IA- Evidence of research

Topic: How the bombing of Guernica changed the nature of war 

Guernica and Total War. author: Ian Patterson

Notes from Chapter 1:

The bombing of Guernica became the center of international attention, and has remained so because of its large impact. 

- It was the first time a unmilitarised town in Europe had been subjugated to that type of attack- (pg 17 good quote)

- General Franco's rebel forces denied all responsibility claiming it was the Basque republicans (pg 17)

- Became a huge event in the press, who used pictures for propaganda

Franco would not allow this bombing to be mentioned until 1960 (pg 20)

The German Condor Legion was responsible for the bombings

A few weeks prior, Durango had been bombed, as a result about 3,000 refugees fled from Durango to Guernica. Guernica alone had a population of 7,000 (pg 24)

At 4:30 pm the air-raid warning went off, and 6 bombes were dropped on the town (26)

For 15 or 20 minutes nothing happened, so people began coming out of their shelters when more planes came through, and dropped more  bombs, grenades, and shooting people with machine guns. Then, around 5 pm larger bombers came. These planes bombed Guernica in waves 20 minutes apart for about two hours (27-28)

why Guernica? Guernica was the symbolic city for the Basque region, and held many Basque historic records (30) and to demoralize the Basque popultion (good quote 31)

Germany denied all involvement, and for awhile the world believed them (35)

Good first hand account quoted on pages 43-44 and 47

The Guernica Generation author: Dorothy Legarreta

Chapter 1 Notes: War and Evacuation in Euzkadi

- good background information

In the 1930' s many Fascist leaders began to gain power, and Germany turned her attention towards spain (9)

After the Civil War, food became scarce and extremely expensive  (21) which made living conditions hard the Basques

1937- Franco put a blockade on the Basque coast, some German ships were part of this blockade (23)

Soon bombings began happening throughout the Bsaque states, in one state 3,000 bombs were dropped in 7 months (29)

Bombing of Guernica (same book)

-for the 1st time, small incendiary bombs were used with aerial bombs (32)

no troops were stationed in Guernica, and no anti-aircraft protection

the Spanish government did almost nothing to help the Basque regions