| Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) created the grey, black, and white oil painting Guernica, on a canvas 11 feet 5 inches (3.49 meters) tall and 25 feet 6 inches (7.76 meters) across in 1937. Aktion Rügen (“Operation Reproval”), the aerial bombing of the town of Guernica (Gernika in Basque), was carried out on April 26, 1937, by the Luftwaffe’s (“Nazi German Air Force”) Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria. The objective of the raid was a tactical 1; to interdict the retreat of the Basque militia on the 3 roads from the East and Southeast converging in or near Rentería and on across the bridge linking the village with Guernica, presupposing that the ground forces would block, as agreed, the smaller passages towards the South. The Condor Legion bombed Guernica as a routine tactical air operation. The attack burned about half of the town and killed approximately 300 people, mostly civilians. The facts about the bombing of Guernica bear little resemblance to the myth. Guernica was a small town of 5 to 7,000 people, and not a “city” as described by the media of the day. In April 1937 it was located just behind the front lines of the Basque Army. Its importance at the time was clear on the map. The Basque Army was being pressed hard by the Nationalist forces, and Guernica had the Rentería bridge and an important road intersection that was vital for the withdrawal of 23 battalions of Basque Army troops located East of Guernica. If the route through Guernica could be closed, the Basque forces would be hindered in their retreat to the heavily fortified defenses around Bilbao and could be cut off and destroyed. At least 2 Basque Army battalions were stationed in Guernica, the 10th Loyola Battalion and the Saseta Battalion. The Nationalists were also concerned that the Basques might turn Guernica into a fortified position. By all the rules of international warfare in 1937, Guernica was a legitimate target for aerial attack. But an air raid on this scale had never been committed before, and the targeting of civilians was seen as a war crime internationally. According to the reports, the raid lasted from about 1630 Hours to about 1945 Hours, and the Condor Legion and the Aviazione Legionaria came up the valley from the sea and flew in a southerly direction. There is no agreement beyond this point as to the composition and timing of the raid. Condor Legion documents show that the raid was flown by 2 Heinkel He-111s, 1 Dornier Do-17E, 18 Junkers Ju-52s, and 3 Savoia Marchetti SM-79s, plus 12 Heinkel He-51s, 13 Fiat CR32s, and 7 Messerschmitt Bf-109s as fighter escorts. There is no record of coordination between Condor Legion and the Italians, who dropped 36 bombs of 50 kilograms (110 pounds) from a height of 3,600 meters (12,000, 600 feet) at 1630 Hours. The Germans dropped about 26 tons of high explosives, together with an estimated 3,000 incendiaries. The Luftwaffe began with an attack by the Heinkel He-111s, which drove the Basque residents into the shelters, where they would stay for the next 4 hours. By 1800 Hours, an hour and a half into the attack, the “main bomber force – the Junkers Ju-52s” approached from the North. The 3 squadrons flew at a higher altitude than the Heinkel He-111 bombers and at considerable distances from one another in a single run approach. The 3 chains of 3 planes each of Hauptmann Karl von Knauer’s (August 29, 1909 – November 12, 1995) 1.Staffel were, in turn, separated by 500 to 1,000 meters (1,640 to 3,280 feet). The leader of 2.Staffel, Hauptmann Hans-Henning Freiherr von Beust (April 17, 1913 – March 27, 1991), “found it impossible to identify any target” and dropped their bombs indiscriminately. When the 3rd and last Staffel approached the target area, its leader Ehrhart Krafft von Dellmensingen (December 27, 1906 – June 15, 1990) noticed that the Rentería bridge was still intact. He led his Staffel over it, but is quoted as reporting that the 9 heavy bombs that fell in that general area failed to hit the main target. Knauer said the attack height for his own run was 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet); the leader of another squadron specified more than twice this height – 3,500 meters or almost 12,000 feet. Houses were contiguous on both sides of the bridge. An official map documenting the damage caused by the raid shows that buildings contiguous with the bridge on either side were destroyed, and there was heavy damage in the center of town. There was not much maneuvering room, and 1930s military technology made it impossible not to hit the town when attacking a bridge in such a location. Generalmajor Wolfram von Richthofen (October 10, 1895 – July 12, 1945) was quite pleased with the results; his diary entry of April 30, 1937, seemed to indicate a tactical blitz on the town, not the bridge: “Guernica, town of five thousand inhabitants, literally razed to the ground. Attack carried out with two hundred and fifty kilogram (five hundred and fifty pounds) and incendiary bombs, the latter making up about one third. When the I.Staffel came, there was already dense smoke everywhere, from the VB (Experimental Staffel), which attacked with three planes, nobody could make out streets, bridge or targets on the edge of town so they just dropped everything wherever they could. The two hundred and fifty kilogram bombs knocked down a quantity of houses and destroyed the water supply. So the incendiary bombs had time to spread and work effectively. The construction of the houses – tiled roofs, wooden galleries and half-timbering – resulted in complete annihilation. Inhabitants were mostly outdoors because of the holiday, a number of others left the town just as [the bombing] began. A small number died in air raid shelters when they were hit. Bomb craters still visible in the streets, fantastic. Town was completely cut off for at least twenty-four hours, which would have made for total success if only troops had been moved up there. As it was, just a complete technical success for our two fifties and the EC.B.1s [incendiaries)…Sacred oak tree in Guernica, beneath which for over a thousand years (old trunk under glass, new tree planted) the constitution and laws of Vizcaya were made. Beside that, a church and parliament. Nothing destroyed at all in the district at the edge of the town.” United Kingdom journalist George Steer (November 22, 1909 – December 25, 1944), working for The Times, interviewed many survivors and found Luftwaffe markings on bomb casings. His story, scooping most other writers, was syndicated to the New York Times and Internationally around the world. He claimed the Luftwaffe was practicing “terror bombing” of a nonmilitary civilian city. Steer’s reporting became the definitive narrative of the bombing of Guernica. His anti-Fascist bent eventually led him to be terminated by The Times, which favored appeasement and supported the Nationalists. The Nazi Germans were surprised by the international backlash and claimed the Republican fired the town before they attacked. Picasso had already overseen and funded transferring the artwork of the Museo del Prado out of the country to protect it during the war, so his Republican sympathies were known. On May 1, 1937, Picasso began to write down his ideas for a new painting, expressing his shock over the Luftwaffe’s attack. He had been commissioned in January 1937 by the Republican government to exhibit at Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris from May to November 1937. French photographer and painter Dora Maar, Picasso’s lover at the time, secured a studio large enough for the monumental painting and photographed the progress. Usually, Picasso allowed press into the studio, to raise awareness for the Republican cause. Guernica was completed on June 4, 1937. Guernica draws on Francisco Goya’s (March 30, 1746 – April 16, 1828) The 3rd of May 1808 painting, Christian iconography, Spanish bullfighting, and Greek and Medieval influences, among others. It was well received by art critics. The painting toured Scandinavia from January to June 1938; the United Kingdom from September to January 1939; and arrived in the United States in May 1939. During World War II, Guernica was entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art, but it made frequent appearances around the United States. From 1953 to 1956 it was exhibited in Brazil and Italy. After another American tour, concerns about the condition of Guernica led to a permanent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. There it remained until 1981, when Spain finally embraced democracy after the rule of Fascist Dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco (December 4, 1892 – November 20, 1975) ended with his death. In 1992, the painting was moved from the Museo del Prado to a purpose-built gallery at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0815.jpg |
| Image Size | 8.29 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 11952 x 5581 |
| Photographer | Pablo Picasso |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 4, 1937 |
| Location | |
| City | Paris |
| State or Province | Île-de-France |
| Country | France |
| Archive | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía |
| Record Number | DE00050 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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