The bombing of Guernica (26 April 1937) was an aerial attack on the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths during the Spanish Civil War. The raid by planes of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" and the Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria was called Operation Rügen. The bombing is considered one of the first raids in the history of modern military aviation on a defenseless civilian population, although Madrid had been bombed many times previously.