The First Victory

by Andrew Stewart

  83.‘Daily Summary No. 441’, 17 November 1940, WO106/2139, TNA. An analysis of available intelligence the week after the battle concluded that this was the first time the Italians had used white regular troops during the campaign.

  84.Platt, The Campaign against Italian East Africa 1940/41, Lecture II, p. 10.

  85.M.O.1 (Records), ‘East Africa . . .’, n.d., WO106/2337B, TNA; Glover, An Improvised War, p. 62.

  86.M.O.1 (Records), ‘East Africa . . .’, n.d., WO106/2337B, TNA.

  87.War Office to C. in C. Middle East, 26 November 1940, WO193/880, TNA.

  88.O.A.G to Secretary of State for Colonies, 9 November 1940, CAB21/2605, TNA.

  89.Anthony Mockler, Haile Selassie’s War: The Italian–Ethiopian Campaign, 1935–1941 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 310–311.

  90.Eastwood to Hollis, 4 December 1940, CAB21/2605, TNA.

  91.Wavell to Dill, 17 December 1940, WO106/5127, TNA.

  92.Wavell to Cunningham, 28 December 1940, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  93.Wavell, ‘Camilla’, 15 December 1940, WO106/5127, TNA.

  94.Mannie Centner, ‘The 1st South African Light Tank Company: Personal reminiscences of the campaign in East Africa’, Military History Journal (Vol. 10, No. 3, June 1996); H.E. Sir Arnold W. Hodson, ‘An Account of the Part Played by the Gold Coast Brigade in the East African Campaign, August, 1940 to May, 1941: Part I, The Defence of Kenya’, Journal of the Royal African Society (Vol. XL, Oct. 1941), pp. 306–308.

  95.Pitt, ‘Adui Mbele (Enemy in Front)’, pp. 17–19, 89/1/1, IWM; Emile Coetzee, ‘El Wak or Bust’, The South African Military History Society, 14 October 2010; Birkby, It’s a Long Way to Addis, pp. 121–127.

  96.‘First Stories of Battle of El Wak’, Evening Standard (Nairobi), 25 December 1940; Deputy-Director Medical Services, East Africa, ‘Some Medical Aspects of the Campaign in Somaliland and Ethiopia, 1941’, n.d., WO222/24, TNA.

  97.Wavell to Cunningham, 19 December 1940, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  98.‘Comments by Major L.F. Turner (Union War Histories)’, n.d. (1950), CAB106/912, TNA.

  99.Cunningham to Wavell, 4 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  100.‘Abridged report on Operations at El Wak, 14–18 December 1940’, NAREP–EA6, NARS; Carel Birkby, Springbok Victory (Johannesburg: Libertas Publications, 1941), pp. 95–103; Gandar Dower, Abyssinian Patchwork, pp. 86–91; Gustav Bentz, ‘Fighting Springboks – C Company, Royal Natal Carbineers: From Premier Mine to Po Valley, 1939–1945’ (unpublished thesis, Stellenbosch University, September 2013), pp. 44–48.

  101.Wavell to Dill, 28 January 1941, WO106/2340, TNA.

  102.Cunningham to Wavell, 4 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  103.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 394.

  104.Viceroy’s Report, 16 December 1940, CAB146/374, TNA; ibid., Viceroy’s Report, 5 January 1941.

  105.Lewin, The Chief, p. 52.

  106.Donald Cowie, The Campaigns of Wavell: The Inside Story of the Empire in Action (London: Chapman & Hall, 1942), p. 84.

  107.Viceroy’s Report, 5 January 1941, CAB146/374, TNA.

  6: The Advance from Kenya

  1.Blewitt to Mama, 27 January 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM.

  2.Ibid., Blewitt to Buttons (his cousin, David Budworth), 22 December 1940.

  3.‘Maughamesque’, Time, 23 March 1941; Judith Woods, ‘Revealed: The White Mischief Murdered’, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2007.

  4.Lieutenant-Colonel H. Moyse-Bartlett, ‘The King’s African Rifles’, The Army Quarterly (Vol. LXXI, Oct. 1955), p. 73.

  5.Cunningham to Wavell, 25 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–107–4, NAM.

  6.‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  7.Major-General A.C. Duff, ‘“Q” in the East African Campaign, 1941: An Episode’, The Royal Engineers Journal (Vol. LVI, 1942), p. 269.

  8.Correlli Barnett, The Desert Generals (London: Cassell, 2001), p. 85; David Williamson, A Most Diplomatic General: The Life of General Lord Robertson of Oakridge (Trowbridge: Brassey’s, 1996), p. 37.

  9.Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell, Air War East Africa 1940–1941: The RAF versus the Italian Air Force (Barnsley: Pen and Sword Books, 2009), p. 93.

