end of the day, dominate the heights, from which they can "roll" downhill to Madrid. Their plan is to advance to Madrid via Brihuega and Guadalajara. The attacking force includes 250 tanks, 180 pieces of artillery, 4 motorized machine gun companies, about 70 planes and a large number of trucks.

March 9–March 11The Italians are moving too rapidly for their units to preserve communications and supply lines. A sudden turn in the weather catches the Italian trucks in a snow and sleet storm, just as the Republicans begin to hold firm south of Brihuega and Trijueque. While the Italian planes are grounded by the weather, the Republican air force is operating at considerable risk from airfields outside of the bad weather zone. Low-flying fighters are machine-gunning the stalled truck columns while vintage 1918 Breguets, which had survived the summer air battles, run bombing missions. Vittorio Vidali and Luigi Longo, the political leaders of the IB Garibaldi battalion (Italian volunteers on the Republican side), mount a propaganda campaign intended to destroy the morale of the CTV, pulling loudspeakers up to the lines and dropping leaflets from the air, exhorting the Italian soldiers not to shoot against their brother workers and to leave the Fascists.

March 12The Republican forces start a massive counterattack, with the support of 70 Russian tanks and strong air cover. The CTV has no AA artillery, and it suffers heavily from air attack; most casualties belong to XI Gruppo de Banderas, whose commander (Console Liuzzi) is killed.

March 13Improving weather allows the Italian planes to cover the withdrawal of Division III "Penne Nere" from the Trijueque sector, and the battle is more or less stabilized.

March 18Republican divisions under Cipriano Mera and Enrique Lister with 60 T-26 tanks of the Pavlov Brigade take back Brihuega, causing the collapse of the Italian front and the rout of Division I "Dio lo Vuole", which in turn forces Division IV "Littorio" to abandon its positions. The rout is not stemmed till the morning of next day.

March 19The Guadalajara battle ends, the rout stops short of the bases from which the Nationalist attack started. The Italians admit the loss of 650 killed, 1,994 wounded and some 500 prisoners, plus 90 vehicles and 25 guns. During the retreat of the Nationalists, the Republicans capture large stocks of equipment, and a mass of documentary evidence about the Italian intervention in Spain. The government is hoping to lay this evidence before the Nonintervention committee. The so-called "London Committee" will declare itself incompetent to receive this evidence from any source not represented in the Committee itself. Thereupon the Spanish Foreign Minister, Alvarez del Vayo, will exhibit the documents before the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva.Ernest Hemingway is reporting for United States newspapers from the battle and the war. He collected US$40,000 in the USA to buy ambulances for the Republic. U.S. public opinion tends strongly in

favor of the Republic, but right-wing and anti-Communist forces in the government control U.S. foreign policy.

March 31Nationalist General Mola starts a new offensive in the north with 50,000 troops. After failing in the capture of Madrid, the Nationalist army is concentrating in a campaign against the Basques. In the morning hours the Condor Legion starts a new tactic: massive terror strikes against nonmilitary targets, the annihilation of complete villages. The small town Durango suffers the first attack; some of the first bombs fall into the church during the well attended morning Mass. Fighters fly low and machine-gun the fleeing population. The Nationalists also attack a nearby cloister, killing 15 nuns. Around 300 people die in this air raids, 2,500 are wounded, practically all of them civilians. A second air attack takes place as fire brigades, police and ambulances from Bilbao try to help the victims.

April–June

April 3The CNT declares that the revolution must continue. In opposition to the declaration of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) last month, which was pro-parliamentary democracy and against social revolution, the anarchist CNT declares that "revolution must go on" and that such a policy constitutes the greatest strength against fascism. The anarchists control the province of Aragon and are strong throughout all of Spain.

April 5To tie down Nationalist forces and to help therefore the Basque Army in the north, the Republican Army initiates a big offensive in Brunete.

April 8The PCE and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) sign a pact, committing them to work together. This creates tensions between the socialist unions and Spain's strongest union, the anarchist CNT.General Miaja's troops attack Nationalist positions in Garabitas and Casa de Campo.

April 11Republican army attacks Nationalist positions in Santa Quitera.

April 146th anniversary of the Second Spanish Republic

April 16The Republican government restricts the attributions of war commissars, made under pressure of the Soviet advisors and the PCE.

April 19Decree of Unification: Franco declares the amalgamation of the hard right Falange and the conservative Catholic Carlists, creating the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS). With this Franco is not only the military leader of the rebellion, but also its political leader.

April 23Dissolution of Madrid "Junta de defensa"; the high command of the Republican army, under the ministry of war, resumes command of the frontlines at Madrid.

April 26Bombing of Guernica, the Condor Legion's terror bombing of the city most strongly identified with Basque national identity. Gernika is nearly destroyed by close to three hours of bombing; civilian targets hit and the retreating Basque Army are hit; military factories are specifically not targeted, presumably because the Nationalists intend to capture these intact. Also spared are the Gernikako Arbola, traditional seat of the Biscayne assembly, and the adjoining neoclassical Casa de Juntas, its modern seat. The attack comes on a market day, so the human carnage is vast. Initially proud of the attack, the Nationalists soon realize that they have shocked the world; they soon spread the tale that the retreating Basque Army destroyed the city themselves.

April 30The Nationalist battleship Espana (formerly the Alfonso XIII) hits a mine and sinks off the coast of Santander.

May 1 This year's parade for the international labour day is prohibited in Barcelona. In recent weeks in Barcelona, confrontations between city police and worker-organized Control Patrols (a sort of police militia, in duty since the outbreak of the military rebellion in June 1936), have led to such a tense atmosphere that the regional Catalonian Government prohibits the traditional May Day parade.

