Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Second Italo-Ethiopian War | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the interwar period | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Ethiopia |
| ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
~70,000 killed | |||||||||
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a
On 3 October 1935, two hundred thousand soldiers of the Italian Army commanded by Marshal
Exasperated by De Bono's slow and cautious progress, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini replaced him with General Pietro Badoglio. Ethiopian forces attacked the newly arrived invading army and launched a counterattack in December 1935, but their poorly armed forces could not resist for long against the modern weapons of the Italians. Even the communications service of the Ethiopian forces depended on foot messengers, as they did not have radio. It was enough for the Italians to impose a narrow fence on Ethiopian detachments to leave them unaware of the movements of their own army. Nazi Germany sent arms and munitions to Ethiopia because it was frustrated over Italian objections to its attempts to integrate Austria.[14] This prolonged the war and sapped Italian resources. It would soon lead to Italy's greater economic dependence on Germany and less interventionist policy on Austria, clearing the path for Adolf Hitler's Anschluss.[15]
The Ethiopian counteroffensive managed to stop the Italian advance for a few weeks, but the superiority of the Italians' weapons (particularly heavy
Italian troops used
Background
State of East Africa
The Kingdom of Italy began its attempts to establish colonies in the Horn of Africa in the 1880s. The first phase of the colonial expansion concluded with the disastrous First Italo-Ethiopian War and the defeat of the Italian forces in the Battle of Adwa, on 1 March 1896, inflicted by the Ethiopian Army of Negus Menelik II.[26] In the following years, Italy abandoned its expansionist plans in the area and limited itself to administering the small possessions that it retained in the area: the colony of Italian Eritrea and the protectorate (later colony) of Italian Somaliland. For the next few decades, Italian-Ethiopian economic and diplomatic relations remained relatively stable.[27]
On 14 December 1925, Italy's fascist government signed a secret pact with Britain aimed at reinforcing Italian dominance in the region. London recognised that the area was of Italian interest and agreed to the Italian request to build a railway connecting Somalia and Eritrea. Although the signatories had wished to maintain the secrecy of the agreement, the plan soon leaked and caused indignation by the French and Ethiopian governments. The latter denounced it as a betrayal of a country that had been for all intents and purposes a member of the League of Nations.[28]
As fascist rule in Italy continued to radicalise, its colonial governors in the Horn of Africa began pushing outward the margins of their imperial foothold. The governor of Italian Eritrea, Jacopo Gasparini, focused on the exploitation of Teseney and an attempt to win over the leaders of the Tigre people against Ethiopia. The governor of Italian Somaliland, Cesare Maria de Vecchi, began a policy of repression that led to the occupation of the fertile Jubaland, and the cessation in 1928 of collaboration between the settlers and the traditional Somali chiefs.
Walwal Incident
The
The party contained Ethiopian and British technicians and an escort of around 600 Ethiopian soldiers. Both sides knew that the Italians had installed a military post at Welwel and were not surprised to see an
Fitorari Shiferra, the commander of the Ethiopian escort, took no notice of the 150 Italian and Somali troops and made camp. To avoid being caught in an Italian–Ethiopian incident, Clifford withdrew the British contingent to Ado, about 20 mi (32 km) to the north-east, and Italian aircraft began to fly over Welwel. The Ethiopian commissioners retired with the British, but the escort remained. For ten days both sides exchanged menaces, sometimes no more than 2 m apart. Reinforcements increased the Ethiopian contingent to about 1,500 men and the Italians to about 500, and on 5 December 1934, shots were fired. The Italians were supported by an armoured car and bomber aircraft. The bombs missed, but machine gunfire from the car caused about 110 Ethiopian casualties.[30] 30 to 50 Italians and Somalis were killed. The incident led to the Abyssinia Crisis at the League of Nations.[31] On 4 September 1935, the League of Nations exonerated both parties for the incident.[32]
Ethiopian isolation
Britain and France, preferring Italy as an ally against Germany, did not take strong steps to discourage an Italian military buildup on the borders of
On 7 January 1935, a