  10.Crosskill, The Two Thousand Mile War, p. 100.

  11.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 393.

  12.Pitt, ‘Adui Mbele (Enemy in Front)’, p. 21, 89/1/1, IWM.

  13.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Lanning, Box 7, No. 258, MSS. Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  14.Barton to Brigadier C.E.M. Richards, 21 August 1950, CAB106/912, TNA.

  15.Williamson, Diplomatic General, p. 35.

  16.‘The Memoirs of Brigadier L.F. Field CB CBE’, pp. 150–151, n.d., 10972, IWM.

  17.Ibid.

  18.M.O.1 (Records), ‘East Africa . . .’, n.d., WO106/2337B, TNA; Duff, ‘“Q” in the East African Campaign 1941: An Episode’, p. 270.

  19.Barnett, Desert Generals, p. 85.

  20.David Killingray, ‘The Idea of a British Imperial African Army’, Journal of African History (Vol. 20, No. 3, 1979), p. 422.

  21.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Ennals, ODRP.

  22.Lieutenant-Colonel John Filmer-Bennett (3 Nigerian Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force), Box 3, No. 139, MSS.Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  23.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Ennals, ODRP.

  24.Wavell to Dill, 2 February 1941, WO106/2340, TNA.

  25.Wavell to Cunningham, 10 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  26.‘Comments by General Cunningham – Chapter J’, 24 February 1950, CAB106/911, TNA. Despite the previous written letter, Cunningham later claimed that it was only now at this late stage that he was also told about the pressure being placed on the commander-in-chief by the leadership in London.

  27.Wavell to Cunningham, 10 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  28.Inter Service X by Cable, 8 February 1941, CAB121/540, TNA.

  29.Cunningham to Barton, 24 February 1950, CAB106/911, TNA.

  30.Cunningham to Wavell, 17 February 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  31.Pitt, ‘Adui Mbele (Enemy in Front)’, pp. 22–25, 89/1/1, IWM.

  32.Brown, The War of a Hundred Days, p. 132.

  33.Deputy-Director Medical Services, East Africa, ‘Some Medical Aspects of the Campaign in Somaliland and Ethiopia, 1941’, n.d., WO222/24, TNA.

  34.M.O.1 (Records), ‘East Africa . . .’, n.d., WO106/2337B, TNA.

  35.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 395.

  36.‘Annexure to The Fortnightly Review of the Military Situation, No. 16 – Review of Destruction of Enemy Forces in Italian Somaliland and Abyssinia by the East African Forces (from 15th January 1941 – 3rd July 1941)’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  37.Ibid., ‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d.

  38.The Abyssinian Campaigns, p. 71.

  39.Crosskill, The Two Thousand Mile War, p. 99; Glover, An Improvised War, pp. 100–104.

  40.‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  41.Eric S. Packham, Africa in War and Peace (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2004), p. 9; ‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Lanning, Box 7, No. 258, MSS. Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  42.Richards to Barton, 18 August 1950, CAB106/912, TNA; Cunningham to Wavell, 17 February 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7.

  43.Colonel A. Haywood, and Brigadier F.A.S. Clarke, The History of the Royal West African Frontier Force (Aldershot: Gale and Polden, 1964), pp. 335–336.

  44.H.E. Sir Arnold W. Hodson, ‘An Account of the Part Played by the Gold Coast Brigade in the East African Campaign, August, 1940 to May, 1941: Part II, The Invasion of Italian Somaliland’, Journal of t
he Royal African Society (Vol. XLI, Jan. 1942), pp. 14–16.

  45.Brown, The War of a Hundred Days, pp. 135–140; Neil Orpen, East African and Abyssinian Campaigns (South African Forces World War II – Vol. I) (Cape Town: Purnell and Sons, 1968), pp. 192–198.

  46.Glover, An Improvised War, p. 104.

  47.Barnett, The Desert Generals, p. 83; ‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  48.Cunningham to Wavell, 25 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  49.Gandar Dower, Abyssinian Patchwork, pp. 110–112.

  50.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Young, ODRP; ‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  51.C. in C. East Indies to Admiralty, 24 February 1941, WO106/2340, TNA.

  52.SO1 Kilindini to Admiralty, 22 February 1941, ADM223/681, TNA; Gandar Dower, Abyssinian Patchwork, pp. 111–114.

  53.Van den Bergh, ‘Ouma Se Stories’.

  54.Glover, An Improvised War, pp. 72–73; ‘Stirring Story of Fall of Mega to Rand Men’, The Star (Johannesburg), 28 February 1941.

  55.Blewitt to Mama, 13 February 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM.

  56.Ibid., Blewitt to Buttons, 13 April 1941.

  57.Pitt, ‘Adui Mbele (Enemy in Front)’, pp. 26–27, 89/1/1, IWM.

