Guernica : April 26th 1937
Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:43 pm
70 years ago , 16 h 30 pm , Guernica was bombed by German Do17 and Ju52 planes (escort provided by Italians) of Legion Condor led by Wolfram Von Richtofen.
Casualties : Several hundred civilians killed.
Of course Guernica wasn't a strategic objective.
Von Richtofen recognized later he was doing " a bit too much" at that occasion.
World discovered bloody effects of "strategic bombing" for civilians , and unfortunatly other raids will follow : Coventry , Rotterdam, Warsaw, Dresden, Tokyo for the bloodiest.
As Curtiss LeMay said , after war , and thinking of Tokyo Bombardement of March 1945 " Should we have lost the war , I would have been judged as a war criminal ".
Of course he wasn't.....Vae Victis !!
Casualties : Several hundred civilians killed.
Of course Guernica wasn't a strategic objective.
Von Richtofen recognized later he was doing " a bit too much" at that occasion.
World discovered bloody effects of "strategic bombing" for civilians , and unfortunatly other raids will follow : Coventry , Rotterdam, Warsaw, Dresden, Tokyo for the bloodiest.
As Curtiss LeMay said , after war , and thinking of Tokyo Bombardement of March 1945 " Should we have lost the war , I would have been judged as a war criminal ".
Of course he wasn't.....Vae Victis !!
