An obscure 'small war' in WW2
A new book on a significant, forgotten campaign in East Africa, by a mainly British Empire force, to take Abysinia, now Ethiopia and Eritrea from the Italians.
The author teaches at the UK's Royal College of Defence Studies and has taught a course on the campaign @ Joint Services Command and Staff College, which he summarizes as:
Quote:
Fighting began in early July 1940 and ended in November 1941; the principal Allied offensive actually began in the January. Just eleven months later the 70,000 strong British-led force had succeeded in defeating an Italian army of nearly 300,000 men, in the process capturing 50,000 prisoners and occupying 360,000 square miles all at a cost of 500 casualties and just 150 men killed. It was a varied and wide-ranging conflict that witnessed many different types of military operations. These ranged from commando raids to long mechanised pursuits, mountain assaults and a protracted attritional battle. Added to this was an often decisive use of airpower, a triumphal amphibious landing and a generally incredible feat of logistical planning. In the process Mussolini’s East African Empire had been destroyed and the British Empire had secured its first significant wartime victory. Having now had the opportunity to study in considerable depth the battles fought in British and Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia and Eritrea drawing upon primary sources from Britain, Kenya, South Africa, the United States and (even) Australia, this remains a reasonable description.
Link:https://defenceindepth.co/2016/10/21...-victory/#_top
Amazon UK:https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Victory-Second-Africa-Campaign/dp/0300208553/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477170663&sr=1-1&keywords=The+First+Victory%3A+The+Second+World+W ar+and
+the+East+Africa+Campaign
Amazon US:https://www.amazon.com/First-Victory-Second-Africa-Campaign/dp/0300208553/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477170944&sr=1-1&keywords=The+First+Victory%3A+The+Second+World+W ar+and
+the+East+Africa+Campaign
Now to persuade a nearby observer that this should be a Xmas gift!:)
The First Victory: the Second World War and The East Africa Campaign
The newly published 'The First Victory: the Second World War and The East Africa Campaign' by Andrew Stewart. A good, well written book on a forgotten campaign to end Italian occupation of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), Eritrea and Somaliland (a British colony held for a short time). The victory, with Italian surrender was over-shadowed by the defeats in Greece and Crete. 'Bill' Slim was an Indian Infantry Brigadier, who was to learn about being forgotten again in Burma.
The immense logistical aspects are included and the strategic to operational issues. The lack of theatre maps is annoying, unless you are familiar with the regional geography. For example 18k trucks came overland from Broken Hill, now Kabwe in Zambia; the half-way point from the factory in South Africa, in the 2,900 mile journey to Nairobi.
It was not an easy victory, notably with the bitter fighting @ Keren, a mountainous fortified position. Enigma helped, but the Italians consistently located Allied formations using SIGINT.
No reviews yet on Amazon:https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Victo...frica+campaign
The Italians who fought on
This snippet came as a surprise, with my emphasis:
Quote:
The last Italian troops in East Africa were defeated at the
Battle of Gondar in November 1941.
But several thousand escaped to wage a guerrilla war until September 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies.
Link:http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-it...africa-in-1941
That is very curious. I expect the guerilla war was in the former Italian colonies, Eritrea and Somaliland. Stewart's book refers to locally recruited soldiers from both and perhaps the local population were not actively hostile to their continuing presence.
