Fall of the capital
After the defeat of the Ethiopian troops on the Northern Front, the Italian army began marching to Addis Ababa. At the same time, the left wing of Badoglio's army was provided with troops that advanced in the central operational direction from Assab through the Danakl desert (aviation delivered various supplies and water). On March 12, 1936, Italian troops occupied Sardo in this direction.
The Italian Marshal Badoglio, who arrived in Dessier with his headquarters on April 23, launched an offensive in two columns - along the main (imperial) road and along the western road. Units of the 1st Army Corps traveled along the imperial path in 1,720 trucks, followed by the main forces of the Eritrean Corps on foot; the Eritrean brigade was advancing on the road through Doba, on foot. Aviation covered the main forces of the expeditionary army, carrying out reconnaissance and guarding the ground forces.
Italian troops set out on April 26 and moved almost without encountering enemy resistance. However, the mechanized column, due to the onset of rains, encountered a lot of problems that impeded the movement. The Abyssinians themselves, although they had all the possibilities, did not create artificial obstacles on the road, which could further slow down the Italian army. For example, the restoration of the destroyed section of the road at Thermober Pass took about 36 hours. It took more than two days for the convoy to cross this pass, as the trucks were literally dragged by hand. To do this, it was necessary to turn into workers not only the sapper and the colonial troops, but all the regular units and even the sanitary units.
On May 5, 1936, Italian troops broke into Addis Ababa. The city was robbed and destroyed even before the arrival of the Italians. When the authorities fled, some of the soldiers and the looters who joined them staged a pogrom. Mussolini solemnly announced that Ethiopia was henceforth a colony of the Italian Empire. The Italians unleashed terror, mass executions of residents of the capital and the surrounding area continued for months. Separate troops occupied the area between Gallabat and Lake Tana, the Gojam region and the upper reaches of the Blue Nile.
Italian officers led by native soldiers from Eritrea enter the Ethiopian capital
Even before the fall of the capital, on May 2, the "king of kings" Haile Selassie, together with his family and retinue, departed by train for Djibouti. He planned to defend the rights of his country in the League of Nations in Geneva. A British ship took the Ethiopian emperor to Palestine. As the prince-regent and commander-in-chief, he left his cousin, and one of the best Abyssinian generals (he commanded the left flank of the Northern Front), the Imru race. Ras Imru retreated to the southwest of the country and continued resistance until December 1936, when the Italians surrounded him and forced him to surrender.
It should be noted that the story of the emperor's flight had an ambiguous opinion. The people were shocked, many believed that this was a betrayal of the country, that the emperor was no longer worthy of the throne. On the other hand, the death or capture of the "king of kings", which had great symbolic significance for the country, was a symbol of Ethiopian statehood and independence, could have a negative effect on the population, break the will to resist.
The emperor organized the Provisional Government, which tried to organize a partisan movement and drive out the occupiers. After Britain in June 1940entered the fight with Italy, the British officially recognized Ethiopia as their ally. In January 1941, Haile Selassie arrived in Sudan and then in Ethiopia, where he gathered an army with the support of the British. The Italians began to retreat, the British liberated almost all northern regions of Ethiopia by the end of April and continued their attack on Addis Ababa. Having established by the end of February control over a significant part of Italian Somalia, the British entered the territory of Ethiopia and, having liberated the southern and eastern regions of the country, also headed for the capital and occupied it on April 6 of the same year. On May 5, 1941, Haile Selassie I solemnly entered Addis Ababa. The surrender of the last Italian units and the accession to the imperial throne of Haile Selassie marked the restoration of Ethiopia's independence.
Italian troops build a road in Abyssinia
The situation on the Central and Southern fronts
On the Central Front, the Danakil group (about 10 thousand people) was advancing, which connected the armies of the Northern and Southern fronts and was supposed to provide their inner flanks. Camel cavalry and camel mountain artillery advanced from the Moussa Ali region across the desert to Sardo and Dessie (Dessier). The aviation was responsible for providing the troops with supplies. On March 12, the Italians occupied Sardo and on April 12 they reached Dessie, taking him without a fight. The Abyssinians have already left this city. Subsequently, the Danakil group became part of the Northern Front. In fact, this group of troops, out of the slowness of the movement, did not play any special role in the war, but they were able to divert part of the enemy's forces. The movement of the Italians in the central direction to Dessier and Magdala posed a serious threat to the right wing of the Abyssinian Northern Front. This forced the Ethiopian emperor to keep large reserves at Dessier and Diredua.
On the Southern Front, the commander of the Italian troops, General Graziani, the task he received to defend Somalia and pin the enemy on a front of 700 km, decided to take offensive actions in October and November 1935. Using motorized and air units, the Italians deeply invaded enemy territory, advancing in two directions - along the river valleys of the southern slope of the Somali Range, along the Fofan and Webbe rivers. In December 1935, Italian troops reached the Gerlogube, Gorahai, Dolo line. Two Abyssinian armies withdrew: the troops of the Nasibu race fortified in the Saesa-Bene, Jig-Jig area, and the Desta race - north of Dolo.
