Chapter Four
In Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), Eritrea and Italian Somaliland Mussolini had 200,000 men under the Duke of Aosta. Fortunately for the British, the Italian Army in East Africa had few tanks. In total they mustered about twenty-four inadequate M11/39 medium tanks and thirty-five L3 light tanks, none of which constituted much of a threat. Only a hundred M11/39s were ever built and the bulk of these had gone to Libya. One of the few armoured car types available to the Italian forces in East Africa was the Autoblindo Mitragliatrice Lanzia Ansaldo IZ.
The Lancia IZ armoured car first went into service in 1915 but saw very little action until two years later. It was fitted with a number of different turret types, including a double version with one on top of the other, with two machine-guns in the larger lower turret and one in the smaller upper one. Weighing in at around 4 tons, it could manage less than 40mph, so was hardly fast; additionally its armour was very thin. Nevertheless, the vehicle proved robust and went on to see action during the Spanish Civil War, while some were also deployed to North Africa for policing duties. However, despite their longevity, only 120 IZ armoured cars were ever produced so there cannot have been many of them in East Africa. Local police units there may also have been equipped with a few equally ancient Bianchi armoured cars, which were likewise veterans of the First World War. Certainly numbers of these were captured in Cyrenaica by the British.
Mussolini’s colonial troops in Italian East Africa were formed into provisional divisions, though they fought largely as independent brigades; in Eritrea these troops consisted of the 1st–4th Colonial Divisions, with the 101st and 102nd Colonial Divisions in Somaliland. They could strike north into Sudan, which was garrisoned by just 9,000 British and colonial troops; south into Kenya, which was defended by 8,500 men, or north-east into British Somaliland, which was protected by a mere 537 soldiers. However, Mussolini’s efforts against the British in East Africa during 1940 were half-hearted at best. In July some 6,500 Italian troops supported by two dozen tanks occupied Kassala, just 12 miles inside Sudan. Since the British garrison for the whole of Sudan consisted of just three infantry battalions, they prudently avoided battle.
The following month Mussolini attacked British Somaliland, which was trapped between Italian Somaliland to the west and Abyssinia to the south, with a force of twenty-six battalions also supported by tanks and artillery. The vastly outnumbered but determined British defenders at the Tug Argan Pass, leading to the port of Berbera, held the Italians at bay for four days. Mussolini’s troops suffered 2,000 casualties for the loss of just 250 British troops. The British then conducted a seaborne evacuation from Berbera to Kenya, where a British build-up was taking place ready for a knock-out counter-offensive. At the same time British forces in Egypt were also preparing to counter-attack the Italians, who had dug in just inside the frontier.
Lieutenant General Sir Alan Cunningham took charge in Kenya in November 1940 and soon had 75,000 men under arms; it was a truly cosmopolitan force, comprising 27,000 South Africans, 33,000 East Africans, 9,000 West Africans and about 6,000 British. They were equipped with some tracked carriers and a few armoured cars, but little else. The Italian troops in East Africa came up against British armoured cars of unknown origin in early 1941. They were in fact of South African and Kenyan manufacture.
Following Dunkirk, the British were desperately short of armoured fighting vehicles and turned to South Africa for help. In response, the South Africans produced the Mark I and II Marmon-Herrington armoured cars based on the Ford 3-ton chassis. Those sent to East Africa were armed with two Vickers machine-guns, one mounted in the turret and the other on the left-hand side of the hull. In total a thousand of these were built. Other stop-gap armoured cars included the Edye, Fortress and Susie types, which were assembled in Kenya using civilian vehicle chassis.
To counter the threat from Mussolini in East Africa the British forces in Sudan were increased to 28,000, including a squadron of powerful Matilda tanks from the 4th Royal Tank Regiment. Aosta’s forces were swiftly defeated in early 1941. In Eritrea in late January the Italians came under attack from General Platt’s 4th and 5th Indian Divisions striking from Sudan and put up a stiff fight. The Italian 4th Colonial Division holding Agordat south-west of Keren was supported by ten medium tanks and a number of L3s. Against this force the 4th Indian Division could muster just four Matilda tanks and a number of carriers to help force the Italian defensive line based on the Laquetat Ridge. Having broken through, they successfully engaged Italian armour beyond Mount Cochen on 31 January 1941. The carriers lured the Italian tanks into a trap and the concealed Matildas attacked them from the rear, knocking out six M11s and five L3s. To attack Keren itself the 4th Indian Division had to manhandle their armoured cars through the Dongolaas Gorge. The Italians managed to hold up Platt’s advance until a squadron of Matilda tanks turned the tables at the end of March. The Eritrean capital, Asmara, fell on 1 April, followed by the Italian naval base at Massawa seven days later.
