the first blanket bombing of a city.

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 19, 2003 13:16 by ipsiphi

occured today 65 years ago.

A joint Fascist Italy & nationalist fascist coalition of Franco operation. against Barcelona 18th March 1938. The Spanish Civil War fought between the Spanish Republic and a coalition of Fascist and Nationalist groupings led by General Franco saw several 'firsts' in modern warfare.

Guernica the small Basque town had already been dive bombed by Hitler's airforce proving the model for dive bombing since.
Blanket bombing is the indescriminate bombing of cities or land map grid by grid. The first usage of this type of modern warfare lasted three days 65 years ago in Barcelona.
Blanket Bombing was the favoured tactic of RAF planned 'bomber' Harris who applied blanket bombing to most German cities to shorten WW2.

The most notorious example was the bombing of Dresden which lasted several days and culminated in the tarmac on the roads melting and pouring into bombshelters and cellars.

Blanket Bombing is a favoured tactic of the USAF and has been used by them in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq.

All use of blanket bombing includes civilian death, it is a type of warfare that can only be considered criminal.

It is perhaps thus worthy of note that no military planner has ever been brought before a warcrimes tribunal for blanket bombing.

Goering the Air Marshall of NAZI germany significantly did not face charges for blanket bombing at the Nuremburg warcrime trials which followed WW2.