The invasion of British Somaliland

Menarrosto · August 29, 2015

Hello people!
In this my first ''unofficial'' article I want to tell you about a part of the East Africa Campaign: the Italian invasion and conquest of British Somaliland.
It was the only successful Italian operation withouth German intervention, and British Somaliland was the only part of British soil in Western Hemisphere that was occupied by an Axis Power (in addition to the Channel Islands).

Introduction:
As many of you know, Italy had several colonies: Libya, the Dodecanese, Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia and a small concession in Tianjin. Especially the conquest of Ethiopia, despite the many controversies, brought much prestige to the Fascist regime allowing Mussolini to declare the rise of the Italian colonial Empire, on 9 May 1936, through the acquisition by King Vittorio Emanuele III of the title of Emperor of Ethiopia.
In particular, the colonies we're talking about are those of the Horn of Africa, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. They were poor, mostly arid and isolated from the motherland. In fact, to reach the Horn of Africa, the Italian ships were forced to move or from Gibraltar or the Suez Canal, both in the hands of the British. This obviously posed serious problems in case of war with England, because it would not be possible to get supplies by ship in East Africa, so the AOI (Africa Orientale Italiana = Italian East Africa) was supposed to take care of herself.

The invasion:
East Africa Campaign began with the Italian invasion of British Somaliland. The Duke of Aosta, prince of the House of Savoy and Viceroy of Ethiopia had received orders from Mussolini to maintain defensive attitude. However, the viceroy feared that French Somaliland with its important port of Djibouti could be a convenient base for the British invasion of Ethiopia and, although French Somaliland was passed to Vichy after the fall of France, the Duke of Aosta did not trust the French garrison of Djibouti. Moreover, the border between Ethiopia and British Somaliland was very long (1,100 km) and difficult to guard. The best precaution would be the occupation of British Somaliland.

The first British evaluation was that it was not possible to defend Somaliland, but despite this General Wavell decided to make an effort to keep it. At about 80 km inland, toward the Ethiopian border and parallel to the coast runs a high range of mountains about 2,000 meters high that an invader from Ethiopia have to go through, so it was the perfect area to block the enemy, since there were no other defensive positions. For the defense was needed a minimum of five battalions, but at the start of the invasion on 3 August 1940, the commander of the colony, Brigadier AR Chater, had only the first battalion of the regiment of Northern Rhodesia, the second battalion African Royal Fusiliers and two companies of the Punjab Regiment, the small Somali Camel Corps and a battery with four 94 mm howitzers. Against these forces, General Nasi, commander of South East Ethiopia, had 26 battalions (of which, however, only 2 from Italy), each with its own artillery, five bands commanded by Italian officers, four batteries of field artillery and several light tanks L3 and medium M11 / 39, against which the British did not have adequate weapons. In addition the British forces had not had time to build defenses for the short walk through the mountain range. The most important of these steps, for which passes the only road to Berbera, was called Tug Argan (Tug = dry sandy river bed).

After crossing the completely open border on 3 August, Italian forces divided into two main columns. A column headed for the frontier of French Somaliland and within two days it had achieved its goal, that is blocking the French garrison in the event that they wanted to help the British. On the rest of the forces under the command of Major General de Simone was immediately pointed the attention of the Somali Camel Corps. Although forced back continuously, the Camel Corps took all possible forms of disorder, seriously delaying the advance of the Italians. Consequently, General de Simone took two days to reach Hargeisa. Overestimating the strength of the Camel Corps instead of jumping immediately on Tug Argan, he lost three days in Hargeisa transforming it into a base capable of supporting any counterattacks.

General de Simone resumed its advance on 8 August and reached Tug Argan on 11, but the delay of Hargeisa was of great importance for the British defenders: it gave time to the Black Watch battalion to arrive on the scene and had allowed General Wavell to assign a commander to the defense forces, Major General AR Godwin Austen. Near Tug Argan the winding road was dominated by six hills distant from each other about 2 km and occupied by British forces. Italians put in place a heavy artillery barrage and then hurled a hill held by a company of the third battalion of the 15th Punjab Regiment. They took the high ground and kept it despite two strong counter-attacks of the Indians. Two other hills were attacked but the defenders, much lower in number, stood firm and inflicted heavy losses to the Italians that on that day did not further progress. The next day all the defensive positions were attacked and all but one resisted. While British forces were stretched to the full, Italians possessed extensive reserves with which they managed to rise gradually to the right and began to advance on the eastern flank of the high ground defenses. On 13 August the fighting continued for the whole day without any of defenders cede ground. When an attempt to stop enemy infiltration failed, British troops began to realize that they were being surrounded and ran the danger of being cut off from their only line of retreat.

