REGARDING GERNIKA, THIS MUST BE SAID TOO:
The myth of Gernika is communist propaganda! This myth states:
- A: Gernika was a sauvage act of retaliation, what we today would call psy-terror
- B: Furthermore the village of Gernika was chosen as target because of the Basque smybolism of the Oak of Gernika
- C: 3.000 to over 10.000 people died in the bombardment
- D: Most of the village was completely destroyed by incendiary bombs
The TRUTH is that statements A, B and -most importanly- C are completely FALSE, while only D is partially correct but must be accordingly commented.
1.
The motives: Contrary to the myth, Gernika was a very important military target in the campaign to conquer bilbao, as simply suggested by the map enlclosed, where one can see the quartiers of
four batallions of the red-basque army and
two weapons factories. Furthermore, Gernika was a crucial node of communications between the north-eastern nationalist lines and their ultimate target Bilbao:
thank to its bridge upon the River Oca, Gernika was the road to Bilbao. Lehendakari Aguirres PNV had long before made a pact with the communists of the Popular Front republic and forgotten the real meaning of the Oak of Gernika: the basque
Fueros! Another motive was the retaliation for the heavy red-republican bombardments of the supply lines in
Durango some days before. It is today known, that not only had the inhabitants many shelters nearby, but also that the incoming attack was reported with time for most people to abandon the centre of the village (see next point).
2.
The victims: Lehendakari Aguirre spoke of 3.000 shortly after the bombings, while the red popaganda spoke of some 10.000 for decades. Well, present-day historians who are not suspicious of revisionism in the German way give the following numbers for the victims:
250 (Hugh Thomas, Uriarte, Cesar Vidal, Eslob),
126 (Vicente Talón),
120 (Salas Larrazabal). This shows the extent to which pussy war propaganda has acted as a factor of mythification, mass-psychological pressure over populations and justification of much more evil policies in the present and the pass. [after editon]: as I had guessed: the town of Gernika had little more than
3.000 inhabitants as a whole by that time, this further shows the magnitiude of the propaganda numbers
. As
the centre of town was empty by the time the bombs fell upon it, the scouts of Lehendakari Aguirre simply took the whole population of Gernika as dead as they saw the smoke and the ruins!!!
Later on, the communists multiplied that figure by three or four ... and the academia took those figures as sacred until the studies of the late 1990s!
3. What partly gave place to the myth is the fact, that
the bombings missed many of their targets, as shown in the enclosed map, but
they did not miss the bridge: they missed, however, the weapon factories and two out of four batallion headquarters (seriously damaging only one of them). The Casa de Juntas where the Oak lies was and the town hall (ayuntamiento) were only damaged in 1% to 25% of their structure. Unfortunately, the market /mercado) and the main school (escuela) were almost completely destroyed.
but,
THERE WAS NO GERNIKA LITTLE HOLOCAUST!!!
(although many former and present-day propagandists would have liked it)
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source of the picture (modified): La aventura de la historia, 4, April 2002, article of historian Juan M. Riesgo "Las verdaderas causas de Guernica" ("The true motives of Guernica").