The Abyssinian Campaigns

[carebear]

The Abyssinian Campaign(s)

Got a new military history monkey on my back.

What are some good books on this pre-WWII Italian adventure, including if possible the first efforts in the 1890's.

I'm trying to build a context for understanding Mussolini and the Italian Army's later efforts in WWII.

Also, to fill out my knowledge of Haile Selassie.

Without, of course, exerting any real effort myself.

 

[Corto]

I actually just taught my class about this episode last week.

I'd start with the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssinia_Crisis

This also provided me with a fair bit of information: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/abyssinia.htm

Amazon seems to hype this book: The British Defense of Egypt: Conflict and Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranian (Cass Series--Military History and Policy,) by Steve Moorewood, but I haven't read it.

Let me know if it's worthwhile.

 

[Corto]

What are some good books on this pre-WWII Italian adventure, including if possible the first efforts in the 1890's.

Actually, the last Flashman book (Flashman on the March) covers this episode. I've only read about half of it...It seems that GM Fraser was a bit more interested in aulde Flashy's sexcapades than the other stuff in this one- but there's plenty of history in there, including a cool Royal Navy small-boat slave-interdiction episode (if you're into maritime stuff). It's a decent intro, though not the best Flashman novel.

 

[Fletch]

I can haz mouseolini?

 

[Corto]

I can haz mouseolini?

That's funny...

 

[dhermann1]

Ahhh . . . is a Abyssinian kitty! Berry coot!
BTW, I would imagine Libya is just as much a part of the story as Abysinnia.

 

[Story]

Round 1: Il Duce vs. the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

http://www.amazon.com/Haile-Selassies-War-Anthony-Mockler/dp/1566564735

http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-Clown-Dave-Duncan/dp/0759239584

Round 2: war on a shoestring budget.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Référe...ssinian_Campaign_of_1940-1941_(Michael_Glover)
Hard to find - grab it if you see it.

http://www.africanabooks.com/bookdetails.asp?book=13225
Also hard to find.

I have all four of those books. Short of hitting primary sources, those will do you just fine.

Also, if you can get Slim's biography he's Monday Morning Quarterbacking about Gallabat is worth reading as well.

 

[carebear]

Round 1: Il Duce vs. the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

http://www.amazon.com/Haile-Selassies-War-Anthony-Mockler/dp/1566564735

http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-Clown-Dave-Duncan/dp/0759239584

Round 2: war on a shoestring budget.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Référe...ssinian_Campaign_of_1940-1941_(Michael_Glover)
Hard to find - grab it if you see it.

http://www.africanabooks.com/bookdetails.asp?book=13225
Also hard to find.

I have all four of those books. Short of hitting primary sources, those will do you just fine.

Also, if you can get Slim's biography he's Monday Morning Quarterbacking about Gallabat is worth reading as well.

This is why I love this forum and its members.

When the zombies rise, you can join my compound.

 

[Haversack]

I don't have any specific books to recommend reading but I would suggest that if Italian involvement in East Africa is of interest, then you could do far worse than to read about the history of Eritrea. This stretch of land on the west coast of the Red Sea became an Italian colony in 1889. This was the result of the First Italian-Abyssian War in which Italy tried to conquer Abyssinia/Ethiopia. The Italians failed for pretty much the same reason the Muslim Arabs failed to invade and convert Ethiopia in the 7th Century. The terrain. Within 50 miles, the land rises from sea level on the Red Sea Coast to a plateau at nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, (and goes up there the further inland you go.) The Italians were able to get up onto the plateau and a little further inland but were stopped and held by the Abyssinians.

Under Mussolini, Eritrea's capital, Asmara, became a showcase for Italian enterprise and several thousand Italian colonists moved there. Hence the city today is full of Art Deco architecture that was too avant garde for Europe, Italian food is common, and Italian is still understood by many older people. Eritrea along with Italian Somaliland were the springboards for Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in the mid 1930s.

The Italian occupation of Ethiopia only lasted 5 years when all of Italy's East African colonies were invaded and occupied by British Commonwealth forces. (One book I can recommend about the late stages of this campaign and the removal of the Italian settlers is _Tales From the King's African Rifles_ by John Nunneley.) Post-war Eritrea was administered by the UK under a UN mandate, federated with Ethiopia in 1952 and unilateraly annexed by Ethiopia in 1961. This sparked the 30 year war that ended in 1991 with Eritrea's independence.

Apologies for the brain-dump. Eritrea and Asmara have become something of a curiousity-itch since I began reading up on the Axum Empire of the First Millenium - a Christian kingdom that ruled what is now Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Yemen. It was the ancestor of the Kingdom/Empire of Abyssinia/Ethiopia. Because it lost its entire coastline to Muslim Arab expansion in the 7th C., Ethiopia became cut off from the rest of the Christian world until the 19th C. and set the stage for Italy to take and create Eritrea in the 19th and 20th Cs.

Haversack.

 

[Story]

(One book I can recommend about the late stages of this campaign and the removal of the Italian settlers is _Tales From the King's African Rifles_ by John Nunneley.) .

That's on my list to get, thanks for spurring me to go find it - when the snow stops.

Found this while noodling around -

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/h_eritrea_1941

Note: the battle at Keren foreshadowed the Cassino campaign.

 

[Harp]

When the zombies rise, you can join my compound.

lol lol lol lol lol That was good...had a tough day at the office and needed a laugh...

 

[Corto]

That's on my list to get, thanks for spurring me to go find it - when the snow stops.

