The day after the Times published a report by George Steer which told of the raid.

Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers and Heinkel fighters, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000lb. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminum incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine-gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.

The whole of Guernica was soon in flames except the historic Casa de Juntas with its rich archives of the Basque race, where the ancient Basque Parliament used to sit. The famous oak of Guernica, the dried old stump of 600 years and the young new shoots of this century, was also untouched. Here the kings of Spain used to take the oath to respect the democratic rights (fueros) of Vizcaya and in return received a promise of allegiance as suzerains with the democratic title of Señor, not Rey Vizcaya. The noble parish church of Santa Maria was also undamaged except for the beautiful chapter house, which was struck by an incendiary bomb.

At 2 a.m. today when I visited the town the whole of it was a horrible sight, flaming from end to end. The reflection of the flames could be seen in the clouds of smoke above the mountains from 10 miles away. Throughout the night houses were falling until the streets became long heaps of red impenetrable debris.

The incendiaries had set off a firestorm, a terrible phenomenon in which the oxygen is sucked in to feed the inferno. In the next eight years it was to be seen from Coventry to the London docks to Hamburg and Dresden. The exact number of dead is unknown but usually put at about 1,650. Most of these were elderly, women and children.

In many senses it was a wakeup call for some of the European powers. Without it the Royal Air Force fleet would not have been upgraded in time to fight the Battle of Britain three years later.

The massacre also inspired Picasso to paint the great anti-war picture using the name of the city as its title. That was not to return to Spain until democracy was established. While the new constitution was ratified in 1978, the Museum of Modern Art in New York quibbled because of the constitutional monarchy that was established. A tapestry copy hangs in the United Nations building. Expressing opposition to war through the arts is a strong tradition and the Guernica Project has organised exhibitions and concerts to commemorate the event. The picture above is taken from their non-copyright gallery.