Campaigns in Somaliland

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The British colonial government led five campaigns in Somaliland from 1902 against the fighters of Haji Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (1856-1920), in contemporary propaganda as Mad Mullah, today commonly referred to as Warrior Mullah . In Somalia he is known as the Sayyid . As guerrilla fighters, the fighters optimally exploit the advantages offered by the terrain and the poor accessibility to drive the occupiers from their homeland with their religious fanaticism.

origin

The British Somaliland colony was acquired mainly to secure the sea route to Suez . The southern border was established in the Anglo-Abyssinian Agreement of 1897. In 1898 the administration was transferred from the Indian colonial government to the Foreign Office . The total male population of the territory was estimated at 90,000 at the turn of the century.

The colonial administration first learned of the mullah in 1899, who called for holy war against foreigners and carried out raids with his men on tribes who were friendly with the British in the interior of the country. He was declared an outlaw . He was warned about his imminent arrest at his headquarters in the Golis Mountains , about 40 km south of Berbera , and escaped to the Haud region. At first he received support mainly from his own tribe, the Dolbohanta .

First campaign in 1901

Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel EJE Swayne , troops were raised among the tribes friendly to the colonial rulers. By February 1901, a camel corps with 100 men was established, plus 954 infantrymen and 160 mounted men with ponies. They were trained by 50 soldiers from the Punjab , commanded by 20 Europeans.

On June 2nd and 3rd, around 5,000 supporters of the mullah - called "dervishes" - attacked a post in Samala. The British defenders were able to repel the attack with nine dead. The Somali are said to have suffered several hundred deaths.

A counterattack took place on July 17th near Ferdiddin, right on the border with Italian Somaliland . On the British side, 75 mounted and 500 local infantrymen were involved. The mullah withdrew to safe Italian territory.

Second campaign in 1902

By May, the mullah had assembled an estimated 12,000-15,000 fighters, around 600 of whom had rifles. The British side under Swayne, who had meanwhile been appointed Commissioner of the Territory, had increased to 2,400 men. The additional troops were mostly Indians who took part in the Boer War and Central African King's African Rifles (KAR).

In September Swayne led a troop of 1,500 men and 4,000 transport camels up the Nugaal river bed towards the Mudug oasis . On October 5th, the column was ambushed near Erigo . The dervishes, who lost around 1,400 men, were repulsed on the British side at the cost of over 100 dead. A machine gun that was lost in the bush was found in 1920. Captain Alexander S. Cobbe received the Victoria Cross for bravery . Because of the bad morale of his Somali troops, Swayne moved to Bohotle , the supporters of the mullah again moved to Italian territory.

Third campaign 1902/1903

The third campaign was planned as an attack from three sides. First, under Brigadier Manning, 2,300 men were to advance northward from the port of Obbia (now Hobyo ) in Italian Somaliland, where they landed on January 3, 1903. There were 1745 men in Bohotle. The escape route to the west should cut off about 5,000 Abyssinians under Fitawari Gabri . The use of a separate telegraph department was new. The 45 men with 33 locals and 26 camel drivers laid 700 km of telegraph lines on masts and 810 km on the ground in the short time of the campaign , the most important project being the telegraph between Bohotle and Berbera .

Part of the "British" troops was the Somaliland Burgher Corps from Buren , which was set up in January 1903 . It was commanded by Captain Bonham and had six officers and 102 men.

The two British columns only met on March 31st. The mullah had withdrawn via Galadi ( Geladi ) into the Ogaden desert, where he was followed by a flying column (almost 1000 men). Lt. Col. Cobbe was dispatched to Wardair ( Warder ) of the alleged whereabouts of the mullah. Near Gumburu about halfway between Galadi and Wardair, they were surprised in the bush by an estimated 4,000 mounted and 10,000 fanatical mullah supporters armed with spears. When the British began to run out of ammunition, they launched a futile bayonet attack. 47 survivors, 6 of them uninjured, were able to escape to a rear British camp. About 2,000 of the attackers are said to have died. On April 22nd, there was a skirmish at Daratoleh in which several dervishes carried British equipment. Manning then withdrew, but left garrisons on the oases. In the meantime, the Abyssinian troops had fought tied battles with the dervishes twice, on April 4 and May 30. During a storm, the mullah's fighters bypassed the British garrisons and moved to the valley of the Nugaal, back into British territory, whereupon the Abyssinians left them.

Fourth campaign 1903/1904

The London War Office recognized the threatening situation and sent further reinforcements from South Africa. In December it was possible to move two infantry brigades, a camel corps and irregular mounted troops (illalos) , a total of 8,000 men with 10,000 transport camels , in the direction of the mullah's new headquarters in Jidbali (about 80 km east of Eil Dab ). Major General Sir Charles Egerton was in command .

In a depression near Jidbali, around 8,000 dervishes, in the absence of the mullah, had taken up positions in a 4 km semicircle. The disciplined KAR and Indian troops (122nd Rajputana Infantry and others) repelled the attack in just under two hours. They fell into their hands with 200 prisoners and around 400 rifles. The dervishes had around 1,000 dead, the rest fled. With the remaining troops, the mullah withdrew over the Anane Pass and Jidali to the northeast of the Protectorate and from there to Italian territory.

He now went to the port city of Illig ( Eyl ), which was easy to defend on the land and already housed 700 of his people. The British decided on a landing operation on April 21, 1904 with three ships under Rear Admiral GL Atkinson-Wiles. The approximately 500 landed seamen and Royal Marines advanced on a 1.2 km wide front from the south on Illig. The dervishes were quickly put to flight. They left 58 dead and 27 rifles. Over the next few days, the caves along the coast were “cleaned up” by the remaining Italians.

