The Battle of Itararé was the main confrontation of the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 on the border between São Paulo and southern Brazil. On the São Paulo side were units of the Brazilian Army, the Public Force of São Paulo, and civilian volunteers loyal to the government of President Washington Luís, under the command of Colonel Paes de Andrade. On the other side, coming from Paraná, were revolutionaries from the Army, the Public Forces of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, and volunteers, under the command of Miguel Costa. The advanced positions of the loyalists in Sengés, in Paraná territory, were taken in combat, but the final offensive in São Paulo territory, in the municipality of Itararé, was canceled when a military coup in Rio de Janeiro deposed the president on 24 October 1930.
Itararé had strategic value because the São Paulo-Rio Grande Railway passed over the supposedly impassable ravines of the Itararé River. The city had already almost been the scene of combat during the Federalist Revolution of 1894 and had a reputation for invincibility. It was one of the sectors in which the revolutionaries launched their offensive towards São Paulo, after dominating most of the southern states in the first days of October. Both sides brought thousands of men, with infantry, cavalry, and artillery; the loyalists also had air power. The troops of the Public Force of São Paulo were well-trained and equipped, but the revolutionaries had more men and cannons, under firm military and political leadership. The theater of operations would see tactics of entrenchment, flanking maneuvers, and bombardment.
From 8 to 14 October, the revolutionaries conquered and held the city of Sengés, from where they attacked the Morungava Farm, in the same municipality, on 16 October. This battle lasted fourteen hours on a four-kilometer front, under torrential rain. The revolutionary infantry was repelled, but the loyalist defenders themselves were exhausted and abandoned the position at night, returning to the last line, already in São Paulo territory. Morungava was the key feature of the terrain, with a line of sight for the artillery to bombard Itararé. Miguel Costa planned a frontal attack to fix the position, while detachments on the left and right flanks would surround the defenders of Itararé. With news of the coup in Rio de Janeiro, the defenders laid down their arms. Getúlio Vargas, leader of the revolution, entered Itararé on 28 October.
The contending armies suffered dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded. Their bombardments and logistical requisitions caused much damage to the populations of the small towns of Itararé and Sengés. Forces loyal to Vargas would have another victory over São Paulo troops in the same location during the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932. The events of 1930 went down in history as the "battle that never happened," and the city became an object of ridicule or a symbol of shameful defeat. Some writers, especially from the municipality of Itararé, consider this characterization unfair and prefer to emphasize the battle that actually took place in the municipality of Sengés, a few kilometers away.
Background
A civil-military insurrection against Washington Luís, president of Brazil, began in Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, and Paraíba from 3 to 4 October 1930. In the 5th Military Region, corresponding to Paraná and Santa Catarina, the Brazilian Army and the Public Force of Paraná joined the revolution. On 5 October, the government of Paraná was taken over by General Mário Tourinho. Initially, only the garrisons of Palmas, Castro, Florianópolis, and São Francisco do Sul remained loyal to legality. By mid-October, this list was reduced to Florianópolis, where the Brazilian Navy protected the last legalist stronghold in Southern Brazil.
With Paraná joining the revolution, troops from Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina entered the state and joined the Paraná forces in the offensive towards São Paulo. Due to the distances involved, the main revolutionary forces in contact with the enemy were from Paraná. Volunteers enlisted and newspapers in Curitiba requested donations of all kinds, from cattle to uniforms, to supply the troops. The leader of the revolution, Getúlio Vargas, established his headquarters in Ponta Grossa on 16 October, with military command assigned to Lieutenant Colonel Góis Monteiro.
On the Paraná-São Paulo border, the revolutionaries fought the loyalists, consisting of Army units from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the Public Force of São Paulo (FPESP), and civilian volunteers ("legionnaires"). There were four battlefronts: Quatiguá, Sengés-Itararé, Capela da Ribeira, and Cananeia. Lacking the manpower for an offensive, the loyalists were only concerned with halting the revolutionary advance. For both sides, Itararé was the center of gravity. The São Paulo-Rio Grande Railway passed through there, allowing the largest possible contingent to be transported by the fastest route to São Paulo, passing through Itapetininga and Sorocaba. The final destination would be the federal capital in Rio de Janeiro. The flanks at Ourinhos/Quatiguá, Ribeira and Cananeia were less protected. Ourinhos would open the way to the railway junctions of Bauru and Botucatu. Capela da Ribeira would open the way to Apiaí and Capão Bonito, isolating Itararé, but the area was inhospitable, with dense forest and poor roads. The Cananeia axis, on the coast, was of little strategic value.
Logistics favored the loyalists. The southern coast was under Navy control, forcing the revolutionaries to supply all their forces via the São Paulo-Rio Grande Railway, a 1,400-kilometer route from Santa Maria to Itararé, with railway material in short supply. São Paulo's defense had nearby supply bases and an excellent railway network to the front. The further the revolutionaries advanced, the wider the front would become to protect the flanks and the further they would be from their depots, while the loyalists would be closer to theirs.