May 3 Violent incident at the Barcelona central telephone office. Without knowledge of the Catalan government, the Catalan councilor for public order, the Communist Rodriguez Salas, tries to take control over the city's central telephone office, which has been controlled since the beginning of the war by the CNT and UGT. Salas got this order directly from the Catalan minister for inner affairs, Ayguade, also a Communist. A company of Assault Guards storms the building around 3 p.m., arresting everybody they can. The armed guards on the machine gun post at the stairs on the second floor are not informed in advance, nor is anyone else in the building. When they see armed uniformed men coming up the stairs and hear the yells and shouting from the first floor they shout "stop there and don't come up" at which point a gunfight breaks out. The anarchist

guards resist their attackers and keep control of the upper floors of the building. This skirmish leads to fighting throughout the city. Several hundred barricades are built; Communist-controlled police units occupy high buildings and church towers, shooting at everything that moves. The Communists attack not only the CNT, they also arrest POUM members. The actions are obviously well planned. Some police units and the Republican army stay neutral in the fighting, although army officers, if members of CNT/FAI or POUM, are also arrested if caught at Communist-controlled check points. The police director of Barcelona — a member of the CNT — together with the leader of the Control Patrols comes to the telephone central in an attempt to get the occupying police forces to leave the central peacefully. They have no success, instead Catalonian prime minister Lluis Companys declares that he, like everyone else, was not informed in advance by his minister for internal affairs, but that he agrees all in all with the police action. The radio stations of the CNT and FAI call hourly upon their members to maintain public order and keep calm.

May 4General strike in Barcelona. Gunfights throughout the city.

May 5Companys obtains a fragile truce between the different fighting groups, on the basis of which Rodriguez Salas, now blamed for the police action against the telephone central, has to resign. Communist commandos are still arresting people and the Communist/Socialist official Antoni Sese is murdered, probably by anarchist gunmen.

May 6"Neutral" police troops from Valencia arrive in Barcelona to stop the fighting. The 5,000 Assault Guards (chosen more or less carefully for their political opinions, to ensure a "neutral" force and the trust of both sides) occupy several strategic points throughout the city. The workers abandon the barricades and the telephone central is handed over to the government. When the Assault Guards enter the city and passed by the central building of the anarchist CNT, several hundreds of them salute the black and red Anarchist flag on the building. Nevertheless, reprisals against the anti-Stalinist left are starting throughout the Republic.

May 7The fighting in Barcelona concludes, with more than 500 dead and over 1500 wounded. Many are still under illegal arrest in several Communist-controlled police stations, militia barracks and secret prisons.

May 8In Barcelona, police find the horribly mutilated bodies of 12 murdered young men. Eight of the bodies are so mutilated that they cannot be identified. The four identified bodies belong to young anarchists, illegally arrested together with eight friends on May 4 outside the Communist militia barracks in Barcelona, when they were passing by on a truck with "CNT" written on it. The names of the identified young men are: Cesar Fernández Neri, Jose Villena, Juan Antonio, and Luis Carneras. Police also found the dead bodies of the Italian anarchist professor Berneri and two of his friends, who were arrested during the May incidents by Communist militias.

May 11The Communist parties (PCE, PSUC) accuse the POUM of responsibility for the May incidents in Barcelona. While Spanish prime minister Caballero opposes accusation and the concurrent demand of the immediate removal of the Spanish minister of the Interior, Angel Galarza for failing to uncover the "Trotskyite plot" in Barcelona, he continues to lose power to the communists.

May 13The Communist ministers demand the suppression of the POUM, calling them a Fascist organization working for Franco, an accusation the Communist press has made for several months in propaganda campaigns against political opponents such as the Anarchist councils in Aragon.

May 15Largo Caballero resigns, Juan Negrín becomes prime minister of the Spanish Republic. After fighting against domination of Spain by any one faction — Communist, Anarchist, or left Socialists — Caballero is left alone with no one on his side. Juan Negrín is presented as the man of the hour, leader of the "Government of the Victory", as the press presents him and his cabinet. There are no CNT ministers in this new government.

May 27The new Negrín government accepts the accusations against the POUM and prohibits their newspaper La Batalla.

May 29Daily air raids on Madrid continue, with the Nationalist air force again superior to the Republican. The German airplanes piloted by members of the Condor Legion are technically more advanced than the Russian airplanes used by the Republic. Spanish pilots are invited to Russia for training in Russian airplanes.During an attack by the Republican air force against Nationalist air bases and the port of Ibiza, the German battleship Deutschland enters the area of the port to threaten the Republican planes. Two Russian pilots, Captain Anton Progrorin and Lieutenant Wassily Schmidt, drop their bombs on the Deutschland, causing severe damage on the ship and killing 31 seamen.

May 30

German forces bomb Almería to repress Republican air attacks on the battleship Deutschland. Because of the Deutschland incident, Germany and Italy leave the meetings of the Nonintervention committee. The German battleship Admiral Scheer shells the port and the city of Almería with 200 grenades, causing 19 deaths, 55 wounded, and destroying 150 houses. German and Italian battleships are concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea next to Spain.

June 3Nationalist General Mola dies in an airplane accident. Fidel Dávila takes over as commander of his troops, attacking Bilbao.

June 6The Basque Army loses the last of its air force: the last Basque air fighters are shot down, the culmination of a suicidal resistance against the Condor Legion. Totally outnumbered, the pilots were flying day by day to relieve the soldiers in the trenches, and being destroyed one after the other by the enemy.

June 7Falange official Manuel Hedilla, leader of the left wing of the fascist Falange, is condemned to death by a court martial. He had opposed Franco over aspects of his leadership of the war effort and the administration of the Nationalist occupied zone.

