ITALIAN INVASION OF ETHIOPIA

1935

Mussolini                                         Selassie 

In 1896, when Italian youth Benito Mussolini was thirteen years old, he along with the entire nation of Italy were informed of the disastrous military defeat of the Italian army at the battle of Adwa in Ethiopia. 

The event was a severe blow to Italian prestige not only in Europe, but around the world. In 1922, Mussolini and his Fascist party had assumed dictatorial power in Italy. 

In 1935, Mussolini felt that a war of conquest against the kingdom of Ethiopia would restore Italy's prestige, avenging the humiliation suffered in the first Italo - Ethiopian war. 

For the invasion the Italians could call upon, six hundred thousand men, seven hundred tanks, two thousand artillery pieces and six hundred aircraft. The Ethiopians would counter with five hundred thousand men, two hundred outdated artillery pieces and a mere handful of machine guns.  

On October 3rd 1935 without a declaration of war, 400,000 soldiers commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono attacked from Italian Eritrea in the north while 200,000 men under General Rodolfo Graziani advanced from Italian Somalia in the south. 

On October 6th Italian troops captured Adwa, Aksum and Adigrat, then nine days later seized the holy capital of Axum. De Bono then paused operations to replenish his forces.

Mussolini now became exasperated by De Bono's slow and cautious progress and on November 8th as Italian forces occupied the city of Makale, sacked the Marshal replacing him with General Pietro Badoglio.

Before Badoglio could re shuffle his forces and continue with the advance, Emperor Selassie ordered two hundred thousand men to launch a major counter attack on December 15th.  The Ethiopians achieved total surprise and the sheer weight of the assault forced the Italian's to abandon there front line positions. 

In desperation, Badoglio cabled Mussolini on December 26th asking for then receiving permission to use chemical warfare agents to stem the Ethiopian advance.

The next day the Italian’s began delivering the gas from bombers and specially designed canisters in place of artillery shells. The effects were immediate as Ethiopian troops were suffocated by the tens of thousands from this terrible weapon of the First World War.  

On January 23rd, General Graziani employed several hundred tons of mustard gas against Ras Kassa's southern Ethiopian army of seventy thousand men completley destroying it as a fighting force.

On February 9th, Marshal Badoglio launched an offensive against Ras Mulegeta’s 80,000 strong army dug in atop Mount Amba Aradam. Clearing this major obstacle would open the road to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The combination of bombers, artillery and poison gas against the entrenched defenders completely paralyzed Mulugeta’s ability to mount any form of attack. After five days of continuous pounding  the Ethiopians surrendered the position yielding thirty thousand prisoners.

The capture of Mount Amba Aradam was a catastrophic disaster for the country. Ras Mulugeta was dead, the southern army had been annihilated and three of the four Ethiopian armies of the north were practically destroyed. 

Only one army remained intact, that of Ras Imru and his sixty thousand strong army of the Shire. This along with the Emperor’s Imperial Guard numbering twenty five thousand men remained as the last organized fighting forces within all Ethiopia. 

On March 29th, the Emperor assembled his last forces in and around the hills surrounding the city of Maychew and awaited the Italians.

For the up coming battle, Marshal Badoglio possessed a total of one hundred and fifty thousand men, three hundred tanks, four hundred artillery pieces and two hundred fighters and bombers. 

Emperor Haile Selassie would counter the Italians with eighty five thousand men and fifty pre World War One cannons.

Ethiopian Imperial Guard

At dawn on the morning of March 31st, Selassie ordered twenty thousand men under Ras Kassa to attack the Eritrean colonial forces holding the Mekan Pass on the Italian left flank.

The assault quickly began to force the pass and gain ground, however Badoglio unleashed a fierce artillery bombardment supported by heavy bombers and the Ethiopian advance began to falter and was pushed back with heavy casualties.

The next morning, Haile Selassie felt he had no further options but to order an all out frontal attack along the entire front. 

As the entire Ethiopian army lumbered forward en mass, a horrified Selassie could only stand silent as the assault meet with heavy machine gun fire, artillery ordenance, air attacks and poison gas. As the smoke cleared from the Italian barrage, the battlefield lay littered with thousand’s of dead and dying Ethiopians.  

With his army completely destroyed, the Emperor made his way towards Addis Ababa, where on May 2nd he boarded his imperial train to Djibouti, from there he fled to England by air.

Italian forces marched into Addis Ababa three days later. The second Italian - Abyssinian war was over, back in Italy Benito Mussolini could now claim his empire to the world. On June 1st 1936, Italy officially merged Ethiopia with Eritrea and Somaliland, calling the new state, Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian East Africa).

The war had cost the the Italians 50,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. The Ethiopian's suffered much greater losses at 275,000 killed and 225,000 severely wounded with most suffering the after effects of poison gas.