Half of my platoon at the Field Artillery Officer Basic Course were Marines, as was my father-in-law, so I have great respect for the Corps. To commemorate the occasion, I'm revisiting my favorite Marine Corps episode from my research on strategic manhunts. In late June/early July I began telling the story of the Marines' five-year campaign to kill or capture Nicaraguan insurgent leader Augusto Sandino, beginning with Captain Gilbert Hatfield's unusual correspondence with Sandino and the decision to deploy a patrol under Major Oliver Floyd on July 2nd to kill or capture Sandion. But for reasons I can't recall now, I stopped the story on July 2, 1927.
On July 11, 1927, Captain Hatfield made a final peace offering to Sandino. “In spite of your insolent replies in the past,” he wrote, “I am giving you another opportunity to surrender with honor.” Hatfield urged Sandino to follow the example of Emilio Aguinaldo, who had given up his resistance to become “a splendid friend of the United States.” Alternatively, Hatfield said, the Marines were prepared to hunt Sandino to his stronghold and destroy him. He gave Sandino two days to consider his offer, saying he would expect the general “in Ocotal at eight o’clock in the morning of July 14, 1927. Please advise me of your intentions in one word, either yes or no.”
In response to Hatfield’s ultimatum, Sandino declared: “Your threats seem very pale to me. . . . I shall have the honor of sprinkling the soil of my native country with the blood of traitors and invaders.”
At 1:15AM, July 16, a Marine sentry on post in front of Ocotal city hall noticed a “suspicious movement” and went to investigate. Suddenly, a thundering fusillade shattered the stillness of the black night. About 60 regulars and 500 partisans had infiltrated the village since the previous dusk, with Sandino “reportedly offering his men freedom to loot and agreeing to join them in drinking yankee blood.” Firing on the town from all directions, the Sandinistas swept into town and rushed to gain vantage points for a final assault against the Marine barracks and headquarters at city hall.
Within three minutes of the first shot, however, the Marines and guardia were at their “battle stations . . . receiving fire from all directions, and from well located snipers.” The street in front of the barracks was swept by a Sandinista machine gun firing from an elevated position at the end of the street, and individual Sandinistas charged forward to throw dynamite bombs through the barracks windows, shouting “Death to the Yankees!” and “Viva Sandino!” While the Marines and Guardia were pinned down in their headquarters, the Sandinistas began looting Ocotal. At about 4AM the guerrillas advanced into the tree-studded plaza in front of city hall. For four hours, the attackers vainly threw themselves towards the adobe walls of city hall in a series of frontal assaults. But from their fortifications, the Marine rifles and automatic weapons took a heavy toll on the Sandinistas, and the attack fizzled.
At dawn several rebels emerged under a flag of truce and delivered a note from Sandino. Renewing his correspondence, Sandino complimented Hatfield’s “brave fight,” but requested the garrison’s surrender. He promised that if the defenders threw their weapons into the street within an hour they would not be harmed.
“Go to hell,” Hatfield told Sandino. “A Marine never surrenders. We remain here until we die or are captured.”
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| "GO TO HELL, A MARINE NEVER SURRENDERS!!!" Captain Gilbert Hatfield and the Ocotal garrison, 1927 |
Under a tropical downpour, the battle continued. Although there were no further Sandinista charges, a machine gun placed in the church belfry raked city hall and snipers worked their way closer to the Marines.
At about 10:15AM the skies cleared, and two Marine patrol planes on a regular reconnaissance flight from Managua appeared over Ocotal. The pilots saw the village under siege, and as soon as Hatfield heard the engines, his Marines laid out coded panels in the city hall compound with the message: “Being attacked by Sandino.” The planes strafed the Sandinistas’ positions before returning to Managua. At 2:35PM a flight of five DeHavilands appeared over Ocotal, each carrying four 25-pound bombs beneath their wings and 1,200 rounds of machine gun ammunition. Led by Major Ross E. Rowell, the Marine biplanes spotted a concentration of Sandinistas in the open and began their attack. One after another, the planes dived at the guerrillas from 1,500 feet, opening fire with the fixed machine guns in the front and at the end of the dive – sometimes dropping as low as 300 feet – releasing a bomb. As the planes climbed away the observers fired the free guns at the Sandinistas as they scrambled for cover. Rowell recalled, “I never saw such a wild rout, and probably never will. As soon as they broke we closed in and worked at close range to make every bomb count.”
By the second pass the Sandinistas were in a panic, and although the air strike only lasted 45 minutes, it effectively ended the Sandinista attack. The guerrillas began withdrawing, and by 5:25PM were all gone. Based upon the number of bodies found, funerals held, and the increased size of Ocotal’s cemetery, Hatfield estimated at least 300 Sandinistas had been killed. The Marine losses were one dead and one wounded; while the Guardia lost three wounded and four captured. Ocotal was a decisive victory for the Marines, who assumed they had destroyed the last armed challenge to the occupation. Ambassador Charles Eberhardt cabled the State Department: “It is not supposed that Sandino will offer much further resistance.”
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