The First Victory

by Andrew Stewart

  90.Ibid., Bishop to Barton, 3 November 1949.

  91.‘Draft Notes on Administrative Aspect – Additions resulting from Brigadier Martin’s notes’, n.d., CAB106/910, TNA.

  92.‘Raids and Border Incidents on the Borders of Kenya’, July 1958, p. 24, DC/150/2/5/4, KNADS.

  93.Dickinson, ‘East Africa Force Report’, 31 December 1939, p. 11, WO106/2335, TNA.

  94.Glover, An Improvised War, p. 16.

  95.Ibid., p. 17.

  96.Dominions Office (London) to High Commissioner (Pretoria), 27 April 1940, DO35/1008, TNA; ibid., minute by Pritchard, 2 May 1940.

  97.‘Italy in Arms’, Time, 24 June 1940.

  98.John Gooch, ‘Mussolini’s Strategy, 1939–1943’, in Ferris and Mawdsley (eds), The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Vol. I, pp. 157–158.

  99.Marc’ Antonio Bragadin, The Italian Navy in World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1957), p. 6.

  100.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 28; J.R.M. Butler, Grand Strategy – Vol. II, September 1939–June 1941 (London: HMSO, 1957), p. 189.

  101.‘Daily Summary No. 255’, 15 May 1940, WO106/2139, TNA; ibid., ‘Weekly Summary No. 39’, 16 May 1940.

  102.Ibid., ‘Daily Summary, No. 259’, 19 May 1940; ‘Daily Summary, No. 262’, 22 May 1940.

  103.‘Conscription in Uganda’, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 22 May 1940.

  3: War Comes to East Africa

  1.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Lieutenant-Colonel Jack T. Ennals (3 Nigerian Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force), Box 3, No.139, MSS. Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  2.Bishop to Barton, 3 November 1949, CAB106/910, TNA.

  3.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Major Ernest C. Lanning (3 Gold Coast Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force), Box 7, No. 258, MSS.Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  4.Prior to the war the men had not worn boots, and even with this new piece of equipment it took a while to become accepted. Battalions from the KAR were often seen going on route marches with the troops carrying the boots hung around their necks. Tin helmets were only issued to them later when they went to Burma; ‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Lanning, ODRP.

  5.Bishop to Barton, 3 November 1949, CAB106/910, TNA; C.R.A.S. (?), ‘Obituary: Sir George Giffard’, The Times (London), 26 November 1964.

  6.‘The Memoirs of Brigadier L.F. Field CB CBE’ (‘That’s The Way It Was’), n.d., pp. 150–151, L.F. Field Papers, 10972, IWM.

  7.Victoria Schofield, Wavell: Soldier and Statesman (London: John Murray, 2007), pp. 139–140.

  8.Clark to Dominions Office, 20 March 1940, DO35/1008, TNA.

  9.Wavell to Cunningham, 22 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  10.Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Vol. II, Their Finest Hour (London: Cassell & Co., 1949), pp. 755–756.

  11.Schofield, Wavell: Soldier and Statesman, p. 139; High Commissioner (Pretoria) to Dominions Office, 17 April 1940, DO35/1008, TNA.

  12.Brooke-Popham to Air Vice Marshal McKean, 8 May 1940, Robert Brooke-Popham Papers, IV/5/11, LHCMA.

  13.Brooke-Popham to Street, 15 May 1940, IV/4/6, LHCMA.

  14.‘Italy in Arms’, Time, 24 June 1940.

  15.Crosskill, The Two Thousand Mile War, p. 64; A.J. Barker, Eritrea 1941 (London: Faber and Faber, 1957), p. 19.

  16.Alberto Sbacchi, ‘Haile Selassie and the Italians 1941–1943’, African Studies Review (Vol. 22, No. 1, Apr. 1979), p. 26.

  17.Cited in Kirk, The Middle East in the War, p. 42.

  18.Barker, Eritrea 1941, p. 206.

  19.Woollcombe, The Campaigns of Wavell 1939–1943, p. 12.

  20.John Connell, Wavell: Scholar and Solider (London: Collins, 1964), p. 234.