In June, non-interference was further assured by a political rift, which had developed between the United Kingdom and France, because of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.[36] As 300,000 Italian soldiers were transferred to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland over the spring and the summer of 1935, the world's media was abuzz with speculation that Italy would soon be invading Ethiopia.[33] In June 1935, Anthony Eden arrived in Rome with the message that Britain opposed an invasion and had a compromise plan for Italy to be given a corridor in Ethiopia to link the two Italian colonies in the Horn of Africa, which Mussolini rejected outright.[33] As the Italians had broken the British naval codes, Mussolini knew of the problems in the British Mediterranean Fleet, which led him to believe that the British opposition to the invasion, which had come as an unwelcome surprise to him, was not serious and that Britain would never go to war over Ethiopia.[37]
The prospect that an Italian invasion of Ethiopia would cause a crisis in Anglo-Italian relations was seen as an opportunity in Berlin. Germany provided some weapons to Ethiopia although Hitler did not want to see Haile Selassie win out of fear of quick victory for Italy.[38] The German perspective was that if Italy was bogged down in a long war in Ethiopia, that would probably lead to Britain pushing the League of Nations to impose sanctions on Italy, which the French would almost certainly not veto out of fear of destroying relations with Britain; that would cause a crisis in Anglo-Italian relations and allow Germany to offer its "good services" to Italy.[38] In that way, Hitler hoped to win Mussolini as an ally and to destroy the Stresa Front.[38]
A final possible foreign ally of Ethiopia was Japan, which had served as a model to some Ethiopian intellectuals. After the Welwel incident, several right-wing Japanese groups, including the Great Asianism Association and the Black Dragon Society, attempted to raise money for the Ethiopian cause. The Japanese ambassador to Italy, Dr. Sugimura Yotaro, on 16 July assured Mussolini that Japan held no political interests in Ethiopia and would stay neutral in the coming war. His comments stirred up a furor inside Japan, where there had been popular affinity for the fellow nonwhite empire in Africa,[39] which was reciprocated with similar anger in Italy towards Japan combined with praise for Mussolini and his firm stance against the "gialli di Tokyo" ("Tokyo Yellows").[39] Despite popular opinion, when the Ethiopians approached Japan for help on 2 August, they were refused, and even a modest request for the Japanese government for an official statement of its support for Ethiopia during the coming conflict was denied.[40]
Armies
Ethiopian forces
With war appearing inevitable, the
All men and boys able to carry a spear go to Addis Ababa. Every married man will bring his wife to cook and wash for him. Every unmarried man will bring any unmarried woman he can find to cook and wash for him. Women with babies, the blind, and those too aged and infirm to carry a spear are excused. Anyone found at home after receiving this order will be hanged.[41][42]
Selassie's army consisted of around 500,000 men, some of whom were armed with spears and bows. Other soldiers carried more modern weapons including rifles, but many of them were equipment from before 1900 and so were obsolete.
The army had about 800 light
The best Ethiopian units were the emperor's "
The serviceable portion of the
There were 50 foreign mercenaries who joined the Ethiopian forces, including French pilots like Pierre Corriger, the Trinidadian pilot
-
Ras Desta Damtew
Italian forces
There were 400,000 Italian soldiers in Eritrea and 285,000 in Italian Somaliland with 3,300 machine guns, 275 artillery pieces, 200
The Italians placed considerable reliance on their Corps of Colonial Troops (Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali, RCTC) of indigenous regiments recruited from the Italian colonies of Eritrea, Somalia and
The Italians had a variety of local semi-independent "allies" in the north, and the Azebu Galla were among several groups induced to fight for the Italians. In the south, the Somali Sultan Olol Dinle commanded a personal army, which advanced into the northern Ogaden with the forces of Colonel Luigi Frusci. The Sultan was motivated by his desire to take back lands that the Ethiopians had taken from him. The Italian colonial forces even included men from Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden.[52]
The Italians were reinforced by volunteers from the so-called Italiani all'estero, members of the Italian diaspora from Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil; they formed the 221st Legion in the Divisione Tevere, which a special Legione Parini fought under Frusci near Dire Dawa.[53] On 28 March 1935, General Emilio De Bono was named the commander-in-chief of all Italian armed forces in East Africa.[54] De Bono was also the commander-in-chief of the forces invading from Eritrea on the northern front. De Bono commanded nine divisions in the Italian I Corps, the Italian II Corps and the Eritrean Corps. General Rodolfo Graziani was commander-in-chief of forces invading from Italian Somaliland on the southern front.[55]
Initially, he had two divisions and a variety of smaller units under his command: a mixture of Italians, Somalis, Eritreans, Libyans and others. De Bono regarded Italian Somaliland as a secondary theatre, whose primary need was to defend itself, but it could aid the main front with offensive thrusts if the enemy forces were not too large there.
