Yesterday I had the honor to assist to the presentation of the map of “Madrid bombed. 1936-1939”, an initiative of the architects Enrique Bordes and Luis de Sobrón (@madrid1936_1939) of the UPM Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with the collaboration of the Madrid city council.

It is the first time that a map has been referenced and documented of each street and building in Madrid that suffered damage by bombing during the Spanish Civil War, whether artillery or aviation bomb, from the archives, photographs of impacts and testimonies from Madrid citizens, and especially the Fire Department work (Juan Miguel Redondo Toral). This is a great initiative that other cities such as London already have, which should have been done a long time ago, to try not to forget that Madrid was the first city in history to suffer a modern bombing campaign (apart from London in 1917) and served as an experiment for Luftwaffe and Mussolini’s Regia Aeronautica to learn how to bomb a large metropolis in an strategic role.

I wish that the past of years, does not erase our memory never more. Sadly, in these last 80 years, no institution or government has supported or organized anything like this until now.

Congratulations and thank you.

[Photo by Álvaro Minguito.]

[Photo by the author.]

[Photo by Álvaro Minguito.]

During November and part of December of 1936 Madrid was raided every day and every night by Franco’s aviation, with German and Italian crews and planes. Simultaneously, and during the rest of the war, howitzers and guns from the nearby front line at Casa de Campo, shells every morning civilian areas like Gran Via avenue, causing numerous victims.
Madrid was follow from the summer of 1937 by Barcelona, Alicante, Sagunto…

[A view of this fantastic map of Madrid´s bombings.]

[Photo by the author.]

[Madrid boys next to an unexploded Nationalist’s howitzer shell that landed at Gran Via avenue. 1937.]

[Photo by Mayo. Centro de Historia Social del siglo XX, Universidad de París-1, fondo André Marty.]

[Three Republican I-16 Mosca fighters, manned by Soviet pilots, flying over Madrid’s calle Alcalá during a patrol flight to defend the capital against enemy raids.]

[Photo by Robert Capa. © Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos.]

[Debris and destruction after an Italo-German air raid at Puerta del Sol in Madrid city. 1937.]

[A German Junkers Ju 52 bomber in flight, 3./K88, from Legion Condor, in 1937.]

[Photo: Thomas Gordon, Morgan-Witts Max. El día que murió Guernica. Plaza & Janés, 1976.]

www.madridbombardeado.es
Twitter: @madrid1936_1939

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