June 11General Paul Lukacs, also known as Zalka Mate, born Bela Fankl, dies during an inspection of the Republican lines at Huesca. His car is hit by an artillery shell, the driver dies immediately. General Lukacs himself is mortally wounded on his right temple and dies several hours later.The "Iron Ring", el cinturón de hierro, is a vast, labyrinthine fortification around Bilbao, consisting of bunkers, tunnels, and fortified trenches in several rings, protected by artillery. The Basque Army had hoped to position themselves in the Iron Ring to resist constant air raids and prevent the enemy from reaching the Basque capital. However, the layout of the Ring was betrayed to the Nationalist army, and since the first days of June the Condor Legion have been able to target so accurately that the Ring is bombed to pieces. Basque President Aquirre comes to the front; he witnesses a horrible event at Mount Urcullu: A dried-out forest just behind part of the Iron Ring is shelled with fire bombs from enemy airplanes and artillery. Along a length of three kilometers, the defenders on this part of the Ring are overcome by the smoke. The attackers break through and occupy the heights near Bilbao, around 10 kilometers from the city. Basque General Gamir and the Basque government decide to organize a slow retreat to Santander.

June 12The Nationalist troops breach the "Iron Ring".

June 13Street fights in Bilbao, uprising of Nationalist supporters. As the army retreats, fifth columnists favoring the Nationalist side start a riot in the city to take over control of strategic buildings and are defeated under heavy losses by anarchist militias (the army is already retreating). Afterwards, Basque police prevent the militias from attacking Bilbao's prisons and killing imprisoned Nationalists.

June 16The POUM is outlawed and its leaders are arrested. The secret police arrest most of the POUM leaders, though its head, Andreu Nin, cannot yet be found.

June 17Nin is arrested in Barcelona. His arrest is not announced in public; Communist agents take him secretly to an illegal prison in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid. Nin is interrogated under torture by NKVD agent Alexander Orlov.An explosion aboard the Republican battleship Jaime I at Cartagena causes about 300 deaths and the total loss of the ship.Bilbao shelled by 20,000 shells. President Aquirre gives the secret order to send 900 Nationalist prisoners over to the enemy, fearing for their lives in the city after the total retreat of the Basque Army. Juan Manuel Epalza leads the prisoners to the Nationalists in the night to June 19.

June 18The Basque government refuses the order to destroy factories in Bilbao that are of value to a war effort. The Republican government want to prevent the Nationalists from gaining control of these plants. The Basque government refuses and is counting on the outbreak very soon of a general European war, in which the Nationalists will be beaten and they can gain back the plants.

June 19The Nationalists enter Bilbao without opposition and begin immediately to distribute food to thousands of women lining the streets. Around 200,000 people flee the city. Thousands try to reach the French coast by sea, but the Nationalist navy is waiting for them in the Bay of Biscay. The bay is full of fugitive's overcrowded boats, some sinking. The ships from the Nonintervention Committee (in the Bay of Biscay, mostly British) are watching the scene. Franco concedes two thirds of the production from the mines and steel factories of the Basque country to his German ally. Hitler needs these resources for his own war preparations.

June 21Soviet agents assassinate the POUM leader Nin.

[edit] July–September

July 6The International Brigades (IBs) under General Lister launch an offensive at Brunete, 25 km west of Madrid, to lift the siege of Madrid and to draw some pressure off of the Basque army in the north. The Republic launches this attack with their best troops and equipment: around 50,000 men of four IBs (mostly the divisions of generals Lister, Kleber and Campesino), 100 modern Russian tanks and 100 Russian planes (about half the Republican air force). The armament of the soldiers themselves is poor: they are supplied with machine guns, grenades and artillery dating from World War I.

July 8Franco sends reinforcements to the Brunete front. With this the Brunete offensive achieves one of it main goals, the relief of the Basque army, giving the Republican troops in the north the possibility of reorganizing their resistance. Franco sends 31 battalions, 7 batteries of artillery and the entire Condor Legion (around 70 planes and several motorized units). The Condor Legion uses their new and improved Bf 109s and Heinkel He 111s, superior to the Russian planes.

July 9IBs take Quijorna.

July 11Republican troops take Villanueva del Pardillo. Nationalist reinforcements reach the Brunete Front, artillery and Condor Legion hammering the Republican troops without pause; both sides are suffering horrible losses.

July 12France opens the border. Angry at the permanent and obvious breaks of the Nonintervention by the Fascist states, France opens its border for several days, allowing a large amount of armaments from several countries to pass into the Spanish Republic.

July 14The Republic bans criticism of the Soviet Union. This censorship is aimed especially against the anarchist and POUMist press and follows a large number of complaints by the Communist party and their press.

July 19The Republican army retreats at Brunete, overwhelmed by the Nationalist forces. Until today the Republic, at terrible cost, held the bulge they created in taking Brunete. During this period, the Nationalists concentrated overhelming artillery and air power on the bulge, drawing upon supplies that had been accumulated for the Santander offensive; the Republican had no uncommitted reserves of men or weapons upon which to draw. Hundreds of retreating Republican soldiers, whose lives could have been saved by retreating while the Republican air force was still able to limit the freedom of the Condor Legion, die under the machine-gun fire of Heinkels and Messerschmitts. Gerda Taro, companion of Robert Capa, is heavily injured by an accident during the retreat.

July 26 End of Battle of Brunete: Republican forces are thrown back to a position only 5 km from where they started the offensive. The Republic lost around 20,000 men and half their air force, the Nationalists lost around 17,000 men.

August 2Nationalist militia leader Hedilla, sentenced to death for opposing General Franco, is imprisoned in Las Palmas. The death sentence against him is suspended by General Franco.

August 6A fierce dogfight over the town of Torrelavega results in the lost of a dozen republican fighters, worsening the aerial support of republicans in the North. ([1])

August 7Private Catholic worship permitted in the Republic.

August 10Consejo de Aragón (Council of Aragon) dissolved. Prime Minister Negrín is working steadily to affirm the authority of his government against all forms of regional and political dissidence. Today the government announces the dissolution of the anarchist-dominated Consejo de Aragón administration which had been recognized by Largo Caballero in December 1936. The Anarchist officials are arrested and the troops of General Lister, mostly Communists, behave like invaders. The revolutionary efforts and changes made by the Anarchists will be undone. The arrested officials will be released in a couple of weeks, after the authority of the council has been broken and central government authority established.

