While Marine aircraft pounded El Chipote, a force of more than 300 Marines massed at San Albino for the final assault on Sandino’s stronghold. The detachment’s commander, Major Archibald Young, had been briefed by brigade intelligence that “there is practically no doubt that Sandino has planned to make a determined stand at Chipote.” Young chose to exercise caution, advancing slowly and using mortars, rifle grenades, and Lewis guns to fire upon every suspected ambush site in his path. Consequently, it took the Marine battalion six days to cover the three miles from the base of El Chipote on the Murra River to its summit. On January 26 a patrol reached the crest, and appeared to have just barely missed the enemy garrison. One officer reported: “A freshly butchered beef was found hanging near the house said to have been the headquarters of General Salgado and a chicken still limp and undressed was on the floor of the quarters near the fireplace.” Yet aside from some food stores, the Marines found the earthworks occupied by nothing but straw-filled dummies.
Although Marine patrols continued to comb the area around El Chipote through the remainder of January, they found no trace of Sandino. On February 4, Marine headquarters announced Sandino was still alive but fleeing southward. On February 5 Sandino was reported active in the department of Matagalpa, and on the 6th he was spotted far to the north. On February 9 he was again reported in Matagalpa, and two weeks later the Associated Press had him in position to strike port cities on the Atlantic Coast. As New York Times correspondent Harold Denny observed, “The wily Sandino is a maddening problem for the Marines because of his swift shifting, and many officers declare earnestly they would give a year’s pay only once to come to grips with him.” Despite an official Navy Department pronouncement that Sandino was “finished, and is simply trying to escape,” Lejeune agreed with the Marine commanders’ request for reinforcements in order to continue the hunt for Sandino, and early in 1928 ordered the 11th Regiment back to Nicaragua.
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| Like Osama bin Laden after the fall of Tora Bora, Augusto Sandino evaded U.S. forces and surivived the seige of his mountain fortress El Chipote. |
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