  21.Melland to Friedrichsen, 26 July 1950, CAB146/374, TNA.

  22.This constituted just slightly in excess of 3 per cent of the total available manpower, the vast majority of which was at this point gathering for the anticipated defence of Britain; Sadkovich, ‘Understanding Defeat: Reappraising Italy’s Role in World War II’, in Smart (ed.), The Second World War, p. 389; ‘Strength of Troops (fighting) – British and British Empire’, 1 July 1940, Lord Nuffield Papers, G510/18, NC.

  23.Captain S.W. Roskill, The Navy at War 1939–1945 (London: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1960), p. 102.

  24.Jackson, The North African Campaign 1940–43, pp. 28–29.

  25.‘America Begins To Act’, The Times (London), 12 June 1940.

  26.Diary, 23 March 1940, in Malcolm Muggeridge (ed.), Ciano’s Diary, 1939–1943 (London: William Heinemann, 1947), p. 225.

  27.D.B.H. Grobbelaar, ‘Report on Interview with German Consul to Italian East Africa – Dr Strohm – at Hargeisha – British Somaliland on or about 15 Apr 41’, n.d., NAREP EA1, NARS.

  28.The rarely consulted but excellent German general ‘history’ of the Second World War can offer only two dedicated paragraphs across its several volumes which give a difficult-to-recognise view of what actually happened: Gerhard Schreiber et al., Germany and the Second World War: Vol. III, The Mediterranean, South-East Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941 – From Italy’s Declaration of Non-Belligerence to the Entry of the United States into the War (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 651, 653.

  29.‘Italy in Arms’, Time, 24 June 1940.

  30.‘Directive on the Kenya front – Viceroy to General Gazzera’, 27 July 1940, CAB146/374, TNA. Captured Italian documents were translated by Jean Hamilton in May 1950 as part of her work for General Playfair and the British official history; Melland to Friedrichsen, 18 September 1956, CAB146/374, TNA.

  31.James Ambrose Brown, The War of a Hundred Days: Springboks in Somalia and Abyssinia 1940–41 (Johannesburg: Ashanti Publishing, 1990), p. 54.

  32.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 448.

  33.Andrew Stewart, ‘The Battle for Britain’, History Today (Vol. 65, Issue 6, June 2015), pp. 19–26.

  34.Diary, Monday 10 June 1940, David Dilks (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 1938–1945 (London: Cassell & Co., 1971), p. 296.

  35.Glover, An Improvised War, p. 1.

  36.Major-General H. Rowan-Robinson, ‘The Italian Failures’, The Journal of the Royal United Service Institution (Vol. LXXXVI, No. 542, May 1941), pp. 304–330.

  37.Colonel R.H. Beadon, ‘Italy as an Ally’, The Journal of the Royal United Service Institution (Vol. LXXXV, No. 539, Aug. 1940), pp. 491–492.

  38.Trench, Men Who Ruled Kenya, p. 156.

  39.‘An Account of Operations at Moyale’, n.d., Conf. 3620, JSCSC.

  40.‘Daily Intelligence Summary No. 4’, 14 June 1940, Military Intelligence Reports 1940–1941, DC/MBT/3/4/2, KNADS.

  41.‘Latest Communiques’, Daily Express, 14 June 1940.

  42.‘East African Force Headquarters, Daily Intelligence Summary No. 7’, 18/19 June 1940, Military Intelligence Reports 1940–1941, DC/MBT/3/4/2, KNADS; ‘Raids and Border Incidents on the Borders of Kenya’, July 1958, p. 24, DC/150/2/5/4, KNADS.

  43.Brigadier C.C. Fowkes, ‘2nd East African Infantry Brigade – Some Notes on Preliminary Operations’, 20 June 1940, WO276/490, TNA.

  44.‘Daily Summary No. 371’, 8 September 1940, WO106/2139, TNA.

  45.MEIS 59, 18 July 1940, CAB106/954, TNA; EA 8, 11 July 1940, TNA.

  46.‘An Account of Operations at Moyale’, n.d., JSCSC.

  47.‘Moyale’s Union Jack is Still Flying . . .’, Daily Express, 15 July 1940; ‘Crept Past Enemy in Socks’, Daily Mirror, 3 September 1940.

