The Bombing of Guernica

[Bruce Dennis]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Franco being illegal or not, but has either Nick or Bruce actually cared to ponder what would have happened if Stalinists had won? .

Hello Jukka,
Thanks for asking, I have spent a fair part of my life looking at what happened and, more importantly, what the alternatives were.

So there is no confusion about it, now or later, I do not subscribe to the 'official' version of history, and also have little patience with those who are blindly partisan no matter which side they support: the 20th century was a messy, bloody period and every episode from that era I have looked at so far is rich in hypocrisy and jingoism. The fact that enormous sacrifices were made by people all over the planet does not, to me at least, distract from the equally established fact that entire populations were lead to believe lies, and I hope that our work as (amateur) historians will make it harder for this to happen on such a scale again. The leadership of Germany gained credibility in important circles by joining the fight against the Left in Spain, and this is hopefully something we can all agree on: they benefitted and no-one stopped them.

Did the Luftwaffe or any other Air Force have any right to bomb any part of Spain? Absolutely not. Did any other country effectively block the German actions? Absolutely not. Did the plight of Spain get used throughout the world to rally support for the causes representing both sides? Absolutely.

Messy time, the 20th century.