Fighting and Aftermath
The Hondurans were caught off guard on July 14th, 1969, when the Salvadorans surprised them with air raids in which passenger airplanes were deployed as improvised bombers, by strapping bombs to their sides. One of the first targets was Toncontin International Airport, a few miles from the center of the Honduran capital, and which doubled as the Honduran Air Force’s main airbase. The damage inflicted impeded the better equipped Honduran Air Force’s ability to react quickly against the Salvadoran ground offensive into Honduras, which followed fast on the heels of the air raids.
Both combatants’ air forces flew World War II era airplanes, all of them of American origins. They included Vought F4-U Corsairs, North American P-51 Mustangs as well as Cavalier Mustangs (civilian air racing P-51s converted for military use), North American T-6 Texans and T-28 Trojans, plus Douglas C-47 transports, that were converted into bombers. On July 17th, Honduran F4-U Corsairs clashed with Salvadoran Corsairs and P-51s, and in the ensuing dogfight, a Honduran pilot downed a pair of Salvadoran planes. The Soccer War would be the last conflict in which piston engine fighters were pitted against each other.
In the meantime, the larger Salvadoran Army had plunged into Honduras, deploying infantry well supported by artillery, with American M101 105mm howitzers as a mainstay. The Salvadorans also deployed a mechanized division, equipped with WWII era armored fighting vehicles, with M3 Stuarts forming the backbone of their formations. By the evening of the following day, July 15th, the Salvadorans had made rapid progress, seizing nine Honduran cities and coming within striking distance of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, before the advance began losing momentum.
By the following day, July 16th, the better equipped Honduran Air Force had sufficiently recovered from the initial day’s surprise to begin striking back. The Hondurans hit Ilopinago International Airport, the Salvadoran Air Force’s main airbase, plus major and minor oil facilities across Salvador, and by day’s end, the Salvadoran coastline was marked by huge pillars of smoke, from burning oil depots and installations.
As the fighting raged, the Organization of American States (OAS) met in emergency session on July 15th, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Salvadoran forces from Honduras. The Salvadorans resisted at first, demanding reparations and guarantees of safety for Salvadorans residing in Honduras, but eventually gave in and agreed to a ceasefire on July 18th,, bringing to a close a war that had lasted for roughly 100 hours. About 900 Salvadorans, mostly civilians, had been killed, while the Hondurans lost about 250 military dead, plus 2000 civilians. About 300,000 Salvadorans were displaced, most of them having fled Honduras.
The Salvadoran government, already dealing with overpopulation, did little to help the refugees, who were forced to shift for themselves and endure extremes of poverty and want. Their plight led to social unrest, which eventually flared into a bloody civil war in 1979 that lasted for 12 years, claimed the lives of over 80,000 people, and turned over a million Salvadorans into refugees. Honduras and Salvador signed a peace treaty in 1980, and agreed to submit their outstanding border disputes to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which issued a ruling in 1992. Residual tensions lingered, however, and as recently as March of 2013, disagreements about just what the ICJ had meant led to an exchange of military threats between the neighboring countries. As to the Salvadoran soccer team, it beat Haiti in the next round of qualifications and made it to the 1970 World Cup, but lost all three group stage matches, without scoring a single goal.
_________________
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Soccer Politics – The Soccer War