Search results

Reading around I think the quality of Eritrean units declined between 1934 and 1941. Prior to 1935 all Eritrean ascari were volunteers. However, in the lead up to the invasion of Ethiopia conscription was introduced and 40% of Eritrean manpower was mobilised either voluntarily or by...

Yup. The same is true the official Italian army and navy histories of the campaign. They fall out of EU copyright after 70 years and they were first published in the early 1950s. However, I think the Italian official air force history is not yet available online. All the Indian official campaign...

I look forward to it. Sid.

How soon did the British release captured Italian colonial troops in AOI? I have read that, after release, some unemployed ex-Eritrean troops were able to find lots of discarded Italian weaponry and ammunition to form bandas of brigands and it wasn't until early 1945 that Eritrea could be...

According to a brief memoir by a British officer in the Sudan Defence Force, up to three battalions of colonial troops were captured at Adigrat on 3/4 April as they were withdrawing towards Amba Alagi. Do we know their designated numbers? Many thanks, Sid

Were all the Italian colonial units used in defending Eritrea in 1940/41 raised in Eritrea? Were any Ethiopian-raised units used in Eritrea? I have an unsourced note that says in 1935 60,200 Eritrean men, (40.3% of all adult males) were in the army. Do we have any figures for 1940/41, when...

The Sudan had a British garrison of only three infantry battalions, which were deployed defensively in the interior at the capital Khartoum, the railway junction at Atbara and Port Sudan. The Sudan Defence Force (initially 4,500 men) was really only an internal security force with just six motor...

While thrusting up into Egypt was probably not doable, much more trouble for the British in Sudan could have been caused by cutting the only railway at Atbara or seizing Port Sudan - the country's only port of significance. The Sudan had a British garrison of only three infantry battalions...

Eritrea 1941 by A. J. Barker (London, 1966) has several appendices giving both British Commonwealth and Italian orders of battle at various stages of the Battle of Keren. However, it appears to be largely based on the official British, Indian Army and Italian Ministry of Defence histories that...

Thanks to all contributors. I see that Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-1945 by Jonathan Thompson is out of copyright in another nine years. Perhaps somebody will have the initiative to reissue it then, unless one of its more recent Italian competitors is translated first. The internet...

Thanks. By sheer coincidence I managed to get a copy of

I see that the British forced the scuttling of the Italian merchant ship Umbria off Port Sudan on 10 June 1940. She appears to have been carrying a large number of bombs to Massawa in AOI. One English-language source says 6,000 tons of them! Was Umbria really carrying that many bombs? If so, did...

Has anyone read this book about Italian resistance behind British lines in Italian East Africa in 1941-43? Does it mention any British sources dealing with the British Military Administration of Eritrea, or is it entirely Italian sourced? I haven't been able to track down any significant...

Thanks Jeff. So, the raid was not a success militarily but achieved some political goals. Sid

The RAF launched 36 Whitley Vs to attack the Fiat Works in Turin on the night of 11/12 June. Even by British estimates, the raid was not a success. They believed only 13 aircraft found the target in bad weather. However, as at least two of them bombed Switzerland by mistake, it is clear that...

I just found online an apparently wartime Italian version of Lili Marlene (). It set me to wondering what were the home grown popular songs in the Italian Army and who was their Vera Lynn? Cheers, Sid

Hi Maurizio, Thanks very much. In appreciation, Sid

Hi Maurizio, Many thanks. That indicates that Monaco was treated as a distinct entity by the Italian Army, rather than as just another part of their coastal defences in southern France. Could you clarify what each symbol in the jpg for the Settore Costiere Reggimentale di Monaco means? Many...

Is Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-1945 by Jonathan Thompson still the most comprehensive in English on Italian aircraft in the Fascist era and WWII? It is noticeable that the otherwise pretty comprehensive Putnam series on the aircraft of WWII never published one on the Italians. This...