Nazis test new air force, Luftwaffe, on Basque town of Guernica
During the Spanish Civil War the German military tests its powerful new air forcethe Luftwaffeon the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain.Although the independence-minded Basque region opposed General Francisco Francos Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War Guernica itself was a small rural city of only 5000 inhabitants that declared nonbelligerence in the conflict.With Francos approval the cutting-edge German aircraft began their unprovoked attack at 430 p.m.the busiest hour of the market day in Guernica.
For three hours the German planes poured down a continuous and unopposed rain of bombs and gunfire on the town and surrounding countryside.One-third of Guernicas 5000 inhabitants were killed or wounded and fires engulfed the city and burned for days.The indiscriminate killing of civilians at Guernica aroused world opinion and became a symbol of fascist brutality.Unfortunately by 1942 all major participants in World War II had adopted the bombing innovations developed by the Nazis at Guernica and by the wars end in 1945 millions of innocent civilians had perished under Allied and Axis air raids.
