1955 Revolution: Calquins and Lincolns Bomb Río Santiago

Actions over Río Santiago

 
Río Santiago Naval Base, shipyards and School (Photo: Isidoro Ruiz Moreno, La Revolución del 55, Tomo II)

At the Naval Base of Río Santiago everything was agitated on the morning of the 16th. The personnel came and went while the officers transmitted orders and proceeded to enforce them.
Since the early hours of the day, a significant number of officers had begun to arrive at the military unit with the idea of joining the movement, notable among them was Lieutenant Commander Eduardo Davidou, commander of the patrol boat “King”; his artillery chief, frigate captain José Fernández and the commander of the “Murature”, lieutenant captain Francisco Pucci. Once there, they found the facilities in full state of alert and taking precautions in anticipation of an attack.
The defense of the area was in charge of Lieutenant Commander Carlos Schliemann, assisted by Army Captain Juan Carlos Ríos and Lieutenants Roberto Wulff de la Fuente and Jorge Osvaldo Lauría.
The cadets, who had been led to the back of the main building, were armed with old Mauser training rifles and several automatic rifles, with patrol platoons assigned to the islands and defensive pickets on the perimeter line of the base and the parade ground, with which an effective defensive cordon was formed.
The vanguard line, composed entirely of elements of the 3rd Marine Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Juan A. Plaza, was located in the area of the silos and grain elevators, in front of the main island, Santiago River in between, reinforced by a section of sailors under the command of Lieutenant Carlos Büsser1, Navy officers and students from the Higher War School.
Command of the operations was assumed by General Juan José Uranga, a brave and determined officer who had subordinated himself to Admiral Rojas, with whom he had a more than cordial relationship. His main concern was the lack of weapons to confront the government forces and the need to resort to the reserve warehouses in which the Ballester Molina 45 caliber semi-automatic carbines with double magazines were kept along with other rifles.


Shortly after receiving the order to enlist, the 120 conscripts of the company commanded by Büsser, supported by an officer and a corporal, boarded the boats and crossed the stream in the direction of the grain elevators. Recently incorporated Army troops were added to them, among them Lieutenant Ibérico Saint Jean, who despite having a higher rank than the sailor, placed himself under his command without hesitation.
While the mobilization was completed, Admiral Rojas ordered the patrol boats “King” and “Murature”, anchored in the side channel, to position themselves in front of the Naval Academy so that, if attacked, they would repel the action with their powerful forces. cannons. In this way, he planned to compensate for the lack of artillery and, therefore, provide adequate cover. Once the directive was given, two tugboats slowly approached them, to hook them up and move them to their new position, a task on which the crews of both vessels worked quickly.
Meanwhile, from La Plata, the loyal forces were mobilizing as quickly as possible, adopting provisions to advance on the naval base.
The governor of the province, Mayor of the Intendencia (RE) Carlos Aloé, had left the government palace to go to the nearby Police Headquarters to take charge of its 700 troops, thereby removing himself from a possible coup d'état by insurgent commandos. The measure was correct because the two military units of the provincial capital, the 7th Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Communications Battalion, were on maneuvers in Magdalena, 70 kilometers to the south and would not arrive in time to begin the advance and contain the rebellious troops.
Knowing the situation, Minister Lucero ordered urgent defensive measures, ordering the immediate return of the units, as well as the 2nd Artillery Regiment that was with them, also mobilizing the 6th Infantry Regiment based in Mercedes and the 1st Artillery Regiment with base in Junín, all of them under the orders of General Heraclio Ferrazzano, commander of the II Army Division who was supported by Colonel Norberto Ugolini, chief of staff of the Division.
Both Uranga and Rojas understood the need to take over La Plata in order to remove such an important place from government hands. And to this end, Lieutenant Büsser was tasked with loading his troops into several trucks and preparing to advance.
Based on that plan, a jeep was dispatched to inspect the area, whose driver was to transport an officer to reconnoitre the area. This was done and upon his return, it was certain that machine gun nests and a large number of troops had been stationed both in the nearby town of Ensenada and on the access road to La Plata. Uranga wanted to make sure of this personally and left aboard a private car accompanied by his assistant, Captain Luis A. Garda, and his two nephews, who had driven him that morning to Río Santiago.
The vehicle started moving and just three kilometers from the base it came across two machine gun posts stationed on both sides of the road, which they passed without problems because Uranga was wearing his uniform and that made the police forces assume that it was a loyal officer. They were still unaware that there were elements of the Army who had joined the rebel forces.
Despite this, the general decided to return because he knew that if he continued, he could be isolated, with loyal troops blocking his path. The car turned around and returned along dirt streets parallel to the road.
Uranga offered the high command an overview of the situation, which is why it was decided to suspend the advance on La Plata to adopt defensive positions, securing the Naval Shipyard sector and the grain elevators.


Patrol boat ARA "King" (P.21) moored in port (Image: Fundación Histarmar. Historia y Arqueología Marítima)

Police officers from the province of Buenos Aires, reinforced by the Naval Prefecture and civil militants from the union groups and basic units of the provincial capital, set out towards Río Santiago, following direct instructions from the Ministry of War. Once in front of the base, they took up positions near the entrances and began shooting, unleashing an intense firefight that could be heard for several kilometers around.
The battle began when loyalist forces moved to envelop the rebel vanguard, moving to the left, covered by buildings, as they entered the surrounding swamps.
It was 10:00 on that cold September morning when General Heraclio Ferrazzano and Colonel Hermenegildo Barbosa, the latter chief of the 7th Infantry Regiment, arrived in the area to take control of the situation. An hour later, when the 450 marines and their army allies were consolidating a bridgehead on the mainland, Ferrazzano ordered an attack on them, to force them to retreat to the other side of the Santiago River.
Barbosa divided his forces into two sections, sending the first to occupy the railway station and the second to do the same with Plaza Belgrano, while the 2nd Artillery Regiment, reinforced by a battery from the “Buenos Aires” Motorized Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of Communications, began its advance through the center.
Seeing them coming, the troops stationed at the Shipyard opened fire, stopping the forces that were approaching them and containing them until noon.
While the first clashes were taking place, an Avro Lincoln from Morón bombed the base's magazines without causing damage. The bombs fell into the water and the plane moved away, repelled by the artillery of the patrol boats moored next to the Naval Academy.
While these events were taking place on the mainland, from Martín García Island, the BDI landing units No. 6 and No. 11 sailed towards the base carrying on board Marine Infantry troops made up of three companies of candidates and personnel from the School of Sailors based on the island plus Company No. 2 of the Marine Infantry under the orders of frigate captain Juan Carlos González Llanos, on board the second.


An Avro Lincoln approaches low-flying. (Image: Blog de las Fuerzas de Defensa de la República Argentina - http //fdra.blogspot.com.ar)