August 13Nationalist under the command of General Dávila start their offensive against Santander, the next big city in their race towards Gijón. The Republican forces were the XIV Corps of the Army (Basque), XV Corps of the Army (Cantabrian), and the XVI and XVII Corps of the Army (Asturian). They lack an airforce and are further weakened by a dispute between the Basque prime minister Aguirre and the commanding general of the army, Gamir Ulibarri.

August 15SIM created; political meetings in Barcelona forbidden. The SIM (Servicio de Inteligencia Militar) gives back the control of secret police activities to the government, rather than leaving it in the hands of Soviet and Communist intelligence organizations. Political meetings are forbidden in Barcelona from now on. The

mixture of regionalism, anarchism, and defeatism, constituted a steady drain of the Republican war effort. Also the situation was unstable after the May incidents.

August 17Socialist Party and Communist Party unity pact. The Communist party had demanded the fusion of the Socialist Party with the Communist Party, as would later happen in all Communist-controlled countries. The government refuses this demand as not appropriate for a democratic country. To put an end to this demand, the government moved the involved parties to declare a unity pact instead, leaving them independent.

August 24The Republican Army, including International Brigades, starts a major offensive at Belchite and Quinto. The intent is to lay the ground for a later recapture of Zaragoza, a pro-Republican city in the hands of the Nationalists. Belchite and Quinto, the most important towns in their area, are defended by around 7,000 Nationalist militiamen, who turn out to be fanatically brave and resourceful defending the towns, involving the Republican troops in heavy streetfights.

August 26The Republican Army at Santander breaks down under continual attack from troops, artillery and around 250 airplanes. Ten thousands of soldiers and civilians flee to the port of Santander. Only a few, among them General Gamir Ulibarri and the leader of the Basque government, Aguirre, can escape over the stormy Bay of Biscay, where overcrowded boats are sinking. In secret consultations the Autonomous Basque Government agreed with the Italian allies of General Franco to surrender in Santoña, east of Santander, on condition that the Basque heavy industry and economy was left untouched. Around 25,000 soldiers, 3,000 officers and several hundred officials of the Basque army and administration surrender themselves and hand over their weapons, the Italians pacting to allow the Basque officers and civil servants to go aboard two British ships waiting in the port. For many Republicans in Spain this event is known as the Treason of Santoña, as many of the Basque soldiers went then to join the Francoist army in the rest of the Northern front[1]

August 27The troops at Santoña are captured by Franco's troops, while embarking to the British ships, Nationalist battle cruisers enter the port and force the Basques to disembark. The Italians withdraw from the port and the Eusko Gudarostea are made to choose between being imprisoned or joining Franco's army. The International Brigades attack at Fuentes de Ebro to establish a third position, besides Belchite and Quinto, from which to retake Zaragoza.

September 1The Republican Army attacks Peñarroya and Córdoba.

September 4–5Nationalists cross the river Deva and invade Asturias from the East; Nationalists capture Llanes.

September 6–22The Battle of El Mazuco; fewer than 5,000 Asturians and Basques hold off more than 33,000 Nationalists and the Condor Legion in and around the Sierra de Cuera.

September 7Battle of Cape Cherchell between the Nationalist heavy cruiser Baleares and the Republican light cruisers Libertad and Méndez Núñez. In the early morning hours Baleares unexpectedly meets a Republican convoy consisting of several merchant ships escorted by Republican battleships. The biggest danger for the convoy is not the Baleares itself, but Nationalist airplanes who might approach after their sighting. While the convoy flees, along with most of the escorting ships, Libertad and Méndez Núñez engage Baleares. After losing contact with each other, they meet again in the afternoon, and Libertad hits Baleares twice. While Baleares then waits for her sister-ship Canarias, the retreating Republican ships are attacked, ineffectively, by several Nationalist airplanes, including Italian airplanes from the Non-Intervention-Committee blockade on Spain.

September 22The Nationalist VI Brigade of Navarre overruns Peñas Blancas. The battle of Sella begins.

September 27Solchaga's forces enter Ribadesella.

October–December

October 1Nationalist forces occupy Covadonga.The new main board of the UGT expels their member and former prime minister Francisco Largo Caballero. Caballero is traveling the country holding lectures against communist synchronizing and Stalinism. The Cortez, the Spanish parliament, also expels parliamentarians known to be close to Caballero. Prime Minister Negrn is not willing or not able to back Caballero.

October 5 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States condemns the 'Nazi-Fascist aggressors' in Spain.

October 10 The Navarrese Brigades enter Cangas de Onis.International Brigades and Republican army launch new attacks in the South Ebro region.

October 13 The Madrid council of socialist parties, unions, etc., unhappy with the overwhelming influence of the PCE (Spanish Communist Party) on the Spanish government, confronts the Spanish Cortez over the expulsion of "Caballeristas".

October 17The Consejo Soberano decides to evacuate Asturias. The Nationalists are gaining absolute control of Asturias and closing in on Gijón. Asturian officials, their families and members of the Republican army have to be evacuated quickly. Many Asturian fighters organize a guerilla campaign from the high and inaccessible mountains. With memories of the 1934 workers' revolt and the its bloody suppression still fresh, Asturian villages empty in terror at the approach of the Nationalists. The Asturian miners practice a scorched earth policy, and from the ruins of their houses often fight to the death with dynamite charges.Largo Caballero arrested during a speech in the Madrid cinema 'Pardinas', in which he criticized the PCE; he is placed under house arrest.