Hostilities
Italian invasion
At 5:00 am on 3 October 1935, De Bono crossed the
At this point in the campaign, the lack of roads represented a serious hindrance for the Italians as they crossed into Ethiopia. On the Eritrean side, roads had been constructed right up to the border. On the Ethiopian side, these roads often transitioned into vaguely defined paths,[57] and the Italian army used aerial photography[59] to plan its advance, as well as mustard gas attacks.
On 5 October the Italian I Corps took
On 11 October, Gugsa surrendered with 1,200 followers at the Italian outpost at Adagamos. Italian propagandists lavishly publicised the surrender but fewer than a tenth of Gugsa's men defected with him.[60] On 14 October, De Bono proclaimed the end of slavery in Ethiopia but this liberated the former slave owners from the obligation to feed their former slaves, in the unsettled conditions caused by the war.[b] Much of the livestock in the area had been moved to the south to feed the Ethiopian army and many of the emancipated people had no choice but to appeal to the Italian authorities for food.[60]
By 15 October, De Bono's forces had advanced from Adwa and occupied the holy capital of
Hoare–Laval Pact
On 14 November 1935, the National government in Britain, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won a general election on a platform of upholding collective security and support for the League of Nations, which at least implied that Britain would support Ethiopia.[66] However, the British service chiefs, led by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Earle Chatfield, all advised against going to war with Italy for the sake of Ethiopia, which carried much weight with the cabinet.[67] During the 1935 election, Baldwin and the rest of the cabinet had repeatedly promised that Britain was committed to upholding collective security in the belief of that being the best way to neutralise the Labour Party, which also ran on a platform emphasising collective security and support for the League of Nations.[68] To square the circle caused by its election promises and its desire to avoid offending Mussolini too much, the cabinet decided upon a plan to give most of Ethiopia to Italy, with the rest in the Italian sphere of influence, as the best way of ending the war.[66]
In early December 1935, the Hoare–Laval Pact was proposed by Britain and France. Italy would gain the best parts of Ogaden and Tigray and economic influence over all the south. Abyssinia would have a guaranteed corridor to the sea at the port of Assab; the corridor was a poor one and known as a "corridor for camels".[69] Mussolini was ready to play along with considering the Hoare-Laval Pact, rather than rejecting it outright, to avoid a complete break with Britain and France, but he kept demanding changes to the plan before he would accept it as a way to stall for more time to allow his army to conquer Ethiopia.[70] Mussolini was not prepared to abandon the goal of conquering Ethiopia, but the imposition of League of Nations sanctions on Italy caused much alarm in Rome.[71]
The war was wildly popular with the Italian people, who relished Mussolini's defiance of the League as an example of Italian greatness. Even if Mussolini had been willing to stop the war, the move would have been very unpopular in Italy.[70] Kallis wrote, "Especially after the imposition of sanctions in November 1935, the popularity of the Fascist regime reached unprecedented heights".[70] On 13 December, details of the pact were leaked by a French newspaper and denounced as a sellout of the Ethiopians. The British government disassociated itself from the pact and British Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare was forced to resign in disgrace.[72]
Ethiopian Christmas Offensive
The Christmas Offensive was intended to split the Italian forces in the north with the Ethiopian centre, crushing the Italian left with the Ethiopian right and to invade Eritrea with the Ethiopian left. Ras Seyum Mangasha held the area around
A force of 1,000 Ethiopians crossed the Tekeze river and advanced toward the Dembeguina Pass (Inda Aba Guna or Indabaguna pass). The Italian commander, Major Criniti, commanded a force of 1,000 Eritrean infantry supported by L3 tanks. When the Ethiopians attacked, the Italian force fell back to the pass, only to discover that 2,000 Ethiopian soldiers were already there and Criniti's force was encircled. In the first Ethiopian attack, two Italian officers were killed and Criniti was wounded.[74]