The boats had left at 10:50 and two hours later they were off La Plata, ready to enter the port. Four government Gloster Meteor fighters and five Calquin bombers detected their presence and attacked them, strafing them first and throwing their bombs at them immediately afterwards. The BDI No. 11, piloted by Lieutenant Federico Roussillon, received the full fury of the fire.
The Calquin bombs exploded nearby, shaking the boats hard. It was followed at low altitude by the Gloster Meteors, which indiscriminately riddled its decks, which lacked anti-aircraft defenses. The boats carried out zigzag maneuvers and continued their advance when the attackers, after consuming their ammunition, began their return to Morón.
The attack caused two deaths and nine injuries on board the BDI No. 11, which only responded with rifle fire, which was ineffective, by the way. A projectile had destroyed her engine regulator, causing her to stop. Her subsequent stranding left channel 2 partially blocked. Despite the damage, the boat would be repaired and would continue sailing for the rest of the day.
The boats docked next to the Prefecture detachment and disembarked the troops under fire from loyal troops. The companies spread out through the swamps in the direction of the Naval Academy, trying to take cover in the mountains. Company No. 2 of the Marine Infantry, under the command of Lieutenant Oscar López, attempted to join the defense of the main building of the establishment. They were received by the person in charge of surveillance, Lieutenant Roberto Wulff de la Fuente, who ordered them to form up to immediately distribute them to different sectors.
The infantrymen were shocked by the air attacks and therefore disbanded when a Gloster Meteor passed over them, without firing shots. With the danger removed, they formed up again and marched directly to the front.
After noon, the “King” and the “Murature”, pulled by the tugboats, were located next to the dock, in front of the Naval Academy. From the spit of land next to the grain elevators, on the opposite bank, they received intense fire, suffering the first casualties. An impact hit the bridge of the “King” causing some damage and almost hitting her commander. Those who did not have the same luck were the sailor Mateo Viña, killed by a 7.65 caliber shot in the chest and the first corporal Raúl Torres, seriously wounded in the face, next to the Bofors cannon that served.
In the “Murature” the shrapnel hit Corporal Balsante squarely, also wounded in the face; to the artillery non-commissioned officer Victorio Rodríguez and to the sailor Luis Palena, who fell on a Rokord clock from the signal bridge, staining the commander with his blood. The tugboats were also hit but without major consequences and were able to continue advancing towards the docks.
Immediately after docking, the patrol boats disembarked dead and wounded while their commanders headed to the Liceo building to appear before its director, Captain Carlos M. Bourel, and receive directives. Bourel informed them of where his troops were located and ordered them to open fire on the enemy positions.
The patrollers fired with such violence that upon hitting the area, the loyal forces were forced to evacuate the sector while suffering considerable casualties in their ranks. While this was happening, Büsser's people, face to face, shot at them from the shipyards.


Patrol boat ARA "Murature" (P-20) gains open waters in the Río de la Plata. She was Admiral Rojas' flagship until his transfer to the cruiser "La Argentina" on September 18, 1955.
 (Image: gentileza Fundación Histarmar. Historia y Arqueología Marítima)

There was intense fighting in Río Santiago when an Avro Lincoln piloted by Vice Commodore Islas left the Morón Air Base. The aircraft carried Captain Hugo Crexell as a pointer and his mission was to intimidate the rebels and show them the destructive capacity available to the government.
The device approached flying high over the Dock Central distilleries and once over the target it opened its floodgates and dropped its bombs, immediately beginning evasion maneuvers. The loads went long and fell into canal waters, without consequences.
In anticipation of this type of attacks, the main buildings were conditioned, covering their openings with mattresses and all kinds of elements, in order to avoid splinters and splinters from the shattered glass.


An I.Ae-24 Calquin prepares to attack Río Santiago

At 2:30 p.m., two Avro Lincolns and a Calquin attacked again, but without success. When the alarm was raised, the officers, who had made the Naval Academy Directorate their headquarters, fell to the ground, got off tables and desks, while the explosions shook the earth.
Admiral Rojas, on the other hand, maintained a serene attitude, praised by his assistants at the end of the conflict. According to Isidoro Ruiz Moreno, while the bombardment lasted he remained standing, joking with his subordinates who watched him in disbelief from the floor, especially Lieutenant Jorge Isaac Anaya and the admiral's assistant, Lieutenant Oscar Carlos Ataide, both of whom were under cover. a desk that had belonged to General Justo José de Urquiza. From that position, he maintained telephone contact with Captain Adolfo Grandi, who commanded the troops fighting in the Shipyard, following the combat alternatives.
The first bombs fell into the water without exploding because due to the low altitude at which the planes flew, their fuzes did not have time to arm. New incursions followed, all of them repelled by crossfire from the “King” and the “Murature” which, at that point, had become the main beasts of anti-aircraft defense. A bomb exploded near the first, hitting its hull with shrapnel, while two of the attacking aircraft received impacts of different magnitude: the Calquin, one that crossed its right wing from side to side, near the fuselage, and the Avro Lincoln, another in the turret. lower. The first crashed near the La Plata Regatta Club, killing the pilot and his companion, and the second left smoking in the direction of the “Armour” refrigerator.

While these actions were taking place, a squadron of six Calquins under the command of Captain Jorge Costa Peuser, deserted to the rebel ranks. It was made up of captains Valladares, Marcilese, Pérez, Abdala and Crespo, who had landed that same day in Morón, from El Plumerillo, province of Mendoza to reinforce the loyal Air Force.
Having received the order to bomb Río Santiago, the planes dropped their bombs into the water and continued flying towards Tandil, to join the revolutionary ranks. The fact did not go unnoticed in Morón where, in the afternoon, Crexell and his assistants began to worry about defections, the fire potential of the patrol cars, and the inexperience of the government pilots during the attacks.
And it was no wonder since a careful analysis of the situation was able to determine that none of their bombs had achieved hits, two planes had been hit, and at least half a dozen had deserted, including the recent arrivals from El Plumerillo.
The Repression Command ordered a bombing mission on the rebel positions in Córdoba and in compliance with that directive, the head of the FAA, Brigadier Juan Fabri, dispatched the two Avro Lincolns piloted by captains Ricardo Rossi and Orlando Cappellini to whom we we refer to in chapter 9.
The pilots took off at 12:30 and once in the air, they made a low pass over the runway and cut off communication with the tower. An hour later they were over the Military Aviation School, in the province of Córdoba, requesting authorization to land.
Two hours later, three other aircraft commanded by Captain Fernando González Bosque and First Lieutenants Manuel Turrado Juárez and Dardo Lafalce would do the same, which, as has been said, considerably increased the firepower of the revolutionary forces.

The actions in Río Santiago lasted well into the night. The loyal forces, under the command of General Ferrazzano, had harassed the base and its facilities throughout the day, firing their powerful cannons and mortars on the patrol boats and the main buildings.
At 5:00 p.m., the Marine Corps, following direct instructions from Rojas, began to cross the arm of water that separates the Shipyard from the School. Lieutenant Carlos Sommariva was there, supporting his position inside the sheds under the pressure of Ferrazzano's forces when Captain Grandi arrived to transmit the order that he should go to the ferry and cross to the School. At the moment when both officers were talking, a bullet hit Grandi and threw him to the ground. Sommariva thought they had killed him but his surprise was great when he saw him stand up and continue speaking. The projectile had hit a button on his jacket, miraculously saving his life.

Guns from the 7th Infantry Regiment open fire on the patrol boats "King" and "Murature"

At an indication from Sommariva, the Marines ran towards the ferry, crossing the ramps on which the frigate “Libertad” was being built. They did it in sections, very professionally, first the conscripts, then the non-commissioned officers and finally the officers, who remained until the last moment covering the retreat while the fire intensified around them. The ferry crossed and deposited the conscripts on the opposite bank while the officers contained the Army as best they could.
Among the front-line combatants was Lieutenant Menotti Alejandro Spinelli, a veteran of June 16, who during the withdrawal passed by the hull of the “Libertad” when several enemy shots pierced its structure. In the midst of construction, the superb ship, pride of the Argentine Navy, received her baptism of fire.
At 6:00 p.m., the ferry guided by Lieutenant Julio Santoianni returned to the Shipyard to pick up the officers. The boat approached the extensive north jetty and the troops began to board hastily, covered by the fire of the patrol boats.
When all the personnel were on board, the ship left the dock and returned to the School, making it possible for the Army advance guards under the command of Major Horacio Rella, fulfilling direct orders from General Ferrazzano, to reach the access to the shipyard. An hour later, the artillery was located at the rear, in the open fields sector of the General Roca Railway, guided from the observation and adjustment posts stationed in the towers of the church and the Municipal Palace of Ensenada.
It was 8:00 p.m. when the cannons began to be prepared to support the troop assault that had been planned for the next day. The Morón Air Base, for its part, ended operations for that day due to the impossibility of operating at night.
When the clocks showed 9:00 p.m., Captain Crexell walked to a car located in the unit's parking lot to go to the Ministry of the Navy to present his report to Admiral Cornes. He was accompanied by the vice-commodores of Marotte and Síster, with whom he was discussing the day's alternatives when, suddenly, from a Calquin parked in front of them, someone opened fire.
The officers threw themselves on the ground at the precise moment when the plane was taxiing towards the runway to take flight, providentially saving their lives because at the moment of firing, the device was resting on the tail skid and that caused the gust to pass over their heads, without reaching them.

