Latin America @ War №12 - Air Wars Between Ecuador and Peru, Vol. 1 - The July 1941 War (2019).pdf

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CONTENTS

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Published by Helion & Company 2019

Designed and typeset by Farr out

Publications, Wokingham, Berkshire

Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield

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Printed by Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester,

Dorset

Text © Amaru Tincopa Gallegos 2019

Illustrations © as individually credited

Color profiles drawn by Luca Canossa ©

Helion & Company Limited 2019

Maps drawn by Tom Cooper © Helion &

Company Limited 2019

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editions of this book.

ISBN

978-1-915070-07-4

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication

Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

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Abbreviations

Origins

Peruvian Military Build-Up

The Ecuadorean Military

Peruvian Combat Operations, July 1941

Peruvian Combat Operations from August 1941 until the end of

the conflict

Epilogue

Bibliography

Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

LATIN AMERICA@WAR VOLUME 12

ABBREVIATIONS

AAA

AME

BAE

BAP

CAN

CGA

anti-aircraft artillery

air base

Aviación Militar Ecuatoriana

(Ecuadorean

Military Aviation)

Ecuadorean Navy Vessel

Peruvian Navy Vessel

Naval Air Corps (Peru)

Comandancia General de Aeronáutica

(Peruvian

General Air Command)

commanding officer

Light Division (Peru)

Aviation Squadron

Bombardment Squadron

Fighter Squadron

EIEA

EIM

EOB

MGA

MMA

SAE

TON

TONO

Strategic Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron

(Peru)

Reconnaissance Squadron of Naval Aviation

(Peru)

Escuadrón de Observación y Bombardeo

(Observation & Bomber Squadron)

Army of Peru

Air Group

Navy (Peru)

Navy and Aviation Ministry (Peru)

Army Air Service (Peru)

Northern Operational Theatre (Peru)

North-Eastern Operational Theatre (Peru)

ORIGINS

uring most of the last 200 years, Ecuador and Peru have fought

a series of wars over essentially the same issue: the question of

the mutual border between the Andes mountain range and the

Maranon River (a main tributary of the Amazon), including a part of

the Amazonian basin. The conflict erupted almost as soon as Spain’s

colonial territories in South America declared their independence

in 1810, and resulted in what was the longest-running international

armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. Air power began to play a

role in the 1930s when, following the so-called Leticia Indecent, Peru

found itself in possession of strong armed forces that had nothing to

do.

throughout the year. This is further moderated by winds blowing from

the cool offshore current known as the Peru, or Humboldt, Current.

Nevertheless, the coast receives relatively little rain, largely because the

area is dominated by the eastern trade winds. The

montaña

region is

extremely hot and humid: the prevailing easterly winds blowing across

that region gather moisture that is later deposited in the

cordilleras.

Peru’s climate periodically experiences a weather pattern known as

El Niño:

this occurs every three to seven years when unusually warm

ocean conditions appear along the western coast. During

El Niño,

the wet weather moves from the western Pacific to the east, bringing

heavy rains that frequently cause extensive flooding.

Land of Hidden Treasures

The territory of modern-day Peru can be divided into three main

topographical regions: the coastal plain, the sierra and the

montaña.

The coastal plain is an elongated stretch of land extending the entire

length of the country, to the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, with

few ports and oases in between. The desert plain is so dry that only 10

of the 52 rivers descending the Andean slopes to the Pacific Ocean have

sufficient volume to maintain their flow across the desert to the ocean.

The sierra, which covers some 30 per cent of the country’s territory, is

dominated by the towering mountain ranges of the Andes (including

some of the highest peaks in the world), lofty plateaus, deep gorges

and valleys, with an average elevation of 3,660m (about 12,000ft).

In the north-east, the sierra slopes downward to a vast, flat tropical

jungle, the

selvas,

extending to the Brazilian border and forming part

of the Amazon Basin. The forested slopes and a less elevated region

are collectively designated the

montaña:

covered with thick tropical

forests in the west and with dense tropical vegetation in the centre and

the east, this area constitutes about 60 per cent of the Peruvian land

area: isolated from the rest of the country, this region remains largely

unexplored and underdeveloped to this today.

The climate of Peru is as diverse as its topography, ranging from

tropical in the

montaña

to arctic in the Andes, but the temperature

in the coastal plain is normally equable, averaging about 20°C

Children of the Sun

The earliest traces of human presence on the territory nowadays

within the borders of Peru have been dated to approximately 9,000

BC, when Andean societies based on agriculture – and already using

irrigation and terracing – emerged. The oldest known complex society

was the Norte Chico civilisation, which flourished along the coast of

the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,000 BC. This was followed by

a series of localised and specialised cultures that rose and fell – like

the Chavin culture, from 1500–300 BC, and the Cupisnique culture

that flourished from around 1000–200 BC, followed by the Paracas,

Nazca, Wari and the more outstanding Chimo and Mochica – both on

the coast and in the highlands. The outstanding among them were the

Mochica, renowned for their irrigation system, and the Chimu, who

were great city builders and lived in a loose confederation scattered

along the northern coast and into what is nowadays southern Ecuador.

Further inland, the Tiahuanaco culture developed near Lake Titicaca,

while the Wari culture developed large urban settlements and wide-

ranging state systems between AD 500 and 1000.