  48.‘Diary, 1KAR (Dobel)’, 15 July 1940, CAB106/954, TNA.

  49.‘Comments by Major-General C.C. Fowkes – Chapter H’, n.d. (1950), CAB106/912, TNA.

  50.Ibid.

  51.Trench, Men Who Ruled Kenya, pp. 154–155.

  52.‘British Order of Battle and Locations, 10 June 1940’, n.d., CAB106/903, TNA.

  53.Ibid., Colonel A.D.G. Orr to Barton, 6 October 1944.

  54.Ron Laurie to John Orlebar, 6 M
arch 1984, John Orlebar Papers, 740/9/8-9, DSA.

  55.‘Daily Summary No. 309’, 8 July 1940, WO106/2139, TNA.

  56.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 392.

  57.‘Daily Summary No. 306’, 5 July 1940, WO106/2139, TNA; Sir Arthur Longmore, From Sea to Sky 1910–1945 (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1946), p. 271; ‘Gash Area’, n.d., CAB106/903, TNA.

  58.Gillan, ‘The Importance of the Sudan’, The Listener, 28 November 1940.

  59.Peter Upcher, ‘As different as chalk from cheese’, n.d., Orlebar Papers, 740/8/50-53, DSA.

  60.‘Weekly Commentary No. 47’, 11 July 1940, WO106/2139, TNA.

  61.Ibid., ‘Weekly Commentary No. 48’, 18 July 1940.

  62.H.B. Kittermaster, ‘British Somaliland’, Journal of the Royal African Society (Vol. 27, No. 108, July 1928), pp. 329–337; John Parkinson, ‘Customs in Western British Somaliland’, Journal of the Royal African Society (Vol. 35, No. 140, July 1936), pp. 241–245; Brock Millman, British Somaliland: An Administrative History, 1920–1960 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 109–116.

  63.Donald Cowie, War for Britain: The Inner Story of the Empire in Action: First Part, September 1939 to September 1940 (London: Chapman & Hall, 1941), p. 196.

  64.Cowie, War for Britain, p. 196.

  65.Winston Churchill (Home Office) to King Edward VII, 28 April 1910, Chartwell Papers, CHAR12/15/68–69, CAC.

  66.Douglas Jardine, The Mad Mullah of Somaliland (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1923), pp. 156–196.

  67.Charles Lucas, The Empire at War: Vol. IV, Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), pp. 565–568.

  68.Major-General A.C. Duff, ‘“Q” in the East African Campaign, 1941: A Second Episode’, The Royal Engineers Journal (Vol. LVII, 1943), p. 163.

  69.‘Notes for GOC-in-C for his Visit . . .’, n.d. (January 1940?), WO201/250, TNA; Captain G.C. Foster, ‘British Somaliland’, n.d., pp. 66–67, CAB44/160, TNA.

  70.Minute by A.J. Dawe, 21 November 1940, CO535/136/24, TNA.

  71.‘War Committee, Memorandum by the DCIGS – Defence and Administration of British Somaliland’, 30 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  72.‘Notes for GOC-in-C for his Visit . . .’, n.d. (January 1940?), WO201/250, TNA; Glenday to Smith, 16 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  73.Ibid., Lawrence to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 13 October 1938.

  74.Ibid.

  75.Thurburn to DQMG, 17 June 1940, WO201/263, TNA.

  76.‘Proposed Amendment to Secret Supplement to the Somaliland Protectorate Defence Scheme 1939’, 5 August 1939, WO201/249, TNA.

  77.Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Chater to Brigadier A.F. Smith, 28 September 1939, WO201/247, TNA.

  78.Ibid.

  79.‘Notes on the Employment of “B” Company, Somaliland Camel Corps’, n.d., CAB106/905, TNA; ibid., Nixon to Barton, 6 November 1946.

  80.Chater to Smith, 28 September 1939, WO201/247, TNA.

  81.GOC-in-C to DCIGS, 18 November 1939, WO201/250, TNA.

  82.Ibid., ‘Notes for GOC-in-C for his Visit to British Somaliland and Jibuti’, n.d. (January 1940?).

