The Grand Alliance (20 page)

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dice to other needs. The time to strike depends, of
course, upon events in Syria, which may lead to a
breach with Vichy, or alternatively to co-operation
between the French army in Syria and the Free French.

Either way the seizure of Jibuti might be fitted in.

Meanwhile the blockade should be maintained with the
utmost strictness, and any preparatory concentrations
on the Jibuti frontier which you think helpful may be
made. In this way actual fighting may be avoided, as is
greatly to be desired. The moment for action can only
be fixed in consultation with us.

Meanwhile the campaign in Abyssinia had progressed.

Keren resisted obstinately. The flanks of this position could not be turned; only direct frontal attack was possible. To build up his resources for this effort and to deploy both his divisions Platt had but a single road, which lay in full view of the enemy. Railhead was a hundred and fifty miles away, so that not only did his preparations take several weeks, but surprise was out of the question. The air forces, including those from Aden, now played an invaluable part.

In the first phase of this campaign Italian pilots had shown considerable initiative, but after the arrival of Hurricanes for the South African fighter squadron superiority was soon achieved. During the preparatory stages of the final Keren battle the Italian army was constantly harried on the ground and in the air. Soon the enemy ceased to interfere with troop movements, and when the battle opened support from the air did much to pave the way for our advance and to break enemy morale. The battle proved stubborn and cost us three thousand casualties. After the first three days, March 15 to 17, there was a pause for regrouping. On the twentieth General Wavell telegraphed that the fighting had been severe. The enemy had been counter-attacking The Grand Alliance

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fiercely and repeatedly, and although their losses had been extremely heavy and they had achieved only one success, there were no immediate signs of a crack. The Italians were evidently making desperate efforts to save this stronghold, and their air force was active. From London it looked rather evenly balanced, and we raised the question of reinforcements. These, however, were not needed. The attack was renewed on March 25, and two days later the Italian defence broke and Keren fell. Pursuit was rapid.

Asmara fell on April 1, and Massawa, with ten thousand prisoners, surrendered on April 8.

The victory at Keren was mainly gained by the 4th and 5th British Indian Divisions. I paid them the tribute that their prowess deserved.

Prime

Minister

to

7 April 41

Viceroy of India

The whole Empire has been stirred by the achievement of the Indian forces in Eritrea. For me the story of
the ardour and perseverance with which they scaled
and finally conquered the precipitous heights of Keren
recalls memories of the North-West Frontier of long
years ago, and it is as one who has had the honour to
serve in the field with Indian soldiers from all parts of
Hindustan, as well as in the name of His Majesty’s
Government, that I ask Your Excellency to convey to
them and to the whole Indian Army the pride and
admiration with which we have followed their heroic
exploits.

I hastened to send Generals Cunningham and Platt and their gallant armies my heartfelt congratulations and those of His Majesty’s Government upon “this timely and brilliant culmination of your memorable and strenuous campaign.”

Other clearances were also effected. On entering the war Italy had a force of nine destroyers, eight submarines, and

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a number of minor vessels in the Red Sea. All these had now been accounted for by the Royal Navy and the Fleet air arm. By April 11 President Roosevelt was able to declare that the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden were no longer

“combat zones” and were therefore open to American ships.

What remained of the Italian army in Eritrea retreated two hundred and thirty miles south through the mountains and fortified itself on the position of Amba Alagi. General Platt followed in their tracks. The 4th Indian Division and the majority of the supporting air squadrons were now diverted to Egypt, as a part of events presently to be narrated. With what remained Platt closed with the enemy. General Cunningham had reached Addis Ababa on April 6, where remnants of the Italian Air Force lay in wreckage on the airfield. He thrust the South African brigade northward through Dessie, and it came upon the rear of the Italians at Amba Alagi. With their retreat thus cut off, with General Platt attacking from the north, harassed by patriots, machine-gunned and bombed from the air, the Italian resistance could not last long. In early April Wingate’s Sudanese battalion and local units, together with the irregulars who had come over to the Emperor, drove twelve thousand of the enemy in Gojjam into Debra Markos. Half of them were taken; the rest fled north to Gondar. The Emperor re-entered his capital on May 5.

When we look back upon the part played by Mussolini in the European crisis and the events leading to the war arising out of his attack on Abyssinia, and remember how he had successfully defied the League of Nations – “Fifty nations led by one” – we can see how easily firmness and action might have cleared this complication from the The Grand Alliance

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darkening European scene. Now, at any rate, among all our stresses and dangers we had made a good job of it. It was not without emotion springing from past thoughts and experience that I was able to offer my salutations to Haile Selassie.

Prime Minister to the

9 May 41

Emperor of Ethiopia

It is with deep and universal pleasure that the British
nation and Empire have learned of Your Imperial
Majesty’s welcome home to your capital at Addis
Ababa. Your Majesty was the first of the lawful
sovereigns to be driven from his throne and country by
the Fascist-Nazi criminals, and you are now the first to
return in triumph. Your Majesty’s thanks will be duly
conveyed to the commanders, officers, and men of the
British and Empire forces who have aided the Ethiopian
patriots in the total and final destruction of the Italian
military usurpation. His Majesty’s Government look
forward to a long period of peace and progress in
Ethiopia after the forces of evil have been finally
overthrown.

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The Duke of Aosta, a cousin of the King of Italy, had been Governor-General of Italian East Africa and Viceroy of Ethiopia since 1937, and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian armies in these territories since 1939. A chivalrous and cultivated man, partly educated in England and married to a French princess, he was not popular with Mussolini. The Duce regarded him with some justification as lacking in ruthlessness and commanding military ability. He surrendered with the remnants of his army on May 17, and died in 1942 as a prisoner of war in Nairobi.

In the operations since January the greater part of the enemy forces, originally more than 220,000 strong, had been captured or destroyed. There still remained many thousand men in the mountain fastnesses of Abyssinia.

It will be convenient to complete here the tale of the destruction of the Italian Empire and armies in East Africa, which formed the accompaniment of so many graver events elsewhere. Our earlier fears that the Italian civil population of twenty thousand in Addis Ababa would be slaughtered by the Abyssinians were relieved. Farther north forty-five hundred Italians and levies, pressed into Debra Tabor by patriots, surrendered on July 2 to a British force of one squadron and one company. Southwest Abyssinia was cleared by part of the 11th African Division from Addis Ababa and the 12th advancing northward from the Kenya border. In a long series of operations much handicapped by ground and weather, by the first week of July they cleared the whole area of forty thousand enemy. During the summer native troops under Belgian command came from the Congo, two thousand miles across Africa, to take part in the final stages, and themselves took 15,000 prisoners.

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Only Gondar remained. But by now the rains had come, and this last stroke had to wait till they had passed. The net began to close in late September, and when the end was reached on November 27, 11,500 Italians, 12,000 local troops and forty-eight field guns fell into our hands.

Thus ended Mussolini’s dream of an African Empire to be built by conquest and colonised in the spirit of ancient Rome.

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6

Decision to Aid Greece