The bombing of Guernica in Spain by the German Condor Legion, on 26 April 1937, was one of the first uses of modern aircraft to bomb a town. The bombing of Guernica captured the world’s imagination.

The headline of The New York Times the next day clumsily covered what had happened. Perhaps there were no words then for what the German Condor Legion had done. Journalist G.L. Steer struggled to do the impossible, to describe to his readers something that no one had ever seen before and perhaps their imaginations would run riot. His headline, in many ways tells it all.

Historic Basque Town Wiped Out; Rebel Fliers Machine-Gun Civilians

Waves of German-Type Planes Fling Thousands of Bombs and Incendiary Projectiles on Guernica, BehindLines, as Priests Bless Peasants Filling Town on Market Day

G.L. Steer saw, arriving the day after the air raid, had the events described to him by the survivors, and clearly people from the Republican propaganda ministry, judging from the whoppers that were contained in his news report. Luckily, or probably not, I live in a world where those sites are common place. Let me tell you what happened leading up to that day, and on that day.

Tag words: Antony Beevor; James S Corum; Pablo Picasso; Condor Legion; Guernica; Spanish Civil War; Wolfram von Richthofen; Nationalists; Republicans; Hague Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land; Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War;Heinkel 111; Francisco Franco; Savoia Marchetti SM-79 bombers;