  83.‘War Committee, Memorandum by the DCIGS . . .’, 30 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  84.H.L. d’A. Hopkinson (War Cabinet Offices) to F.O. Lee (Colonial Office), 13 October 1939, CAB21/2605, TNA; ‘Conversation with D.M.O.’, 28 December 1939, WO201/256, TNA; ‘Notes for GOC-in-C for his Visit . . .’, n.d. (January 1940?), WO201/250, TNA.

  85.‘Minutes of a Meeting held at Sheikh, Somaliland Protectorate, on Tuesday 9th January 1940 to discuss the new defence policy of the protectorate’, n.d., WO201/250, TNA; Wavell to Dill, 15 January 1940, WO201/2212, TNA; ‘War Committee, Memorandum by the DCIGS . . .’, 30 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA; Harold E. Raugh Jr., Wavell in the Middle East, 1939–1941: A Study in Generalship (London: Brassey’s, 1993), p. 76.

  86.‘Somaliland Camel Corps’, 25 January 1940, WO201/2268, TNA.

  87.‘Note on a conversation with Col. Chater’, 24 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  88.Ibid., Chater to Smith, 10 March 1940; Chater to Smith, 21 March 1940. A review in April discovered that the ammunition was in fact not designed for the single loader rifles and a query went to the Cairo offices of Imperial Chemical Industries to see if they would be able to produce a replacement; General Headquarters to Imperial Chemical House, 6 April 1940.

  89.John Kent, ‘Funga Safari’, 79/27/1, IWM.

  90.Eric Moore Ritchie, ‘The Land of Lost Tribes’, The Listener, 15 August 1940, pp. 221–222.

  91.‘Notes of a Tour to British Somaliland and French Somaliland by GOC-in-C Middle East, from 8th to 13th January 1940’, 20 January 1940, WO201/250, TNA; Wavell to Legentilhomme, 25 January 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  92.‘Notes of a Tour . . .’, 20 January 1940, WO201/250, TNA.

  93.Ibid., MEIC to General Headquarters, Middle East, 5 January 1940.

  94.‘British Somaliland – A/Q Questions’, 4 April 1940, WO201/2212, TNA.

  95.Wavell to Major-General F.G. Beaumont-Nesbitt (Director of Military Intelligence), 22 January 1940, WO201/250, TNA.

  96.Chater to Smith, 10 March 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  97.‘MEIC – British Somaliland’, 10/11 January 1940, WO201/250, TNA.

  98.‘Notes for Middle East Liaison Officer – General Wavell’s Proposals as to Somaliland’, 23 February 1940, WO201/256, TNA.

  99.Ibid., Glenday to Colonial Office, 18 March 1940.

  100.Ibid., Chater to Arthur Smith, 21 March 1940.

  101.Ibid., Chater to Smith, 10 December 1939.

  102.‘Extract from report on Visit by Colonel J.K. Edwards to Aden, British and French Somaliland’, n.d. (28 May 1940?), WO201/257, TNA. He was subsequently promoted to major-general and retired in 1947.

  103.Ibid.

  104.Glenday to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 22 May 1940, CAB21/2605, TNA.

  105.Legentilhomme to AVM Reid, 31 May 1940, WO201/255, TNA.

  106.‘War Cabinet – Plans to Meet a Certain Eventuality: French Colonial Empire and Mandated Territories’, WP(4) 207, 15 June 1940, p. 5, CAB66/8, TNA.

  107.Crosskill, The Two Thousand Mile War, p. 64.

  108.Wavell to Chater, 8 July 1940, WO201/257, TNA.

  109.‘Notes on Visit of Lieut.-Colonel Price to Somaliland 10–12 July, 1940’, 16 July 1940, WO201/259, TNA.

  110.‘War Cabinet – Implications of French Hostility’, WP(40) 256, 16 July 1940, pp. 3, 12, CAB66/9, TNA.

  4: Imperial Defeat: The Surrender of British Somaliland

  1.‘Italy’s Columns Invade British Somaliland’, The War Illustrated (London), 16 August 1940.

  2.‘Southern Theatre: War Without Water’, Time, 19 August 1940.