In the 15th Century, the Incas – originally one of the small and

relatively minor ethnic groups – began to expand and incorporate

their neighbours: over the following 100 years they formed by far the

largest empire in pre-Columbian America. Under the rule of Emperor

Pachacuti (considered to be the ‘child of the sun’) and his son, Topa

AIR WARS BETWEEN ECUADOR AND PERU, VOLUME 1: THE JULY 1941 WAR

Francisco Pizarro’s attack on Atahualpa in Cajamarca, on 16 November 1532. (Oil by Juan Lepiani)

Inca Yupanqui, they controlled a population of up to 16 million

inhabitants, mostly in the Andean region, and a state ruled with the

help of a comprehensive code of laws. Using a variety of methods

– from conquest to peaceful assimilation – between 1438 and 1533

the Incas brought under their control all of western South America

between the Patía River, nowadays in southern Colombia, and the

Maule River in what is today Chile.

The Spanish Conquest

The Spanish made their first contact with the Inca Empire in 1526,

when soldiers and

conquistadors

under Francisco Pizzaro and Diego

de Almagro began reconnoitring the northernmost Inca strongholds

along the coast. In 1528, the Inca Emperor Huayna Capaca died from

Spanish-introduced smallpox: the empire was subsequently devastated

– and decimated – by this disease and by a civil war between his sons,

Atahualpa and Huáscar. While Huáscar proclaimed himself Sapa Inca

(‘Only Emperor’) in Cuzco, the army declared loyalty to Atahualpa,

who was closer to, and had better relations with, its leading generals.

After being granted the licence to conquer the land the Spanish

called ‘Peru’ (a word that may be an Indo-Hispanic hybrid) from the

Queen of Spain in 1529, Pizarro launched his first expedition, leading

168 men on foot and 62 on horses, three years later. After four long

expeditions he established the first Spanish settlement in northern

Peru, calling it San Miguel de Piura. Preoccupied with fighting the

war against Huáscar, Atahualpa was slow in reacting to the Spanish

appearance. Furthermore, many of his followers considered the

Spanish to be ‘gods’: they were tall, had their bodies fully wrapped

in clothing, were armed with swords and firearms, and riding horses

– animals unknown in Southern America. Although concluding

that Pizarro and his troops were no gods after all, Atahualpa and his

lieutenants decided to negotiate. However, Spanish insistence that the

Inca emperor convert to Christianity, and communication problems

then resulted in the Battle of Cajamarca, fought on 16 November 1532,

in the course of which the Spaniards unleashed volleys of gunfire and

cavalry charges at the mass of about 6,000 unarmed and shocked Incas,

massacring up to 2,000 of them. Although greatly outnumbered, the

Spanish captured Atahualpa, and during his captivity, they forced him

to order his generals to back down by threatening to kill him if he

did not. In return, Atahualpa offered to fill a large room with gold

and promised the Spanish twice that amount in silver. Eager to obtain

such a treasure, Pizarro had no intention of releasing the Inca chief.

Instead, he held him in order to influence Atahualpa’s generals and

the population to maintain peace – while waiting for reinforcements.

In February 1533, Almagro had joined him in Cajamarca with

an additional 150 men and 50 horses. Although the treasure was

delivered from Cuzco and continued flowing steadily from then on,

and Atahualpa eventually converted to Christianity, he was garrotted

on 29 August 1533.

In November of that year, Pizarro dispatched an expedition of

140 foot soldiers led by Benalcázar, one of his lieutenants, to conquer

Quito. Benalcázar defeated the forces of the great Inca warrior

Rumiñawi in a battle near the modern city of Riobamba (in Ecuador)

and – reinforced by 500 gold-greedy men led by Guatemalan Governor

Pedro de Alvarado – continued his advance. However, by the time

he reached the abandoned fortress, it was empty of its treasures.

Meanwhile, facing growing dissent, Pizarro installed successive

puppet Inca rulers. However, this was to no avail, as Atahualpa’s death

meant there were no hostage left to deter the generals of the Incan

army or prevent a popular uprising. By February 1536, the Spanish in

Cuzco were under siege and four relief columns were wiped out.

This Inca success proved only temporary as the combination of

superior Spanish weapons and internal disagreements collapsed

Inca morale, and the army withdrew, never to return. Manco Inca

did manage to establish a small state in the mountainous region of

Vilacabamba, where he and his successors held power for few decades

longer.

Despite the demise of the Inca Empire, the creation of the

Audiencia

Real

(Royal Court) and the foundation of the City of Lima in 1535,

Peru subsequently experienced outright catastrophe. A struggle for

power between Pizarro and de Almagro resulted in a long civil war,

which continued even after the latter was killed. Indeed, Almagro’s

descendants avenged his death by killing Pizarro in 1541. In 1572,

Viceroy Francisco de Toledo arrived to destroy the Neo-Inca state: the

last Inca ruler, Túpac Amaru, was murdered by the Spanish the same

year and the Viceroyalty of Peru was established. The Inca civilisation

– including all of its treasures and the unique indigenous road and

communication systems – was subsequently completely destroyed,

as all that mattered to the Spanish was gold. Worse still, infectious

diseases wiped out up to 50 per cent of the native population, large

parts of which were enslaved as servants and concubines, while those

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