October 21The fall of Gijón. Nationalists enter Gijón and plunder the city for days; death sentences over Asturians are so frequently imposed and carried out that the Nationalists themselves call their jurisdiction "the machine gun". Rapes and murders are tolerated by the Nationalists leadership for several days. There is no reliable count of the thousands of civilians murdered during these days.

October 30The Republican government abandons Valencia for Barcelona.

December 15Start of the Battle of Teruel.

The Bombing of Guernica

The bombing of Guernica (April 26, 1937) was an aerial attack on the Basque town of Guernica, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths during the Spanish Civil War. The raid by planes of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and the Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria was called Operation Rügen. The Basque government reported 1,654 people killed, but modern research suggests between 200 to 400 civilians died.[1][2] Western countries viewed Guernica as an example of terror bombing and gained the impression that the Luftwaffe was committed to that tactic.[2] The bombing was the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso.

Guernica

Guernica (Gernika in Basque, and officially called Gernika-Lumo since 1983) had long been a centre of great significance to the Basque people. Traditionally, the important administrative body, the Biscayne assembly, had met in the town under an oak tree, the Gernikako Arbola; in more recent years, the assembly has continued to meet in Guernica at the Casa de Juntas—house of the historical archive of the Basque Country.

Autonomous Basque Country.

Military situation

Advances by Nationalist troops led by Generalísimo Francisco Franco had eaten into the territory controlled by the Republican Government. The Basque Government, an autonomous regional administrative body formed by Basque nationalists and leftists, sought to defend Biscay and parts of Guipuzcoa with its own light Basque Army. At the time of the raid, Guernica represented a focal strategic point for the Republican forces. It stood between the Nationalists and capture of Bilbao. Bilbao was seen as key to bringing the war to a conclusion in the north of Spain. Guernica also was the path of retreat for the Republicans from the northeast of Biscay.

Prior to the Condor Legion raid, the town had not been directly involved in the fighting, although Republican forces were in the area; 23 battalions of Basque army troops were at the front east of Guernica. The town also housed two Basque army battalions, although it had no static air defenses, and it was thought that no air cover could be expected due to recent losses of the Republican Air Force.[3]

Market day

Guernica had a nominal population of around five thousand and the town is thought to have housed numerous refugees who were fleeing into Republican controlled territory. The raid also took place on a Monday, ordinarily a market day in Guernica. Generally speaking a market day would have attracted people from the surrounding areas to Guernica to conduct business.

There is still historical debate over whether a market was being held that particular Monday: the Basque government had, prior to the bombing, ordered

a general halt to markets to prevent blockage of roads, and restricted large meetings. There is common[who?] doubt, however, that the directive had been received by all areas, including Guernica, at the time of the raid. It is accepted by most historians that Monday "...would have been a market day".[4]

Luftwaffe doctrine, 1933-42

James Corum states that a prevalent view about the Luftwaffe and its Blitzkrieg operations was that it had a doctrine of terror bombing, in which civilians were deliberately targeted in order to break the will or aid the collapse of an enemy. After the bombing of Guernica in 1937 and of Rotterdam in 1940, it was commonly assumed that terror bombing was a part of Luftwaffe doctrine. During the interwar period the Luftwaffe leadership officially rejected the concept of terror bombing, and confined the air arms use to battlefield support of interdiction operations. The Luftwaffe did not practice "terror bombing" until 1942.[5]

The vital industries and transportation centers that would be targeted for shutdown were valid military targets. It could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. German legal scholars of the 1930s carefully worked out guidelines for what type of bombing was permissible under international law. While direct attacks against civilians were ruled out as "terror bombing", the concept of attacking vital war industries-and probable heavy civilian casualties and breakdown of civilian morale-was ruled as acceptable.[6]

General Walther Wever compiled a doctrine known as The Conduct of the Aerial War in 1935. In this document, which the Luftwaffe adopted, the Luftwaffe rejected Giulio Douhet's theory of terror bombing. Terror bombing was deemed to be "counter-productive", increasing rather than destroying the enemies will to resist.[7] Such bombing campaigns were regarded as diversion from the Luftwaffe's main operations, destruction of the enemy armed forces.[8]

According to Corum, the bombings of Guernica, Rotterdam and Warsaw were tactical missions in support of military operations and were not intended as strategic terror attacks.[9]

The raid

The Condor Legion was entirely under the command of the Nationalist forces. The order to perform the raid was transmitted to the commanding officer of the Condor Legion, Oberstleutnant Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, from the Spanish Command.[10]

Mission planning

While questions are often raised over the intent of the raid, the diaries of the planner and commander of the mission made public in the 1970s indicate that an attack on Guernica represented part of a wider Nationalist advance in the area and was also designed to support Franco's forces already in place.[11]

It has been said[citation needed] that Richthofen, understanding the strategic importance of the town in the advance on Bilbao and restricting Republican retreat, ordered an attack against the roads and bridge in the Renteria suburb. Destruction of the bridge was considered the primary objective since the raid was to operate in conjunction with Nationalist troop movements against Republicans around Marquina. Secondary objectives were restriction of Republican traffic/equipment movements and the prevention of bridge repair via the creation of rubble around the bridge.

To meet these objectives, two Heinkel He 111s, one Dornier Do 17, eighteen Ju 52 Behelfsbomber , and three Italian SM.79s were assigned for the mission. These were armed with medium high explosive bombs (250 kg), light explosive bombs (50 kg) and incendiaries (1 kg).[12] The ordnance load for the twenty four bombers was twenty-two tons in total. A follow up to the bombing raid was also planned for the next day involving Messerschmitt Bf 109 raids in the area. The order was noted on April 26 by Richthofen as:

Starting at once: A/88 and J/88 for free fighter bomber mission on the streets near Marquina-Guernica-Guerriciaz. K/88 (after Returning from Guerriciaz), VB/88 and Italians for the streets and the bridge (including suburb) east of Guernica. There we have to close the traffic, if we finally want a decision against personal and material of the enemy. Vigon agrees to move his troops for blocking all streets south of Guernica. If this succeeds, we will have trapped the enemy around Marquina.[13]

First five waves of raid

Wave one arrived over Guernica around 1630 hrs. A Dornier Do 17, coming from the south, dropped approximately twelve 50-kilogram bombs.

