9781422279052

The War in East Africa and the Middle East obstacle was the Juba river, and here Cunningham found a weak spot in de Simone’s defenses, pushing his forces across in two places as de Simone’s forces began to disintegrate. On February 22 Jelib was cleared and the southern door to Abyssinia was open. Cunningham’s forces drove on, reaching Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland, on February 25, and entering Addis Ababa on April 6 after a triumphant drive. Cunningham continued north to meet Platt, on his way down from Asmara. Wingate’s Gideon Force came east from Khartoum, making for Jebel Belaia, its supply train including 15,000 camels. Haile Selassie accompanied Wingate, and many local chiefs joined their emperor as they marched. The Italians thought the Gideon Force was larger than it was, and withdrew to Burye and Debra Markos on the road to Addis Ababa. The Gideon Force advanced to Burye, where a force of 7,000 under Colonel Natale fell to Wingate’s 450. Supported by the Royal Air Force, Wingate’s raids combined audacity, endurance, and deception. Now demoralized, the Italians withdrew, losing another 2,000 men in the process, to Debra Markos, where Nasi was in command. Wingate continued his well planned raids, and Abyssinian deserters joined the Gideon Force at the rate of over 100 per day. On April 1 the Italians

surrendered with 7,000 men on May 16. Longer resistance was put up by Nasi, who eventually surrendered in the Gondar area on November 27. Other British forces had crossed from Aden on March 16 to retake Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland, which had earlier been taken by the Italians. These forces cleared the Italians out of British Somaliland before linking with Cunningham’s forces. At the end of March 1941 the pro- British regent of Iraq was toppled by the Axis-supported prime minister, Rashid Ali, backed by an army mutiny . British- Iraqi relations deteriorated rapidly and when the British sent elements of the Indian 10th Division to Iraq, Rashid Ali decided to challenge the British, choosing to attack the RAF training school at Habbaniyah, on the Euphrates river west of Baghdad, and Iraqi troops moved to positions overlooking the airfield on April 29. The British were worried as they had important oil interests in the area, and feared that the rebels might sever the oil pipeline between the Kirkuk oilfields and Haifa on the coast of Palestine. On April 30 the Iraqis demanded the end of flying operations from Habbaniyah and that the British personnel should be restricted to the base. The RAF commander, Air Vice-

withdrew up the valley of the Blue Nile to join other forces at Dessie. Italian rule in Abyssinia had now collapsed. The Duke of Aosta left Addis Ababa to Haile Selassie and sought refuge in the Amba Alagi heights. Platt and Cunningham arrived in the foothills and, caught between these forces, Aosta had little chance as his forces were also short of water and ammunition and subject to heavy air bombardment. He

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