THE BOMBING OF THE SPRINGFJOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400520025-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 1998
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: April 9, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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SUNDAY T 1.G'P5
F I!9`b~3.b.
.x antly fine morning in June,
1954, the British freighter
pringfjord (3,500 tons) was '
lying off the Pacific coast of
Guatemala, about to discharge:-
her cargo of cotton itito barges.",.
Suddenly a twin?boomcd P 38,
aircraft appeared and, without
warning. dive-bombed the ship..
The first bomb-a 500-pounder-
landed on the deck a few feet
from most of the crew but did
not explode. Nor did the second.
The third did. Miraculously', none
of the crew was injured, but the
ship was driven ashore and written
00 as a total loss.
To this day. not a penny of
damages or compensation has
?b^en paid to the owners, the,
Fprincwell Shipping Company. All.
.they have recovered is #180,000
from London underwriters for the
loss of the hull, which was insured
a,-iinst war risk.
And yet the circumstances of
the wholly unprovoked attack on
this unarmed and innocent ship
are well known. Questions have
been asked in the House of
Commons. diplomatic and other
Government action promised-all
to no avail.
For seven years the `chairman'
of the Springwell Company. Capt.,
Peter Longton, struggled to obtain
restitution.nen he gave up-
.'until last year, when, in a series
of articles published by The
Sunday Telegraph about 'the
Amcr,cac Central Intelligence
Agency, ne at last learnt why his
ship had been wrecked.
The story behind the affair is
this. In the early summer of 1954.
it was decided in Washington that
action must be taken to secure the
overthrow of Guatemala's Left-
wing, President, v, Jacob Arbenz:
Guzman. There was reason to
belcvc that arms from behind the
iron Curtain were on their way to
the repL.blic, and that plans were
afoot ? to make It a full-fledged
Communist state.
In view of the threat this posed
to neighbouring Central American
states, not to mention the Panama
Canal, with al: the strategic impli-
cations this posed to America's
/de(encc, the C.I.A. was assigned
the task of ousting Arbenz. Full
support was therefore given to an
American - trained exile, Col.
,/Carlos Castillo-Armaz, to stage ra
coup d'etat,
An "instant airforce" of war.
surplus fighter-bombers opcratinr
out of a base in LI Salvador wa,
duly furnished. American met,
eenaries new these planes. One o,
e'thoni, lorry ds Larnt, earned ott
raids on the capital, knocking ou
the Shell Comp'ny's oil etoratt,
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ot outside the.city. Another, rX
jor Ferdinand Frederick 6e
upp, bombed the Sprin;fjord.
ks a whole, the coup was a suc-
;s. Indeed American officials cite
as a highlight of the C.I.A.'s
?ecr.
Mr. Richard Bissell, then Direc-
of Plans, who was later dis-
scd by President Kennedy after
Cuban invasion fiasco in 1963.
enly admits this. Others have
kcd, too.
But the frankest account of the
ringfjord raid was . given by
nor Rudolfo Mendoza, a ring-
ldcr in, the Castillo-Armaz
venture, who flew as Major
hupp's wing-man-on the fateful
Y. , He is now Director of Avia?
,n In Guatemala.
Said he in a tcle?recorded' Legal Director, International
terview, which 'was granted an ' Above: Capt. Peter Longton, , Claims, at the State Department.
At this interview Caiit- Long-
ton told the American official that
rtl t?
is
Burns wrote back to say that the
law firm of Cichanowski & Callan
had been in touch with the C.I.A.
and the U.S. State Department in
:.~ Washington, and were prepared to
for themselves.
The Idea of paying roughly a
firm to obtain restitution from the
American Government did not
greatly amuse Capt. Longton.
Last month he flew to Wash-
ington, where he learnt that the
+r files on the case had been passed
General Counsel for the t? t.A.,
to the State Department. An
it has never, intriguingly enough, , the ship boforo and after the
,n hewn' bombing.
s
" O.K. So we had this news at ' '? unseemly fuss or embarrass an
ally, base, that an English ship was S ringwell company sent a British ' but that he did want the
rproaching bringing some planes p story looked into. He submitted
the Government, There was Q.C., ir. Rafael Valls, to Guate- a folio of his firm's claim,
r mils City to discuss ss the case. Mr. .?
tree Spitfires and'. pilots in ~ it. Va11s was cordially received by the Then, having heard nothing for
So we said: The'best'thing President and invited to dinner at' three weeks, he sought a second
do is sink the ship.'- ''his palace. The next morning he meeting, which was granted. At
..So we take on the 'ship with was handed a letter at his hotel this he was informed by Mr. Kcr-
le P 38 with three bornbs. One 'brdcring him to quit Guatemala ley that, while U.S. responsibility
as ?a 1,000-pounder, two were by that evening. was not explicitly denied; he, Capt.
Longton, would have to produce
Further efforts to obtain redress ., affidavit proof" that the incident
COs
"Schupp, in the first dive he -:were no more successful. As "had taken place,
ade at the ship.. the bomb Capt. Longton put it last week: In the meantime, on Capt. Long-
idn't explode but it made a big My associates and I were bark. ?,ton's bI had questioned
Ole, it went right through. Same , Ing up the wrong tree. We tried Richard behalf, lf 1, who Is today
ing with the second bomb- to get restitution from the Guate working for the United Aircraft
rant right through. malans, but we should have been dnnlrino elanwhere.^ Company of East Hartford, Con-
?
;necticut.
i Mr. Bissell agreed that In a
,recent television interview he had
referred to the Guatemalan coup.
.which had been under.his opera.
i'tional control, but he hedrtcd on
the subject of the Springfjord.
"In the Interview I referred to
an Incident that certainly .~N,ent
policy," he said. "I do not know
ng in the inter-American' coastal dies on the C,LA,. he immediately think other people have con
rode for which she' had' been'; got in touch' with Lamorte, Burns nected the two up.
pet:iglly ? and expensively fatted' & Co? 13 firm's" ropresontative,i "As you probably know, she
yut, ... t :. _?, In New York, asking them to look was sunk by a bomb from a
e~_-., _. _2.... .t. 1-1A..6 .i..i i.,,.. ,,.r MC,r!! cvaln. Lr'arta. Castillo-Assn" vrcraft. ii think
of fast -boats and got away. As time went on, the amount
here was only one bomb left. in question grew., The claim-for
'loss of trading earnings, Interest
"Schupp dived in close to the , on the capital loss over 13 years.
hip and the bomb exploded . , , repatriation for the crew, Insur-
nd blew some of the elevators ance premiums, legal fees and the
if his airplane. like, which was drawn up with
It turned out, of course, that' 'the advice of the Board of Trade
lie Springfjord was carrying no ' -all this amounted to over
pitfires.. As a matter of fact. she #1,100,000.
r1
From STEM .:EN BARBER
CPYRGHTAS'-IINGTON.
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London
Sanitized - Approve,ft
leas
Wbm
APB 9
X967