The Italians tried to break out using their L3 tanks but the rough terrain immobilised the vehicles. The Ethiopians killed the infantry, then rushed the tanks and killed their two-man crews. Italian forces organised a relief column made up of tanks and infantry to relieve Critini but it was ambushed en route. Ethiopians on the high ground rolled boulders in front of and behind several of the tanks, to immobilise them, picked off the Eritrean infantry and swarmed the tanks.[74]
The other tanks were immobilised by the terrain, unable to advance further and two were set on fire. Critini managed to break-out in a bayonet charge and half escaped. Italian casualties were 31 Italians and 370 Askari killed and five Italians taken prisoner; Ethiopian casualties were estimated by the Italians to be 500, which was probably greatly exaggerated.[74]
The news from the "northern front" was generally bad for Italy. However, foreign correspondents in Addis Ababa publicly took up knitting to mock their lack of access to the front. There was no way for them to verify reports that 4,700 Italians had been captured. The correspondents were told by the Ethiopians that Italian tanks had been stranded and abandoned and that Italian native troops were mutinying.[75] Later, a report was issued that Ethiopian warriors had captured eighteen tanks, thirty-three field guns, 175 machine guns, and 2,605 rifles. In addition, this report indicated that the Ethiopians had wiped out an entire legion of the 2nd CC.NN. Division "28 Ottobre" and that the Italians had lost at least 3,000 men. Rome denied these figures.[76]
The ambitious Ethiopian plan called for Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum to split the Italian army in two and isolate the Italian I Corps and III Corps in Mekele. Ras Mulugeta would then descend from Amba Aradam and crush both corps. According to this plan, after Ras Imru retook Adwa, he was to invade Eritrea. In November, the League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and imposed economic sanctions. This excluded oil, however, an indispensable raw material for the conduct of any modern military campaign, and this favoured Italy.[77]
The Ethiopian counteroffensive managed to stop the Italian advance for a few weeks, but the superiority of the Italian's weaponry (artillery and machine guns) as well as aerial bombardment with chemical weapons, at first with mustard gas prevented the Ethiopians from taking advantage of their initial successes. The Ethiopians in general were very poorly armed, with few machine guns, their troops mainly armed with swords and spears. Having spent a decade accumulating poison gas in East Africa, Mussolini gave Badoglio authority to resort to Schrecklichkeit (frightfulness), which included destroying villages and using gas (OC 23/06, 28 December 1935). Mussolini was even prepared to resort to bacteriological warfare as long as these methods could be kept quiet. Some Italians objected when they found out but the practices were kept secret, the government issuing denials or spurious stories blaming the Ethiopians.[78][c]
Second Italian advance
As the progress of the Christmas Offensive slowed, Italian plans to renew the advance on the northern front began as Mussolini had given permission to use
[It]...was at the time when the operations for the encircling of Makale were taking place that the Italian command, fearing a rout, followed the procedure which it is now my duty to denounce to the world. Special sprayers were installed on board aircraft so that they could vaporize, over vast areas of territory, a fine, death-dealing rain. Groups of nine, fifteen, eighteen aircraft followed one another so that the fog issuing from them formed a continuous sheet. It was thus that, as from the end of January 1936, soldiers, women, children, cattle, rivers, lakes, and pastures were drenched continually with this deadly rain. To systematically kill all living creatures, to more surely poison waters and pastures, the Italian command made its aircraft pass over and over again. That was its chief method of warfare.
