I have recently returned from a pilgrimage of the “I’ve-Been-There-Before” variety to Guernica. The town suffers from an odd problem in that whilst almost everybody has heard of Picasso’s famous 1937 Spanish Civil War painting that now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, few tourists stop by the Basque town today. It was my second visit, my first being as a boy when I visited over 50 years ago with my brother and parents. My father was Wing Commander Sir Archibald James KBE MC (1893-1980), who was Conservative MP for Wellingborough from 1931 to 1945. I remember him showing me the “Guernikako Arbola”, the town’s famous oak tree under which the town’s Assembly traditionally meet, going back to being a meeting place of the local ruling nobles in the Middle Ages.
The tree – not unlike the Royal Oak in Britain which adorns many a pub sign – has come to symbolise Basque freedom and independence. I recall my father explaining how miraculous it was that the oak was undamaged in the blitz of air bombing by the Nazis and Fascist Italy on April 26, 1937, in order to support the Spanish Nationalists. I also remember my father expressing the view that the damage which inspired Picasso’s iconic painting was caused by ground forces, not by planes.
I thought this idea, which turns most military historical accounts of the bombing on its head, was worth further investigation after my father’s wartime papers were unearthed shortly before lockdown and donated to the Churchill Archives. Amongst the papers were detailed reports of his visits to both sides during the Spanish Civil War, compiled to inform the Foreign Office and the Service Ministries, and some papers relating to his time as a First Secretary at the British Embassy in Madrid in 1940-41.
Within his report of his visit to the Nationalist side in September and October 1937 is his diary account of his visit to Guernica after the bombing. He walked around one third of the town and counted two bomb craters and two shell holes. He made it clear to his family and others, including authors Hugh Thomas and Brian Crozier, whom he met later, that in his view the main destruction was from the ground rather than the air.
My father was well qualified to express an opinion on the effects of bombing. During the First World War he had been awarded his Military Cross for low flying reconnaissance of the different effects of bomb, shell and other war damage and had been promoted to Wing Commander at the age of 24. He features in at least five books about the British Air Force during the First World War. Afterwards he was chief instructor at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell.
So my first step when I returned to Guernica after 50 years was to the town’s “archive” museum. What I thought would take me two days took me two hours because they are extremely efficient. I came away thinking his witness account must stand, or at least be considered by historians. I walked around the town, following my father’s notes. The town contained two armaments factories, Astra Unceta and Talleres de Guernica. I walked past the large Talleres factory which was near the centre of the town. It certainly seems strange that the two arms factories were undamaged.
Any retreating army in their senses would have destroyed the arms factories, but some- how they weren’t destroyed. I can under-stand why the Basques didn’t destroy the arms factories in Bilbao because they left in such a hurry and there were so many arms factories that it would not have been feasible. But in Guernica it would have been perfectly feasible. What is particularly strange is that their anarchist, socialist and communist allies didn’t destroy the factories either.
Alas, Guernica does not live up to the beauty of the famous painting that bears its name. I only found one little restaurant which was no more than a bar. I stayed in the Hotel Guernica which was fêted as probably the “best” hotel but seemed very mediocre – although I speak as somebody who is not a gourmet. My impression was that Guernica gets almost no tourists. What I hadn’t realised is that it is basically an industrial town.
But the surrounding countryside and especially the hillside villages are spectacular. I walked up into the mountains to the north of the town and had a superb panoramic view of the town and saw the hamlet of Lumo.
For a more memorable pilgrim experience, one needs to head to Bilbao, although I found the much-hyped Guggenheim a disappointment. It was mostly 1950s American art. But the city has two hidden jewels: the Municipal Art Gallery and, unquestionably, the Catedral de Santiago de Bilbao in the Casco Viejo district. Dating back to the 15th century, it was only designated as a cathedral in 1950. It has been rebuilt several times, has a nice cloister and portal with a Gothic Revival façade and spire. It is chiefly known today as being a popular resting place for pilgrims who are following the northern section of the Way of St James; indeed, the cathedral is today consecrated to St James the Great.
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