Colombia crisis 1948

[Brian]

Thanks guys for your advice.

Stig has now kindly provided the information that I required.

Cheers
Brian

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Interesting that you should mention German pilots (Luftwaffe veterans) that were hired by the Colombian Air Force during the crisis. A lot of Luftwaffe pilot veterans had a hard time finding work that involved flying.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Two bad there were no known names available of the German pilots that were in the Colombian Air Force and had flown and fought against the enemy in 1948. It would be nice that names of them would be shown.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Edward L. Hsiao]

There were T-33 jets and F-86 Sabres in the Colombian Air Force that flew during the Colombian Civil War. US and German pilots flew them. Source is from Wikipedia.

Edward L. Hsiao

[James A Pratt III]

The politician who was assassinated by a lone gunman was Jorge Eliecer Gaitan whose assassination started a 10 year civil war called the violencia. German WW I ace Herbert Boy moved to Columbia in 1924 and helped set up the Columbian Air Force.

Robert Scheina has books "Latin American Wars" 2 volumes the 2nd volume deals with the 1900s.

[DavidIsby]

Years ago, talking to the Colombian air attache at a reception in Washington, he reminded me "We used to have fighter pilot with 158 air-to-air victories, which is a lot more than anyone in the US Air Force". The guy he referred to was ex-Luftwaffe and flew P-47s, but all the victories were on the eastern front.