75 years ago, on the evening of 13th February 1937, an Italian cruiser off the coast of Barcelona fired shells at an arms factory on Passeig Sant Joan. They missed their target and 18 people were killed. A month later came the first raid from the skies when Mussolini’s planes hit Poble Sec. Six people died and thirty-nine were injured. From then on the city would be hit almost 200 times until its fall on 26th January 1939. Some 2.500-3000 Barcelonans were killed and thousands more were injured. It was the beginning of the 20th century’s murderous affair with the mass bombardment of civilians. Although Madrid had already been shelled as a military target on the front line, and Baghdad, Kabul, and others had been bombed by the colonial powers before, this was the first time a city had been targeted systematically over a sustained period.
The planes, often Savoias, flew in from the Aviazione Legionaria’s base on Mallorca. There was no radar and no land from which to telephone to warn of their approach. So either the planes were heard or seen. Attempts were made to improve warnings. The city council built contraptions that tried to pick up the sound of planes with little success. People took in stray dogs and cockerels for both have acute hearing to warn them of the approach. In all, they had between one and a half and three minutes to get to an aid raid shelter. Despite this, the numbers of deaths was comparatively low (some 3000 died in the worst night of the London Blitz). Of course the bombing was less intensive but it was also thanks to the excellent network of some 1400 air raid shelters which Barcelonans set out about building as soon as the first bombs fell. Residents associations and trade unions took to the task without waiting for the authorities to give the go-ahead. As many of the men were now at the front, much of the work was done by women and children. As the war continued, the city council set about building larger, securer shelters and improving the self-built ones, but without the collective effort of a large number of Barcelonans this task would have impossible.
At the end of the war, the British brought the chief engineer of Barcelona’s civil defence programme, Ramon Perera, to London. He advised them to do the same as the Catalans had done, and dig deep, and to get the whole population involved in the work. Churchill decided against, arguing that making such public shelters would make people ‘cowardly and lazy’, and claiming that the British working class lacked the solidarity to engage in the digging. Instead the people were given the Anderson shelter, often a death trap. Confidential reports later expressed regret that the Perera model had not been adopted and estimated thousands had died needlessly in the Blitz.
The Italians experimented with different methods of inflicting damage on Barcelona, combining explosive, high-explosive and penetrating explosive bombs, followed by incendiaries. Anti-personnel bombs were also used. British nurse Anne Murray passed through the city with the retreating Republican army a few weeks before it fell. She saw the horrors of war: “We found a whole lot of children, of dozens of them, with their hands off, completely off. The Italians had dropped anti-personnel bombs marked “Chocolatti”. The children were picking up these things – they hadn’t had chocolate for years – and they just blew their hands off. This Spanish surgeon that I worked with, he was in tears. We all were.”
The worst raids took place between 16th and 18th of March, 1938, when nearly one thousand people died, as raid after raid struck the city. The weather was cold and rainy, and many people fled, seeking refuge in Collserola. Soon the centre was almost deserted, the streets deep in broken glass. The worst occurred on the 17th. A lorry carrying high explosives which happened to be passing the Coliseum cinema on Gran Via was hit. The blast destroyed almost an entire side of an Eixample block. Six hundred people were killed. At the time many thought the Italians had dropped some evil new weapon.
Although most of the raids were committed by the Italian air force, towards the end of the war, Barcelona was also attacked by the German Condor Legion, including 40 attacks between 21st and 25th January 1939, principally a series of deadly raids by Stukas on Barceloneta. Like the Aviazione Legionaria, they saw the city as a testing ground, which they would later put into widespread use with deadly effect.
Many of the victims were treated by Profesor Josep Trueta, head of trauma services for the city, who also later worked for the British. During the war he developed the use of a new plaster cast method for the treatment of open wounds and fractures. It would save hundreds of lives in Barcelona and many, many thousands during the Second World War.
The industrial, port and working class areas were the most hit, particularly Barceloneta, Ciutat Vella, Poble Sec and Poblenou. After the war, Franco left much of the bottom half of the Raval in ruins until the early 1960s as a punishment and warning to the local population of what happened if they supported “the Reds”. L’Eixample was also hit, though more prosperous areas tended to be spared, and some prime targets were conspicuously left alone. Italian records show that on some occasions French and Belgian companies bribed the Italians not to bomb their factories, including those making arms. The huge Maquinista complex was also left untouched, presumably under instructions from the Nationalist-friendly owners with eyes on post-war profits. War is also business.