The three Italian SM.79s had taken off from Soria at 1530 hrs with orders to "bomb the road and bridge to the east of Guernica, in order to block the enemy retreat" during wave two. Their orders explicitly stated not to bomb the town itself.[14] During a single sixty second pass over the town, from north to south, the SM.79's dropped thirty-six light explosive bombs (50 kg). Vidal says that at this point, the damage to the town was "relatively limited...

confined to a few buildings", including the church of San Juan and headquarters of the Izquierda Republicana ("Republican Left") political party.

Waves three through five of the first attack then occurred, ending around 1800 hrs. The third wave consisted of a Heinkel He 111 escorted by five Aviazione Legionaria Fiat fighters led by Capitano Corrado Ricci. Waves four and five were carried out by German twin-engined planes. Vidal notes:

"If the aerial attacks had stopped at that moment, for a town that until then had maintained its distance from the convulsions of war, it would have been a totally disproportionate and insufferable punishment. However, the biggest operation was yet to come."[14]

Subsequent raids

Earlier, around noon that day, the Junkers Ju 52s of the Condor Legion had carried out a mission around Guerriciaz (Gerrikaraiz). Following this they landed to rearm and then took off to complete the raid on Guernica. The attack would run from north to south, coming from the Bay of Biscay and up the course of the Urdaibai estuary.

The 1st and 2nd Squadrons of the Condor Legion took off at about 1630 hrs, with the 3rd Squadron taking off from Burgos a few minutes later. They were escorted from Vitoria by a squadron of Fiat fighters and Messerschmitt Bf 109Bs of Lutzow squadron, for a total of twenty-nine planes.

From 1830 to 1845 hrs, each of the three bomber squadrons attacked in a formation of three Ju 52s abreast — an attack front of about 150 metres. At the same time, and continuing for around fifteen minutes after the bombing wave, the Bf 109Bs and Heinkel He 51 biplanes[citation needed] strafed the roads leading out of town, adding to civilian casualties.

Outcome

Luftwaffe 1 kg incendiary bomb dated 1936.

The bombing shattered the city's defenders' will to resist, allowing the Nationalists to overrun it. They faced little resistance and took complete control of the town by April 29.[dubious – discuss] The attacks destroyed the majority of Guernica. Three quarters of the city's buildings were reported completely destroyed, and most others sustained damage. Among infrastructure spared were the arms factories Unceta and Company and Talleres de Guernica along with the Assembly House Casa de Juntas and the Gernikako Arbola. Richthofen recorded that the bridge was not destroyed or even hit during the raid and the mission was considered a failure as a result, although the rubble and chaos that the raid created severely restricted the movement of Republican forces.

Casualties

The number of civilian casualties has been debated and is a matter of propaganda.

A recent study by Raul Arias Ramos in his book La Legion Condor en La Guerra Civil states that there were 250 dead; and the study by Joan Villarroya and J.M. Sole i Sabate in their book España en Llamas. La Guerra Civil desde el Aire states that there were 300 dead[15] These sources have been cited by historians such as Stanley Payne and Antony Beevor as well as media such as the BBC and El Mundo.

See also the Bombs to casualty ratio next subsection.

After Nationalist forces led by General Emilio Mola's forces took the town three days later, no effort to establish an accurate number seems to have been made. The Basque government, in the confused aftermath of the raids, said 1,654 were dead and 889 wounded. These figures were adopted over the years by some commentators outside of the conflict as accurate.[16] These figures are represented in a majority of the literature from that period and up to the 1970s, although they now are disputed.

The Nationalist junta gave a patently false description of the events (claiming that the destruction had been caused by Republicans burning the town as they fled) and seem to have made no effort to establish an accurate number.[citation

needed] At an extreme low, the Francoist newspaper Arriba claimed, on January 30, 1970, that there had only been twelve deaths.

Bombs to casualty ratio

Issues with the originally released figures were raised following an appraisal of large scale bombing raids during the Second World War. A comparison of the Guernica figures with the figures of dead resulting from air attacks on major European cities during the Second World War exposed an anomaly. It came to be posited[who?] that the figures for Guernica were somewhat inflated. Corum uses the figure of forty tons of bombs dropped on Guernica, and calculates that if the figure of 1654 dead is accepted as accurate then the raid caused 41 fatalities per ton of bombs. By way of comparison the Dresden air

raid during February 1945 which saw 3,431 tons of bombs dropped on the city caused fewer deaths per ton of bombs: 7.2–10.2 fatalities per ton of bombs dropped. Corum, who ascribes the discrepancy between the high death toll reported at Guernica and in other cases such as Rotterdam to propaganda, goes on to say that for Guernica:

...a realistic estimate on the high side of bombing effectiveness (7–12 fatalities per ton of bombs) would yield a figure of perhaps 300–400 fatalities in Guernica. This is certainly a bloody enough event, but reporting that a small town was bombed with a few hundred killed would not have had the same effect as reporting that a city was bombed with almost 1,700 dead"[1]

Views on the attack

The attack has entered the lexicon of war as an example of terror bombing. It is also remembered by the surviving inhabitants and people of Basque as such. Due to the lingering divisions of the conflict, the event remains a source of emotion and public recrimination.