From the end of April 1904 the mullah settled in the mountains near Gerrowei . Egerton withdrew his troops on May 2nd. On March 5, 1905, the Italian administration concluded an agreement that assured the mullah of his own sphere of influence in the interior of the country, in which he was able to mobilize an armed following of around 6,000 men over the next few years.

The Sayyid began raiding British territory again from 1909. In 1912 another camel corps was set up under Richard Corfield, which suffered a heavy defeat at Dolmadoba in August 1913. The dervishes were defeated in their fortress Shimber Beris on November 23, 1914 and again in February 1915 (they had reoccupied the fort after the British withdrawal). During the First World War the British could hardly leave any troops in Somaliland. The local camel troop was otherwise limited to occasional smaller actions.

Fifth campaign in 1920

From 1913 the Sayyid was in the process of building a number of stone forts in the Shimbiris region , again on British territory. During the First World War the British could hardly leave any troops in Somaliland. The local camel troop (zeribas) limited themselves to occasional smaller actions.

The first major fighting took place on March 3, 1919 at the Ok Pass north of Burco , where the dervishes lost 200 men. In October, another major campaign against the mullah was approved in London. This time the newly developed air force was to be used against him. He was believed to be in Jidali or Medishe . He had 1,000 riflemen and 3,000–5,000 tribesmen armed with spears.

The British organized their air force of eight machines, with 36 RAF officers and 189 men, as Unit Z in El Dur Elan. Force B in Las Koreh ( Laasqorey ), which was supposed to prevent the retreat into Italian territory, consisted of 766 KAR men and 3,000 locally evacuated. Force A , in the south, a camel corps mounted with 700 men, was supposed to drive the mullah northwards or to force him into hostile Abyssinian territory.

After a warning from dropped leaflets on January 20, 1920, the bombardment of Medishe with De Havilland double-deckers ( DH9 ) began the following day . Of the six who took off, only one pilot found the destination, dropping eight 20-pounder bombs. The first one hit the mullah's group, who was under a canvas, and killed his sister. The bombing of the following days forced the dervishes to hide in caves and their fort.

Meanwhile, the Baran fort fell on January 24th. Coming from the south the camel corps advanced towards Jidali, where the fort was found empty on the 29th. The dervishes had escaped overnight. On the 30th, aerial scouts discovered that Medishe was on fire and the mullah had fled towards Taleh. A naval unit should take the fort in the coastal city of Galiabur . This succeeded after three days of fighting on February 6th, blocking the way to Italian territory.

The British persecutors reached Taleh on February 8 , where they saw the mullah and about 80 men escape. Since a pursuit was not possible, they stormed the fort, where they fell into their hands with few prisoners but numerous rifles. The following camel corps could then still pursue and put the dervishes near Gerrowei. 44 were killed and five of the mullah's ten wives and nine of his children were captured. There were still isolated skirmishes with dervishes in Somaliland until the end of April, but the movement was effectively crushed. The successful last campaign cost the British side, besides £ 83,000, 4 dead, 11 wounded and 13 died of disease, plus 7 deaths in the camel corps.

However, the mullah and about 400 of his followers arrived in the Abyssinian town of Imi , where he immediately began building a ring of 13 forts. At the same time he opened peace negotiations with the Abyssinians, but these dragged on. After six days of illness, the mullah died as a free man on November 23, 1920, presumably from the Spanish flu . He is still valued as a poet in Somalia today.

British participants in the campaigns received the African General Service Medal for which, for various campaigns, six clips were given out.

Literature and Sources

  • Ray Beachey: The Warrior Mullah. the Horn Ablame, (1892-1920). Bellew, London 1990, ISBN 0-947792-43-0 .
  • Erwin Herbert: Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902-18. Early Twentieth-Century Colonial Campaigns in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Political Background and Campaign Narratives, Organization, Tactics and Terrain, Dress and Weapons, Command and Control, and Historical Effects. Drawings by Ian Heath. Foundry Books, Nottingham 2003, ISBN 1-901543-05-6 , pp. 57-58.
  • Erwin Herbert: Risings and Rebellions 1919–1939. Interwar Colonial Campaigns in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Drawings by Ian Heath. Foundry Books, Nottingham 2007, ISBN 978-1-901543-12-4 , pp. 29-35 ( Armies of the 20th century ).
  • Douglas James Jardine : The Mad Mullah of Somaliland. Herbert Jenkins, London 1923.
  • Official History of the Operations in Somaliland 1901-04. 2 volumes. His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), London 1907.

Archives: National Archives: WO32 / 8441-8443: "Somaliland (Code 0 (AN)): Somaliland Campaign: Despatch from Major General Sir C. Egerton on operations from assuming command July 1903 to battle of Jidbali and flight of the Mullah"

  1. ↑ cf. Leo Silberman: Why the Haud was ceded. In: Cashiers d'Etudes africaines. Vol 5 (1961), pp. 37-83.
  2. ↑ a b Philip Haithornthwaite: The Colonial Wars Sourcebook. London 1995, ISBN 1-85409-196-4 , p. 175.
  3. ↑ 9.98333 ° N, 47.1667 ° E
  4. ↑ 10 ° 43 ′ 4 ″ N, 47 ° 38 ′ 57 ″ E
  5. ↑ 10 ° 46 '37 "N, 47 ° 30' 37" E
  6. ↑ today: Erigabo
  7. ↑ also: Barran, Badan, Badhan, Baraan; 10 ° 43′0 "N, 48 ° 21′E
  8. ↑ 6 ° 27 '0 "N, 42 ° 7' E

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