The small amount of water in these areas interfered with the conduct of hostilities. However, the Italians were in a better position: they used road transport to deliver water and hydraulic engineering. Thus, a “water factory” was erected near Gorakhay, which produced 100 thousand liters of filtered water per day. As in the Northern Front, having occupied certain lines, the Italian troops did not show activity, tried to strengthen the rear, build communications (in fact, it was a "road war"). Among the colonial forces, there was unrest and desertion, with soldiers fleeing to Kenya and British Somalia.
Only in December 1935, having received significant reinforcements, Graziani continued the offensive. On January 12, 1936, Italian troops launched an attack. In a three-day battle, the Italians defeated the army of Ras Desta, who planned to start a small war in Italian Somalia. The Abyssinians were attacked from the front and threatened with flanking by Italian motorized and cavalry units, which led to their defeat. During the pursuit of the enemy, Italian troops occupied a vast area west of Dolo.
Thus, an attempt by the Abyssinians to organize a small war in Italian Somalia was prevented. The Abyssinian high command, worried that the path to the capital through the region of the lakes and Alat was open, sent part of the operational reserve, intended to strengthen the Northern Front, to the south.
The commander of the Southern Front, Gratsiani, placing only a barrier in the direction of Alat, concentrated his main efforts on the right wing, on Harar. The Italians made a corresponding regrouping of forces. Meanwhile, Prince Nasibu, taking into account the unfavorable situation for the Ethiopian army, which has developed on the Northern Front, decided in March to go on the offensive in order to divert the attention of the enemy. The Turkish advisers Vehib Pasha and Faruk Bey, who were under the Abyssinian prince, reacted negatively to this venture. They offered to retreat to the heights near Harar, prepare them for defense, while simultaneously reorganizing and training troops. And only small detachments should be put forward to operate on enemy lines of communication. However, contrary to this reasonable advice from the races, Nasibu launched an offensive with the main forces, planning to bypass the enemy from the east and capture Gorahai in his rear. On April 13, 1936, the Abyssinian troops set out.
The Abyssinian army had been gathering for a long time, so the Italian agents easily guessed the enemy's plan. The Italian troops were ready. The movement of the Abyssinian army was stopped by a counteroffensive by three columns of the right wing of the Italian front. The Abyssinians fought bravely and some Italian units had losses of up to 40% of their composition. However, there was no surprise factor and the technical superiority of the Italian army once again played a role. The offensive of the Abyssinians was stopped and on April 20 they switched to a mobile defense, relying on well-camouflaged positions in the bushes and river valleys, using snipers for surprise attacks. The Italians were unable to cover the flanks of the Abyssinian army, and after stubborn battles and strong air strikes, on April 30 they took Daga-Bur and on May 8 - Harar.
Thus, the Abyssinian Southern Front retained its combat capability until the very end of the war. The news of the defeat of the Northern Front and the departure of the Negus to Europe caused the collapse of the Southern Front. Ras Nasibu himself, along with his advisers, departed for the territory of French Somalia. From that time on, open war was over and took the form of a partisan struggle, in which the remnants of the regular army, led by some princes, and the masses, who rose to fight the occupiers in response to repression and terror, took part. The guerrilla war continued until the liberation of the camp in 1941 and forced the Italians to keep large forces in Ethiopia: at various stages from 100 to 200 thousand people.
Italian cavalry
Italian sentry
Outcomes
Italy received a large colony, the core of its colonial empire, a strategic foothold with which it was possible to fight for the expansion of the sphere of influence in Africa and threaten the main imperial communication of Britain, which went through Gibraltar, Suez, the Red Sea and further to Persia, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. This became one of the main reasons for the war between Britain and Italy, which began already in 1940.
Victory is celebrated in Italy
In Ethiopia itself, a partisan war began, which lasted until the liberation of the country in the spring of 1941. Thus, the Italians lost 54 thousand killed and wounded during the military campaign, and more than 150 thousand people during the subsequent occupation and the fight against partisans. The total losses of Ethiopia during the war and subsequent occupation are more than 750 thousand people. The total damage to the country amounted to 779 million US dollars (official figures of the Ethiopian government, provided at the Paris Peace Conference of 1947).
The partisans became a major problem for the Italian authorities. Many regions of the country have not yet "pacified", the resistance continued. Therefore, at the beginning of Italy it was necessary to keep 200 thousand soldiers and 300 aircraft in Ethiopia. The high command of the Italian Eastern Army Air Force was formed, centered in Addis Ababa. The colony was divided into four sectors: the north - the main air force bases were located in Massawa, the east - in Assab, the south - Mogadishu and the west - Addis Ababa. A network of auxiliary airfields was created throughout the territory. Around the capital, with a radius of up to 300 km, a belt of air bases was created, which made it possible to quickly concentrate forces in a threatened direction. So, in the fight against the Imru race, about 250 aircraft were involved. In addition, already in the second half of 1936, the Italian command formed mobile columns, most of them motorized, which were supplied and supported from the air by aviation. They had to respond quickly to uprisings and fight the partisans. Thus, Ethiopia continued to resist even after the occupation and brought Italy a lot of problems.
