The first phases of the Colombian assault against Venezuela went well. The troops were advancing at an acceptable rate but casualties were higher than expected. The Venezuelan soldiers were mainly in a fighting retreat. They would engage the Colombian troops for short periods of time, trying to inflict on them as many casualties as possible buying enough to move all the vital vehicles and equipment out of the area. The Venezuelan troops usually retreated when the Colombian tanks appeared. The civilians that were captured by the Colombian troops suffered the same fate as that of so many others in the history of warfare-rape, robberies and death were all that was in store for the civilian population.
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Colombian Stuart tanks advancing into Venezuela.
The Colombian Generals were surprised that they had not been engaged by the Venezuelan Air Force. Although Venezuelan B-25 bombers had engaged and destroyed several planes and airfields inside Colombia itself, the supply columns that managed to survive the guerrilla attacks in Colombia were not attacked by Venezuelan planes, and they managed to arrive to their positions inside the Peninsula, bringing supplies and reinforcements to the Colombian forces. This was all part of the general strategy that the Venezuelan army had developed. It was called "Operation Soberanía". They wanted to let the largest amounts of Colombian troops and equipment to be deployed inside the peninsula before counterattacking.
The Colombian forces had advanced several kilometers inside Venezuela before they engaged in their first major battle, in the outskirts of the major city of Maracaibo. Expecting an easy victory assuming that the Venezuelans would retreat as they had before, the Colombian army launch a general assault against the city on September 22nd, ten days after the invasion started. After they reached the suburbs of the city, Colombian troops engaged in brutal house to house fighting with the Venezuelan forces. Buildings and houses were constantly changing hands, as both sides attacked and counterattacked to retake lost ground. The 2 Colombian B25 bombers that were in the arsenal of their air force were sent to perform bombing attacks against the city, but were shot down by static and mobile Venezuelan AA units inside the city. By September 26th, Colombian troops were less than a kilometer away from the center of the city, and only 3 km from reaching the western shore of Lake Maracaibo. The Generals then ordered a temporary halt to the advance to get supplies and reinforcements into the city and to get the dead and wounded out.
On the naval fronts, the Venezuelan navy had deployed the 3 corvettes that had been activated during the Los Monjes operation ("Patria","Federacion" and "Victoria") , as well as the recently arrived "Constitucion near the coast of the Peninsula. They had been involved in evacuating troops to the eastern shore of the Maracaibo Lake as well as transporting troops to aid in the defense of Maracaibo itself, but were now preparing for a major battle against the Colombian navy. The 5th Venezuelan frigate, the "Independencia", along with the 4 Venezuelan sub chasers, were stationed around the Paraguana Peninsula, where they were to report and try to stop any attempts that the Colombian fleet made to perform attacks outside of the Gulf area.
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Venezuelan ships deployed in the Gulf.
The Colombian naval commanders, desperate to avenge the defeat suffered at Los Monjes, had ordered the Colombian navy to block the Gulf from the Atlantic and to start pushing inside the Gulf. The plan was to force the Venezuelan ships from the Gulf and into the Maracaibo lake, where, supported by the artillery and other ground elements from the Western shore of the Maracaibo Lake, they were going to completely destroy the Venezuelan fleet. By September 26th, the Colombian frigate "Capitan Tono" and the 2 Douro Class destroyers were already chasing the Venezuelan Navy down into the Gulf. On September 27th, the corvettes "Victoria" and "Patria" started to cross the strait that divided the Gulf and the Maracaibo Lake. But as the Colombian ships started to approach, and knowing that if they were caught while crossing the strait all the ships would be destroyed, the "Federacion" and Constitucion" decided to engage the Colombian ships to allow the 2 other corvettes to get into the lake safely. In 1823, the Colombian and Venezuelan fleets had fought together against the Spanish during the Battle of Lake Maracaibo, a battle which had been decisive in ending the Spanish domination of South America. Now, 129 years later, the Colombian and Venezuelan fleets would fight another battle on the Lake, but this time, the sister nations had their guns turned on each other.
The 2 Venezuelan Corvettes first engaged one of the Colombian Douro class destroyers. Their concentrated fire managed to damage the bridge and kill several sailors that were attempting to turn their guns to fire on the Venezuelan ships. The other class Douro destroyer started to engage the Venezuelan ships as it approached. All 4 ships had heavily damaged each other when the Colombian Tacoma class frigate "Capitan Tono" arrived on the scene. The Venezuelan corvettes knew that they had no chance against the superior armor and firepower of the Colombian ship, so they started to move down south in a desperate attempt to reach the strait. But it only took a couple took a couple of salvos fired by the Capitan Tono to cripple and sunk the 2 Venezuelan frigates. As their ships sank, the Venezuelans captains knew that they had bought their sisters ships precious time, and that their sacrifice had been vital to achieve what was needed to execute the general counterattack plan that would turn the tide of the war. On the night of September 27th, the remaining Venezuelan ships crossed into the Maracaibo Lake.