— Haile Selassie[81]
From 10 to 19 February, the Italians captured Amba Aradam and destroyed Ras Mulugeta's army in the Battle of Amba Aradam (Battle of Enderta). The Ethiopians suffered massive losses and poison gas destroyed a small part of Ras Mulugeta's army, according to the Ethiopians. During the slaughter following the attempted withdrawal of his army, both Ras Mulugeta and his son were killed. The Italians lost 800 killed and wounded while the Ethiopians lost 6,000 killed and 12,000 wounded. From 27 to 29 February, the armies of Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum were destroyed at the Second Battle of Tembien. Ethiopians again argued that poison gas played a role in the destruction of the withdrawing armies.[82]
In early March, the army of Ras Imru was attacked, bombed and defeated in what was known as the Battle of Shire. In the battles of Amba Aradam, Tembien and Shire, the Italians suffered about 2,600 casualties and the Ethiopians about 15,000; Italian casualties at the Battle of Shire being 969 men. The Italian victories stripped the Ethiopian defences on the northern front, Tigré province had fallen most of the Ethiopian survivors returned home or took refuge in the countryside and only the army guarding Addis Ababa stood between the Italians and the rest of the country.[82]
On 31 March 1936 at the
Following the battle, Ethiopian soldiers began to employ guerrilla tactics against the Italians, initiating a trend of resistance that would transform into the
Southern front
On 3 October 1935, Graziani implemented the Milan Plan to remove Ethiopian forces from various frontier posts and to test the reaction to a series of probes all along the southern front. While incessant rains worked to hinder the plan, within three weeks the Somali villages of Kelafo, Dagnerai, Gerlogubi and Gorahai in Ogaden were in Italian hands.[87] Late in the year, Ras Desta Damtu assembled up his army in the area around Negele Borana, to advance on Dolo and invade Italian Somaliland. Between 12 and 16 January 1936, the Italians defeated the Ethiopians at the Battle of Genale Doria. The Regia Aeronautica destroyed the army of Ras Desta, Ethiopians claiming that poison gas was used.[88]
After a lull in February 1936, the Italians in the south prepared an advance towards the city of
Fall of Addis Ababa
On 26 April 1936, Badoglio began the "March of the Iron Will" from Dessie to Addis Ababa, an advance with a mechanised column against slight Ethiopian resistance.
Meanwhile, Selassie conducted a disorganized retreat towards the capital. There, government officials operated without leadership, unable to contact the Emperor and unsure of his whereabouts.[93] Realizing that Addis Ababa would soon fall to the Italians, Ethiopian administrators met to discuss a possible evacuation of the government to the west. After several days, they decided that they should relocate to Gore, though actual preparations for their departure were postponed.[94] Addis Ababa became crowded with retreating soldiers from the front while its foreign residents sought refuge at various European legations.[95] Selassie reached the capital on 30 April. That day his Council of Ministers resolved that the city should be defended and a retreat to Gore conducted only as a last resort.[95]
The following day an ad hoc council of Ethiopian nobles convened to re-examine the decision, where Ras Aberra Kassa suggested that the Emperor should go to Geneva to appeal to the League of Nations for assistance before returning to lead resistance against the Italians. The view was subsequently adopted by Selassie and preparations were made for his departure.[96] On 2 May, Selassie boarded a train from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, with the gold of the Ethiopian Central Bank. From there he fled to the United Kingdom, with the tacit acquiescence of the Italians who could have bombed his train, into exile (Mussolini had refused a request from Graziani to mount such an attack.[97])
Before he departed, Selassie ordered that the government of Ethiopia be moved to Gore and directed the mayor of Addis Ababa to maintain order in the city until the Italians' arrival. Imru Haile Selassie was appointed Prince Regent during his absence. The city police, under Abebe Aregai and the remainder of the Imperial Guard did their utmost to restrain a growing crowd but rioters rampaged throughout the city, looting and setting fire to shops owned by Europeans. Most of the violence occurred between looters, fighting over the spoils and by 5 May, much of the city lay in ruins.[98] At 04:00 Badoglio drove into the city at the head of 1,600 lorries and patrols of Italian tanks, troops and Carabinieri were sent to occupy tactically valuable areas in the city, as the remaining inhabitants watched sullenly.[99]
Subsequent operations
After the occupation of Addis Ababa, nearly half of Ethiopia was still unoccupied and the fighting continued for another three years until nearly 90% was "pacified" just before
On 21 June Kassa held a meeting with Bishop Abune Petros and several other Patriot leaders at Debre Libanos, about 70 km (43 mi) north of Addis Ababa. Plans were made to storm parts of the capital but a lack of transport and radio equipment prevented a co-ordinated attack.[100] In July, Ethiopian forces attacked Addis Ababa and were routed. Numerous members of Ethiopian royalty were taken prisoner and others were executed soon after they surrendered.[103] The exiled government in Gore was never able to provide any meaningful leadership to the Patriots or remaining military formations but sporadic resistance by independent groups persisted around the capital.[100]