The anti-aircraft guns of the "King" and "Murature" respond. (Image: Blog de las Fuerzas de Defensa de la República Argentina)

Once the scare was over, Crexell got up, said goodbye to his companions, boarded the vehicle and left for the capital. At the Ministry he was received by his head, Admiral Cornes, and other senior officials to whom he gave the corresponding report, which lasted during dinner and ended around midnight. It was there that he realized, with some concern, that the government authorities considered the uprising to be defeated and that caused him concern because, at that point, nothing could be assured.
Meanwhile, in Río Santiago, Admiral Rojas carried out an analysis of the situation.
Lacking artillery, he knew that General Ferrazzano's forces would eventually prevail, reducing the naval installations to ashes. It was necessary to evacuate the place and move the troops out to sea if what was wanted was to avoid a massacre.
The decision upset ship captain Luis M. García who vigorously protested because, in his words, he was there to fight to the end and not to retreat. Rojas calmed him down, explaining that the situation was unsustainable and that to continue the fight, they had to embark and harass the enemy from the sea. García understood and Rojas went on to explain the plan.

With the arrival of night, the fighting ceased. The army troops changed positions, evacuated the wounded and proceeded to regain energy by distributing the ranch among the troops. On the rebel side, the pertinent orders were given for the boarding of the troops while in the School Directorate, Admiral Rojas, helped by lieutenants Jorge Isaac Anaya, Oscar Carlos Ataide and Jorge Osvaldo Lauría, proceeded to burn the documentation to avoid to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Rojas wrote a note to General Ferrazzano, which he left on his desk. It said, among other things, that the facilities and buildings of the Naval Base and its School were patrimony of the Nation and, therefore, property of the Argentine people: “I hope that on this occasion the embarrassing events that occurred will not be repeated. "They occurred when Army forces occupied the Ministry of the Navy on June 16, which was looted as war booty, not distinguishing between state property and private property."
Around 8:00 p.m., when the loyal forces proceeded to prepare the artillery to support the final assault, the “Murature” finished embarking the troops and crew of its twin “King”, unable to navigate due to repairs to the that was being subjected at the moment the revolution broke out.
When everything was ready, the ship lightened its moorings and with its personnel at its combat stations headed towards the Río de la Plata in total radio silence, pointing its cannons towards the enemy positions. The boat headed towards the access channel with the purpose of escorting the BDM and BDI boats in which the base personnel were still boarding and with a single engine on, it maneuvered to leave the port, slowly moving away into the water, without being attacked.
Admiral Rojas was the last to board. He did it in the BDI No. 11, accompanied by General Uranga and his staff made up of Captains Abel Fernández, Luis Miguel García, numerous officers and his assistant from the cruiser “9 de Julio”, the non-commissioned officer Alfredo Bavera. The boat was supposed to be the last to set sail but as BDT No. 6 had technical failures, it had to do so earlier.
At 9:00 p.m. Rojas ordered to set sail. Midshipman Adolfo Arduino, in charge of the helm, was so nervous by his presence that he had some difficulty moving away from the dock. At first it separated a little but after a few minutes, it collided with him. He repeated the maneuver and for the second time he attacked the station again, the same thing a third time until Captain Jorge J. Palma, concerned, asked to take charge. His counterpart, Captain Sánchez Sañudo, restrained him by reminding him that Arduino was the commander at that time and that he was the one in charge of carrying out the maneuver and that is how he understood it.
Finally they set sail. The boat moved away from the coast and with the lights off it navigated through the channel to enter the roadstead and gain the immensity of the river, heading to the “Recalada” Pontoon. It was at that moment when, exhausted and still tense, Rojas went down to the cabins, lay down on a bunk bed and fell sound asleep.
The BDT 6 took two hours to repair its defects and once they were corrected, it also departed (11:00 p.m.), leaving the Naval Base completely empty.


A column of armored vehicles that responds to General Heraclio Ferrazzano crosses Ensenada in the direction of Río Santiago ("El Día" from La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


A loyal plane flies over Ensenada ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


The Barrio Campamento razed (Image: Archivo Nacional de la memoria)


"Rarely has the camera been as expressive as in this note taken in the heart of the Campamento neighborhood. Along with the panorama of destruction and annihilation, the product of fratricidal conflict, the image of General Perón appears unscathed, firm and upright on a piece of masonry that He withstood the onslaught. The figure truthfully symbolizes the high value placed on the person of the President of the Nation in these crucial moments. The circumstance that the bombs have not managed to bring down the effigy of the Driver seems to mean an allegory in the sense that he always lives. in the deepest part of the heart of his people" ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


Fire crews try to control the fires ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


Fires and debris in Ensenada ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


The Barrio Campamento in debris ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


Mass exodus in Ensenada ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


A group of refugees boards one of the many YPF trucks that the government made available to rescuers ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


Residents of Ensenada and the Campamento neighborhood are evacuated in one of the many vehicles requisitioned by the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


This elderly couple has just arrived at the La Plata train station in a car from the newspaper "El Día" ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955) 


More refugees arrive at La Plata station ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)


Numerous evacuees are housed in the Provincial Hotel of La Plata ("El Día" de La Plata newspaper, 09/17/1955)

Notes

1. In 1982, Admiral Carlos Büsser led the occupation forces of the Malvinas archipelago during Operation Rosario.
2. Jorge E. Perren, Puerto Belgrano y la Revolución Libertadora, p. 187.

1955 Guerra Civil. La Revolucion Libertadora y la caída de Perón

Argentine Antarctica: The 1972 Tragedy

Tragedy in Antarctica: fall into a crevasse, a man waiting to be rescued and a missing body

In February 1972, a somber incident unfolded on the Antarctic continent as a Snocat transporting a patrol to the Sobral Base plunged into a deep crevice. The unfortunate event resulted in the loss of one occupant's life, while the other, teetering on the brink of freezing, placed their trust in Providence but was ultimately rescued. This narrative encapsulates the valor and commitment exhibited by those who dared to endure a year in the challenging conditions of the white continent.

By Adrián Pignatelli || Infobae

 

The patrol of ten men that left the Belgrano Base for Sobral, by then already deactivated (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

Inside the crevice, about sixty meters of icy depth, assistant mechanic sergeant Bladimiro Lezchik was conscious. He had an open fracture in his left shoulder and was bleeding from a deep wound in his scalp.

The vehicle he was driving, a Snocat, had fallen into a treacherous opening of ice that was hidden by the snow. His partner, Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann, 35, lay outside the destroyed vehicle. He was dead.

He remained for several hours in total darkness. While he asked for help, he thought about his family, his children. In a moment he resigned himself and entrusted himself to God.

When one of his companions came down with ropes to rescue him, he was freezing, he was at the limit of his strength and he was dominated by that dream from which it is impossible to wake up.

Bladimiro Lezchik was of Ukrainian descent. He was born in Formosa and his dream was to visit Antarctica (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

It was his first mission in Antarctica, where he had always dreamed of going, where he learned to know it through the stories of General Jorge Leal and when he set foot there he would be hooked forever. He said that it was like a magnet, a love, to which you always want to return.

Bladimiro (yes, with a long b, that's how they wrote it down) was a man from Formosa born in Colonia El Zapallito and he lived his childhood in El Colorado, a city in the southeast of the province, on the banks of the Bermejo River. His father had settled there, a Ukrainian who made his living as a tailor in his country, who traveled in carts making clothes and who in the harsh winter months when he couldn't go out, did theater.

Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann. He had Antarctic experience. Photograph published in the Non-Commissioned Officer Magazine No. 588, year 1984.

