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Chapter One THE WAR IN EAST AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

I n addition to Libya, the Italian empire in Africa included Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia). In the last, under the command of the Italian viceroy, the Duke of Aosta, were 250,000 troops, of whom 90,000 were metropolitan Italians. But these forces had only 24 medium and 39 light tanks, and the Italian air force’s component in this theater was only 34 Fiat CR.42 biplane fighters, which were outclassed by the Royal Air Force’s Gloster Gladiator biplane and Hawker Hurricane monoplane fighters. The Italians were also short of artillery, ammunition, fuel, and basic foodstuffs. General Sir Archibald Wavell, the British commander in the Middle East, considered the Italian forces to be a threat to the British in Kenya to the south and in Sudan to the west, the Italians having taken Kassala, Gallabat and Kurmak in Sudan, and the Moyale salient in Kenya in July 1940. Wavell also

Words to Understand Armistice: A temporary suspension of hostilities in warfare. Mutiny: A rebellion against authority. Sortie: An armed attack or combat mission made by one aircraft.

believed the Italians could be defeated by an internal revolution of Abyssinian patriots, with the help of Allied forces, and that the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie might be restored to his throne. Major Orde Wingate, in Khartoum, in his capacity as commander of Haile Selassie’s forces and the emperor’s military adviser, had been entrusted with the task of organizing, as irregular forces,

the thousands of Abyssinian refugees in Kenya and Sudan. Meanwhile, the British and commonwealth forces in Kenya and Sudan were adopting an aggressive defensive posture, although the Indian 5th Division failed to retake Gallabat in Sudan during November 1940. Wavell organized the forces available to him into two commands, excluding those of Wingate. An expeditionary force comprising the Indian 4th and 5th Divisions was to attack from Sudan toward Eritrea under the command of Lieutenant-General William Platt, while

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