Combat· Banana Wars
Battle of Quilali
A hard fight in the Sandino war, redeemed by a feat of aviation.
On New Year's Day 1928 a Marine and Guardia column on the trail toward Quilalí was ambushed from the hills, dynamite bombs and machine-gun fire bursting among them; the lead first sergeant was killed at once and the point fell back, but the Marines brought a mortar and a light gun to bear and stormed the slope. They fell back on Quilalí, where the Sandinistas then laid siege, leaving some thirty wounded men in the town with no way out, no relief column, and no airstrip. The defenders leveled walls to make a runway down the main street, and Lieutenant Christian Schilt flew in repeatedly under fire in a plane without brakes, Marines seizing the wings to stop it, carrying out eighteen wounded over three days. Schilt received the Medal of Honor, the last of the Banana Wars.
Podcast episodes on Banana Wars
Record no. 503