Mike Cortez
The Mexican Revolution lasted from 1911 to 1915, with guerrilla warfare - led by Pancho Villa - lasting up to 1920. In chapter two of Wasserman’s The Mexican Revolution: A Brief History with Documents, the phases of the Revolution are explained and the brutal forms of warfare are expounded.
The Mexican Revolution is divided into four stages, the vast majority of which consisted of primarily non traditional guerrilla warfare. The first stage of the war began in Chihuahua in Northern Mexico in 1911 and ended with the capitulation of Ciudad Juarez in May of that year. This was followed by a period of continued guerrilla warfare across the country, leading up to 1913 and the third phase of the war. 1913-1915 was marked by large scale battles and more conventional European style warfare. This phase lasted until Alvaro Obregon destroyed Villa’s army at Celaya. The final phase was marked by continued armed resistance and guerrilla tactics lasting until 1920 (Wasserman, 50).
A famous quote thrown around in the gaming community goes: "War. War never changes." History bursts at the seam with figures in revolutionary or militaristic movements that have the uncanny ability to not only lead men in battle, but have the skills as a general to achieve victory. Pancho Villa was among the many who stood out in the revolutionary period of Mexico during the 1910's. He was certainly a charismatic leader that used unconventional tactics to launch a series of campaigns.
By 1914, Mexico had endured at least three straight years of political and military instability after the exile of Porfirio Diaz. Madero had already been overthrown, and Huerta was at the head of a divided country. With the opportunity for generals to make their name and mark, Pancho Villa was just one of many to meet the call. The difference with Villa was his focus on unconventional tactics. John Reed, a writer who covered Villa's campaign from 1913-1914, noted that Villa "was the greatest leader Mexico ever had.". A bold claim to be sure, but Reed makes a compelling argument to prove it.
Based on Reed's assessment of Villa's army, the band of soldiers that pledged loyalty to Villa were guerrilla fighters. Villa understood that one cannot federalize and discipline a rag-tag army of individual warriors. As Reed points out: "Red-tape simply paralyzes the machine." Instead, Villa realized that men who fought individually were braver than an organized platoon. If used correctly, they could easily ambush a town with a fierce onslaught of rifles and hand bombs. A major benefit of a guerilla army, was that it could easily move across the battlefield into position for an attack. Instead of sticking close to the baggage train and the women, Villa would order his force to abandon their trains and throw the entire force at the enemy (Wasserman, 52).
Imagine that you are a Mexican federal soldier who is part of a troop tracking Pancho Villa. You are exhausted and hungry from being on campaign. You have heard many stories of the man and know that he leads a force that strikes at will, without following the conventional European handbook of hunkering down in a trench. The day goes by without action and, as your troop soundly sleeps, you are suddenly awoken by the sound of a rifle shot, then another, as cannon fire blasts the area around you. Villa had sprung his attack and launched a tactic that would make him infamous, night attacks (Wasserman, 52). From this point on, count yourself lucky as a regular federal private. Your officers and fellow supporters of revolutionaries, such as Pascual Orozco, will be executed.
No doubt to gain a true understanding of the sight of battle, John Reed would need to be up close and personal with the troops. In one document, The Bloody Dawn, Reed writes of a troop he is covering during the course of a night attack. One emotional description accounts of one of the soldiers returning from the hospital train:
"Feel this," he said, holding out his arm. It was drenched. We could see nothing. "Blood," he continued unemotionally. "His blood. he was my compadre in the Brigada Gonzales-Ortega. We went in this night down there and so many, so many - We were cut in half." (Wasserman, 54)
Reed further describes the sounds of battle as they raged on. Cannons booming as if great bells, and the constant stabbing noises of the machine guns. Reed himself was deeply affected by the sights and sounds as he even provides pronunciations for the noise of battle. One particularly gruesome scene occurs where a number of soldiers hole up in a water tank with holes cut out for the rifles. The soldiers were ordered to execute the men hiding and poked their “guns through the holes and we killed them all - a deathtrap!" (Wasserman, 55).
Through all of this horror, Villa maintained a cool and tactical advantage. He could control his men by understanding their strengths and weaknesses. In Villa’s own assessment of The Battle of Tierra Blanca, he noted points where the battle did not go according to plan, but through level headedness he was able to address each issue as it arose and turn the strategic victory he had imagined into a reality. Villa began the battle by controlling the high ground and forcing the enemy to meet him in a position, which would inhibit their use of artillery. It ended with a daring night raid on the enemy trains and a victory for Villa that left more than a thousand of his enemy dead (Wasserman, 61-62).
However, even the tactical masterpieces which Villa wove ultimately were not enough to achieve a victory for him in the Revolution. In April 1915, Villa’s forces were removed from the field of battle when Alvaro Obregon achieved victory over Villa at Celaya. This battle marked the end of the third phase of the Revolution, and what followed could mostly be described as guerrilla warfare that was, over the next five years, repressed. This brought an end to the Revolution as a whole by the year 1920.
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