March 31st
The Aviazione Legendaria Italiana planes that left Soria on 31st March 1937 and entered Duranguesado bombed Elorrio and Durango at around 8:30 a.m., destroying both towns.
The aim of the bombing was to destroy the main roads leading to Arrasate and Elgeta.
Unlike Durango, in Elorrio the bombs did not fall, neither on the church nor on the convent. So all this meant that there were fewer deaths. We know that seven citizens died in the bombing on 31st March 1937.
The church choir became the main shelter of the village. Witnesses who lived through the bombing say that they knew that when there was a risk of an air raid they should go to these shelters, which they did on 31 March.
Elorrio, a town on the edge of the front, had to take in a number of refugees from Guipuzcoa fleeing the war. Therefore, what is clear is that, on General Mola’s orders, the Italian fascists wanted to break the town’s connection with the front with the bombing on 31 March.
Antzeko Artikuluak
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