Castro and Guevara who were personally on the front line during the Bay of Pigs battle. In view of the fact that the exiled pilots trained by CIA caused great losses to Cuba in the A-26B "Invaders" attack aircraft, such as the air strike on April 15 that blow up almost half of the Cuban Air Force's aircraft; on April 18, the "Invaders" used napalm bomb to attack Cuban troops that reinforced the beachhead, forcing the Cuban army to stop compressing the beachhead positions for a time.
Cuban exile A-26B attack aircraft at Miami Airport, painted with Cuban Air Force
Due to these successes, the CIA bets to turn the situation around the war are all on air force. You think that if even the American trained rookies can achieve such results, if American pilots are dispatched directly, they will achieve greater results. Moreover, after several days of fierce fighting, although the CIA still had seven "invaders" on hand, the exile pilots suffered considerable losses in the battle a few days ago. The CIA turned its attention to the Alabama Air China Civil Guard, which trained exiled pilots. After offering a heavy reward and various cheerings, eight National Guard pilots agreed to strike the next day.
Alan Wales Dulles, then director of the US CIA,
, but what CIA and exiles didn't know was that on that night, the Cuban army would also ship the 8 quad-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns made by the socialist camp to it (there are some information that claims that the quad-mounted machine gun is a Type 59 anti-aircraft machine gun that China aided Cuba, but this statement is very wrong) and several 70-K 37mm anti-aircraft machine guns from the rear to the front line of the Jilongtan to increase the air defense firepower of the beachhead positions and command headquarters. The Cubans don't know at this time that their actions will bring an unforgettable blow to the Americans.
Czech VZ53 quad-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun deployed on the Cuban coastline
70-K 37mm anti-aircraft gun
VZ53 quad-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun was the first field air defense weapon developed by Czechoslovakia after World War II . Since the Czech Republic abandoned the intermediate route and merged it into the socialist camp at that time, its weapons and equipment and military production began to turn to full Soviet style. As a former Nazi German occupation area, the famous Czech Skoda Arsenal produced many German equipment. After Germany surrendered, these weapons were still in the army. For example, the main field air defense firepower of the Czech Army was still the famous FLAK38 quadruple 20mm anti-aircraft machine gun before the Soviet Union.
FLAK38 quad-mounted 20mm anti-aircraft gun
After joining Warsaw Pact , the Czechoslovak Army equipment was established in the Soviet Union. In order to replace a large number of German goods as soon as possible without occupying the Soviet weapon production capacity , Czechoslovakia urgently needed an emergency Soviet-style field air defense weapon, so the typical emergency product VZ53 was launched in a hurry. The designer of the
VZ53 anti-aircraft machine gun is the Soviet Union Vasily Gavrilovich Grabin. The appearance of the VZ53 he designed is a bit simple and rough.
Vasily Gavrilovich Grabin
VZ53's main weapon is 4 Soviet 12.7mm "Deshka"-43 type anti-aircraft machine guns. The 4 machine guns are installed on an gun frame . The gun frame has 2 wheels, which can be towed by the vehicle when maneuvering. When preparing for shooting, the wheels can be folded up or removed, and the three support frames on the gun frame are placed at the same time. The main shooter sits on the seat of the gun frame to aim and shoot, and can perform 360-degree round-shooting.
VZ53 quad-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun
From a structural perspective, the VZ53 is a bit like the Soviet army equipped with the ZPU-4 quad-mounted 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun itself, but it is more compact and much lighter, at only 558 kg (the total combat weight of the ZPU-4 is about 1,810 kg). Of course, because of the use of the 12.7mm "Deshka", the VZ53's power and range are not as powerful as the ZPU-4.
ZPU-4 quadruple 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun
The initial velocity of this type of machine gun is 870 meters/sec, the effective range is 6500 meters, the maximum shooting height is 4400 meters, and the effective shooting height is 1500 meters.The theoretical rate of fire of each machine gun is 125 rounds per minute, the combat rate of fire is 60 rounds per minute, and 100 rounds of rounds of drums and are used to supply ammunition, and the machine gun team is 4 people. After being equipped with troops, the gun soon became the pillar of the field low-altitude air defense firepower of the Czech Army. It performed extremely well, and even the Soviet Union expressed high interest in it.
1950s In the second half of the year, the Soviet army tested ZPU-4 and VZ53 at the shooting range. The people participating in the test evaluated VZ53 very well: they believed that it was a very effective anti-aircraft weapon and could pose a huge threat to low-altitude targets. The Czech Army purchased a lot of VZ53 anti-aircraft machine guns, and exported this weapon to Cuba, Vietnam, Angola , Egypt , Syria , Iraq , Grenada and other countries through military aid.
Cuban militia and VZ53 high-speed aircraft
On the morning of April 19, two Cuban exiled pilots reluctantly agreed to launch a large-scale air strike with the American pilots under the desperate encouragement of the CIA. In this way, the CIA finally pieced together five crews. However, the pilots who took the attack also offered the condition that the air strike must be covered by the carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy's USS Essex aircraft combat group. , the White House , who wanted to leave this matter aside, immediately rejected the request, but the CIA swore to inform the pilots participating in the air strike that the aircraft carrier battle group was ready to deploy carrier-based aircraft.
U.S. Navy CV9 USS Essex
So, these pilots flew with confidence. Five "invaders" took off from the Kavisas base where exiles from Nicaragua gathered at around 3 a.m. on the 19th. When approaching the coastline of Cuba, they saw four carrier-based aircraft on "Essex" and they felt that these aircraft must have launched an air strike with them. But these planes soon disappeared into the clouds after seeing this "invader". Uninformed exiles and "invaders" driven by the Air Chinese Civil Guard entered the battle.