  3.Margery Perham, ‘The Somaliland Campaign’, The Times (London), 19 August 1940.

  4.‘The British in Somaliland’, Manchester Guardian, 12 August 1940; Moyse-Bartlett, The King’s African Rifles, pp. 419–433.

  5.Crosskill, The TwoThousand Mile War, p. 71.

  6.‘Notes on the Employment of “B” Company . . .’, n.d., CAB106/905, TNA; ibid., Nixon to Barton, 6 November 1946; ‘800 Britons Hold Up 10,000 Italian Troops’, Daily Mirror (London), 28 November 1940; Moyse-Bartlett, The King’s African Rifles, pp. 494–503.

  7.‘Extract from report on Visit by Colonel J.K. Edwards . . .’, n.d. (28 May 1940?), WO201/257, TNA.

  8.Ibid., Chater to Smith, 1 June 1940.

  9.‘Notes on the Employment of “B” Company . . .’, n.d., CAB106/905, TNA; ibid., Nixon to Barton, 6 November 1946.

  10.‘Notes of a Tour to British Somaliland and French Somaliland . . .’, 20 January 1940, WO201/250, TNA.

  11.‘Artillery Appreciation on the Defensive Position at Tug Argan Gap’, 24 March 1940, WO201/251, TNA.

  12.Within this total there were fewer than 200 officers; ‘Fighting strength by cable from Somaliland’, 5 August 1940, WO201/270, TNA.

  13.‘Strength of Troops (fighting) – British and Britis
h Empire’, 1 July 1940, Nuffield Papers, G510/18, NC.

  14.Major John Birkbeck to Barton, 9 June 1947, CAB106/906, TNA.

  15.Ibid. Edwards ordered the work to begin at once. He left an experienced engineer with Chater to provide assistance although he also believed that additional skilled men were needed.

  16.‘Notes on conversation between Brigadier Chater and Governor British Somaliland’, 20 July 1940, WO201/259, TNA.

  17.‘The Capture of British Somaliland’, May 1950, Enemy Documents Section, p. 26, CAB146/160, TNA.

  18.‘Translation – Notes on Italian Conquest of British Somaliland’, n.d., CAB106/919, TNA.

  19.‘Daily Summary No. 337’, 5 August 1940, WO106/2139, TNA.

  20.‘Situation Report No. 3776’, Somaliforce, 6 August 1940, WO201/270, TNA.

  21.‘The Italian Invasion of British Somaliland, August 1940’, 23 September 1940, WO106/2336, TNA.

  22.Ibid.; ‘Italian Advance in Somaliland’, The Times (London), 8 August 1940.

  23.‘Obstacles before the Italians’, Manchester Guardian, 7 August 1940; ‘Invasion of British Somaliland’, Manchester Guardian, 7 August 1940; ‘Italy Invades British Somaliland’, The Times (London), 7 August 1940.

  24.‘African War Zones – The Somaliland Scene’, The Times (London), 8 August 1940; Brigadier-General John Charteris, ‘Difficult Campaigning Conditions’, Manchester Guardian, 8 August 1940.

  25.‘The Red Sea Approaches’, Manchester Guardian, 9 August 1940.

  26.‘Situation Report No. 58’, Somaliforce, 7 August 1940, WO201/270, TNA.

  27.Ibid., Air HQ Aden to Air Ministry London, 5 August 1940.

  28.Ibid., Air Headquarters, Aden to Air Ministry, London, 9 August 1940.

  29.Ibid., ‘Situation Report No. 3852’, Somaliforce, 8 August 1940.

  30.Ibid., ‘Situation Report, No. 3878’, Somalilforce, 10 August 1940; Somaliforce to Mideast, No. 3960, 13 August 1940.

  31.Ibid., Somaliforce to Mideast, No. 3983, 14 August 1940.

  32.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 178.

  33.HMAS Hobart to SNO Red Sea, 8 August 1940, MP1185/8, 1810/2/234, NAA.

  34.‘Italians Move On Again’, Manchester Guardian, 10 August 1940; ‘Italians Advance in Somaliland’, The Times (London), 10 August 1940.