Guernica is a Basque town ( northeastern spain) which was almost bombed to dust by german troops supporting the fascist Franco regime in the spanish civil war , the so-called "Legion Condor", today seventy years ago. Remarkable is not only the cruelty of the action , or that Pablo Picasso labelled one of his most famous paintings "Guernica", but also that it was just an exercise for the Nazis warfare elsewhere in the years to come.......



Hitler's Destruction of Guernica: Practicing Blitzkrieg in Basque Country - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Well, in all honesty, we know where any discussion of "bombing" goes. Inevitably back to the United States and the truckloads of bombs we have dropped since WWII on a great number of countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc).

It's just something I couldn't help but mention, since the article is "only" mentioning a village of some 5,000 people. I can't say that I am amazed at how badly a village can be destroyed, when I know how much damage US bombers have inflicted.

Was Guernica the first town that had been bombed to ashes? Or were there already before those, but this time it entered a new level of cruelty?

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"Every country gets the cuisine it deserves"

Since WWII.? Have we begin bombing Germany, Italy, and Japan again and I haven't heard of it? Or, did you mean: "during WWII and afterward?

Reminds me of my unkle who is a submirine captan. He sank 600,000 tons of Japanese shipping. Although that is not a war time record, it is a peace time record.

My most sincere apologies for saying "since WWII" and not "during WWII and afterward."

....

I've heard that Hitler bombed Amsterdam to rubble. But that was on an old US propaganda film. Yes, it really was propaganda. So, I don't know how badly Hitler bombed some of those cities on the European mainland. I'd be interested to know though.

Amsterdam to rubble? Well, thats really propaganda. Warsaw was teared down to rubble. Nearly the entire city, but I dont think by bombs from planes. It was done by ground forces, the result was however not less destructive.

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"Every country gets the cuisine it deserves"

I believe Rotterdam was the one Dutch city
heavily bombed by the standards of the day.

It was the one case I know of where bombing
shortened sector conflict, unfortuantely going
in the Nazis favor. Rather than continue resistance
the Netherlands capitulated.

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From the fury of the Northmen, Good Lord deliver us.

As USviking points out rightly above , Rotterdam was the dutch city most severely hit. Others were Antwerp ( Belgium) , Calais ( France) , Warsaw, Coventry, Minsk ( Belarus) and many others. One of the reasons for Luxembourgs capitulation was the threat of german air attacks. ( These were instead carried out by British and Americans in 1944)
But don´t forget that the Germans got it twenty times back and Germany paid a horrible price in human lives and lost cultural treasures.
The scars of World War II can even be seen in many modern cities.

Pablo Picassos painting "Guernica" was meant to condemn the atrocities of war....

Guernica openDemocracy - openDemocracy