Brief Border Wars, a wargame by compass
(This article was originally written by Desktop WarGames, and the picture comes from the Internet.) "Desktop War WarGame" focuses on the cultivation of the military field, adheres to originality, and adheres to the original intention. Your guidance is welcome. ）
The reasons for war can be varied, and they can be territorial disputes, competition for resources or even religion. In Brief Border Wars, a new wargame released by Compass, it simulates four short border wars between the 20th and 21st centuries, with the war that broke out between the small Central American countries of El Salvador and Honduras, which broke out on July 14 and 18, 1969, lasted for about 6 days and about 100 hours, known as the "Football War".
One of the most widely circulated images of the "Football War"
Football is known as the "world's first sport", and there are many conflicts caused by football, and the incident in which 200 Russian fans beat up 1,000 British fans at Euro 2016 is often talked about. Football has led to many violent incidents, but it is generally limited to fights between people, and it is indeed very strange to say that it directly leads to the war between the armies of two countries. The border war between El Salvador and Honduras is called a "football war" because it involved the 1970 World Cup qualifiers in Mexico.
People who are excited by football matches
In June 1969, salvadoran and Honduras football teams met in the knockout stage of the qualifiers, and on June 6, the first match of the knockout match was held in Honduras, and the honduran people beat gongs and drums around the hotel where the Salvadoran team members were staying to make noise to disturb the rest of the Salvadoran players, and indeed the Salvadoran team lost the next day's game. On June 15, the knockout match was held in El Salvador for the second time, and this time the Salvadoran people still used color for the Honduran football team, and even intensified their efforts to throw eggs, stones and other debris directly into the hotel where the Honduran players stayed. The Honduran team, which had been so harassed, naturally had no intention of fighting in the next day's match, losing to Salvador. The final showdown between the two sides was held in Mexico City on June 27, and Salvador eliminated Honduras with a win in extra time to get a ticket to the World Cup. On 27 June, El Salvador and Honduras announced the severance of diplomatic relations, and on 14 July, el Salvador took the lead in bombing an air base on the outskirts of Thegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and war officially broke out.
El Salvador, whose territory is much smaller than Honduras, is greatly irritated by the expulsion of Salvadoran nationals from Honduras
Such a timeline development will undoubtedly make people directly associate the outbreak of war with football, which is also known as the "football war". But in fact, the conflict in football matches is only the trigger of the war, and the fact that the two countries have been feuding for a long time is the real reason for the outbreak of the war. El Salvador and Honduras are not rich countries, the domestic situation in the two countries has been in turmoil for a long time, in order to divert domestic contradictions, both governments encourage the people to hate each other, as can be seen from the attitude of the people of the two countries to the other team. At the beginning of 1969, Honduras decided to drive all Salvadoran farmers in Honduras back to Their home countries in order to distribute land to Honduran farmers, but El Salvador had no more land to provide to these returned "refugees", which led to the intensification of social unrest in El Salvador, which led to the two countries entering a state of tension, and the football clash at the end of June became an opportunity for the conflict between the two sides to break out.
The "Football War" began with air raids in El Salvador, where the main fighter was the U.S.-made P-51 Mustang during World War II.
After talking about the causes of the "football war", we will focus on the process of the war. Compared with the legendary cause of the "football war", the war itself has no bright spots, the two sides do not have the magnificent scene of the confrontation of large corps, nor do they invest any high-precision weapons and equipment in the battle, and the strategy and tactics of the combat command are naturally lackluster. The war between the two sides began with air raids in El Salvador, and the aircraft was already the most high-tech weapon invested by both sides in the "Football War", but in fact, both sides used the "classic aircraft" of the World War II period, including the P-51 Mustang, the F4U "Corsair" fighter and the C-47 transport aircraft. The main force of the Salvadoran Air Force consisted of 12 P-51s, 6 F4Us and 4 C-47s, while the Main Force of the Honduran Air Force was 12 F4Us and 4 C-47s. In order to make up for the shortage of fighters, In the first air raid on Honduras, El Salvador even dispatched more than a dozen agricultural aircraft to carry out harassment missions.
With the exception of the P-51, both sides are equipped with F4U Corsair fighters, and the Honduran F4U performs better than the F4U
Due to the lack of radar and other equipment, the fighters on both sides basically rely on visually seeking the enemy, coupled with the limited level of pilot training, after a few days of air combat, the two sides basically did not achieve much success. The only highlight was the aerial battle on 17 July, when Honduran pilot Fernando Soto shot down 1 P-51 and 2 F4Us, dealing a heavy blow to the Salvadoran Air Force, the last piston fighter in the history of air combat. The C-47 is a transport aircraft produced in the United States during World War II, and is a famous aircraft in World War II transport aircraft, which has its presence on the "Hump Route". But in the "Football War", the C-47 is often used for bombing missions, because the C-47 does not have a bomb bay, so the bombs are dropped through the cabin door by hand, such a way of dropping doomed these bombs to be basically inaccurate, and can only use about 50 kg of small bomblets.
The famous transport aircraft C-47 in World War II made a cameo role as a bomber in the "Football War"
In the ground battlefield, the two sides also fought "back and forth", and the initial Salvadoran army gathered about 12,000 troops, and the numerically superior Salvadoran army successfully occupied some border towns and gained control of the Pan-American Highway. However, due to limited supplies, the advance of the Salvadoran army was soon delayed. At the same time, Honduras urgently recruited 1,000 veterans to form an "Honorary Guard Battalion" to be transported by C-47s to the front line to support, and the front line between the two sides was once in a stalemate. By July 18, the last day of the war, the Honduran army organized troops to break into El Salvador from another direction in an attempt to form a siege of the Salvadoran army, but the encirclement was not yet fully formed, and the two sides signed a ceasefire agreement on the evening of the 18th under pressure and mediation in the United States and the Organization of American States.
Operator in the wargame "The Short Frontier War", where light blue is the Honduran army and blue on a white background is marked as the Salvadoran army
The "football war" between El Salvador and Honduras lasted for 6 days, in fact, neither side won any decisive victory, with more than 2,000 casualties on the Honduran side and more than 900 casualties in El Salvador, most of whom were innocent civilians. In addition to short-term casualties, the war did not improve the social situation in El Salvador and Honduras, El Salvador was still unable to solve the problem of returnees, social contradictions continued to intensify, the population complained about the junta, and finally in 1979, a 12-year civil war broke out. Honduras, on the other hand, are no better off, and although They have driven out Salvadoran farmers, the domestic economy is still not improving. In addition, diplomatic relations between El Salvador and Honduras, which had been stagnant for more than a decade as a result of the war, led directly to a 12-year suspension of the Central American Common Market, which the United States had promoted to offset the influence of the Cuban Revolution, and Honduras and El Salvador, which were supposed to be the larger beneficiaries of the Central American Common Market.
The "football war" lasted short, but it had a profound impact on both countries
The "football war" between El Salvador and Honduras, which seems to have originated from football, is actually the result of the long-term turmoil in the two countries, and the government encourages hatred of each other to divert contradictions. War has never been the best way to solve problems, although there are also examples of profits from war in history, but this situation is really a minority, and more results are that both sides of the war have worked hard and lost money. Moreover, the impact of war is often far-reaching, in addition to short-term casualties, the damage to the country's economic construction and social stability is also difficult to eliminate in a short period of time.