Higuchi, Hélio/Fracchia, Antonio Luis Sapienza Cuban Army Air Corps. Volume 1: 1913-1952

A volume from the series Latin America @ War. In 1910, less than a decade after gaining independence from Spain, Cuba began its first aeronautical activities, and in 1913 the Cuerpo de Aviación del Ejército de Cuba (CAEC, Cuban Army Air Corps) was established, long before many other Latin American countries established similar services. During World War I, Cuban military pilots were trained in the United States and were about to be sent to the Western Front in France, but the war ended before that could happen. CAEC grew in the years that followed, benefiting from the US Lend-Lease Program during World War II when Cuba supported the Allies, and from other programs such as the American Republics Program (ARP) and the Mutual Defence Assistant Program (MDAP) in the post-war years. These programmes not only provided the CAEC with aircraft, but also trained its pilots and mechanics. This volume examines the origins of Cuban aviation, the organisation and development of the CAEC, Cuban military aviation during World War II, the failed deployment of the Caribbean Legion to Cayo Confites, Cuban naval aviation and the CAEC in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and includes a brief biography of Fulgencio Batista. The appendices list all CAEC aircraft types from 1913 to 1952, when they were incorporated into the Cuban Navy.