With a group of friends he came to Argentina and when he wanted to return, a civil war had broken out between Russia and Poland. He knew that if he returned he would be drafted and he stayed. The original family surname is an endless string of consonants, and the civil registry employee wrote it the way he heard it and that's how it stayed.

In Formosa there is an important colony of Ukrainians. The Lezchiks dedicated themselves to the countryside and Bladimiro, until he entered primary school, only spoke his native language. Upon completion, since there was no secondary school in the area, they sent him to train at the Sergeant Cabral Non-Commissioned Officers School.

The first one on the left. Lezchik with two companions, with a Snocat in the background (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

In 1961 he married Lidia Martyniuk, also of Ukrainian parents. He introduced them to a cousin at the end of 1957 when they returned to El Colorado on those endless train trips to Chaco and then by bus to the town of those who studied in Buenos Aires during the year.

When in 1970 they bought land and built a house in Rosario, they did so with a loan. Paying the fees was increasingly difficult, and the solution that Bladimiro saw was to offer to participate in a mission in Antarctica, for the significant extra that was charged.

Lezchik's dream was to go to the white continent, but he had not been lucky enough to be called up, despite the number of times he had signed up. Until he was selected.

On the way to Sobral, at kilometer 60, carrying fuel on the sleds (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

They were first sent south to acclimatize to the cold and snow. His wife Lidia, who had worked until she got married, was left alone with two children, Elbio, 9, and Noemí, 5, in a neighborhood where there was only one house on her block and the rest were vacant. Before Lezchik left, who had a knack for fixing anything, he added extra latches to the doors and windows.

On January 18, 1972, the 34 men, including military and civilians, arrived in Antarctica. For some it was their first trip and others already had experience.

The first task was titanic. Transfer the cargo brought by the San Martín Icebreaker about five kilometers uphill to the Belgrano Base.

Mortal trap. The crack where the Snocat "Chaco" fell, with the two men (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

On February 8, after lunch, he left on his first mission. He was part of a patrol of ten men, commanded by Carlos Fontana, a first lieutenant who had fallen in love with Antarctica after reading Cuatro Años en las Orcas del Sur, by José Manuel Moneta. He turned 30 years old on the white continent.

The patrol left the General Belgrano Base towards Alférez Sobral, an inactive scientific base, located 410 kilometers to the south. They had to update the route and supply it with food and fuel, because the future plan was to reactivate it. Deactivated in October 1968, the Sobral is currently buried in ice.

The trip had to be made as soon as possible, because the polar night was approaching. Fontana considered the order meaningless, because the snow and ice were soft and the dangers increased.

They were in four Snocats, the “Córdoba”, “Chaco”, “Venado Tuerto” and “Santiago del Estero”. Each of them dragged three sleds. Lezchik drove the “Chaco” and was accompanied by Assistant Sergeant Oscar Kurzmann, who had already joined the Esperanza Base crew in 1964.

The operation to rescue Lezchik and recover Kurzmann's body was put into practice immediately (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana).

On the maps that the group carried, the areas of cracks were marked, gathered in a stretch of about 60 kilometers. They were driving in second gear and probing the terrain to locate possible openings.

At 11:40 p.m., at kilometer 72, the “Santiago del Estero” sounded the alarm: the “Chaco” had disappeared into a crevasse.

Only a dark hole was visible, from which what Fontana describes as “sea smoke” emanated, with a strong acrid smell. When faced with shouting calls, only Lezchik responded. He asked to be taken out. Immediately, the rescue operation was prepared.

Lezchik, who had managed to get out of the Snocat, saw that his companion was on a balcony in the crevice, dead. He felt the blood running down his face and how his body grew cold. As time passed, he knew the inexorable fate.

On the surface, his companions had organized themselves against the clock. Sergeant Domínguez offered to go down, because he was the one who weighed the least. They crossed boards over the immense gap, tied him to several nylon ropes and lowered him, but when the rope reached its limit, they heard his screams that he could not reach the place. They had to add two more sections.

The Snocat was destroyed, about sixty meters deep. Domínguez confirmed that Kurzmann had died. Then he took care of Lezchik.

Kilometer 72. Before returning to the Belgrano Base, they left a cross in the place where Kurzmann's body was left. (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

He tied up this burly man of 1.92, who put his good arm around his neck. Laboriously, they climbed them.

Once on the surface, morphine was applied, his shoulder was immobilized and he received thirty stitches, without anesthesia, on his scalp. He was hypothermic and maneuvers were performed to stabilize him. They had to take him to the base because his life was in danger and they were running out of morphine.

While he was being assisted, Lieutenant Juan Carlos Videla and Leonardo Guzmán (with 14 winters in Antarctica under their belt) went down to rescue the body of their dead companion. They saw that his head was crushed. They covered her with the hood of their jacket.

When they were hoisting the body, the rope was cut and the body fell into the void. With a temperature of 20 degrees below zero, the men exhausted and one seriously injured, the chief, although at one point he thought about dividing the patrol, ordered to return to the base.

A wooden cross was improvised, milestones were placed to mark the place, and nine grieving men set out. They returned to the site on February 25, when weather permitted. They went in three Snocats and in one they carried a wooden coffin built by Assistant Sergeant Aragón and Sergeant Domínguez. To do so, they took the height of the head of the base as a measurement.

When they arrived at the place, they saw that the wooden cross was standing but that the crack had closed. They opened other holes and lowered a lantern that, due to the difference in temperature, exploded. They knew there was nothing they could do and they returned.

In November 1972, a fuel drum filled with ice with a metal cross, secured with steel cables, served as a monolith in tribute to the dead comrade.

For the patrol, it was a premonitory event. Days ago Kurzmann had confessed to Fontana that the day he died, he wanted to rest in Antarctica. He had already been at the Esperanza and Matienzo bases in other seasons and his vocation for being there was evident.

Lidia Lezchik found out about the accident because the police came to her house with a message from the Antarctic Directorate. Her challenge was then to talk to her husband on the phone.

Before leaving, Lezchik had asked, unsuccessfully, for a telephone line in a neighborhood that was conspicuous by its absence.

Communications between the continent and Antarctica were complicated to establish (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

His son Elbio remembers that there were two ways to talk to his father. One was to go to the command in Rosario, where a link was made with the Belgrano Base and the other was a phone call. Since the family did not have a telephone, they went to a neighbor's house, a few blocks away, or used the phone booth at the bus terminal. The procedure was always the same: there were pre-established days and times to do it, the call was requested and you had to wait. Sometimes an eternity.

As a result of solidarity, the members of the base had the services of the LU2AO radio amateur, who gave up an hour every Sunday so they could communicate with their families.

Only a week after the accident was the woman able to speak with her husband. They were not clean transmissions, there was a lot of noise that caused the voices to be distorted. “It's like when you try to talk underwater,” she explained. Additionally, they had to close a question or phrase with a “change.”

Doubts immediately arose in the woman. What if it wasn't her husband who was talking to her? If it was a colleague who pretended to be him because she was more serious than what they had told him? I always asked these questions on the way back home after each communication. It was winter and the wife and her two children slept together in the double bed to feel less alone.

In those talks, the same thing always happened: as soon as Elbio heard his father's voice, the emotion overcame him, he couldn't speak and he crossed to the opposite square to calm down.

Lezchik had to remain in Antarctica because the ice closed and the sea route was cut off. Operated by Dr. Bianco, he cured his shoulder there after four months of convalescence. His colleagues said that he was a strong and tough “Pole”. They also nicknamed him “Russian” and “German.”

The return was a rough sailing on the icebreaker to Ushuaia, where they boarded a Hercules. The whole family went to wait for him at El Palomar. His wife's mystery was which person he would meet. That night the expectation was eternal because he was the last to get off the machine. “Didn't you see Lezchik?” he asked each of those who got off. “Yes, yes…” was the answer. But nothing else.

It broke Lidia's heart to see María Teresa, Oscar Kurzmann's wife, alone, waiting for the bag with her unfortunate husband's belongings, including books by Arthur Schopenhauer written in German.

