Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia

Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre of the Second World War

Fascist poster calling for revenge against the British takeover of Italian East Africa
Date27 November 1941 – October 1943
LocationHorn of Africa
Result

Anglo-Ethiopian victory

  • Defeat of the guerrillas
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 Ethiopian Empire		  Italy
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Arthur Chater
Ethiopian Empire Haile Selassie		 Kingdom of Italy Various
List of the main Italian guerrilla officers
Strength
Tens of thousands 7,000 (including supporters)

The Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was as an armed struggle fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Ethiopia, in what had been the short-lived attempt to incorporate Ethiopia as part of Italian East Africa. Their guerrilla campaign was fought following the Italian defeat during the East African Campaign of World War II, while the war was still ongoing in Northern Africa and Europe.

Italian East Africa in May 1940, before the Italian conquest of British Somaliland

History

By the time Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia, entered Addis Ababa triumphantly in May 1941, the military defeat of Mussolini's forces in Ethiopia, by the combined armies of Ethiopian partisans and British and Sudanese troops, was assured. When General Guglielmo Nasi surrendered with military honors the last troops of the Italian colonial army in East Africa at Gondar in November 1941, many of his personnel decided to start a guerrilla war in the mountains and deserts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Nearly 7,000 Italian soldiers (according to the historian Alberto Rosselli)[1] participated in this fight against the British Army, in the hope that the German-Italian army of Rommel would win in Egypt (making the Mediterranean an Italian Mare Nostrum) and retake the recently liberated territories.

There were originally two main Italian guerrilla organizations: the Fronte di Resistenza (Front of Resistance) and the Figli d'Italia (Sons of Italy).[2] The Fronte di Resistenza was a military organization led by Colonel Lucchetti and centered in the main cities of the former Italian East Africa. Its main activities were military sabotage and collection of information about British troops to be sent to Italy in multiple ways. The Figli d'Italia organization was formed in September 1941 by Blackshirts of the "Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale" (a fascist organization of volunteer soldiers). They engaged in a guerrilla war against the British troops and harassed those Italian civilians and colonial soldiers that had been dubbed "traitors" (for being favorable to cooperation with the British and Ethiopian forces).

Other groups were the "Tigray" fighters of Lieutenant Amedeo Guillet in Eritrea and the guerrilla group of Major Gobbi based at Dessie.[3] From the beginning of 1942 there was a resistance group in Eritrea, under the orders of Captain Aloisi, dedicated to help soldiers and civilians to escape from the British POW camps of Asmara and Decameré. In the first months of 1942 (because of the August 1940 Italian conquest of British Somaliland), there were also Italian guerrillas in British Somaliland.[4]

There were many Eritreans and Somalians (and even a few Ethiopians) who helped the Italian guerrillas. But their numbers dwindled after the Axis defeat at the battle of El Alamein in 1942.[5]

These guerrilla units (called Bande in Italian) were able to operate in a very extended area, from northern Eritrea to southern Somalia. Their armament was made up mainly of old "91" rifles, Beretta pistols, Fiat and Schwarzlose machine-guns, hand grenades, dynamite and even some small 65 mm cannons. But they always lacked large amounts of ammunition.[6]

From January 1942, many of these "Bande" started to operate under the coordinated orders of General Muratori (commander of the fascist "Milizia"). He was able to encourage a revolt against the British troops by the Azebo Oromo tribe in northern Ethiopia, who had a history of rebellion. The revolt was put down by the British and Ethiopian forces only at the beginning of 1943.[7]

In spring 1942, even Haile Selassie I (who stated in his autobiography that"the Italians have always been the bane of the Ethiopian people"[8]) started to open diplomatic channels of communication with the Italian insurgents, allegedly because he was impressed by the victory of Rommel in Tobruk (Libya).[9] Major Lucchetti declared (after the guerrilla war) that the Emperor, if the Axis had reached Ethiopia, was ready to accept an Italian protectorate with these conditions:

  1. a total amnesty for all the Ethiopians sentenced by Italy
  2. the presence of Ethiopians in all levels of the administration
  3. the participation of Emperor Haile Selassie in the future government of the protectorate.[10]

In the summer of 1942, the most successful units were those led by Colonel Calderari in Somalia, Colonel Di Marco in the Ogaden, Colonel Ruglio amongst the Danakil and "Blackshirt centurion" De Varda in Ethiopia. Their successful ambushes forced the British to dispatch troops, with airplanes and tanks, from Kenya and Sudan to the guerrilla-ridden territories of the former Italian East Africa.[11]

That summer, the British decided to put most of the Italian population of coastal Somalia into concentration camps, in order to avoid their possible contact with Japanese submarines.[12]

In October 1942, the Italian guerrillas started to lose steam because of Rommel's defeat at the Battle of El Alamein and the capture of Major Lucchetti (the head of the Fronte di Resistenza organization).

The guerrilla war continued until summer 1943, when the remaining Italian soldiers started to destroy their armaments and, in some cases, escaped successfully to Italy, like Lieutenant Amedeo Guillet,[13] (nicknamed "the Devil Commander" by the British) who reached Taranto on September 3, 1943. He requested from the Italian War Ministry an "aircraft loaded with equipment to be used for guerrilla attacks in Eritrea",[14] but the Italian armistice a few days later ended his plan.

One of the last Italian soldiers to surrender to the British forces was Corrado Turchetti, who wrote in his memoirs that some soldiers continued to ambush Allied troops until October 1943. The very last Italian officer who fought the guerrilla war was Colonel Nino Tramonti in Eritrea.[15]

Noteworthy guerrilla actions

Of the many Italians who performed guerrilla actions between December 1941 and September 1943, two are worthy of note:

List of the main Italian guerrilla officers

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rosselli, Alberto. Storie Segrete. Operazioni sconosciute o dimenticate della seconda guerra mondiale. pag. 31
  2. ↑ Cernuschi, Enrico. La resistenza sconosciuta in Africa Orientale. pag. 5
  3. ↑ Segre, Vittorio. La guerra privata del tenente Guillet. pag. 11
  4. ↑ Cernuschi, Enrico. La resistenza sconosciuta in Africa Orientale. pag. 18
  5. ↑ Bullotta, Antonia. La Somalia sotto due bandiere. pag. 35
  6. ↑ Rosselli, Alberto. Storie Segrete. Operazioni sconosciute o dimenticate della seconda guerra mondiale. pag. 66
  7. ↑ Rosselli, Alberto. Storie Segrete. Operazioni sconosciute o dimenticate della seconda guerra mondiale. pag. 82
  8. ↑ Emperor Haile Selassie I, My Life and Ethiopia's Progress, Vol. I, Chapter 25
  9. ↑ Sbiacchi, Alberto. Hailé Selassié and the Italians, 1941–43. pag. 48
  10. ↑ ASMAI/III, Archivio Segreto. Relazione Lucchetti.
  11. ↑ Cernuschi, Enrico. La resistenza sconosciuta in Africa Orientale. pag. 36
  12. ↑ Bullotta, Antonia. La Somalia sotto due bandiere. pag. 72
  13. ↑ Segre, Vittorio. La guerra privata del tenente Guillet Guillet. pag. 26
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ Cernuschi, Enrico. La resistenza sconosciuta in Africa Orientale. pag. 74
  16. ↑ Rosselli, Alberto. Storie Segrete. Operazioni sconosciute o dimenticate della seconda guerra mondiale. pag. 98
  17. ↑ Rosselli, Alberto. Storie Segrete. Operazioni sconosciute o dimenticate della seconda guerra mondiale. pag. 103

Bibliography

External links

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