  58.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Ennals, Box 3, No. 139, MSS. Afr.s.1734, ODRP.

  59.Moyse-Bartlett to Acheson, 3 September 1954, CAB106/916, TNA.

  60.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Major John H. Davis (1 Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force), Box 2, No. 118, MSS. Afr.s.1734, ODRP; Hennessy, ‘The Nigerian Advance from Mogadiscio to Harrar’, pp. 65–66.

  61.Blewitt to family, 11 March 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM; ibid., Blewitt to Buttons, 13 April 1941.

  62.‘King’s African Rifles’, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Chronicle (Vol. LI, Jan.–Dec. 1949), p. 195.

  63.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Filmer-Bennett, ODRP.

  64.Duff, ‘“Q” in the East African Campaign, 1941: An Episode’, pp. 269–270.

  65.Ibid., p. 270.

  66.‘Mopping up!’, Illustrated (London), 10 May 1941.

  67.Churchill to Ismay, 15 February 1941, CHAR20/36/2, CAC; Chiefs of Staff Committee, COS(41) 56, 15 February 1941, CAB121/540, TNA.

  68.Churchill to Ismay, 15 February 1941, CHAR20/36/2, CAC.

  69.Ibid., War Office to C-in-C Middle East, 16 February 1941.

  70.Ibid., Ismay to Captain Nicholl, 20 February 1941.

  71.Chiefs of Staff Committee Meeting, COS(41) 116, 20 February 1941, CAB121/540, TNA; M.O.1 (Records), ‘East Africa . . .’, n.d., WO106/2337B, TNA; Wavell to Cunningham, 22 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  72.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Filmer-Bennett, ODRP.

  73.‘Comments by General Cunningham – Chapter K’, 24 February 1950, CAB106/911, TNA; Sutherland and Canwell, Air War East Africa 1940–1941, p. 127.

  74.Ibid., p. 100.

  75.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Young, ODRP.

  76.Alan Moorehead, ‘Speed! Broke the Italians’, Daily Express, 17 April 1941.

  77.Major M.N. Hennessy, ‘The Nigerian Advance from Mogadiscio to Harrar’, The Army Quarterly (Vol. LVII, No. 1, Oct. 1948), p. 65.

  78.‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  79.Blewitt to Buttons, 13 April 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM; ‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Davis, ODRP; Glover, An Improvised War, p. 128.

  80.Lieutenant-Colonel A.C. Martin, The Durban Light Infantry: Vol. II, 1935 to 1960 (Durban: The Headquarter Board of the Durban Light Infantry in co-operation with the Regimental Association, 1969), p. 20.

  81.‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  82.Wavell to Dill, 2 February 1941, WO106/2340, TNA.

  83.Report No. 605, February 1941, CAB146/374, TNA.

  84.Captain H. Hickling, ‘Capture of Berbera – Operation “Appearance”’, 17 March 1941, DEFE2/857, TNA.

  85.D.J.E. Collins, The Royal Indian Navy, 1935–45: Vol. I (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1964), p. 385.

  86.Vice Admiral Harold Hickling, Sailor at Sea (London: William Kimber, 1965), pp. 152–173.

  87.‘War Diary – Aden Striking Force’, February/April 1941, WO169/3235, TNA.

  88.Ibid., ‘Translation of an Italian document marked “secret”. . . . dated 2 March 1941’.

  89.‘War Diary – Aden Striking Force’, February/April 1941, WO169/3235, TNA.

  90.‘Report on Operation Appearance’, 26 March 1941, WO201/289, TNA; Second Lieutenant J.A. Hollands, ‘Intelligence Summary No.1’, 18 March 1941, WO169/3235, TNA.

  91.Commander M.L. Vernon, ‘Berbera, 16 March 1941’, 29 March 1941, DEFE2/857, TNA; Air Vice Marshal Reid to Wavell, 2 April 1941, WO201/289, TNA.

  92.‘R.A.F. Report on Operation Appearance’, 29 March 1941, WO201/289, TNA.

  93.‘War Diary – Aden Striking Force’, February/April 1941, WO169/3235, TNA.

  94.Glover, An Improvised War, pp. 128–129.

  95.‘Report on Interview with General C. de Simone’, n.d., WO201/289, TNA.

  96.‘Berbera Retaken’, The Economist, 22 March 1941.

  97.Haywood and Clarke, The History of the Royal West African Frontier Force, pp. 341–346.

  98.‘The Role of British Forces in Africa’, Filmer-Bennett, ODRP; Glover, An Improvised War, pp. 129–131; Keith Ford, From Addis to the Aosta Valley: A South African in the North African and Italian Campaigns 1940–1945 (Solihull: Helion & Co., 2012), pp. 54–55.

  99.Hennessy, ‘The Nigerian Advance from Mogadiscio to Harrar’, pp. 67–69.

