Alicante, Guernica; Same Difference

Just after 11 am on a Wednesday 25th May 1938 around 8 Italian Savoia S-79 aircraft flew over the port of Alicante and launched their 90 bombs on and around the central market, it being market day.

About 300 people were killed; according to the cemetery registry there were 100 men, 56 women, 10 children and 100 unidentified corpses.

Monday 26th of April 1937 was also a market day, but in the Basque town of Guernica, where German and Italian aircraft attacked. The number of deaths is disputed to this day, with the

Basque government reporting 1,654 people killed, while local historians identified 126 victims (later revised to 153). A British source claimed that 400 civilians died.

The difference was of course that Picasso chose to ignore the Alicante bombing, and various other examples of atrocity, and only painted Guernica.

Today the events at Alicante are barely remembered, except for a ceramic plaque on the wall of the market.