◆ SpookStack

strike resulted in the deaths of eight Cubans and the wounding of some 40.* 52/ Castro lost no time in denying that the attack on the airfields had been by dissident members of the FAR; and Castro's Foreign Minister and UN representative, Raul Roa, readied charges against the US as the instigator of the air attacks for the UN session on Monday 17 April. As the attack on the airfields was in progress, the planned deception operation for the B-26 flying to Miami International was carried out successfully. Senor Zuniga put his plane down, was taken in tow by Immigration and Naturalization, notification was made to WAVE, Zuniga remained silent, and the press gathered * The D-2 air strike was not without cost to the Brigade air force for the B-26 piloted by Daniel Fernandez Mon, with Gaston Perez as navigator, was shot down by ground fire and crashed into the sea. Gar Thorsrud has suggested that rather than ground ,fire, Mon's plane was caught in the blast of a 500 lb. bomb (260 lb.?) that he dropped when too low, damaging the aircraft to the extent that it caught fire and crashed. Thorsrud stated that this was the report from one of the other pilots. In Ferrer's book, Capt. Osvaldo Piedra -- the pilot of the 3rd aircraft involved in the attack on Libertad -- stated that Mon and Perez were ready to make a third pass over the field when the plane blew apart in the air and fell into the sea in flames. 53/ Hugh Thomas is in error in his statement that no Brigade aircraft were lost on D-2. 54/ - 218 -