On 14 August, the fourth day of battle, the defenders resisted but still the threat of being cut off at any moment was becoming more threatening. General Godwin Austen then telegraphed to Cairo saying that, in the absence of any other location suitable for the defense, the only way to save his forces was to evacuate the colony. Cairo approved, Godwin Austen resisted another day against continuous attacks but on the night of 15 began to retreat to a prepared location a few miles further back, where the Black Watch, reinforced by a company of Northern Rhodesia and one of Punjab, was to lead rearguard actions. It must be said that the Black Watch counterattacked twice with such power that the Italians were forced to stop, which granted to General Godwin Austen the needed time to board his forces on a warship waiting in Berbera, while indigenous troops were left behind to thwart the enemy. Italians entered to Berbera on 19 August 1940 after two weeks of operations: British Somaliland was conquered.

Aftermath:
The defense of British Somaliland had cost to the British 260 casualties (to which must be added an unknown number of native soldiers), compared to about 2,050 of the Italians, even though most of their losses were related to the native troops (in fact the Italian casualties were only about 160 depending on the source). Moreover, the British abandoned during the evacuation a lot of supplies, including 5 field guns, 100 machine guns, 5,400 rifles, three tanks and 128 other vehicles. Most forces evacuated from Berbera went to join the organization that was gradually preparing in Kenya, and Somaliland was left undisturbed for seven months, with the exception of occasional air strikes.

Unfortunately for Italy the war was not going as planned: the armies in North Africa had been unable to conquer Egypt and Britain do not seem willing to surrender to Germany. When it became obvious that it would not be possible to connect the colonies to the motherland conquering Egypt, and as a result the reinforcements would never arrive, the Viceroy decided it was necessary to organize a desperate defense on the mountain range of Amba Alagi, Ethiopia, where Italians resisted until the fall of their last stronghold in 1941: Gondar.
This, however, is another story ;D

Remarks:
This brief campaign in a secondary theater which was the East Africa may seem unimportant and mostly meaningless, but it is not. This is proof that the Italian army, if well conducted, with clear objectives and in an ideal territory (in fact vehicles and camouflages were designed precisely for such locations), was able to operate an effective and fast offensive, coordinating the movement of multiple columns at a great distance from each other. On the other side it has once again highlighted the excellent qualities of the British army, which managed to resist against overwhelming forces and in the meantime to evacuate its troops with minimal losses.

Bibliography:

-Andrea Molinari, La Conquista dell'Impero. 1935-1941 la Guerra in Africa Orientale;
-The Italian Army 1940-1945 (2): Africa 1940-43.
- http://www.laseconda...ica_orie_01.php

Thanks for reading!

graisseu · August 29, 2015

Good article :salute: It's from you the text ?

I just wan't say something forgotten in that article, it's the role of the Free Belgians during this campaign and the Free French . They played an essential role in that battle, especially the Belgians which do more than 15000 Italians prisonners .

Edited August 29, 2015 by graisseu

BlueBeta · August 29, 2015

Nice article

Menarrosto · August 30, 2015

Good article :salute: It's from you the text ?

Mostly yes. I initially copied the text in the web site you can see in the bibliography, then I modified it cutting, pasting and adding more information and details from the other 2 sources. Finally translated.

I just wan't say something forgotten in that article, it's the role of the Free Belgians during this campaign and the Free French . They played an essential role in that battle, especially the Belgians which do more than 15000 Italians prisonners .

I never heard of this episode. I remind you that i'm talking only about the Invasion of British Somaliland, not the whole East Africa Campaing. I misunderstood? Can you tell me about this episode?

graisseu · August 30, 2015

I

Good article :salute: It's from you the text ?

Mostly yes. I initially copied the text in the web site you can see in the bibliography, then I modified it cutting, pasting and adding more information and details from the other 2 sources. Finally translated.

I just wan't say something forgotten in that article, it's the role of the Free Belgians during this campaign and the Free French . They played an essential role in that battle, especially the Belgians which do more than 15000 Italians prisonners .

I never heard of this episode. I remind you that i'm talking only about the Invasion of British Somaliland, not the whole East Africa Campaing. I misunderstood? Can you tell me about this episode?

I do a mistake of translation . I thinked you talking about all the campaign in AOI . Effectively you only talk about the British Somaliland in summer 1940 . I confonded with Ethiopia, Abyssinia and the fall of Italian in that zone .

I think only a the FBF n°1 ( Free French equiped with Glenn Martin 167F ) participated during that period . They were entirely decimated .

Edited August 30, 2015 by graisseu