26 april 1937: bombardement Guernica door Duitsers = eerste waarbij een stad (dus een burgerlijk doelwit) zo volledig wordt vernield

What happened at Guernica on the 26 April 1937?

Aerial bombing, carried out by aircraft of the German Condor Legion, destroyed the entire town. The bombardment began at around 4.30pm, and according to most accounts, the town was struck first by explosive bombs and then by incendiaries. There were also reports of people being machine-gunned by the escorting fighter planes as they fled from their houses. One of the most emotive events of the Spanish Civil War, and the inspiration for one of Pablo Picasso's best-known paintings, the destruction of Guernica was the first occasion in which a town was wiped out by aerial bombardment.



Sources:

Historical dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 edited by James W.Cortada. - Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982.ISBN 0-313-22054-9

The day Guernica died by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts. - London:

Hodder and Stoughton, 1975. ISBN 0-340-19043-4 : £4.95

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/books/bookfaqs22.htm (20030916)

zie ook het protest van Emile Vandervelde (19950071: 246)