Ramon Serrano Suner, a former Spanish foreign minister and brother-in-law of late dictator Gen. Franco, seen at left with Gen. Franco, center, and Mussolini, right in this 1941 file photo taken in Bordighera, Italy. Each played their own part in the bloody 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Toronto Sun
Barcelona Pursues Italy Over 1938 Bombing -- The Guardian
A Spanish court wants Italy to apologise for the war crime of mass bombardment during the civil war, in support of General Franco
His fellow eyewitnesses are dying off, but Alfonso Cánovas, 95, remembers Barcelona becoming one of the first major cities in the world to be subjected to a campaign of aerial bombardment.
"I wasn't even there for the worst of it," he said. "But I saw bombs fall, and I was told about how they bombed the Gran Vía, leaving the street littered with body parts, which also hung from the trees."
In 1938 Savoia bombers from Benito Mussolini's Italian air force rained bombs on the Spanish city as they broke non-intervention treaties to support General Francisco Franco's rightwing rebels in the Spanish civil war. The use of attacks from the air was designed to provoke panic, kill civilians and destroy morale. Within a few years, the technique would spread through war-torn Europe as cities such as Coventry, Hamburg and Dresden were subjected to blanket bombing.
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My Comment: You would think that Spain would have other more pressing problems.
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