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From Wikipedia: Consequences
"The attacks created a firestorm and destroyed nearly the entire town. Three quarters of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and most others were damaged. Among the few buildings spared were [the arms factories of Unceta and Company and Talleres de Guernica] and the Assembly House (Casa de Juntas) and the Oak.

There are no generally accepted official figures as to the number of casualties. The military junta, who took the town three days later, gave a patently false description of the events (claiming that the destruction had been caused by Republicans burning the town as they fled) and seem to have made no effort to establish an accurate number. At an extreme low, the Francoist newspaper Arriba claimed on January 30, 1970 that there had only been twelve deaths. The consensus stands close to the 1,650 dead and 889 wounded that the Basque government of the time gave as minimum numbers. (Brey 1977)"

Per wikipedia - the Air Force had orders initially to bomb the roads and bridge to the east of Guernia to block the enemy's retreat - in other words, tactical bombing. If Guernica had armaments factories, as is shown by the above quote, those would have been legitimate targets also. Another point is that the Germans and Italians were fighting Communists who did not respect the laws of war - in fact, the Germans were angry (per Wikipedia) over the killing of one of their captured pilots by the Communists - very possibly this was a reprisal.

You still haven't dealt with the fact that the British admitted that they were the ones who started targeting civilians - the "Splendid Decision" by Air Secretary Spaight.

You seem to be missing a hard, cold-hearted but absolute truth. Every single choice and decision of the leadership of a country is, without exception, directly the responsibly of its people. People are responsible for their government, either forming it purposefully (commission) or letting it form (omission).

The test of this truth is that the leadership and protectors thereof are always a tiny fraction of the population. If even a reasonable percentage of the people were to rise and say No!, with willingness to endure hardship, that leadership would vanish without a lingering odor.

That the people tend to be unwilling to place life and limb at risk to eliminate destructive leaders or governmental entities is neither here nor there, nor an excuse.

Mother Nature and natural law is not sweet, kind, fair or tolerant of violations, or does It recognize statutes of human beings trying to rise above Its base and concrete paradigms of reality.