  100.Gandar Dower, Abyssinian Patchwork, pp. 128–132.

  101.‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  102.Hennessy, ‘The Nigerian Advance from Mogadiscio to Harrar’, pp. 69–70.

  103.Minute by Cockram (High Commission, Pretoria), 1 September 1941, WO106/2351, TNA. Although described as the ‘West African Rifles’, the officer who provided the account, a Captain Greenspan, was almost certainly from the KAR.

  104.‘Italians Evacuate Rail City in Africa’, New York Times, 31 March 1941; ibid., ‘British Pushing on for Addis Ababa’, 4 April 1941.

  105.‘Notes on interview with . . . Cunningham, 7th November 1945’, CAB106/904, TNA.

  106.‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  107.Wavell, ‘Operations in East Africa, November 1940 to July 1941’, p. 3529.

  108.‘Obituary: General Sir Alan Cunningham’, The Times (London), 1 February 1983.

  109.Crosskill, The Two Thousand Mile War, p. 131.

  110.Wavell to Cunningham, 10 January 1941, Alan Cunningham Papers, 8303–104–7, NAM.

  111.‘Obituary: General Sir Alan Cunningham’, The Times (London), 1 February 1983.

  112.J.S., ‘The Rise and Fall of the Italian African Empire’, 21 January 1943, CAB106/404, TNA.

  113.Blewitt to family, 21 March 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM.

  114.Ibid., Blewitt to family, 2 April 1941; Koos Hamman to General (?), 30 March 1941, EA1/68–71, NARS.

  115.‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  116.Blewitt to Buttons, 13 April 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM.

  117.Ibid., Blewitt to family, 6 April 1941.

  118.Ibid., Blewitt to family, 24 March 1941.

  119.‘Report on Interview with General C. de Simone’, n.d., WO201/289, TNA.

  120.‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.

  121.‘Report on Interview with General C. de Simone’, n.d., WO201/289, TNA.

  122.‘Review of the East African Campaign . . .’, n.d., WO201/2683, TNA.r />
  123.Brigadier H. Charrington, ‘Notes on the Operations in Eritrea and Northern Abyssinia, Jan–Mar. 1941’, 10 June 1941, Harold Charrington Papers, 3/7, LHCMA.

  124.‘Daily Summary No. 554’, 3 March 1941, WO106/2139, TNA.

  125.Blewitt to family, 24 March 1941, Blewitt Papers, 08/88/3, IWM.

  7: Second Front: Striking from the Sudan

  1.Barker, Eritrea 1941, p. 73.

  2.Scobie to Barton, 20 January 1947, CAB106/906, TNA.

  3.Colonel B.C. Fletcher, ‘Lecture on Eritrean Campaign’, n.d., CAB106/921, TNA.

  4.Antony Brett-James, Ball of Fire: The Fifth Indian Division in the Second World War (Aldershot: Gale and Polden, 1951), pp. 74, 76.

  5.Steven Morewood, The British Defence of Egypt, 1935–1940: Conflict and Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean (London: Frank Cass, 2005), pp. 198–199. In May 1940 Captain Lorenzo Muiesan personally supervised the loading of the SS Umbria in the ports of Genoa, Leghorn and Naples with 360,000 bombs, 60 boxes of detonators and other stores totalling 8,600 tons. On 3 June 1940 the boat arrived at Port Said bound for Massawa. Although expected to enter the war any day, Italy was still technically neutral and the War Cabinet in London overruled the local authorities in Cairo who wanted to halt its movement. Having been allowed to continue, the Umbria was shadowed by HMS Grimsby and, on 9 June, when close to Port Sudan, it was finally forced to anchor close inshore. The following morning, despite a party of Royal Navy seamen being onboard, Captain Muiesan heard via his radio that war had been declared and succeeded in scuttling his ship.

  6.Barker, Eritrea 1941, p. 117.

  7.Platt, The Campaign against Italian East Africa 1940/41, Lecture II, p. 16.

  8.Ibid.

  9.Ibid.

  10.‘Administrative Account and Lessons of the Eritrean Campaign, June 1940–May 1941’ (Brigadier C. Surtees and Lieutenant-Colonel G. Staymer), n.d., NAREP EA3, NARS.

  11.General Sir Mosley Mayne to Barton, 4 April 1945, CAB106/903, TNA; Mayne to Colonel H.B. Latham, 8 February 1946, CAB106/905, TNA.

  12.Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East: Vol. I, p. 171; Platt, The Campaign against Italian East Africa 1940/41, Lecture II, p. 4.

  13.Brett-James, Ball of Fire, pp. 18–19; Henry Maule, Spearhead General: The Epic Story of General Sir Frank Messervy and his Men in Eritrea, North Africa and Burma (London: Odhams Press, 1961), pp. 30–45.