Word: guernica
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...date was April 26, 1937, the place Guernica, spiritual home of the Basques and Basque nationalism, site of a revered oak tree under whose branches Basques had elected their representatives since the Middle Ages. The Spanish Civil War was in its ninth month, and troops of the provisional Basque government were fighting alongside Republican forces against Francisco Franco's Nationalists. The fragile front was about 15 miles from Guernica, a target of at best limited military value...
...Many Died? To this day, no one knows how many of Guernica's 7,000 inhabitants and about 3,000 refugees in the town died under the bombs and in the resulting fire storm: estimates have ranged from 200 to as many as 1,600. Nor does anyone have proof of who, ultimately, was responsible for a raid that was the prototype of World War IPs massive bombing campaigns. Within hours of the death of Guernica, the Nationalists charged that Basques themselves had set the town afire-a lie that would persist for much of Franco's reign...
...they had to storm the fortresses" for many of their weapons, Nelson says. He adds that the bravery "was the kind you can only visualize in the Hollywood movies." Hitler sent German tank and aircraft divisions which technologically outdistanced the republican forces, enabling the fascists to bomb Guernica, Madrid and other large population centers in republican control...
...fascists denied responsibility for destroying the city, and the Spanish government still maintains that the Republicans set fire to Guernica themselves to turn world opinion against the fascists, Southworth added...
...fire-bombing of Guernica in April 1937, which razed the entire city, became a symbol of fascist aggression, Southworth said. He said the German air force bombed Guernica for eight hours, and their fighter planes machine-gunned fleeing civilians...