Military intentions

A commonly held viewpoint is that the involvement of the Luftwaffe in the Civil War constituted a proving ground for troops employed later during World War II. This view is supported by the comments of then Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials:

"I urged him [Adolf Hitler] to give support [to Franco] under all circumstances, firstly, in order to prevent the further spread of communism in that theater and, secondly, to test my young Luftwaffe at this opportunity in this or that technical respect.[17]

Carpet bombing

Alongside the potential for gains in combat experience it is also thought that various strategic initiatives were first tried as part of Luftwaffe involvement in the conflict. Theories on strategic bombing were first developed by the Luftwaffe with the first exhibition of "carpet bombing" in the September 1937 Asturias campaign. Comparisons between the raid on Guernica and the fate of other cities during the conflict are also telling. As the fighting progressed into March 1938 Italian pilots flying as Aviazione Legionaria under Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle were involved in thirteen raids against Barcelona involving fire and gas bombs.

The use of "carpet bombing" was becoming standard practice by Condor Legion personnel. To illustrate this point, military historian James S. Corum cites an excerpt from a 1938 Condor Legion report on this use of this tactic:

We have had notable results in hitting the targets near the front, especially in bombing villages which hold enemy reserves and headquarters. We have had great success because these targets are easy to find and can be thoroughly destroyed by carpet bombing."[1]

On the Spanish side, threats made prior to the raid by General Emilio Mola to "end the war in the North of Spain quickly" and threats apparently made against Republicans in Bilbao afterwards implied a blunting of strategy and that air raids were effective and set to become an increasingly favorite instrument in the Nationalist war effort.

Other theories

Vidal outlines some other commonly voiced theories on the raid:[18]

The lack of reconnaissance missions before the bombing suggests to him that the Legion intended the destruction of the town rather than a specific target. Reconnaissance missions had been ordered as a prerequisite before raids around built-up areas on January 6, 1937. The intent of the order was to minimize civilian deaths and it had been issued by Mola, then Supreme Commander of the Air Force Salamanca.

Since the raid appears to have ignored Mola's earlier plans for reconnaissance prior to the raid, Vidal concludes that Richthofen must have received direct orders from Mola or Franco.

According to Nicholas Rankin (Telegram from Guernica, Faber and Faber, London 2003, page 121):

It was Von Richthoven himself who selected the mix of blast, splinter and fire bombs for this particular operation, agreed at a military conference in Burgos the night before. Von Richthoven wrote in his diary: As it was a complete success of our 250 kg (explosive) and ECB1 (incendiary) bombs.

In Vidal's view, such a mission would have typically used 10-kilogram bombs, and no incendiaries. Vidal also argues that the 22-ton load-out used in the raid represented a relatively large quantity for an attack on the stated primary objective. By way of

comparison, Vidal indicates sources which give total tonnage of bombs dropped on the front during the first day of the offensive as sixty-six.[19]

Vidal argues that the Italians had been trying to obtain a separate peace agreement with the Basque nationalists and were not inclined to jeopardize those efforts by deliberately inflicting civilian casualties.[20]

Media reporting

The first English language media reports of the destruction in Guernica appeared two days later. George Steer, a reporter for The Times, who was covering the Spanish Civil War from inside the country, authored the first full account of events. Steer's reporting set the tone for much of the subsequent reportage. Steer pointed out the clear German complicity in the action.[21] The evidence of three small bomb cases stamped with the German Imperial Eagle made clear that the official German position of neutrality in the Civil War and the signing of a Non-Intervention Pact was a sham.[citation needed] Steer's report was syndicated to the New York Times and then worldwide, generating widespread shock, outrage, and fear.[citation needed] There was coverage in other national and international editions also:

The Times ran the story every day for over a week after the attack.[citation needed]

The New York Post ran a cartoon showing Hitler brandishing a bloody sword labelled "air raids" as he towered over heaps of civilian dead littering "the Holy City of Guernica"[citation needed] and

The US Congressional Record referred to poison gas having been dropped on Guernica. This did not actually occur.[22]

During debates in the British Parliament Guernica was also inaccurately described as an "open city" which contained no military targets.[citation needed]

Overall, the impression generated was one which fed the widely held public fear of air attack which had been building throughout the 1930s, a fear which accurately anticipated that in the next war the aerial forces of warring nations would be able to wipe whole cities off the map.[citation needed]

Reaction in Spain

Nationalists claimed that Guernica had been deliberately burned and dynamited by fleeing Republican forces, which had been using the city to store ammunition and explosives; it was also claimed that reports of the extent of the bombing had been exaggerated and were atrocity propaganda.[citation needed]

Although not denying that the air raid had happened, foreign journalists such as the distinguished writer Brian Crozier (at that time a Republican sympathiser) who were the first to arrive on the scene, believed that the effects of the bombing had been exaggerated by judicious dynamiting on the part of the Republican garrison.[citation needed] While Republican forces had been involved in pursuing a scorched earth strategy in the past, (notably in Irun, which was dynamited), Steer's reporting was supported by the reporting of other journalists who witnessed the same levels of destruction.[23] The view that civilian casualties had been kept to a minimum was not widely accepted.[citation

needed] The delay in arrival of firemen from Bilbao and their supposed inaction in containing the fires was also reported.[24]

[edit] Legacy

Steer's reports on the horrors of Guernica were greatly appreciated by the Basque people. Steer had made their plight known.[citation needed] The Basque authorities later honored his memory by naming a street in Guernica Kale George Steer, and commissioning a bronze bust with the dedication:

"George Steer, journalist, who told the world the story about Guernica."[25]

Despite Francoist efforts to play down the reports, they proliferated and led to widespread international outrage at the time.[citation needed]

Picasso's painting

Basque nationalists still[26] demand that the painting be brought to the town, as can be seen in the slogan under this mural in Guernica.Main article: Guernica (painting)

Guernica quickly became a world-renowned symbol of civilian suffering resulting from conflict and inspired Pablo Picasso to adapt one of his existing paintings into Guernica.[27] The Spanish Republican Government had commissioned a work from him for the Spanish pavilion at the Paris International Exposition. Though he accepted the invitation to display a piece, he remained uninspired until he heard of the bombing of Guernica. The display of Picasso's work at the Republican Spain Pavilion during the 1937 World's Fair reflected the impact on public consciousness. The painting went on to become a symbol indicative of Basque nationalism during the Spanish transition to democracy. Today it resides in Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to

the Security Council room. It was placed there as a reminder of the horrors of war.