On the night 26 June, members of the Black Lions organization destroyed three Italian aircraft in Nekemte and killed twelve Italian officials, including Air Marshal Vincenzo Magliocco and aviator Antonio Locatelli, after the Italians had sent the party to parley with the local populace. Graziani ordered the town to be bombed in retaliation for the killings (Magliocco was his deputy). Local hostility forced out the Patriots and Desta Damtew, commander of the southern Patriots, withdrew his troops to Arbegona. Surrounded by Italian forces, they retreated to Butajira, where they were eventually defeated. An estimated 4,000 Patriots were reportedly killed in both engagements, 1,600 of whom—including Damtew—after being taken prisoner.[104] On 19 December, Wondosson Kassa was executed near Debre Zebit and on 21 December, Aberra Kassa and Asfawossen Kassa were executed in Fikke. In late 1936, after the Italians tracked him down in Gurage, Dejazmach Balcha Safo was killed in battle.[103] On 19 December, Selassie surrendered at the Gojeb river.[105]
After the end of the rainy season, an Italian column left Addis Ababa in September and occupied Gore a month later. The forces of Ras Imru were trapped between the Italians and the Sudan border and Imru surrendered on 17 December. Imru was flown to Italy and imprisoned on the Island of
Addis Ababa massacre
That same date, 19 February 1937 – Yekatit 12 according to the
According to Mockler, "Italian
Aftermath
Casualties
In 1968, Colonel A. J. Barker wrote that from 1 January 1935 to 31 May 1936, the Italian army and Blackshirt units lost 1,148 men killed, 125 men died of wounds and thirty-one missing; about 1,593 Eritrean troops and 453 civilian workmen were also killed, a total of 3,319 casualties.[17] In a 1978 publication, Alberto Sbacchi wrote that these official Italian casualty figures of about 3,000 were an underestimate.[110] Sbacchi wrote that the official total of Italian casualties was unreliable, because the regime desired to underestimate Italian losses.[111] Del Boca estimates the total Italian losses up to 31 December 1936 (including more than six months of guerrilla warfare after the end of the conflict) speak of 2,317 dead for the Italian army, 1,165 for the Blackshirts, 193 from the air force, 56 from the navy, 78 civilians in the Gondrand shipyard massacre, 453 factory workers and 88 merchant marines, for a total of 4,350 Italians killed.[9] To these figures must be added approximately 9,000 injured and 18,200 repatriated due to illness.[10] Estimates on the losses of the askaris, however very vague, he puts it at 4,500 killed.[9] From 1936 to 1940, there was an additional 9,555 men killed and 144,000 sick and wounded.[112] Total Italian casualties from 1935 to 1940 according to these calculations were about 208,000 killed or wounded. Based on 1,911 Italians killed in the first six months of 1940, Ministry of Africa figures for 6 May 1936 to 10 June 1940 are 8,284 men killed, which Sbacchi considered to be fairly accurate.[24]
There was a lack of reliable statistics because confusion during the invasion made it difficult to keep accurate records and the Statistical Bulletin had ceased to provide data on fatalities. Field hospital records had been destroyed, inventories dispersed, individual deaths were not reported and bodies were not repatriated to Italy. Unpublished reports listed 3,694 military and civilian fatalities among 44,000 casualties and from May 1936 to June 1940, there were another 12,248 military and civilian fatalities in 144,000 casualties..[113] The Italian estimation of Ethiopian losses are 50,000 men killed in the Northern front and 20,000 men killed in the Southern front for a total of 70,000 battle deaths. Conversely, in a memorandum submitted to the Paris conference in 1946, the Ethiopian government enumerated 275,000 men killed in action, 78,500 Patriots killed in hostilities during the occupation from 1936 to 1941, 17,800 women and children killed by bombing, 30,000 people killed in the massacre of February 1937, 35,000 people died in concentration camps, 24,000 Patriots killed in obedience to orders from summary courts, 300,000 people died after their villages had been destroyed, a total of 760,300 deaths.[114] However, Del Boca claims that these figures are unreliable and were likely exaggerated to extract more reparations. He asserts that the Italian estimation is more accurate.[9]
Public and international reaction
Italy's military victory overshadowed concerns about the economy.[115][116] Mussolini was at the height of his popularity in May 1936 with the proclamation of the Italian empire.[70] His biographer, Renzo De Felice, called the war "Mussolini's masterpiece" as for a brief moment he had been able to create something resembling a national consensus both in favor of himself and his regime.[117] When Badoglio returned to Italy, he received a snub, as Mussolini made certain that the honours bestowed on Badoglio received fell short of those granted to an Italian "national hero", in order to present the victory as an achievement of the Fascist system rather than as an achievement of the traditional Italian elites, of which Badoglio was a member.[118] A sign of Mussolini's increased power and popularity after the war was his creation of a new military rank; First Marshal of the Italian Empire, to which he promoted both himself and King Victor Emmanuel III, thus putting the prime minister on a theoretical level of equality with the king.[118]
