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As noted by Adrian English in his article, "The Peru - Ecuador War of 1941", this conflict was "the first occasion on which paratroopers had been used in combat in the Americas..." (English 1991, 3). In the words of a contemporary writer, Lt. Col. Vernon Magee of the U.S. Marine Corps, the Peruvians "Took a page out of the Blitzkrieg book of tactics and definitely ended the campaign in the space of a few hours" (Magee 1942, 8). If the results of the Peruvian use of airborne forces was clearly decisive, the origins of these forces is somewhat obscure. David Zook states that the Peruvian offensive on the Zarumilla Front was a "Miniature 'blitzkrieg' of probable Italian doctrinal inspiration" (Zook 1966, 319). Although it is not commonly known, during the Inter-War Period, the Italians were active in providing military assistance to a number of Latin American Armed Forces, including those of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela and, ironically, both Ecuador and Peru (Zook 1964, 164, Wood 1978, 68, English 1984, 48, 7a, 238, 247, 392 and 460). Between 1935 and 1940, Peru employed an Italian Military Mission specifically to reorganize and modernize its Air Force. The importance of the Peruvian Air Force's ties with Italy is suggested by the fact that, in addition to the presence of this Military Mission, there was also a contract reached with the Caproni aircraft company for the repair and construction of aircraft in Peru (which resulted in the building of twenty-six CA-135 bombers) (English 1984, 392). Significantly, Italy was a pioneer in the development of airborne forces. During the First World War, she successfully dropped "informatori" behind Austrian lines. Although further experiments were carried out by Gen. Allesandro Guidoni in 1927, his death during an exercise the following year brought a halt to the Italian airborne program until the late 1930 ' s (Gregory 1979, 17, 54). On his own initiative, Air Marshal Italo Balbo, who was the Governor of Libya and a strong advocate for airborne forces, formed Italy's first airborne unit from colonial troops under his command in 1938. The following year an airborne school was established in mainland Italy at Tarquinia {Gregory 1979, 17, 54, & Lundari 1989, 8R). It seems more than coincidental that these developments were taking place in Italy at the same time that an Italian Military Mission was assisting in the reorganization of the Peruvian Air Force. As for the actual formation of Peru's paratrooper unit, this appears to have taken place between 1938 and 1939, with the first practice drop of the unit as a whole occurring in September, 1940 (English 1984, 375, 394). Other Installments Back to Table of Contents -- El Dorado Vol VII No. 3 © Copyright 1996 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. |