German apology

Recrimination for the activities of the Condor Legion and shame at the involvement of German citizens in the bombing of Guernica surfaced following German reunification in the 1990s. In 1997, the 60th anniversary of Operation Rügen, then German President Roman Herzog wrote to survivors apologizing on behalf of the German people and state for Germany's role in the Civil War in general. Herzog said he wished to extend "a hand of friendship and reconciliation" on behalf of all German citizens.[28] This sentiment was later ratified by members of the German Parliament who went on to legislate in 1998 for the removal of all former Legion members' names from associated German military bases.

70th Anniversary

On the 70th anniversary of the bombing, the president of the Basque Parliament met with politicians, Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and deputies from Hiroshima, Volgograd, Pforzheim, Dresden, Warsaw, and Oswiecim (Auschwitz), as well as several survivors from Guernica itself. During the meeting they showed images and film clips of the bombing, took time to remember the 250 dead, and read the Guernica Manifesto for Peace, pleading that Guernica become a "World Capital for Peace".[29][30]

Picasso's "Secret" Guernica *On April 26th 1937, a massive air raid by the German Luftwaffe on the Basque town of Guernica in Northern Spain shocked the world. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the raid which became a major incident of the Spanish Civil War.

The bombing prompted Picasso to begin painting his greatest masterpiece... Guernica.

The painting became a timely and prophetic vision of the Second World War and is now recognised as an international icon for peace.

Despite the enormous interest the painting generated in his lifetime, Picasso obstinately refused to explain Guernica's imagery. Guernica has been the subject of more books than any other work in modern art and it is often described as..."the most important work of art of the twentieth century", yet its meanings have to this day eluded some of the most renowned scholars.

Four years research into an unauthenticated Picasso drawing of a crucifixion, dated 12 May, 1934, has provided a wealth of new information about Picasso's use of symbolism. The study has also led to some remarkable discoveries about Guernica... listed here are a few examples.

The images are being shown for the first time. They have never been seen in any prior publication about Guernica, or its creator.

Guernica's "Secret" Harlequins

"Experts," now agree that Picasso practised a form of art-magic, linked to this was Picasso's Harlequin.

In 1932 another famous twentieth century magician, C.G.Jung... recognised Picasso's Harlequin as an underworld character, a master of disguise associated with the occult. Picasso identified with Harlequin whom he also associated with Christ due to the character's mystical power over death. In Picasso's "secret" Guernica, he has invoked a number of unseen Harlequins to overcome the forces of death represented in the painting.

This is the largest Harlequin, which is cleverly hidden behind the surface imagery.

The outline of the face can be seen in the lines and background tones of the composition, the eyes and the tuft of hair to the right of the face are clearly visible.

The Harlequin appears to be crying a diamond tear for the victims of the bombing. The diamond is one of the Harlequin's symbols and in Picasso's work it is a personal signature.

Painters often rotate or invert paintings to check balance and stability in the composition.

Picasso knew from this and from his Cubist experiments that sideways or inverted imagery could have a powerful subliminal effect on the viewer and give a work hidden meanings and magical secrecy.

The next Harlequin is easily recognisable as the painting is rotated 90 degrees to the right.

From this viewpoint, Harlequin's hat becomes obvious as the figure appears to look upwards at the sky as if in reference to the bombing.

This is another Harlequin, seen by rotating the painting 90 degrees to the left.

The outline of the face and traditional hat and mask make him identifiable. Picasso hid many magical

images in his work by incorporating them sideways or upside down. Sometimes, as in this case, he placed other images over the top as camouflage.

This fourth Harlequin has been concealed by inversion, which is a common technique of encryption in Hermetic magic.

This Harlequin is identifiable by his triangular hat and serrated collar. He is constructed from components of Punch and Judy theatre. The hat is peaked with a crocodile's jaw and his square mouth and face when viewed the right way up takes on the form of a traditional puppeteer's theatre.

The Crocodile and the Harlequin are common characters in Punch and Judy shows, their inclusion in Guernica stems from Picasso's love of puppetry which began before the turn of the century in Barcelona where he saw many such shows and even helped produce them with Pere Romeu at Els Quatre Ghats . The figure falling across the Harlequin's face which is often assumed to be a woman, in fact bears a strong resemblance to Picasso, who appears to be identifying with the victims of the bombing.

The next Harlequin image is again inverted and can be seen to the right of the previous Harlequin.

He is identifiable from his patchwork costume and triangular hat and appears to be kneeling on the ground as if watching the puppet show taking place opposite.

Guernica's Hidden Images of Death

The preoccupying theme of Guernica is of course death; reinforcing this, in the centre of the painting is a hidden skull which dominates the viewer's subliminal impressions.

The skull is shown sideways and has been ingeniously overlaid onto the body of the horse, which is also a death symbol. The skull's mechanical appearance seems appropriate to the modern weaponry used in the 1937 bombing. Picasso often hid one or more related symbols within a particular image as seen here.

Below the dying horse in the centre of the painting is a concealed bull's head contained in the outline of

the horse's buckled front leg. Its location infers that that it is plunging its horns into the horse's belly from below... the goring of the horse in the bullfight was a favourite subject for Picasso and has strong sexual overtones.

This image, like the concealed caricature of Hitler (not discussed in this article) was first identified by Mel Becraft, the inspired Guernica scholar and author of "Picasso's Guernica, Images within Images" (1987, 2nd Ed.)

All these findings have come about from studying the "unauthenticated" 1934 Picasso drawing.

* Published in the interests of cultural and artistic understanding. © Mark Harris 1995-6