He was the last to appear. The family, relieved to see that she could move on her own, ran down the track to the foot of the stairs towards this big man who was unrecognizable because he had grown a beard. There were no words, but kisses and hugs. She was surprised to see her children taller than her.

Lezchik next to a Snocat, the vehicle used to travel in Antarctica (Photograph courtesy of the Lezchik family)

Endless hours of talks followed, where he recounted his experiences. They took a month's vacation and when they returned it was their turn to do their studies. He had a small bone in his shoulder raised a little higher.

He suffered from intense headaches and had to undergo psychological treatment for his recurring nightmares in which he dreamed that he fell into the crack.

He began to perform passive tasks in the Rosario military factory and in 1974 he was retired due to disability. They recommended that he dedicate himself to something that had nothing to do with his profession. That's how he became a taxi driver in Rosario. Vanesa's arrival had made him a father for the third time.

As his son remembers him, he was a silent, somewhat withdrawn person, with a very strong inner life.

He was also an evangelical pastor and with his wife they became the leaders of the “Sanctuary of Faith” temple, in Provincias Unidas in 2000, near the Rosario exit towards Funes, where nearly five thousand faithful attend. They had both been raised in that religion.

He was very detailed in everything he undertook and he himself fixed the car when it broke down. He liked to cook and had inherited organizational skills from the army. That habit made him a reference in the great campaigns of evangelism.

On Saturday, April 30, 2005, he was heading in his Peugeot 405 with other pastors to a meeting in the city of Buenos Aires. At kilometer 268 of the Rosario-Buenos Aires highway, near Arroyo Seco, there was a lot of fog and smoke, and they had to stop at the end of a long line led by a car that braked because it did not want to continue in those conditions. They were left behind a truck and another, loaded with soybeans, did not stop in time. Lezchik, at the wheel, died instantly along with another. A third, Norberto Carlini, saved his life.

He was 58 years old.

Carlos Fontana remained silent and after fifty years decided to tell what had happened that February 1972. On September 21 of last year, an event was organized, in which Kurzmann's nephews were given his file.

Monolith that marks the site of the tragic accident in which Oscar Kurzmann lost his life. (Photograph courtesy of Carlos Fontana)

Noemí Lezchik told Infobae that her father's eyes clouded with grief when he remembered his dead colleague, and it was a memory that accompanied him throughout his life. She says that he had two deaths, one when he had the accident, in which he was reborn when he was rescued and then on the highway where, far from the Antarctic ice that he was so passionate about, that son of Ukrainians who had learned Spanish at school and that everything he undertook in life he did with the same passion with which he lived.

Sources: Interviews with Lidia Martyniuk, Elbio Lezchik, Noemí Lezchik and Carlos Fontana.

The Paraguayan War: The Paraná Protocol

The Paraná Protocol

 
José Maria da Silva Paranhos (1819-1880)

Like those cubes that fit one inside the other, Brazil was included within the larger cube of British politics. Miter, in turn, would be the smallest hub of Brazilian diplomacy, as Captain Richard Burton himself would denounce.

Miter and his class did not enter into war, neither deceived nor naive. This general of pounds and surrenders, he knew that if war was declared “…. It would be an unprecedented event in South America, the most immoral in modern history. The Confederation has nothing to claim regarding the free navigation of the Paraguay River. Regarding the question of borders, it is not in the interest of the Republics of Silver to assist Brazil in its policy of invading foreign territory, betraying the cause of the Republic of Paraguay, our defense against the exaggerated pretensions of Brazil; and it would also be betraying our own cause, when similar issues may arise later between Brazil and the Argentine Republic.”

This was maintained by Miter against Urquiza, when he suspected that the Protocol of Paraná of December 14, 1857, which established the alliance between Brazil and the Confederation, to attack Paraguay, was about to be signed. The general's speeches and words are clarified politically in their historical context. Extracting from this quote by Miter a definitive meaning about his position favorable to Paraguay would be hermeneutically incorrect and historically false. Even the same representatives of Urquiza, in article 4 of the Paraná Protocol, had stated: “The war has only as its goal the free navigation of Paraguay in which the interest of the Confederation is secondary and remote due to its current lack of trade in those directions, would not be popular in his country, would not justify the Argentine Government before the national public opinion of abandoning the contemporary policy that has been prescribed until today, despite the serious damages that result from the deplorable system that the Paraguayan Government insists on.

“…That an alliance of the two States to draw their borders with Paraguay, a State weaker than either of them, would be odious and could seriously compromise the results that both promise to obtain.”.

Upon signing the Protocol of Paraná, on December 14, 1857, Paranhos gave the following “significant toast”: “I wish to see the closest union between the Empire and the Confederation realized, and that the glory of Caseros is not the only glory acquired.” in common for Brazil and the Argentine Nation.”

In a “confidential” from José Manuel Estrada to Wenceslao Paunero, dated December 24, 1868, it is clarified: “…The Government of Urquiza, which in 1857 was courting Brazil to bring it into an alliance against Buenos Aires and obtain loans, without which "He could not carry out what he called the war of reconstruction, that year he concluded a treaty with Mr. Paranahos in which he undertook to hand over the slaves who escaped from Brazil." This treaty was, effectively, another of those signed in Paraná on that occasion. Urquiza's “objectives” were exactly as described. For this reason, Pelham Horton Box rightly says “…in the agreements between Brazil, the Argentine Confederation and Uruguay, of 1856 and 1857, we already see the outline of the Triple Alliance of 1865.”

Miter would participate in the war, despite the position publicly held in 1857, because with it he consolidated his political alliance with the Brazilian Empire and ensured his triumph over the federals. With the alliance, on the other hand, the cycle begun with Urquiza, of financial-political dependence, with respect to Brazil, that is to say, England, was continued.

The price of the “repressive” tranquility of the provincial interior had been previously regulated by Baring Brothers, Rothschild and the Foreign Office. In Argentina, the livestock class, “exporter-importer”, urged Bartolomé Mitre. The newspaper of Melchor Rom – director of the Stock Exchange and one of the eminent representatives of that class – dreamed of the appropriation of Guaraní tobacco and yerba. His imagination as an economic speculator would cause the Paraguayan lands to be traveled, in his dreams, by Buenos Aires cattle.

Seduced by Mitrist rhetoric, a coincidental sublimation of their class interests, the young “autonomists” and “nationalists”, with aristocratic roots, would voluntarily enlist, commanded by their philosophy professors, to put an end to Paraguayan “barbarism”. “After the triumph of Paraguay,” said “La Nación Argentina” in December 1864, “the reign of barbarism will continue for us (…) As Argentines, then, and as enemies of barbarism and dictatorship, we hope that, if the Paraguayan government carries on the war is defeated by Brazil (...) no one can doubt the situation that awaits us if Paraguay triumphs."

After Curupaytí, Mitre's “nationalists” would be replaced by paid mercenaries or the unemployed. The mercenaries were Europeans, hired by Hilario Ascasubi in France. The couplings were made in Marseille and Bordeaux. Hundreds of men were embarked monthly on ships of the “Societé General des Transport Maritime”. The contracts were accompanied by a medical certificate of health of the mercenaries, and the statement of two witnesses, which proved that they knew how to handle weapons. All formalities were completed at the Argentine Consulate in Marseille or Bordeaux. The unemployed Argentines, in turn, were men who, destroyed by free trade the tasks of craftsmanship and industry that flourished under Juan Manuel de Rosas, were distressed and without work, forced to look for a “military” occupation.

All of them would go to carry out the bloody British plan on Guarani land.

