Right up to the dramatic climax of President Arbenz' forced resignation, the war in Guatemala was a strange, onesided air war, fought by three mysterious F47 Thunderbolts and an absurd little Cessna sports plane, all under the command of the leader of the anti-Communist rebels, Colonel Castillo Armas.
The F-47s, probably operating from Nicaragua, functioned as a strategic air force, doing the relatively heavy jobs.
For two days they bombed and strafed Chiquimula, a provincial capital (pop. 9,000) at the south end of the 130-mile front paralleling the Honduran border.
After that Castillo Armas'...