War
Late in the afternoon of 14 July 1969, concerted military action began. San Salvador City was put on a black out and the Salvadoran Air Force took off to Honduras (El Salvador lacked sufficient military air equipment, resorting to the use of passenger airplanes with attached vessels strapped to their sides as bombers) attacked targets inside Honduras, who had a better equipped air force but Hondurans were caught off guard by the Salvadorans. Salvadoran air-raids included the airport facility at Toncontin, leaving the Honduran Air Force unable to react. The larger Salvadoran army, launched major offensives along the two main roads connecting the two nations and invaded Honduras. Initially, rapid progress was made by the Salvadorian army, by the evening of 15 July, the Honduran army had been pushed back over eight kilometers. The departmental capital of Nueva Ocotepeque fell shortly after along with eight other cities, placing the Salvadoran army within striking distance of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.
However, the momentum of the advance did not last. The Honduran air force reacted, striking the Salvadorian Ilopango military airport facility. The effectiveness of the attack on Ilopango has been called into question, however it is generally accepted that the bombing of oil facilities and depots severely disrupted the logistics of the Salvadorian army.
There is enough evidence to support the contention that, after the surprise Salvadoran air-raid attacks to Toncontin, the Honduran air force managed to establish and maintain control of the air in their territory. On July 15, the Organization of American States met in an emergency session and demanded that El Salvador withdraw from Honduras. The government in San Salvador refused unless promised that reparations would be made to those Salvadorans who were displaced and that those who remained in Honduras would not be harmed.
During the war, the Third Military Zone of the Honduran Army was discovered to have only half of its allotted soldiers. The money for the missing troops had been collected by an apparently corrupt Honduran Army officer. Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle helped Honduras by providing weapons and ammunition.
Read more about this topic: Football War
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“Every country we conquer feeds us. And these are just a few of the good things we’ll have when this war is over.... Slaves working for us everywhere while we sit back with a fork in our hands and a whip on our knees.”
—Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“It is a war against the pines, the only real Aroostook or Penobscot war.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)