Uruguay, converted into a political appendage of Brazilian-Mitrista diplomacy, after its national defeat, would participate through Venancio Flores in the war. The 5,000 men that he will send to their deaths will justify the geometric increase in his public debt, due to the measured “efforts” of the Baron of Mauá and the London bankers. The convention of October 12, 1851, had determined that the Eastern Republic of Uruguay was obliged to apply all its resources to the payment of the Brazilian debt. But, from this obligation, at the request of Brazil itself, the loans that Uruguay had obtained in London had been excluded. This requirement would be repeated in the protocol of 1867, and conclusively demonstrates the total dependence of Brazilian Banking on the English one. The credits of the Brazilian Empire were, in reality, British credits, which could not be settled with English money. León de Palleja, despite his position as an allied officer, would express the authentic Uruguayan thought: “I was not a supporter of this (war); Everyone knows my ideas in this regard, but I consider it a stupid war to wage between Orientals and Paraguayans. Nations of identical origin and causes; although by different means, they are destined to maintain a common policy and to be sisters and not enemies…”

The war seemed an irrational fact, but the world was experiencing the transformation of the export of merchandise into the export of capital, and South America was the favorable victim of that transformation, deeply “rational” for British interests.

Cotton, free navigation, loans, limits, commercial profits, industrial destruction, political power, ambition and fear, marked the war of the Double Alliance, between Financial Capital and local oligarchies. Drama of American characters, with a hidden protagonist and author: England, revealed, through the few traces left in its lethal path.

Faced with this plexus of interests and relationships, the Paraguayan people, with their statesman at the helm. The armed people, defending their economic freedom, their protectionist tariff, their closure of rivers, their agricultural production, their industry, their railroad, their telegraph.

But above all, sovereign Paraguay, defending the balance of the Río de la Plata, that is, the “American Union”, against the attack prepared by the foreign power.

Anticipating what would happen, Rosas had written to Carlos Antonio López a dozen years ago: “that he hoped for his happiness and for God to preserve him without admitting foreigners, who are bad locusts.”
Felipe Varela, director of the “American System” would say of the War, in an ephemeral moment of truce:

“… The war with Paraguay was an event already calculated, premeditated by General Mitre (...) The Argentine provinces, however, have never participated in these feelings, on the contrary, those people have contemplated, groaning, the defection of the President, imposed by the bayonets, on the Argentine blood, of the principles of the American Union, in which they have always looked to the safeguarding of their rights and their freedom, taken in the name of justice and the law”.

And that thought would be the fraternal echo of the high Paraguayan patriotic expression, synthesized in the doctrine of the balance of the Río de la Plata, which Francisco Solano López proclaimed, with just pride before all his people.

Full text of the Paraná Protocol

On the fourteenth day of the month of December, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in this city of Paraná, the Plenipotentiaries of the Argentine Confederation, doctors Don Santiago Derqui and Don Bernabé López, and the Plenipotentiary of YE. the Emperor of Brazil, Counselor José María da Silva Paranhos, agreed to record in writing the results of their conferences, on the means that their respective Governments should use to obtain from the Republic of Paraguay a satisfactory solution to the pending issues, which they say regarding common river navigation as well as the declarations that the same Plenipotentiaries made in the name of both Governments, presupposing the case that war becomes inevitable to achieve that goal that is of such interest to both countries and to civilization and commerce in general.
It was agreed at the same time that this document must be kept in the most complete confidentiality and is intended only to inform the two Governments of the circumstances and dispositions that each of them has towards the Republic of Paraguay, taking into account that , in any case they can mutually bring together all the good offices inherent to the benevolent and close relations that so happily exist between them and the peoples whose destinies they preside over.
Being an obligation contracted by the Empire of Brazil and the Argentine Confederation, in the Alliance Agreements of 1851, confirmed and again stipulated in the Treaty of March 7, 1856, and in the river Convention of November 20 of the present year, the invitation and use of all means within the reach of each of the two Governments so that the other coastal States and especially the Republic of Paraguay, adhere to the same principles of free navigation as well as the means of making them effectively useful, said Plenipotentiaries agreed:

1. In that the Government of the Argentine Confederation, based on the aforementioned stipulations and the special conditions that exist between it and that of the Republic of Paraguay, for the free transit enjoyed by the Paraguayan flag in the waters of the Paraná, belonging to the same Confederation and by the Treaty of July 29, 1856, will demand of said Republic that for its part it opens the Paraguay River to all flags and adopts in relation to common transit the franchises and means of Police and inspection that are generally used and found stipulated in the River Convention of November 20 between the Confederation and the Empire of Brazil.
2. In that the Government of the Confederation as well as that of Brazil will maintain said claim with the greatest possible effort, being however free to each of them to ensure that their claims reach the point of leaving diplomatic channels and compromising the state of peace. in which they find themselves with that neighboring State, given that the Government of the Confederation and the Imperial Government are not yet in agreement on the hypothesis of resorting to war.
   
3. In that, to make possible, as both Governments so desire, a peaceful solution to the pending issues with the Republic of Paraguay, regarding river navigation, both may stop insisting on the general concession and ultimately limit their claims, to that the Paraguayan Government effectively guarantees all its freedom of transit to its respective flags, according to the means indicated in the river Convention of November 20 of this year, each Government invoking its perfect right to this free transit, in view of the treaties in force between them and that of that Republic. 
4. In that, the claim of the Government of the Confederation will be made in a way that coincides with the special mission that the Government of H.M. The Emperor of Brazil now sends to the Republic of Paraguay with the demand that in the same sense and at the same time direct the Government of the Eastern State of Uruguay.

Sources

• Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado
• Peña, R. O. y Duhalde. E. – Felipe Varela – Schapire editor – Buenos Aires (1975).
• www.revisionistas.com.ar

Argentina-Chile Naval Race, 1890-1905 (1/13)

Argentina-Chile Naval Race, 1890-1905 

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4

Organic Growth and Development of the Argentine Navy: 1810-1902

Although the May Revolution of 1810 marked the end of the colonial era in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, on the opposite bank of the Plata, remained in the hands of the royalists. From this station, a powerful and well-trained squadron under the command of Captain Jacinto de Romarate soon established a blockade of Buenos Aires and threatened to cut the lines of communication along the coast. The patriot authorities reacted quickly and in August acquired three merchant ships, suitable to be transformed into warships. These were: the brig "25 de Mayo", the schooner "Invencible", and the sloop "Americano". An Argentine veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar, and former lieutenant of the Spanish navy, Francisco de Gurrucharaga dedicated himself vigorously to equipping this small squadron. The poverty of the treasury, the lack of trained personnel and materials complicated his task. The command of this flotilla was entrusted to Juan Bautista Azopardo, a privateer of Maltese origin, who was supported by two French privateers: Hipólito Bouchard and Angel Hubac. On February 10, 1811, three of the patriot ships set sail from Buenos Aires and headed towards the Paraná River. On March 2, the patriot squadron was intercepted by a powerful royalist squadron. In the fierce combat that took place, numerical and training superiority prevailed. Aboard the "25 de Mayo", 41 crew members out of a total of 50 on board were injured or killed. To the dismay of the patriots, the first Argentine naval squadron was captured and towed to Montevideo, where after being repaired, the ships were incorporated into the royalist fleet (1)

Phoenix Bird

On July 7, a royalist squadron bombed Buenos Aires, although not without being punished. Bouchard, who was in charge of a gunboat armed with a solitary 18-pounder cannon, went out in search of the royalist ships, managed to inflict serious damage on one of them, causing the enemy to retreat. As a result of this attack; The patriot government equipped a second squadron consisting of the schooners "Nuestra Señora del Carmen" and "Santo Domingo", the ketch "Hiena" and four smaller boats. The royalist fleet reappeared again off Buenos Aires on August 19, but when Bouchard directed his ships towards it, the enemy withdrew and tried, ineffectively, to bombard Buenos Aires from a safe distance. On October 20, 1811, the authorities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo concluded an armistice that provided for the cessation of hostilities and the end of the blockade. While the national government disarmed its flotilla, the royalists violated the armistice and proceeded to bomb towns on the Argentine coast with impunity, attacking commercial ships at will. This in turn motivated the creation of the third Argentine naval squadron, which was organized by an Irish merchant captain; Buenos Aires resident William Brown, who is very rightly considered the father of the Argentine navy. This squadron was made up of a frigate, four corvettes, a brig, five schooners and other smaller ships. The officers were mostly foreigners, but soon a growing number of Creoles joined the fleet. (2)