Bombing of Barcelona route
Unlike other vestiges of the Civil War in Barcelona, the bombing of the city is relatively well commemorated and there are a number of sites you can visit, including:
Refugi 307 Highly recommended is a guided visit to this restored air raid shelter hollowed out the side of Montjuïc. In addition to giving an in-depth view of the bombing of the city, it also functions in a sense as a centre for historical memory for Poble Sec. Book for Saturday or Sunday visits only through the Museu de la Ciutat. After decades abandoned, the shelter was rediscovered and saved thanks to the work of the late Valerie Powles, Poble Sec devotee and dedicated historian.
Plaça del Diamant. Another impressive air raid shelter, which takes you deep under the surface of Gràcia.
Turó de la Rovira Site of the main air defences, built in 1937 in an attempt to protect the city from air raids, though they enjoyed little success. The ruins are now protected and panels explain the military history of the hill, along with a remembrance of the shanty town dwellers who later lived here. Even if you’re not interested in the history, the views are splendid. Bus 24.
Plaça Sant Felip Neri is perhaps the most delightful square in Barcelona, but its peaceful, secret atmosphere belies its tragic history. When I arrived in Barcelona 20 years ago I was told that the pitted marks in the stone were from the bullets of Anarchist execution squads, who had shot priests against the wall here. It is a story one still hears regularly today, but it was a lie put out by the Francoist authorities in an attempt to cover up the death of 42 people here when a bomb fell on the church on 30 January 1938. It had been turned into a makeshift orphanage and most of the victims were refugee children from Madrid. As the rescue workers pulled out the survivors from the building another bomb fell in the square, killing more. It was the second worst bombing atrocity during the war, the first being the aforementioned Coliseum bomb, a monument to which stands in front of the Coliseum cinema on Gran Vía.
Children playing on a shot-down German plane. Robert Capa, top of Passieg de Gràcia, Barcelona, January 1939, two weeks before the city fell. One thing strikes me is that the Republic did eveything it could to keep the chidlren well fed as can be seen here, when many adults were on half rations.
By Robert Capa, Barcelona August 1936. I wonder if this militia woman would have had access to such magazines just a few weeks before. (July 19th) An intimate appropiation of bourgouis life
Window protections in Barcelona 1936 or 1937. Instructions for paper tape to be glued on all house windows in neat criss-crosses. Art in times of conflict. Found the late Valerie Powles’s site http://refugi307.blogspot.com/
Sailor in Barcelona, in LIFE magazine (Nat Farbman 1953).
I’ve just come across the fascinating “la Sisena Flota a Barcelona” by Xavier Therus from where the above image is taken, about the The Sixth Fleet in Barcelona, which arrived in 1951 in an almost Third World Barcelona and stayed 37 years during which time the city developed a love-hate relationship with these boys in their crisp uniforms with their pockets stuffed with dollars, which the men and women of El Raval and Barceloneta were only too pleased to relieve them of.
Why do so many of the bars and cafés on Carrer d’Escudellers have English names? When did Plaça Reial stop being the haunt of nobles and become an almost underground venue? Who were “Las Gaviotas”? In his latest book, the writer and anthropologist Xavier Theros takes us to 1950s Barcelona, or more specifically, to the area next to the port, which played host to hundreds of sailors from the North American 6th Fleet. Stories and anecdotes full of the entertainment, daring and modernity which helped to change the city during that time.
A large number of churches have been burning in the city since yesterday, including Santa Maria del Mar, (photo) but not the Cathedral which is being protected by assault guards. There have also been widespread and rather grotesque desecrations. An attempt to destroy the mystical power of the Church perhaps? Unfortunately a number of priests have been murdered…it is difficult to convey and understand the depth of hatred towards the church, fueled by its instant support for the coup and its support for the semi-feudal society across much of Spain.
Dispatch 2 (rolling Twitter news)
I’m at the bottom of the Rambles. The military are all but defeated, and are holed up in Drassanas barracks and a couple of other sites. The CNT have surrounded the barracks, and have trained artillery on the walls. An hour ago, a falangist, perched at the top of Colon monument with a machine gun (there’s a lift), and was pining down everybody in Les Rambles, but somebody managed to pick him off. from a building facing. Ascaso and Durruti are about to lead the charge…
Someone has had the idea of using a truck on which the German anarchist group have set up a machine-gun. They’ve protected it with mattresses, they’re going to drive the vehicle towards barracks with the militants running behind, protected by mattresses.