Haile Selassie sailed from Djibouti in the British cruiser
We have decided to bring to an end the most unequal, most unjust, most barbarous war of our age, and have chosen the road to exile in order that our people will not be exterminated and in order to consecrate ourselves wholly and in peace to the preservation of our empire's independence... we now demand that the League of Nations should continue its efforts to secure respect for the covenant, and that it should decide not to recognize territorial extensions, or the exercise of an assumed sovereignty, resulting from the illegal recourse to armed force and to numerous other violations of international agreements.[119]
The Ethiopian Emperor's telegram caused several nations to temporarily defer recognition of the Italian conquest.[119]
On 30 June, Selassie spoke at the League of Nations and was introduced by the
On 18 November 1936, the
War crimes
Italian military forces used between 300 and 500 tons of mustard gas to attack both military and civilian targets,[131] despite being a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning the practice. This gas had been produced during World War I and subsequently transported to East Africa. J. F. C. Fuller, who was present in Ethiopia during the conflict, stated that mustard gas "was the decisive tactical factor in the war."[132] Historian Walter Laqueur estimates that up to one-third of Ethiopian casualties of the war were caused by chemical weapons.[133]
The Italians claimed that their use of gas was justified by the execution of Tito Minniti and his observer in Ogaden by Ethiopian forces.[134] However, the use of gas was authorized by Mussolini nearly two months before Minniti's death on 26 December 1935, as evinced by the following order:
Rome, October 27, 1935. To His Excellency Graziani. The use of gas as an ultima ratio to overwhelm enemy resistance and in case of counter-attack is authorized. Mussolini.[21]
After Minniti's death, the order was expanded to use of gas "on a vast scale":
Rome, December 28, 1935. To His Excellency Badoglio. Given the enemy system I have authorized Your Excellency the use even on a vast scale of any gas and flamethrowers. Mussolini.[21]
Military and civilian targets were gas bombed and on 30 December, a Red Cross unit was bombed at Dolo and an Egyptian ambulance was attacked at Bulale; a few days later an Egyptian medical unit was bombed at Daggah Bur. There were more attacks in January and February, then on 4 March 1936, a British Red Cross camp near Quoram appeared to be subject to the most deliberate attack of all, when low-flying Italian aircraft crews could not have missed the big Red Cross signs.[56] Mustard gas was also sprayed from above on Ethiopian combatants and villages. The Italians tried to keep their resort to chemical warfare secret but were exposed by the International Red Cross and many foreign observers. The Italians claimed that at least 19 bombardments of Red Cross tents "posted in the areas of military encampment of the Ethiopian resistance", had been "erroneous".[citation needed]
The Italians delivered poison gas by gas shell and in bombs dropped by the Regia Aeronautica. Though poorly equipped, the Ethiopians had achieved some success against modern weaponry but had no defence against the "terrible rain that burned and killed".[135]
In general, historians concluded that the use of chemical weapons was effective and devastating to morale and manpower, though some disagree and argue that they had negligible effect in battle.[136] Historian Angelo Del Boca condemned the use of gas, but argued that it had only a minimal effect on Italian war aims.[137] An analysis by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute argued that the use of chemical weapons shifted the war in favor of the Italians, and dealt a major blow to Ethiopian morale.[138]
American and British military analysis came to similar conclusions. The US military concluded that "Chemical weapons were devastating against the unprepared and unprotected Ethiopians."[139] British Major General J. F. C. Fuller, assigned to the Italian army, noted that "In place of the laborious process of picketing the heights, the heights sprayed with gas were rendered unoccupiable by the enemy, save at the gravest risk. It was an exceedingly cunning use of this chemical."[139]
Haile Selassie in his report to the League of Nations described it:
....Special sprayers were installed on board aircraft so they could vaporize over vast areas of territory a fine, death-dealing rain. Groups of 9, 15, or 18 aircraft followed one another so that the fog issuing from them formed a continuous sheet. It was thus that, as from the end of January 1936, soldiers, women, children, cattle, rivers, lakes, and pastures were drenched continually with this deadly rain. In order more surely to poison the waters and pastures, the Italian command made its aircraft pass over and over again. These fearful tactics succeeded. Men and animals succumbed. The deadly rain that fell from the aircraft made all those whom it touched fly shrieking with pain. All those who drank poisoned water or ate infected food also succumbed in dreadful suffering. In tens of thousands the victims of Italian mustard gas fell.
