 The Bombing of Guernica was the most controversial.The Italian air force conducted a particularly heavy bombing raid on Barcelona in early 1938.While some Nationalist leaders did oppose the bombing of the city – for example, Generals Yagüe and Moscardó, who were noted for being nonconformists, protested against the indiscriminate destruction – other Nationalist leaders, often those of a fascist persuasion, approved of the bombings which they saw as necessary to "cleanse" Barcelona.