São Paulo was able to equip the hundreds of volunteers who came forward to fight, unlike Rio Grande do Sul. The lack of ammunition was a problem, and on 17 August, Oswaldo Aranha, the interim president of Rio Grande do Sul, telegraphed Vargas informing him that "our forces have enough ammunition for another month of fire". The loyalists in São Paulo felt emboldened enough to maintain an offensive in southern Minas Gerais and the Triângulo Mineiro region. However, the loyalist commanders remained hesitant and inactive. The specter of a coup to interrupt the fighting loomed over Rio de Janeiro.
Opposing forces
In the Itararé region, both sides had infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The revolutionaries also brought an engineering contingent, and the loyalists, a squadron of four aircraft from the São Paulo Public Force. More than half of the loyalist force on the border with Paraná was supplied by the FPESP. The force had a reputation for being elite and its troops were well-equipped and trained, although they had suffered defeats in the tenentist campaigns of the previous decade. The revolutionaries were inferior in troop quality, but concentrated greater numbers and materiel and had a talented military leadership and firm political resolve.
The loyalist force throughout the southern border of São Paulo, from Ourinhos to Iguape, reached five to six thousand soldiers, including three thousand from the FPESP, 1,600 from the Army, and one thousand volunteers. The records are incomplete and the number may have been higher. Specifically in Itararé there were 2,400 or 2,600 loyalist soldiers. According to the oral tradition of the São Paulo Military Police, at the end of October, when the battle ended, there were still troops on their way to Itararé.
At its peak, the revolutionary force reached 7,800 men. On the São Paulo-Rio Grande Railway, 15,700 soldiers were waiting in 108 convoys. The total revolutionary army on this front may have reached more than thirty thousand soldiers. The force deployed in Itararé was divided among the detachments of Colonel Silva Júnior (4,300 men), General Flores da Cunha (1,100 men), Major Alexínio Bittencourt (1,600 men) and Colonel Batista Luzardo (1,200 men), plus an extra corps of five hundred engineers, many of them railway workers. The Flores da Cunha detachment, which included volunteers from Rio Grande do Sul, was the most mobile one, as it consisted only of mounted troops. The Bittencourt and Flores da Cunha detachments began arriving on the 14th. The Luzardo detachment only arrived in Ponta Grossa on the 23rd.
The loyalist command initially fell to FPESP Lieutenant Colonel Herculano de Carvalho e Silva, and later to Army Colonel Arnaldo de Souza Paes de Andrade. Lieutenant Colonel Herculano was appointed Chief of Staff of the Itararé Detachment, and later, Commander of the Public Force Battalion Group. The revolutionary operations were commanded by Miguel Costa, an officer of the FPESP. Ironically, he led large contingents of the Army against Paes de Andrade, an Army officer responsible for a large contingent of the FPESP. Miguel Costa was an experienced guerrilla fighter from the days of the Miguel Costa-Prestes Column, who would prove equally skilled in the tactics of positional warfare. His Chief of Staff was Army Colonel João de Mendonça Lima.
The composition of the artillery has not yet been fully studied. Both sides had 75-millimeter Krupp guns, and the superior range of the more modern Revolutionary guns would be crucial. But the loyalist 1st Heavy Artillery Group had 105-millimeter guns at Itararé. The loyalist artillery, according to sources, had eight 75-millimeter guns, and the revolutionaries, twelve or eighteen guns. In total, the loyalists had 23 infantry companies, two cavalry squadrons and three artillery batteries against 27 infantry companies, 18 cavalry squadrons and nine artillery batteries.
Order of battle
List of units deployed to the Itararé frontLoyalistsRevolutionariesItararé Detachment 5th Infantry Regiment, from Lorena 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Public Force 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Public Force 5th Infantry Battalion of the Public Force 6th Infantry Battalion of the Public Force 4th Battalion of Caçadores, from São Paulo (partly) 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the Public Force 5th Divisional Cavalry Regiment, from Castro (partly) Silvio de Campos Legionnaires Battalion 4th Horse Artillery Regiment, from Itu 1st Heavy Artillery Group, from Rio de Janeiro Public Force Aviation SquadronMiguel Costa Detachments Group Colonel Silva Junior Detachment 8th Infantry Regiment, from Cruz Alta 13th Infantry Regiment, from Ponta Grossa 15th Battalion of Caçadores, from Curitiba Colonel Quim César Regiment (cavalry) 9th Horse Artillery Regiment, from Curitiba 5th Mountain Artillery Group, from Lapa General Flores da Cunha Detachment 1st Cavalry Regiment of the Military Brigade of Rio Grande do Sul 8th Independent Cavalry Regiment, from Uruguaiana 5th Independent Horse Artillery Group, from Livramento Pires Contingent Major Alexínio Detachment 13th Battalion of Caçadores, from Joinville Cavalry Regiment of the Public Force of Paraná Section of the 5th Mountain Artillery Group Colonel Batista Luzardo Detachment 5th Independent Cavalry Regiment, from Uruguaiana Virgílio Viana Battalion, from São Borja 2nd Independent Horse Artillery Group, from Uruguaiana
Engineering corps
Terrain