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Bay of Pigs invasion...
Bay of Pigs invasion...
Item # 578581
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April 17, 1961
FITCHBURG SENTINEL, Massachusetts, April 17, 1961
* Bay of Pigs invasion (1st report)
* Fidel Castro
* Havana Cuba
This 16 page newspaper has a five column headline on the front page: "Rebel Force Invades Cuba"
Other news of the day. Light browning, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Professor and the first post-revolution Prime Minister José Miró Cardona was chosen to lead the planned provisional government.
The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days. The bad Cuban-American relations were exacerbated the following year by the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The invasion is named after the Bay of Pigs, which is possibly inaccurately translated from the Spanish Bahía de Cochinos. The main landing at the Bay of Pigs specifically took place at the beach called Playa Girón.
At about 00.00 on April 17, 1961, the two CIA LCIs Blagar and Barbara J, each with a CIA "operations officer" and an Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) of five frogmen, entered the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) on the southern coast of Cuba. They headed a force of four transport ships (Houston, Río Escondido, Caribe, and Atlántico) carrying about 1,300 Cuban exile ground troops of Brigade 2506, plus tanks and other armour in the landing craft. At about 01.00, the Blagar, as the battlefield command ship, directed the principal landing at Playa Girón (Blue Beach), led by the frogmen in rubber boats followed by troops from Caribe in small aluminum boats, then LCVPs and LCUs. The Barbara J, leading Houston, similarly landed troops 35 km further northwest at Playa Larga (Red Beach), using small glass fibre boats. Unloading troops at night was delayed, due to engine failures and boats damaged by unseen coral reefs. The few militia in the area succeeded in warning Cuban armed forces via radio soon after the first landing, before the invaders overcame their token resistance.[33]
At daybreak at about 06.30, FAR Sea Furies, B-26s and T-33 jets started attacking those CEF ships still unloading troops. At about 06.50, and 8km south of Playa Larga, Houston was damaged by several rockets from a Sea Fury and a T-33, and about two hours later captain Luis Morse intentionally beached it on the western side of the bay. About 270 troops had been unloaded, but about 180 men either drowned or struggled ashore, where they were incapable of taking part in further action. At about 07.00, two FAL B-26s attacked and sank the Cuban Navy Patrol Escort ship El Baire at Nueva Gerona on the Isle of Pines.[31] They then proceeded to Giron to join two other B-26s to attack Cuban ground troops and provide distraction air cover for the paratroop C-46s and the CEF ships under air attack. At about 07.30, five C-46 and one C-54 transport aircraft dropped 177 paratroops from the parachute battalion of Brigade 2506 in an action code-named Operation Falcon.[41] About 30 men plus heavy equipment were dropped south of Australia sugar mill on the road to Palpite and Playa Larga, but the equipment was lost in the swamps and the troops failed to block the road. Other troops were dropped at San Blas, at Jocuma between Covadonga and San Blas, and at Horquitas between Yaguaramas and San Blas. Those positions to block the roads were heavily maintained for two days, reinforced by ground troops from Playa Girón.[28]
At about 08.30, a FAR Sea Fury piloted by Carlos Ulloa Arauz crashed in the bay, due to stalling or anti-aircraft fire, after encountering a C-46 returning south after dropping paratroops. By 09.00, Cuban troops and militia from outside the area had started arriving at Australia sugar mill, Covadonga and Yaguaramas. Throughout the day they were reinforced by more troops, heavy armour and tanks often carried on flat-bed trucks. At about 09.30, FAR Sea Furies and T-33s attacked with rockets the Rio Escondido, that 'blew up' and sank about 3km south of Girón.
At about 11.00, a FAR T-33 attacked a FAL B-26 (serial number 935) piloted by Matias Farias who then survived a crashlanding on the Girón airfield, his navigator Eduardo Gonzales already killed by gunfire. His companion B-26 suffered damage and diverted to Grand Cayman Island; Pilot Mario Zúñiga (the "defector") and navigator Oscar Vega returned to Puerto Cabezas via CIA C-54 on 18 April. By about 11.00, the two remaining freighters Caribe and Atlántico, and the CIA LCIs and LCUs, started retreating south to international waters, but still pursued by FAR aircraft. At about 12.00, a FAR B-26 exploded due to heavy anti-aircraft fire from Blagar, and pilot Luis Silva Tablada (on his second sortie) and his crew of three were lost.
By 12.00, hundreds of militia cadets from Matanzas had secured Palpite, and cautiously advanced on foot south towards Playa Larga, suffering many casualties during attacks by FAL B-26s. By dusk, other Cuban ground forces were gradually advancing southwards from Covadonga and southwest from Yaguaramas towards San Blas, and westwards along coastal tracks from Cienfuegos towards Girón, all without heavy weapons or armour. During the day three FAL B-26s were shot down by T-33s, with the loss of pilots Raúl Vianello, José Crespo, Osvaldo Piedra and navigators Lorenzo Pérez-Lorenzo and José Fernández. Vianello's navigator Demetrio Pérez bailed out and was picked up by USS Murray. Pilot Crispín García Fernández and navigator Juan González Romero, in B-26 serial 940, diverted to Boca Chica, but late that night they attempted to fly back to Puerto Cabezas in B-26 serial 933 that Crespo had flown to Boca Chica on 15 April. In October 1961, the remains of the B-26 and its two crew were finally found in dense jungle in Nicaragua.[31][42] One FAL B-26 diverted to Grand Cayman with engine failure. By 16.00, Fidel Castro had arrived at Australia, joining José Ramón Fernández whom he had appointed as battlefield commander before dawn that day.[28]
At about 21.00 on 17 April 1961, a night air strike by three FAL B-26s on San Antonio de Los Baños airfield failed, reportedly due to incompetence and bad weather. Two other B-26s had aborted the mission after take-off. Other sources allege that heavy anti-aircraft fire scared the aircrews, the resultant smoke perhaps a convenient excuse for "poor visibility"
Category: The 20th Century
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