Colonel Herbert Boy was a veteran WWI German pilot having served in Jasta 14, on the Western Front, who had found employment with the Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aéreos in 1924, this company had been founded at Barranquilla on the 5th December 1919 by a group of Colombian and resident German businessmen. Two days after the taking of Leticia "SCADTA" agreed to relinquish its Wal flying boat, plus its two Junkers F 13's and one Junkers W 33 to the Colombian Air Force (Aviación Militar), while Herbert Boy was summoned to President Olaya's office where he was asked to organise an aerial supply route to the Putumayo River and given the rank of Major. Without this company's assistance the future campaign might well have produced a different conclusion, the Colombian Minister of War, Carlos Uribe Gaviria in his memoirs wrote, "We took full advantage of SCADTA's technical infrastructure as well as its connections with various aircraft manufacturers. Through SCADTA's intervention we were able to negotiate the acquisition and hiring of pilots, observers, mechanics and armament fitters, all of whom rendered opportune and optimum service." Among the Colombian requests to purchase aircraft from abroad, Herbert Boy would later relate that Hermann Göring refused to release the last two of the - 36 - Colombian trimotors as he considered them to be more urgently needed by the still clandestine "Luftwaffe". Boy therefore made a hurried journey to Berlin where he succeeded in persuading his former classmate, Dr. Joseph Goebels, to intervene on behalf of Colombia and gain release of the aircraft. The Peruvian aircraft that attacked the Colombian gunboats outside Tarapacá were Vought Corsairs, these were piloted by Majors Montoya and Canga, Lieutenant Lecca and Sub-Lieutenant Secada, the aircraft flown by Lieutenant Lecca developed engine trouble and had to return to base. Source: A South American Air War: The Leticia Conflict, by Georg von Rauch, U.K. 1998. Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 7, Leticia Conflict Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com