The 1st South African Division and the 11th and 12th African Divisions under General Cunningham, invading from Kenya, successfully occupied Italian Somaliland at the end of February. At Bulo Erillo they captured 141 prisoners and four Italian armoured cars, as well as seizing quantities of fuel at Kismayu and Mogadishu. A small force from Aden retook Berbera on 16 March and joined Cunningham’s forces at Jijiga in northern Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, was liberated on 6 April.
The Duke of Aosta, having lost all his armour, withdrew to Amba Alagi in Ethiopia with 7,000 men and forty guns, but with less than three months of supplies left he surrendered on 19 May 1941. Lingering Italian resistance in Ethiopia was overcome by the end of November. In North Africa the 7th Armoured Division had treated the new South African armoured cars with some scepticism, but in East Africa they served the ad hoc British forces well. The world’s attention now switched further north, where the panzers of the Deutsches Afrika Korps were making their presence felt.
During the summer of 1940 Mussolini’s forces also attacked Sudan and British Somaliland. Intelligence indicated that his forces had just thirty-five L3s (as seen here) and two dozen M11/39 medium tanks in Abyssinia, and these were used to help drive the weak British forces from Kassala and Berbera. (Author’s Collection)
To counter Mussolini’s overwhelming manpower in East Africa, Churchill conducted a build-up of African (seen here) and South African Divisions in Kenya and Indian Divisions in Sudan. Matilda tanks were also diverted from North Africa. The men pictured here on their troopship are thought to have been photographed by East Africa Command in Mombasa. (Author’s Collection)
A fighting column headed by a Marmon-Herrington Mk II armoured car; two variants of the South African Mk II were built with differing armament. South Africa had never produced an armoured fighting vehicle before and it was rather a hybrid – the chassis was made by Ford and came from Canada, the Marmon-Herrington four-wheel drive came from America and the armament came from Britain. The armour plate was supplied locally in South Africa and assembly was conducted in old railway workshops. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
What appears to be a South African Reconnaissance Car Mk I struggling across a river, possibly in Eritrea in 1941. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
An Italian M11/39 hiding in the scrub. These wholly inadequate tanks were sent to support the Italian 4th Colonial Division at Agordat, but British Matilda tanks easily accounted for six of them. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
Indian troops in captured Italian positions probably somewhere in Eritrea. The 4th Indian Division was redeployed from North Africa to take part in the East Africa campaign. It was recalled to the Western Desert in March 1941 to take part in Operation Battleaxe, while the 5th Indian Division followed after the Italian surrender in Abyssinia. (Author’s Collection)
A Fortress armoured car; this type was designed and assembled in Kenya, along with the Edye and Susie armoured cars. Note the very bold camouflage scheme. Like the Marmon-Herrington vehicles, they were a hybrid of bits and pieces. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
South African troops from the 1st Division at Moyale on the Kenyan–Abyssinian border posing with a trophy of war (an Italian flag) after the Italian forces had hastily withdrawn. From Moyale they struck north into Abyssinia to Yaballo, Shashamanna and on to Addis Ababa. Units also pushed eastward into Italian Somaliland to Kismayu and Mogadishu. (Author’s Collection)
A First World War vintage Italian Autoblindo Mitragliatrice Lanzia Ansaldo IZ car; although updated in the inter-war years, like most Italian equipment in East Africa it was well past its sell-by date. The IZ armoured car was built by Ansaldo on the Lancia IZ light truck chassis and at the outbreak of the Second World War was still in service with the Italian Army in Libya and East Africa. This particular version has a large cylindrical turret mounting two machine-guns; note the large, single headlight mounted forward on the front of the vehicle. The metal frame over the front of the hull was intended to cut barbed wire, but probably acted as little more than a snag; also it was easily damaged. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
British troops in East Africa with a modified civilian utility vehicle, possibly a Ford or an International 4x4. The British Army exhibited its usual inventiveness and ‘can do’ attitude when pressing useful vehicles into service during this campaign. Twin machine-guns appear to be mounted over the cab. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
East African troops haul a Fortress armoured car up an escarpment prior to an attack on Italian positions. Such armour helped compensate for the lack of tank units during the campaign. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)
A motorised column from the 1st South African Division at Hobok Fort in Abyssinia in 1941. Note the Marmon-Herrington armoured car in the middle of the compound. This is the Mobile Field Force’s variant of the Mk II, which was armed with a turret-mounted 7.7mm/0.303-inch Vickers machine-gun. (Author’s Collection)
A warm Ethiopian welcome for the ‘British Aemy’: the spelling may have been a little wayward but the sentiment was appreciated. It meant the British could concentrate on the war in North Africa and dispatch the 5th Indian Division north, as much-needed reinforcements. (Preston Isaac/Basil Lancaster)