Episode 75 with David Messenger

The horrors of the bombing of civilians during the Spanish Civil War were made known to the world by Picasso’s famous painting Guernica, but Nationalist forces bombed cities throughout Republican Spain through the whole course of the war. In this episode, David Messenger, author of Civilian Bombing and Civil Defence in the Spanish Civil War, discusses the untold story of Republican efforts to protect their citizens from these bombings by building bomb shelters and even training for a gas attack. He also examines efforts in recent years to open some of these shelters to the public as sites for preserving the historical memory of the war.

The Episode

The Guest

David A. Messenger is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. He is also President of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS). His Ph.D. is from the University of Toronto, Canada (2000). His research focuses on the international position of the regime of General Francisco Franco in Spain during and after the Second World War. He is the author of L’Espagne Republicane: French Policy and Spanish Republicanism in Liberated France (Sussex Academic Press, 2008) and Hunting Nazis in Franco’s Spain (Louisiana State University Press, 2014), as well as War and Public Memory: Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Europe (University of Alabama Press, 2020). His most recent book is Civilian Bombing and Civil Defense in the Spanish Civil War- Bombs Along the Mediterranean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026). He co-edited, with Katrin Paehler, A Nazi Past: Recasting German Identity in Postwar Europe (University of Kentucky Press, 2015) and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on Spain, foreign policy and intelligence operations, memory of the Civil War and Second World War, amongst other topics. Since arriving at South Alabama in 2017, he has been involved in studying local African-American history as well, and has presented at the Gulf Coast Historical Society and Alabama Historical Association conferences, as well as helping run the Jean O’Conner Snyder Internship Program at South sponsored by the David Mathews Center.

Suggested Readings

• Aurioles, Jose Manuel y Daniel Garcia Amodia. “Los primeros bombardeos “modernos” sobre una grad ciudad” in Gutmaro Gómez Bravo, ed., Aseido: Historia de Madrid en la Guerra civil (1936-1939). Madrid: Ediciones Complutense, 2018.
• Corum, James S. “The Luftwaffe and Lessons Learned in the Spanish Civil War” in Sebastian Cox and Peter Gray, eds., Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo. London: Frank Cass, 2002.
• Capdepon Carrascosa, Luis. Alicante Bombardeo (1936-1939). Alicante: Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, 2006.
• Irujo, Xabier. Gernika: 1937: The Market Day Massacre. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2015.
• Memorial Democràtic. Dossier Educatiu: Catalunya Bombardejada (1936-1939) Barcelona: Memorial Democràtic, 2014.
• Peinado Cucarella, José. La defensa de la ciudad de Valencia, 1936-1939: Una arqueoloía de la Guerra Civil Española. Oxford: ArqueoPress Publishing, 2019.
• Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie. La Guerra Como Aventura: La Légion Cóndor en la Guerra Civil Española, 1936-1939. Madrid Alianza Editorial, 2014.
• Villarroya i Font, Joan. Els Bombardeigs de Barcelona Durant la Guerra Civil (1936-1939). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1999.