On the morning of September 28th, Colombian forces were preparing to launch the final assault to capture the center of the city and to reach the western shore of Lake Maracaibo. The morale of the Colombian troops was high, and it was boosted even more when they saw the "Capitan Tono" and the 2 damaged Douro destroyers cross the strait and enter the Maracaibo Lake. They were confident that, after they captured the city and their fleet destroyed the remnants of the enemies navy, the Venezuelans would sue for peace.
But just as they were to begin the assault and as the Colombian captains advanced eagerly to kill the remaining enemy ships in the Lake, the Venezuelan forces in the city received the order to execute "Operacion Soberania", an operation that they hoped would turn the tide of the war.
Then, the sound of engines filled the skies. When the Colombian soldiers and the crew of the Colombian ships looked up, they saw how dozens of P47s, De Havilland Jet Fighters and B25 bombers appeared above the city and started to descend towards the Colombian fleet. The 2 damaged destroyers were easy prey of the Venezuelan planes, and they were at the bottom of the Lake in less than an hour. The "Capitan Tono" was a harder a target, as its AA guns managed to damage and shoot down several Venezuelan planes before they were knocked out by the air attacks. Then, the Venezuelan Corvettes started to attack the Colombian frigate too. Knowing that they had no chance to survive if they stayed, the "Capitan Tono" started to pull back towards the strait.
At that same time, the Venezuelan forces in the city launched a general counterattack, supported by artillery and airplanes. P47s and De Havilland Vampire jets started strafing and bombing the Colombian units outside the city, helicopters started deploying infantry squads to the rear of the Colombian formations and artillery started pounding the buildings and houses that had been taken by the Colombians. Fearing that their supply lines would be cut and that their troops would be trapped inside the city and destroyed, like what had happened to the Germans in Stalingrad 10 years before, the Colombian Army ordered an immediate but orderly withdrawal from the city. But what was supposed to be an orderly withdrawal quickly turned into a rout. Colombian transport trucks abandoned the infantry they were supposed to evacuate, soldiers on cars, horses or simply running moved back to the suburbs and into the outskirts of the city. Those who fell back on foot soon realized that they had made the right choice, as those who left on the trucks and cars were swiftly strafed and destroyed by the P47s and Vampire jets that patrolled the skies.
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Colombian Stuart tank destroyed by an air attack outside Maracaibo.
Meanwhile, the "Capitan Tono" managed to cross the strait. Heavily damaged and advancing at an extremely slow pace, the captain of the ship thought that it could only had been divine intervention that had saved him and what was left of his crew from total annihilation back at the Maracaibo Lake. Its radio, the radar and most of its guns had been destroyed during the air attacks, and it had no way of knowing what was going on with the Colombian troops in the city. As it approached the open waters of the Caribbean Sea, the last thing that the Captain and most of his crew saw was the Venezuelan corvette "Independencia" and 4 sub chasers, which had moved from their positions in the Paraguana Peninsula after being informed of the Colombian ship that had left the Lake, opening fire against the damaged frigate. The battle did not last 5 minutes as a salvo fired by the Venezuelan corvette reached the ammunition magazine of the frigate. No survivors (or bodies) from the crew of the frigate were found.
While the counterattack in Maracaibo was ongoing, the Venezuelan forces launched the 2nd part of "Operation Soberania". After a short artillery barrage, Venezuelan army units launched an assault into Colombia. Their objective was the Colombian town of Valledupar, and, after it had been captured, to advance towards the sea to cut off the Colombian troops inside the Peninsula. By September 30th, Venezuelan troops had reached the outskirts of Valledupar.
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Venezuelan troops on the outskirts of the town.
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Venezuelan paratroopers attacking the town with mortars.
The few Colombian units that were in the town (no one in the Colombian High Command had expected a Venezuelan attack in this region) offered a fierce resistance, but the battle ended when the first M18 tank destroyers (recently arrived from the US) entered the town. Those who refused to surrender were destroyed along with their position by the armored vehicles. The civilians that had stayed in the town would be raped, robbed and summarily executed as retribution for the actions of the Colombian soldiers on Venezuela.
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Venezuelan M18 Hellcats in the center of Valledupar.
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Captured Colombian troops.
By October 1st, the Venezuelan forces had reached the Colombian shore on the Caribbean sea. Around 100 thousand Colombian troops (more than 80% of the Colombian armed forces), were now cut off from the rest of the country and laid trapped inside the Peninsula. As Rojas Pinilla and rest of the Colombian High Command, in panic mode, were desperately looking for ways to break the siege that had fallen on the bulk of the army, they received reports that border towns and troops in the Amazon region were under attack by Peruvian air strikes and by Peruvian troops.
The Colombians avoided a Stalingrad in Maracaibo, but the Peninsula of La Guajira would be their Falaise Pocket.
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Red=Territories occupied by the Colombian Army.
Large rectangle=Location of the naval battle between the Venezuelan corvettes and the Colombian Navy.
Small rectangle to the south=Where the 2 colombian destroyers were sunk and the "Capitan Tono" was damaged.
Near the small rectangle to the south=Maracaibo, the city where the battle happened.
Small rectangle to the north=Where the "Capitan Tono" was sunk.
Black arrows=Directions of the Venezuelan counterattack.