 
San Nicolás Battle

In May 1814 Brown defeated the royalist fleet that once dominated the Rio de la Plata. This triumph in turn made possible the blockade and subsequent taking of Montevideo. This magnificent victory deprived Spain of the only base of operations it had in South America and granted control of the waters to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Furthermore, in order to harass and destroy Spanish trade in the region, the government of Buenos Aires began to grant letters of marque to foreign privateers, among whom those of American nationality predominated. The exact number of these privateers is unknown, although it is known that one of these privateer ships was active in 1815, 4 in 1816, 23 in 1819, 10 in 1820 and two in 1821. In 1815 the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata was the only Spanish American nation that the royalists had not managed to subjugate. In Spain, a powerful expedition was organized that would be commanded by General Pablo de Morillo who had been assigned the task of taking Buenos Aires, but the loss of Montevideo forced Spain to consider its strategy and Morillo's expedition was dispatched towards New Granada, the current Republic of Colombia.(3)

Expedition to the Pacific

In 1816 Brown led an Argentine squadron on a cruise to the Pacific. These ships blockaded Lima and Guayaquil, captured California and hit Spanish maritime trade vigorously. The frigate "La Argentina", commanded by Hipólito Bouchard that was part of this flotilla, separated from the other ships and was the first Argentine flag ship to circumnavigate the world. (4)

A Chilean naval historian describes the outcome of Brown's cruise in the following terms:

"This expedition was the only maritime activity that the Argentines carried out in the Pacific, and to tell the truth, it had magnificent results. As Worcester points out, since the arrival of Brown, Spanish maritime trade was halted. Marco del Pont not only feared the attack through the Cordillera, but he was convinced that another patriot division would attack him by sea. San Martín, for his part, circulated rumors that an expedition was being prepared in Buenos Aires that would attack Concepción and San Vicente with the aim of later invading Chile." (5) 

War against Brazil: 1825-1828

At the end of the wars of independence, the ARA was reduced to a minimum and most of its ships were sold to private shipowners. In 1825, when the war with Brazil broke out, the Argentine fleet consisted of four frigates, two corvettes and 12 gunboats built in Bajo, on the banks of Buenos Aires and armed with old 24-piece pieces taken from the fort of that city. Command of the fleet was again entrusted to Brown. In direct contrast, the fleet of the Brazilian Empire, manned by a plethora of high-ranking English officers and subordinates, veterans of the Napoleonic wars; It had 108 warships, of which half were larger units (frigates, corvettes, brigs) and the rest were gunboats and schooners armed in war of various types and sizes. In a rapid series of battles, the Argentine navy managed to defeat the powerful imperial fleet, and although the latter blocked Buenos Aires, the lines of communication between the United Provinces and the Eastern Band of Uruguay, where the Argentine army was located, They were never cut off or even affected. On the other hand, despite the notorious lack of resources and the immense numerical superiority of the enemy, between 1825 and 127 the Argentine navy managed to destroy or capture more than 50 Brazilian warships, many of which were incorporated into the navy. national and employed with great energy and great skill against their former owners. In addition, Argentine warships and corsairs from Buenos Aires captured 445 Brazilian merchant ships (6)

The Era of Rosas (1829-1852)-Fights for Argentine unification: 1852-1862

During the Rosas era (1829-52) the navy became essentially a riverine force, adequate enough to defeat the Uruguayan fleet in a series of battles throughout the year 1841, but not strong or modern enough to confront to the Anglo-French squadron sent to Plata in 1845. A maritime academy in which officers were trained operated until 1830, then naval cadets were assigned to fleet units. The Argentine navy would not enter the age of steam until 1851. The two nation states that emerged in Argentina after the overthrow of Rosas in 1852 established squadrons equipped with war-armed steam merchant vessels, most of which would be incorporated into the national navy after the Argentine reunification that occurs as a result of the Battle of Pavón. However, by mid-1865, the fleet was reduced to a few vessels in service, the rest having been reduced to pontoon status or serving as storage hulls. The navy did not have a land infrastructure, naval bases or even warships themselves. It was painfully evident that the navy had not experienced adequate development, not only in comparison to the fleets of the great powers, but also in comparison to the fleets of neighboring countries such as Brazil, Chile or Paraguay.

The War with Paraguay (1865-1870)

When the Paraguayan War broke out, the Argentine navy was reduced to a handful of armed merchant steamers, sailing cutters and old hulls that served as floating stores of material. There was no infrastructure on land, nor training centers for the training of personnel. Although during the war, the command of the allied armies was entrusted to the president of the Argentine Republic, Bartolomé Mitre, given the fact that among the allies, only Brazil had a navy worthy of the name, the Viscount of Tamandaré was placed in charge. charge of naval operations. The participation of the Argentine navy in this conflict, due to lack of suitable material, was reduced mainly to transportation and logistical support missions. (7)


 
Crew of the Steamship "25 de Mayo", captured in Corrientes, beginning the Argentine intervention in the Paraguayan War

Development of Institutes and land infrastructure: 1872-1902

The first steps on the long road towards modernization and expansion would be taken during the presidency of Domingo F. Sarmiento (1868-74). A figure of extraordinary creativity, whom North American historian Hubert Herring described as "Possibly the only practical genius to emerge from Spanish America," Sarmiento devoted considerable time and thought to the importance of naval power for communications and defense. . Therefore, when Major Clodomiro Uturbey, a graduate of the Spanish Naval Academy, proposed the creation of a similar establishment in Argentina, Sarmiento gave his support to this initiative. The necessary legislation was promulgated on October 2, 1872 and three days later the Naval Military School (ENM) was officially established aboard the steamship "General Brown", where it operated until 1877, when as a result of the "gabanes mutiny", The government ordered the closure of the ENM, although this measure did not interrupt the "curriculum" of the cadets who were simply transferred to various units of the navy until the ENM was transferred to a new headquarters in the heart of Buenos Aires. The number of cadets in the ENM grew gradually: 15 in 1872, 50 in 1883 and would exceed the figure of 70 in 1887 although the true growth would not occur until 1893, when the ENM was transferred again, this time to Juan's former residence Manuel de Rosas in Palermo, previously used by the Military College of the Nation. The cadet corps began to grow rapidly from then on: 77 in 1895, 88 in 1896, 110 in 1897 and 140 in 1898 (8)

Initially, the course of study at the ENM lasted six semesters. The first included geometry, rectilinear trigonometry, drawing, foreign languages, ballistics and general education. Spatial geometry, physics, naval astronomy and other academic subjects were studied in subsequent semesters, while practical teaching similarly progressed from the duties of a private seaman to those of a helmsman, from piloting small vessels to the duties and responsibilities of an officer. The later semesters emphasized the teaching of shipbuilding techniques, steam propulsion, international law, naval gunnery, and history. The cadets were then assigned to warships in service on the Patagonian coasts and the recently graduated midshipmen were assigned to a flotilla of sailing cutters that patrolled those latitudes, thus acquiring valuable experience. Long-duration trans-oceanic voyages began in the early 1880s, when the ENM received a new steam corvette specially designed as a training ship, we refer to the corvette "La Argentina". At the end of the 1890s this unit would be replaced by the ARA frigate "Sarmiento", a 2800-ton displacement unit, which in turn inaugurated the era of circumnavigation of the world. At the end of the 19th century, the prestige and efficiency of the ENM transcended the country's borders, and was fully recognized abroad, which is why students from neighboring countries competed in the entrance exams to this institution. (9)