Based on yesterday's experience, these "invaders" will launch air strikes on the Gu army surrounding the beach from low altitude to avoid the Cuban Air Force's fighter . But unfortunately this time, after they flew into the inland, a "invader" driven by Captain Thomas Ray of the National Guard rushed to a sugar factory. According to the information of the exiles, this is Castro's temporary front-line command. If it can be blown up, it will definitely disrupt or even delay the pace of the Cuban army's offensive. If he wins the grand prize and blows him to death, the whole battle situation may be overturned!
But just as Thomas was driving the "invader" to enter the sugar factory from a low altitude, he was suddenly blocked and fired by fierce ground air defense fire composed of VZ53 machine gun. The dense bullets caused the "invader" to be shot one after another, and many parts were damaged. Thomas was forced to pull the nose and deviate from the original attack route. He originally planned to fly high to see the ground air defense firepower before taking action, but "the mantis stalks the cicada oriole is behind", a T-33 combat/ trainer of the Cuban Air Force was hovering near the sugar factory. Pilot Major Anrik Carrira Rollas soon discovered the climbing "invader". He immediately flew the T-33 and bit the "invader". Then a long list of bullets quickly caught the "invader" and lost control. Seeing that the situation was not good, Captain Lei and the observer Baker successively jumped (the plane crashed and caught fire and exploded). After landing, they refused to surrender and tried to escape to the 2506th Brigade position on the beach. As a result, they were shot into blood leaks by the firepower of the Cuban army on the spot.
Cuban Air Force T-33 trainer
Captain Thomas Lei, who was shot dead, was not returned to the United States
Captain Thomas Lei's landline wreckage
Captain Thomas Lei's landline, in order to cover up, all A-26s participating in the war were painted on Cuba. The Air Force logo
Cuban soldiers standing on the wreckage of downed A-26
The dual-plane formation composed of Major Reilly Thunberg and the formation leader Lieutenant Colonel Shannon carried napalm bombs to attack the Guardian ground forces again. They were veterans and cunningly did not rush straight to Pig Bay to avoid being discovered by Cuban air defense firepower and fighter jets. They invaded Cuban airspace on the coastline about 30 kilometers east of Pig Bay and then flew along the coastline.
When they arrived at the battlefield, it was already 6 am. They saw a team of Cuban military vehicles driving towards the beach from the inland direction, so they planned to attack it. wingman Thunberg said to Shannon: "You have gasoline bombs , get on first!"
Then he flew from the right side of the long aircraft to the left. The two aircraft pulled up the height one in front and one behind and prepared to dive. But just as they pulled up, several VZ53s deployed on the beach suddenly spit out flames, and the bright tracer bombs "swoosh" by flying past two "invaders". Shannon and Thunberg had to control the plane to dodge left and right to avoid the bomb rain, while trying to maintain the original attack route.
But unfortunately the tracer bomb attracted another Cuban Air Force T-33 trainer plane over the Bay of Pigs. Captain Elva Plandes quickly bit the diving Thunberg's landline and launched a quick attack. Shannon only heard Tunberg shouting on the radio: "I was hit! I was hit!"
Shannon turned his head and saw Tunberg's "invader" was pulling a long white smoke and flying towards the sea, behind which was a chasing T-33. Shannon reacted quickly. He didn't care to rescue the wingman, but immediately threw away all the bombs mounted on the plane and dived towards the sea at maximum speed. While he desperately lowered the altitude, he adjusted the route and flew towards the direction of the rising sun. In this way, if the Cuban pilot pursued him, he might be dazzling by the dazzling sunlight. He was lucky. After seeing Thunberg's plane crashing into the sea, Captain Planders turned around to look for Shannon's "invader" and found that the other party was already "stricken and thrust".
Cuba's VZ53 high aircraft opened fire at the A-26 "invader" flying at a low altitude
Shannon flew at an ultra-low full speed for 5 minutes, and was convinced that he had thrown away the other party, before turning around and returning to the base in Nicaragua. The air strike reimbursed two "invaders" and killed four authentic American military pilots (the National Guard belongs to the US military reserve force). The CIA had to issue a statement to circumvent this time, claiming that the four pilots were riding on a plane and died in a "routine training" over the Caribbean . At the same time, the CIA paid generous compensation to the widow of the deceased, but asked them to keep their mouths tight-lipped - this matter was not gradually declassified until this century.
In the air defense battle at the beach of Zhu Bay, although VZ53 did not directly shoot down enemy planes, it forced American aircraft to give up air strikes on Castro Command. Moreover, due to its huge threat to enemy planes in low altitude, American pilots had to raise altitude, thus creating fighter planes for Cuban fighters on standby in the air. In this regard, the VZ53 anti-aircraft machine gun was indeed an indispensable contribution in shooting down two "invaders".
Major Sanbergo, his plane crashed into the sea, and the body could not be retrieved
VZ53 type quadruple 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun displayed in the "Bay of Pigs" memorial hall of Cuba,
Czechoslovakia's VZ53 has also been used in Middle East War , and some machine guns were seized by the Israeli army. With the entry of more and more jet supersonic military aircraft, the VZ53 anti-aircraft machine gun equipped by the JM was gradually replaced by the new air defense weapon in the 1970s. But in other countries, VZ53 is still experiencing its remaining energy.
In 1983, during the "fury" operation of the United States invading Granada , the seriously outdated VZ53 once again gave Americans a great deal. Cuban engineers shot down a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with a VZ53 anti-aircraft machine gun at St. George's Airport. This was the first combat loss of the UH-60 and the first "Black Hawk Down" in the history of the US military.
Cuba's VZ53 anti-aircraft machine gun at Grenada Airport
An old weapon that can repeatedly attack the US military is also a small miracle.
