The Battle of Jambelí was a naval combat between Ecuador and Peru that took place in the maritime territory of Ecuador on July 25, 1941. It was an altercation between the Ecuadorian gunboat BAE Calderón and the Peruvian destroyer BAP Almirante Villar.
The first was a small warship and the second was a larger vessel that could reach higher speed and was more agile, according to naval terminology. In addition, he was superior in armament and troops.
Despite the great difference in power, Ecuador was victorious and managed to expel the Peruvian forces from the Jambelí channel.
That is why, every July 25th, the Ecuadorian National Navy Day is celebrated in recognition of the value and commitment of the members of the Navy.
Before Jambelí, the War of 1850-1860 occurred. In 1981 the border dispute"Falso Paquisha"was developed in which shocks developed between frontier troops; and finally, in 1995 the War of Cenepa, a conflict developed in the Eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor was carried out.
Beginning of the battle of Jambelí
It all began when the Peruvian ship"Almirante Villar"left the district of Zorritos in Tumbes, Peru, to Ecuadorian waters, specifically to the Gulf of Guayaquil, to carry out patrol and reconnaissance of the maritime area.
When the Ecuadorians perceive the Peruvian presence, the gunboat"Abdón Calderón", that already was sailing by the channel of Jambelí towards Guayas, changed its stern to Puerto Bolivar while firing shots.
The immediate action of the Peruvian seamen was to counterattack and, after more than 20 minutes of exchange of gunpowder, the battle or"the incident", as the Peruvians prefer to call this event, came to an end.
The action of the Ecuadorian crew of the Abdón Calderón, to the command of the commander Rafael Morán Valverde, was realized after they realized that the Peruvian intention was to block the Gulf of Guayaquil.
Higinio Malavé, an officer of the Ecuadorian naval and crew of the gunboat, says that"the Peruvians took advantage of the fact that we did not have military aviation at the time. However, before the confrontation on July 25 they already had planes flying over Guayaquil. The Peruvians took advantage of the conjuncture of World War II to start this dispute."
Antecedents of the battle of Jambelí
Before the sea battle, the Ecuadorian warships had to remain 26 days in the channel of Jambelí to avoid any invasion. However, the inferiority, in military material, as well as in troops, were quite notorious:
- The Ecuadorian forces were surpassed in proportion of 10 to 1
- Weapons were obsolete
- The army consisted of only 8000 soldiers
- There was no air force and the only airplane that counted the equatorial country was for training.
For these reasons, interventions by the United States, Brazil, and Argentina succeeded in stopping Peruvian operations, but these resumed surprisingly on July 23, 1941.
The"Atahualpa"Notice was responsible for fulfilling the mission to protect the coast of the province of El Oro. It was a small vessel used to service the lighthouses and bollards and was equipped with two"Breda"guns the army.
Before, the boat"Machala", lacking of armament, was attacked by Peruvian patrol boats on June 9, 1941.
For this reason, Border Security Commandant Lieutenant Colonel Octavio Ochoa requested that the"Atahualpa"Notice be sent in a fixed manner to monitor the Jambelí Channel.
According to the Ecuadorian Navy, so on July 23, the crew of the"Atahualpa"warning, at the command of the ensign of frigate Víctor Naranjo Fiallo, resisted the attack of several airplanes of the Peruvian military army and managed to shoot down one of them .
Daniel Cevallos, crew member of the"Atahualpa"Notice, says that"at that moment the cabin boy Eleuterio Challah launched and fired blasts until he was able to demolish."
At that time, Ecuador did not have much weaponry, but only rifles, but the few antiaircraft batteries that had, they had a scope of three thousand meters, but the Peruvian airplanes raised as much as possible not to be reached by some projectile.
The operations of July 23 were carried out during the morning, when four Peruvian aircraft appeared in the sky of Puerto Bolívar, in the Jambelí channel, and proceeded to attack the"Atahualpa"warning flying 200 meters in height and passing through the band port
The Peruvian pilots unloaded four blasts of machine guns, but none hit the mark. On the other hand, with the two machine guns and the Breda cannon of the"Atahualpa", it was possible to shoot down the Peruvian plane that finally fell in Balzalito.
The combat that only lasted 7 minutes, left the tragic death of Lieutenant Captain José Quiñónez González (who had a posthumous ascent in the Peruvian military hierarchy).
Quiñónez González represents the first ace of Peruvian aviation who, instead of using his parachute, tried to direct his plane against the Ecuadorian batteries and was hit by enemy fire, crashed and lost his life on the spot.
Consequences of the battle of Jambelí
The Peruvian-Ecuadorian war, also known as the war of 41, was just one of the various armed conflicts that occurred between the two Latin American countries as a result of its secular territorial dispute due to the lack of borders recognized and accepted by both.
As a result of the war of July 25, 1941, the Protocol of Peace, Friendship and Boundaries of Rio de Janeiro was signed on January 29, 1942, but evidently the undeclared clashes continued until the arrival of a new millennium.
At present, both Andean nations have sought to advance in the improvement of their bilateral diplomatic and military relations.
References
- Anon. (2010). Decline of the Institution (1916-1942). In Anon, Armada of the Ecuador.
- Bravo, M. S. (2015 July 26). The epic of July 1941. Forgot your password? .
- The Republic. (July 17, 2017). 76 years of the Naval Combat of Jambelí. The Republic .
- Nunez, E. M. (1981). General history of the Ecuadorian army: The Ecuadorian army in the international campaign of 1941 and in the post-war period. Center for Historical Studies of the Army.