In 1875, the School of Apprentice-Sailors was created aboard the boat "Vanguardia", and the following year, a reformatory for young people was established aboard the pontoon "General Paz", designated "Correccional de Menores", although the practice of sentencing young offenders of the penal code to serve in the army was abandoned soon after. In its replacement, the School of Cabins was established aboard the boat "Cabo de Hornos", a unit that during the period 1879-1884 patrolled the Patagonian coasts until it was removed from service, and replaced by the training ship "La Argentina". The Artillery School was established aboard the monitor "El Plata" in 1877 and the Artillery Apprentice School, where cannon corporals were trained, operated aboard various units since its creation in 1881. Firefighters, machinists and electricians received training at the School of Navy Mechanics, which existed under various names since 1880. Finally, the Torpedo School was established in 1883, aboard a ship incorporated at that time, the ARA torpedo ram "Maipú". (10)

In January 1879, the Central Hydrography Office (OCH) was established, which would be responsible for exploring and charting the coasts and waterways, as well as the construction of lighthouses and beacons. In January 1881, the newly created Naval Observatory was attached to the OCH. In this way, the ARA obtained a valuable wealth of information regarding the Argentine interior rivers and the Patagonian coasts. (11)

As can be seen, the ARA placed special emphasis on the training of officers and junior personnel. In 1883, the ARA had a strength of 2,000 men, which included 1,503 sailors, 320 officers (including 48 cadets from the engineering branch) and 133 ensigns and cadets. During the struggles for national reunification and through the Paraguayan War, the ARA hired Argentine and foreign merchant sailors to complete some of the crews of its ships. The services of Argentine merchant ships were also contracted, including their crews for quarantine tasks and logistical support missions. During the 1880s-1890s the ARA experienced a shortage of specialists and machine personnel, so a substantial number of foreign specialists were hired. The naval ranking of 1891 revealed that of a total of 83 engineering officers, 32 were foreigners. In 1897, of a total of 155 officers in this branch, 97 were natives of the country, and the rest were foreigners. As the fleet grew in number, and the ships that were added were invariably of greater tonnage and technically more advanced than their predecessors, the need to increase personnel became apparent. For example, the four "Garibaldi" class battleship cruisers in the late 1890s required an average of 25 officers and 440 men per unit, a total of 109 officers and 1,636 crew. In 1902 the ARA had a strength of 8,336 men, a figure that included 327 line officers, 297 officer-engineers, 7,760 sailors and 450 marines. The growing importance of the navy was tacitly recognized on March 15, 1898, when the navy obtained the status of an independent force, that is, it no longer depended on the Ministry of War and Navy. From now on, it would be regulated by the Ministry of the Navy. (12)

Stations and bases

As the ARA increased its fleet and the ships added were increasingly larger, the ARA had to establish a network of naval stations and bases throughout the republic. Although we must deal with the expansion of the fleet separately, we must mention that the first modern units incorporated were shallow draft ships that could anchor in Rio de la Plata or in the Zárate naval base, but as fleet units were added increased tonnage the need for a deep water port became apparent. The town of Punta Alta, in the south of the Province of Buenos Aires was selected for said installation. A famous Italian engineer, Luigi Luiggi, was assigned to design the plans. Work began in 1898, and in July the first three coastal artillery batteries intended to protect the future base had already been placed. Upon completion of the works, in 1902 this strategic port, called Puerto Militar, would emerge as the largest naval base in South America, with enough space to house 20 "Garibaldi" class battleship cruisers. The facilities covered an area of 3000 hectares. A strategic railway connected the base with the city of Bahía Blanca, while batteries of cannons and coastal howitzers protected it against the eventuality of a naval attack. (13)

Coastal Artillery Corps

Coastal artillery did not receive special attention until the 1870s. Until 1879, coastal defense had been the responsibility of the army, whose Plaza Artillery Battalion garrisoned the island of Martín García. The Coastal Artillery Corps, established on November 15, 1879 under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Emilio Sellstrom, former professor of ballistics at the ENM and superlative engineer. The Coastal Artillery Corps also provided marine infantry and protection forces, but the only existing fortifications were those of Martín García. During the Paraguayan War, the Ministry of War had ordered the construction of five barbettes of material that would mount 36 pieces of artillery, but in mid-1866 only 18 cannons had been installed, and even these were archaic relics inherited from the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and low caliber. During Sarmiento's government, the first modern artillery pieces: 4 381 mm Rodmans and six 254 mm Parrotts were placed on the island. In 1877 these guns were complemented by a battery of 177 mm (7 in) Armstrong pieces that fired 150-pound anti-armor grenades, giving Martín García a true strategic capability. In the mid-1880s, Martín García's cannons and other installations were already outdated, since models with greater penetration capacity and greater range had appeared. The ARA selected the Krupp mod. 1887 240 mm L.35 as regulatory equipment for its batteries, and pieces of this type were located in Martín García, the Zárate Naval Arsenal and in Puerto Militar. In 1899 they would be complemented with three Krupp mod howitzer batteries. 1899 280mm L.11. Meanwhile, the constant tension with Chile led to an expansion of the ARA, whose fleet would be in 1898 the most powerful and best equipped in South America. (14)

1. Rauch, George , Conflict in the Southern Cone; the Argentine Military and the Boundary Dispute with Chile, 1870-1902 (Praeger (Wesport, Conecticut and London, 1999).pag. 101-102
2. Rauch, Conflict in the Southern Cone..Ibid pag.102-103
3. Iid, pag. 103-104
4. Iid pag.104
5. Lopez Urrutia, Carlos, Historia de la Marina de Chile (Editorial Andres Bello, Santiago de Chile, 1969) pag. 26
6. Baldrich, Amadeo J, Historia de la guerra del Brasil: Contribucion al estudio razonado de la historia militar argentina (Imprenta La Harlem, Buenos Aires, 1905) pag.258-70, Rauch, op cit, pag. 104
7. Rauch, op cit, pag 104-105
8. Burzio Humberto, Armada Nacional: Reseña Historica de su origen y desarrollo orgánico (Departamento de Estudios Historicos Navales, Serie B, No 1, Buenos Aires, 1960) pag.160 -161, Burzio, Humberto, Historia de la Escuela Naval Militar (Departamento de Estudios Historicos Navales, Serie B. 1972, Buenos Aires, 3 vols., 1972) I; 246-248,320-321, 352-353, Rauch, op cit, pag.115-116
9. Burzio, Historia de la Escuela Naval Militar, I: 236-27 ,337-338, 367.
10. Rauch, op cit, pag.115-116
11. Burzio, Armada nacional, pag.1590160, Rauch op cit, pag. 117
12. Burzio, Historia de la Escuela Naval Militar;II: 458-459, 767-
13. Rauch, p cit, pag. 117. Rauch, op it, pag.116-1177
14. Triado, Juan Enrique, Historia de la Base Naval Puerto Belgrano (Instituto de Publicaciones Navales, Centro Naval, Buenos Aires, 1992) pag.67-8, Rauch pag.117118

Author: André Marois

Malvinas: ARA San Luis Heros

ARA San Luis War Patrol  - 1982

Source: Malvinas: Tras los submarinos ingleses 

 
Lieutenant Commander Ricardo Alessandrini, Chief of Armaments and Lieutenant Alejandro Maegli, Chief of Communications

 

The ship's crew at the end of the 1982 naval year




Lieutenant Commander Alessandrini, in a wet suit, ready to check some noises coming from the free movement area of the submarine


Lieutenant Commander Alessandrini, Lieutenant Commander Luis Seghezzi, Corvettte Captain Macías y Lieutenant Maegli


Lieutenant Commander Jorge Dacharry, Electricity Chief, LC Seghezzi, Navegation Chief  y Lieutennat Maegli



Lieutenant Commander Maegli (in the periscope) y Lieutenant Fernando María Azcueta, Submarine Commander


The Commander, Frigate Captain Azcueta, harangues the crew, once the decision to return to port has been made.



Part of the crew of the San Luis, shortly after returning to port

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The commander of the Submarine Force reviews the crew of the submarine, as soon as it arrives in port


Damián Riveros

Malvinas: Tras los submarinos ingleses