Abyssinia, WW II campaign in (WW II campaign in Ethiopia) (1941). This led incidentally to Ethiopia's liberation after five years of Italian fascist occupation, and was a direct consequence of Mussolini's declaration of war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940. The British, fearing that the enemy in Libya and Italian East Africa might jointly threaten Britain's position in Egypt, Sudan, and the Middle East, and realizing the potential military value of the Ethiopian ‘Patriots’, who had never surrendered to the invaders, flew Emperor Haile Selassie from Britain to Sudan in July. They later despatched two British officers, Brig Dan Sandford and Col Orde Wingate, into Gojjam to make contact with the Patriots, in August and November respectively. Meanwhile the Italians overran British Somaliland in August.
The Allied campaign against Italian East Africa opened on 19 January 1941, when British and Indian forces under Gen Sir William Platt advanced from Sudan into Italian Eritrea. On the following day, and almost 200 miles (320 km) to the south, the emperor, with Wingate as his principal adviser, entered Gojjam, also from Sudan. Four days later, and almost 1, 000 miles (1, 600 km) to the south-east, British, East African, and South African forces under Gen Sir Alan Cunningham struck from Kenya into Italian Somalia. The Italian forces, which had been isolated from metropolitan Italy for half a year and were demoralized by four years of Ethiopian Patriot activity, put up weaker resistance than initially anticipated. British Commonwealth forces from the south captured Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, on 25 February, and swept northwards to Jigjiga, on 17 March, and Harar, ten days later. Allied forces from the west meanwhile captured Keren, after fierce fighting, on 26 March, and Asmara, capital of Eritrea, on 1 April. The emperor's army, though poorly armed and often lacking air support, captured Debra Marqos, capital of Gojjam, on 10 April. The Patriots under Ras Abeba Aregai meanwhile consolidated themselves around Addis Ababa. The capital itself fell shortly afterwards, on 6 April, to South African troops. The emperor returned on 5 May, exactly five years after its capture by Gen Badoglio. The next few months were spent in ‘mopping up’. This ended with the fall of Gondar to the British and the Patriots on 27 November. Ethiopia thus became the first country to be freed from Axis conquest.
Bibliography
- Glover, Michael, An Improvised War (London, 1987).
- Pankhurst, Richard, ‘The Ethiopian Patriots and the Collapse of Italian Rule in East Africa’, Ethiopia Observer, 10 (1966).
- Shirreff, David, Bare Feet and Bandoliers (London, 1995).
- Steer, George, Sealed and Delivered (London, 1941)
— Richard Pankhurst
