A brief explanation to say that I'm a Basque and interested mainly in all cultural things related to Basque.
Idiazabal is also the name of a little town that gives name to all the Basque cheese. I was born in it and its mountains were location of my first games.
This historical and sacred Basque town, which was bombed by fascist bomber aircraft on 26 April 1937, immediately became a symbol of pain and the tragedy of war. In part, this was thanks to the famous painting by Pablo Picasso, which was painted at the request of the Republican government in order to be exhibited at the international exposition at Paris the same year (at present the painting is located at Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid).
It was a Monday - a market day - when at about 4.15 p.m. the first wave of bombers dropped their lethal charges over the town. The tragedy would not finish until three hours latter. Even now, the number and type of aircraft used in the attack is not known for certain. It supposed that there were about 40 aeroplanes, whose types included the Heinkel 111 bomber, Junkers 52, Dornier 17, probably Dornier 57 reconnaissance aircraft, and small Heinkel 51 fighter aircraft (these were all German types). Italian aeroplanes - the Savoia 79 and the Fiat CR 32 fighter - were also involved. It is possible that the new German fighter aircraft, the Messerschmitt Bf 109B, was also tested in the attack, which was unnecessary because the village did not have any kind of defences.
In total, about 30 tons of bombs were dropped that day, including incendiary bombs, They killed at least 1,650 people (this figure was given by the Basque government), and about 300 buildings were damaged. The strange fact is that no strategic targets, namely the barrio de Renteria bridge and the Unceta arms factory were damaged. The reason for this may have been explained by the retired Italian general Paolo Mocci, who in 1937 was captain of one of the squadrons that took part in the attack. In 1999, Mocci told the Spanish newspaper El País that in fact the attack aimed to cause the population to rebel against the war.
On 29 April, Guernica was captured by Francoist troops, including some Italian units. Knowing the impact that news of the destruction could have on international opinion, the rebel leadership decided to blame the damage on the Basque soldiers, alleging that in their retreat they had set fire to the town. Today, this suggestion is only believed by the most nostalgic and recalcitrant neo-Nazis it. On 27 April 1997, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Roman Herzog, publicly recognised (through his ambassador in Madrid, Henning Wegener) the German involvement in the destruction of Guernica, even asking the survivors for forgiveness.[1]
Durango is an historic town in Biscay, which suffered in particular from effects of rebel air raids. The Bombing of Durango was the first attack in Europe against civilians. On 31 March 1937, after the failure of the rebels in their offensive on Alcarreñas, the attack planned by General Franco to put an end to the northern front began. In order to do this, it was decided that all available firepower be used, as much from the air as the ground, with the objective of undermining the Basques' morale and to cause maximum damage to the town's population, with no distinction between civilians or soldiers. On the same day Durango's population suffered a terrible attack, which according to sources, was led by Italian planes. The death toll reached at least 353 people, although more later died from injuries. In the chapel of Santa Susana alone, fourteen nuns died, and in the church of Santa María, bombs killed the priest who was celebrating mass, Father Morilla, as well as numerous parishioners. Although Durango possessed a significant arms factory, it seems that the objective was nothing other than to terrorise the civil population of the rearguard, which forms a new element in modern military tactics already employed against Madrid and other cities in the South. During the following days, three successive attacks on the town left the factory intact, but caused yet more civilian deaths.
File:IMG0044.JPGImage 1 of The Basque provinces : their political state, scenery, and inhabitants ; with adventures amongst the Carlists and Christinos / by Edward Bell Stephens[5]
