Oral Histories
of the 100 Hours
"Football War"

El Salvador - Honduras 1969

Company Commander 11th Battalion Eastern Operations Theater (TOO)

by David E. Spencer

During the war with Honduras, I was a lieutenant assigned to the 4th battalion attacking across the Goascoran river with their supply section. On the 15th I was sent over to the 11th battalion to take over a company that had been mauled. The company had gotten lost in the dark and had come up to the edge of the river. The captain in charge decided that instead of crossing the river, he would camp there, near the edge. Meanwhile a company of Treasury Police had also gotten lost and ran into the 11th battalion company. A fierce fire-fight took place, the army company suffered great losses, and was dispersed.

I was assigned the task of taking over from the captain and leading the unit into action. When I arrived, I took charge of 45 demoralised soldiers and then was sent some reservist reinforcements, With this ad-hoc unit I crossed the river. Meanwhile, on the Honduran side, the Presidential Battalion had counter-attacked and pushed the 11th battalion back towards the river. We counter-attacked the Hondurans and began to slowly push them back. Because the 11th Battalion was mostly reservists, they didn't have priority either for air or artillery support, that went to the 4th battalion. Furthermore, the reservists were armed with M-l rifles and Czechoslovakian 7mm Mausers. The 4th Bn. had G-3's, In the 4th Battalion there were MADSEN 51mm mortar grenades that had been modified by adding a tube with stabilising fins so they could be launched from rifles.

These were used by the men with G-3's. Despite the 11th battalion's lack of weapons, we fought well and broke the Honduran resistance. By the time we were approaching Nacaome, we were practically walking.

We Salvadorans didn't want the war. We were forced to go to war by public demand. The Hondurans were really being cruel to Salvadorans in their country. Many women had been raped and their breasts cut off. Men had been castrated, and a whole series of atrocities committed against the Salvadorans in Honduras. The atrocities were not committed by the regular Honduran military, but by mobs and the CES. After the fighting ended, our two armies hunkered down to await the political decision. The 11th Bn troops got very bored.

Many would sneak out at night and rob, get drunk, fight, rape women, and even murder in some cases. Because of this, when the battalion returned to El Salvador it was disbanded. I returned to my original unit and was assigned the task of patrolling the border on the Salvadoran side of the river from Aramecina to near Alianza. For the first six months we would have almost daily fire-fights as both sides would open fire on each other from across the river. Many soldiers died. Finally we got tired of the killing and the officers from the two armies sat down and decided that while the politicians kept on haggling we were dying and this had to stop. A system was set up so that each side advised the other when they were going to patrol, so that the other wouldn't go out.. Salvadoran officers crossed into Honduras secretly to visit the Hondurans, and Honduran officers secretly crossed into El Salvador to visit the Salvadoran military.

Colonel Lemus was with the engineers and attacked El Amatillo. This unit raised the blades on its bulldozers to act as armor, and attacked firing over the top. They also attached cables to the bulldozers and used winches to cross the river.

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