There's a $5 used copy left on Amazon...

 

[Story]

Another one on the shelf I forgot about

Del Boca's Ethiopian War 1935 1941 gives the Italian perspective.

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/2141646/used/The Ethiopian War, 1935-1941

I've flipped through this one, lotsa photos (great for uniforms, etc) and summarizes the first year of fighting covered in the texts listed above -

The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-1936
by Dr. David Nicolle, Raffaele Ruggeri

http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch...opian+War+1935+1936&cm_re=works*listing*title

When the zombies rise, you can join my compound.

I don't work cheap.

 

[Story]

Tales of valiant African soldiers who fought in the World Wars
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/844062/-/pwepl9z/-/

 

[de Stokesay]

Wilbur Smith wrote a novel about the initial Italian invasion in the mid-late thirties. It's called Cry Wolf.

Smith writes a terrific story, and while a bit more localised I would heartily recommend this book anyway. What follows has been shamelessly lifted from the site wilbursmithbooks.com.

"Wilbur Smith turns to the mountains and deserts of Ethiopia as the setting. The date – that catastrophic winter of 1935-6, when the wolf of Rome, the armies of Italy, threatened to annihilate the almost defenceless Ethiopian people.

Jake Barton, a tough, hard-punching engineer from Texas, and Gareth Swales, a stylish old-Etonlan gun-runner down on his luck, make a lucrative arms deal with an Ethiopian prince, and dare to challenge the international blockade on land and sea to deliver a consignment of ancient and decrepit armoured cars to his beleaguered countrymen.

Part of the deal also calls for them to take, along with the armour, a beautiful but fiery young American woman journalist, who has espoused the Ethiopian cause. The three of them, Jake, Gareth and Vicky, find themselves swept irresistibly from a daring adventure Into a violent confrontation with death among the high mountains of Ethiopia."

Great book, great read.

de Stokesay

 

[Widebrim]

Del Boca's Ethiopian War 1935 1941 gives the Italian perspective.

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/2141646/used/The Ethiopian War, 1935-1941

I've flipped through this one, lotsa photos (great for uniforms, etc) and summarizes the first year of fighting covered in the texts listed above -

The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-1936
by Dr. David Nicolle, Raffaele Ruggeri

http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch...opian+War+1935+1936&cm_re=works*listing*title

The above's an old post, but thanks for the reference! I've got the Alibris books on Italy in WWII, but not this work. Will look for it.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There's also a book called The Rape of Ethiopia 1936 by A.J. Barker that was published in the early '70s as part of the Ballantine series on World War II. You can probably find a copy on eBay, ABE or Alibris.

 

[Widebrim]

Under Mussolini, Eritrea's capital, Asmara, became a showcase for Italian enterprise and several thousand Italian colonists moved there. Hence the city today is full of Art Deco architecture that was too avant garde for Europe, Italian food is common, and Italian is still understood by many older people. Eritrea along with Italian Somaliland were the springboards for Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in the mid 1930s.

Haversack.

Yes, the study of Eritrea in the scope of Italian colonialism is very rewarding. As you say, Asmara is a showcase of Italian Art Deco, and very much still a Mediterranean city.

Here in Los Angeles, we have quite a few immigrants from East Africa, and because of their unique (and often striking) features, it is usually easy to detect them. Many work (for some reason) as parking attendants, and more than once have I surprised one by asking if s/he were Eritrean/Somali/Ethiopian. Many tell me that their mothers make a great plate of pasta. Regarding language, recently an Eritrean lady around 60 heard me say a few words in Italian to a woman from (I believe) Genoa, and the former began to speak to me in said language. I wanted so much to speak with her mother, who was regally dressed in traditional clothing, and looked to be about 90 years old, and ask what she remembered about the Italian Occupation, but it didn't seem the right thing to do at a Christmas party...

 

[Widebrim]

Ahhh . . . is a Abyssinian kitty! Berry coot!
BTW, I would imagine Libya is just as much a part of the story as Abysinnia.

Libia is also a fascinating study, not to be toofftopic:. As with the French and Spaniards in Morocco, the Italians spent years putting down local resistance, and weren't really able to make headway in the colony until the early '30s.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Libia is also a fascinating study, not to be toofftopic:. As with the French and Spaniards in Morocco, the Italians spent years putting down local resistance, and weren't really able to make headway in the colony until the early '30s.

Even though this post probably belongs in the Moving Picture section, there's a very good movie (and the only one as far as I know) about the 1929-31 Senussi Rebellion in Libya called Lion of the Desert (1981). The star-studded cast included Anthony Quinn (Omar Mukhtar who led the rebellion), Oliver Reed (Gen. Rodolfo Graziani), Rod Steiger (Mussolini), Irene Pappas and John Gielgud. Even though I don't know his name the real scene-stealer in the movie is the actor who plays the rabid Blackshirt commander in Libya (who later gets killed).

The battle scenes are quite breathtaking -- particularly the ones featuring replicas of the Fiat 3000 tanks (an Italian copy of the French FT-17 from WWI). One of my favorite scenes in the movie is where Graziani arrives in Libya. At a ball held in his honor the elegantly-clad guests welcome Graziani with a rousing chorus of the Fascist hymn Jovenezza.lol

Being that the movie was financed by the Man of a Thousand Spellings, Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi, there's a little Arab boy (presumably symbolizing the young Qaddafi who actually wasn't born until 1942!) that appears throughout the movie bearing witness to the epic struggle against the Italian colonializers.