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"Many of those who were victims of this horrible attack had narrowly escaped death at Malaga where they were machine-gunned and bombed by Italian airplanes as they fled along the coast road. . . .
"The explosions were so fast that it sounded like a giant machine gun. Many houses had no foundations, and they collapsed like cards under the big German shells. On one street every house was in ruins although only two shells struck there."
While her arm was being amputated in a first aid station a woman casualty of the German bombardment of Almeria gave birth to a child.
Italian and German ships had been accused many times of aiding Rightist bombardments. The bombardment of Almeria was the first that Germany has publicly admitted. With the international situation more acute than it had been in months, London, Paris, even Washington feared that the slaughter at Almeria might cause the Valencia Government openly to declare war on Germany. The Wilhelmstrasse, denying that any overt act of war had been committed, sneered: "One cannot declare war on a band of pirates!"