I’m sorry to say CNT leader Ascaso has just been shot, a bullet ripped through his forehead, as he ran behind the truck…the workers are now storming the barracks
Events unfolding rapidly, white flag over barracks
Lots of smoke, gunfire is continuing, can’t see what’s happening
My reception is going down. Will get back ASAP. Things may have ugly at the barracks…
Carlos: I saw an interview to an old woman that painted with chalk every week the name of Joaquin Ascaso in his own grave. Fascists wanted his burial to be anonymous and took off the letters that identified it. This woman risked her life, weekly to maintain Ascaso memory alive. VIVA LA LIBERTAD!!!
Me: My father-in-law told me a similar story. When he was a kid he lived next to Montjuic cemetery, and used to play there. In the 1940s they put a guard during the day around Durruti and Ascaso’s graves (bones were removed in 1939) to stop people paying homage, but every morning fresh flowers appeared.
It’s 600am. A cool morning after a hot night. Troops woken 1 hour ago by their officers, given a double ration of rum and told they are to crush an anarchist revolt in centre. As troops leave, spies get word to CNT which call a general strike (Sunday today) and set off all factory and ship sirens. Military have lost element of surprise. Workers begin to attack military columns.
Update 7.20: Shooting everywhere in the streets. Much confusion. Military risings in other cities in Spain it seems.
Dispatch 2
Pitched battles in Barcelona’s streets. Hospital report at least 100 (hundred) dead. Military stopped by barricades in Parallel. Situtation is confusing but combined forces of workers’ militia (mainly CNT) and loyal assault guards may be gaining upper hand. STOP PRESS. Reports that Guardia Civil may have come out on Republic’s side. More soon.
Dispatch 3
The workers and the Republican police forces are definitely defeating the military who have been driven into a few strongholds. Rebels driven from Telefónica and Plaça Catalunya which saw bloody battle earlier today. Dead everywhere. Corpses piled up in Catalunya metro station stairs. Moans of wounded horses. Hospitals +200 dead, 1000+ wounded. Unlikely and truly remarkable scenes of Guardia Civil fraternizing with CNT and other workers. First photos being released.
Dispatch 4
Bad news coming in from Sevilla – city has fallen to Queipo de Llano’s troops – broadcast on Sevilla radio. “Red soldiers, lower you arms. The Caudillo forgives and redeems. Follow the example of those comrades before you who have joined our ranks. Only like that will you achieve victory. Happiness in your homes and peace in your souls.”
Dispatch 5
It seems a group of CNT/FAI militants has stormed the Pedrables barracks which was left poorly defended and got hold of a large number of weapons (photo). They are proceeding to distribute the arms around working class quarters. Many soldiers and guards are in the street shouting with workers, Viva el CNT!, Viva la FAI! You have the feeling anything could happen. The energy of the people really is to experienced.
I’ve just heard more barracks have fallen to the workers, If true this is stunning news. It means the working class are suddenly “armed to the teeth”. They are: Alcántara barracks at 5:30 pm; Lepanto at 6:00 pm; the Montesa barracks at 8:00 pm; the Docks shortly before midnight, just 5o minutes ago, and the Sant Andreu Central Artillery Barracks just now. The mechanics at the naval base have also taken over and arrested the officers there. The soldiers in the Montjuich fortress have deposed their officers. Worker and Soldier Committees have already been formed. We may on the verge of a revolution, something which the CNT had predicted in the event of an attempted coup.
Another quote – Nehru, future first Prime Minister of India, visited Barcelona in 1938:
It was the Europe of 1938 with Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement in full swing and marching over the bodies of nations, betrayed and crushed, to the final scene that was staged at Munich. There I entered into this Europe of conflict by flying straight to Barcelona. There I remained for five days and watched the bombs fall nightly from the air. There I saw much else that impressed me powerfully; and there, in the midst of want and destruction and ever-impending disaster, I felt more at peace with myself than anywhere else in Europe. There was light there, the light of courage and determination and of doing something worthwhile. From here
July 3rd, 2011
This is how The Guardian reported the attempted coup in 1936. “News from Spain is heavily censored, but it is evident from the messages that were being allowed to come through last night that the threat to the Republic has been-and may still be-very grave.” Read all here
