Sixty-five years before Somalia and "The Battle of Mogadishu," there was Nicaragua and "The Battle of Quilali."
Like Somalia, U.S. forces were deployed in an attempt to capture or kill one man, only instead of U.S. special operations forces hunting the Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aideed, in 1928 it was U.S. Marines pursuing the Nicaraguan guerrilla Augusto Sandino. The Marines had discovered the location of Sandino's mountain fortress "El Chipote" and dispatched two large combat patrols totaling 200 men to seize the insurgent's hideout and capture Sandino.
But as with the mission depicted in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down," the U.S. hunters quickly became the hunted. Two days earlier 400 Sandinistas ambushed a force of 114 Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia a mile outside Quilali. Five Marines and two Guardia were killed, and 23 Marines and two guardsmen were wounded. The column collected its dead and wounded and limped into Quilali.
On January 1 the Sandinistas struck the second patrol – 40 Marines and 20 Guardia under First Lieutenant Merton A. Richal – six miles north of Quilali. First Lieutenant Richard Bruce, who had recently written his mother promising to hold Sandino’s head in his hands or perish “like a dog,” was on point and was the first Marine killed in an avalanche of dynamite bombs and machine gun fire. Bruce’s assailants fell upon his lifeless body and savagely mutilated it with their machetes. The survivors of the initial assault rallied, but had to be rescued by a relief patrol from Quilali. Richal’s column fell back on the village and joined forces with Livingston’s patrol.
Like the elements of Task Force Ranger pinned down overnight in Mogadishu, the Marines were in a difficult situation as the 400 Sandinistas laid siege to Quilali. They were outnumbered, low on ammunition and supplies, and of 174 officers and men, eight were dead, and 31 wounded – including every surviving officer.
No comments:
Post a Comment