American shame in the Bay of Pigs. Playa Chiron - a memorable symbol of Cuban independence
“Our revolution is a revolution of the disadvantaged, perfect for the disadvantaged. For her, we are ready to give life! Homeland or Death!"
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
1 January 1959 was brought to power in Cuba by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. The victory of the Cuban socialists could not but alarm Washington, American commercial and industrial corporations and, of course, the American mafia, which lost its property in Cuba and lost enormous revenues. In addition, in a short time from Cuba, all the former political and business elite immigrated, enjoying the patronage of the former dictator Fulgencio Batista. As a result, a lot of Cubans settled in Miami: students, intellectuals, gangsters - a real little Cuba was formed in Florida, living according to customary capitalist laws, a kind of Cuban abroad.
Counting on the support of Cuban émigrés, the American leadership decided to overthrow Castro by military means. To solve this problem, the United States Command developed Operation Pluto, which included a sudden landing on the southern coast of Cuba in April 1961. At the same time, it was assumed in advance that the Cuban counterrevolutionaries would announce the creation of an interim government on the island, which would ask for help from the United States. The landing of the American landing was to be carried out immediately after the request of the interim government of Cuba for help. In addition, to confirm the fairness of the invasion, the Americans planned to use the support of the countries of the Organization of American States (OAS), a purely pro-American international organization. OAS was supposed to provide its military contingent, the number of which could be up to 15000 people. To prepare for the operation, several groups of saboteurs and provocateurs of the CIA were transported to Cuba, who were preparing a series of sabotage on the island, designed to destabilize the situation on the eve of the country and on the very day of the American invasion.
The landing operation was planned to be prepared by bombing the three largest military airfields in Cuba, on which the entire military was concentrated. aviation Cuban revolution. Eight bombers were trained for the bombing, and the strike is scheduled for April 15.
The landing of the naval assault was planned to be held in the Bay of Pigs (translated into Russian - Bay of Pigs). The landing place was not chosen by chance: a significant part of the Gulf coast can be used as an airfield, and landing on a flat sandy beach, which is the Gulf coast, given the complete absence of antiamphibious defense, seemed to Americans an easy and pleasant adventure. In addition, the area has excellent defensive capabilities: in a few kilometers from the sea begins a huge swamp. The coast of the bay was reported with the rest of the island only one way. These circumstances, of course, were considered by the Americans contributing to their consolidation on the island, as well as the accumulation of troops for further advance into the depths of Cuba.
The drop-off date was set for the night of April 17. It would be naive to believe that the upcoming American landing was a surprise for Cubans. It is reasonable to assume that Soviet intelligence played a significant role in this. However, this is a topic for another conversation, as well as a topic for a separate discussion for military historians.
14 April 1961, the US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft took a picture of the whole of Cuba. According to the data, on the Cuban airfields stood up to 15 aircraft. The next day, according to the plan, the 8 of the American B-26 bombers bombed the airfields of Campo Colombia, San Antonio le Los Banos and Santiago de Cuba. As a result of the strikes, most of the aircraft of the revolutionary Air Force was declared destroyed. However, the Cubans, who knew about the upcoming aggression in advance, replaced the combat aircraft with dummies. Therefore, only 24 machines were lost from the 2 planes owned by the Cubans.
Fidel Castro and Cuban tankers in the Bay of Pigs (photo http://komiunity.ru)
The US bombing raid, among other things, had very specific political consequences, bringing only one harm to the Americans. 16 April in Cuba, a mourning ceremony was held for seven Cubans who died as a result of the American bombardment, at which Fidel Castro made a fiery speech and once again confirmed that Cuba chooses the socialist path of development. American bombing and sabotage only rallied the Cubans, finally denoting the image of the enemy.
Ships flotilla the interventionists who marched in the direction of Liberty Island carried about 2,5 thousand tons of weapons and ammunition. At 1:15, Cuban counterrevolutionaries and CIA agents received an encrypted radio message stating that the invasion had begun and that it was time for active action to organize large-scale sabotage. However, the Cuban counterintelligence was able to stem all attempts to destabilize the situation in the country, and, thus, American plans to create at least a semblance of an interim government in Cuba were doomed to failure.
With the dawn of 17, the first landing of the assault force began on April. On the road connecting the coast of the bay with the rest of the island, a parachute landing was thrown. The battle began. Cuban border guards and militias (militia fighters) of about 100 numbers detained the advance of the enemy, who had almost tenfold superiority over the defenders.
With the beginning of the intervention in Cuba, a general mobilization was organized. But the Cubans, who learned that the revolution was under threat, did not need any special invitations. There were so many volunteers that they simply didn’t have enough weapons, points on the distribution of which were organized right on the streets.
The interventionists' offensive began in three directions at the same time: three battalions went to Playa Chiron, one - to Playa Larga, and a battalion of paratroopers moved to San Blas. To capture the airfield in the area of Playa Chiron and prepare it to receive its aircraft, separate units were allocated.
To stop the advance of the invaders deep into the country, the main command of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces decided to use aviation to disrupt the landing of troops on the coast, as well as the subsequent blocking and defeat of the landed forces from the sea and land. To solve this problem, the High Command allocated 7 infantry battalions, 20 tanks T-34 and 10 SAU-100, as well as 14 mortar and artillery batteries.
The Cuban command remained only to transfer these very impressive forces to the battlefield. The positions of the invaders hit the thirty-three and SAU-100. The head thirty-four was commanded by Fidel himself, the fact that he was on the battlefield gave Cuban young tankers an unprecedented enthusiasm.
By April 18, the initiative had completely passed into the hands of the Cuban revolutionary forces, and during the general offensive that had begun, the Cubans sank four enemy ships, shot down five aircraft, pushing the invaders back to the coast of the bay, almost dropping them into the sea. Thus, by the evening of 18 on April 1961, the operation to overthrow Castro, prepared by the CIA, suffered a complete collapse.
Against the background of the apparent failure of the landing operation, Kennedy gave the order to engage aviation. However, due to the ridiculous error associated with the confusion in time zones, the bombers missed the fighters and did not dare to attack.
On the morning of April 19, the Cuban revolutionary forces, after half an hour of artillery training, finally broke the resistance of the enemy. The interventionists tore off their uniforms and fled. The losses of the "gusanos" - the invaders-mercenaries amounted to 82 man. The 1197 man has surrendered. Revolutionary forces have lost 156 people killed and about 800 injured.
CIA mercenaries defeated in the Bay of Pigs and captured by Cubans (photo http://komiunity.ru)
Fidel Castro later appreciated the role of the battle of Playa Chiron in stories Cuban people: "The battle of Playa Chiron did not allow to turn the history of Cuba to the old days, and saved the revolution." In July 1961, the Cuban Council of Ministers established the Order of Playa Chiron as one of the highest state awards.
The first intervention prepared by the USA in Latin America suffered a complete defeat. Cuba has managed to defend its right to freedom and independence. However, the American leadership was preparing a rematch, and in November 1961 of the year developed a plan for a new operation to change the regime in Cuba, codenamed Mongoose, which was to begin in 8-12 in October 1962. To prevent a new invasion of Cuba, the USSR secretly placed in Cuba medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads on board. As a result, the Caribbean crisis erupted - the greatest military and political confrontation of the 20th century.
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