Italian conquest of the British colony of Somaliland

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Location of British Somaliland or today's Somaliland

The Italian conquest of British Somaliland was part of the East African campaign (1940-1941) that took place in August 1940 between the Italian , Eritrean and Somali units of Fascist Italy and British , Commonwealth and Somali militias . The Italian expedition was supposed to take advantage of mobility and speed, but was hampered by the geographical conditions of Somalia, the rainy weather and the defenses of the colony by the British, particularly in the Battle of Tug Argan .

Italian invasion of British Somaliland

Italian attacks took advantage of artillery. As a result, the superior British, Commonwealth and Imperial troops were gradually worn down and slowly outflanked until the remaining fortified mountain positions could be taken. Since a counterattack on the Mirgo Pass had failed, the commander Major General Reade Godwin-Austen had too few men to save the situation and guard an escape route and was given permission to retreat to Berbera .

The British fought in Barkasan on August 17 after a battle of retreat and then withdrew after dark. But the improvised evacuation went better than expected and the second blocked position at Nasiyeh was also abandoned. The Italian advance was slowed because the streets were flooded by the rains and the runway near Berbera was occupied, making a coup impossible. The British defeat was controversial and worsened relations between General Archibald Wavell , the British commander in the theater of war, his subordinates and Prime Minister Winston Churchill .

literature

  • Mohamed Issa-Salwe Abdisalam: The Collapse of the Somali State: The Impact of the Colonial Legacy . London: Haan Associates 1996. ISBN 978-1-87420-991-1
  • Franco Antonicelli: Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915-1945: dall'antifascismo alla Resistenza. Lezioni con testimonianze. Torino: Einaudi 1961. OCLC 828603112.
  • S. Ball: The Bitter Sea. The Struggle for Mastery in the Mediterranean 1935-1949 . London: Harper 2009. ISBN 978-0-00-720304-8
  • Angelo Del Boca: Italiani in Africa Orientale. La caduta dell'Impero. Roma, Bari: Laterza 1986. ISBN 978-88-420-2810-9
  • Orazio Ferrara: La battaglia di Tug Argan Pass (La conquista del Somaliland britannico) . Eserciti nella Storia. Anno VI. 32. 2005. ISSN 1591-3031.
  • Ashley Jackson: The British Empire and the Second World War . London: Hambledon Continuum 2006. ISBN 978-1-85285-517-8
  • Official History of the Operations in Somaliland, 1901-04. I (online ed.). London: Harrison and Sons for HMSO War Office, General Staff. 1907. OCLC 903224942. Retrieved September 6, 2017
  • Official History of the Operations in Somaliland, 1901-04. II (online ed.). London: Harrison and Sons for HMSO War Office, General Staff. 1907. OCLC 915556896. Retrieved September 6, 2017
  • A. Wavell: Operations in the Somaliland Protectorate, 1939-1940 (Appendix A - GMR Reid and AR Godwin-Austen) . (37594). In: London Gazette, June 4, 1946. pp. 2719-2727. OCLC 265544298