— Smart[139]
Ethiopian troops used
Italian occupation
1936–1940
On 10 May 1936, Italian troops from the northern front and from the southern front met at Dire Dawa.
The army of occupation had 150,000 men but was spread thinly; by 1941 the garrison had been increased to 250,000 soldiers, including 75,000
East African campaign, 1940–1941
While in exile in United Kingdom, Haile Selassie had sought the support of the Western democracies for his cause but had little success until the Second World War began. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on France and Britain and attacked British and
Peace treaty, 1947
The treaty signed in Paris by the
See also
- List of Second Italo-Ethiopian War weapons of Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Air Force
- List of Second Italo-Ethiopian War weapons of Italy
- Censorship in Italy
- Faccetta Nera
- First Italo-Ethiopian War
- Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
- Timeline of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Notes
- ^ Addis Ababa, the capital, was occupied on 5 May 1936 and Haile Selassie fled the country. Resistance movements continued for several years after the defeat of Ethiopia, although censorship kept this from the Italian public.[1] The date of the last battle between regular Italian and Ethiopian forces was 19 February 1937.[2]
- ^ Ethiopian emperors since Tewodros II had issued "superficial" proclamations to end slavery but these had made little difference.[61]
- ^ Years later, Badoglio admitted to using gas once and a former government minister said that three gas bombs had been dropped but these admissions came after copious amounts of records had been published showing that gas had been used to a much greater extent.[79]
- ^ In 1976, Baer wrote that Selassie's resolution requesting loans was defeated by a vote of 23 against, 25 abstentions and 1 vote for (from Ethiopia). In the sanctions vote, 44 delegates approved the ending of sanctions, 4 abstained and 1 (Ethiopian) delegate voted for retention.[125]
References
- ^ a b Mack Smith 1983, pp. 232–233.
- ^ a b c Mockler 2003, pp. 172–73.
- ^ a b Pankhurst 1968, pp. 605–608.
- ^ a b c d e Stapleton 2018, The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935).
- ^ a b c d e Barker 1971, p. 29.
- ^ Storia dell'Aeronautica-l'aeronautica italiana, Hobby e Work 2001
- ^ a b Shinn & Ofcansky 2013, p. 19.
- ^ a b c d Barker 1971, p. 20.
- ^ a b c d Del Boca 2009, pp. 717–719.
- ^ a b c Rochat 2008, pp. 128.
- ^ "Secondary Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century". Necrometrics.
- ^ Sbacchi 1978, p. 33.
- ^ Leckie 1987, p. 645.
- ^ a b Leckie 1987, p. 64.
- ^ Nehru, Jawaharlal (1934). Glimpses Of World History.
- ^ )
- ^ a b c Barker 1968, pp. 292–293.
- OCLC 252806536.
- ^ a b c Barker 1968, pp. 281, 300.
- ISBN 978-8-85-451073-9.
- ^ a b c Mack Smith 1983, pp. 231, 417.
- ^ Rainer Baudendistel, Between bombs and good intentions: the Red Cross and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–1936. Berghahn Books. 2006 pp. 239, 131–132
- ^ Labanca 2004, pp. 300–313.
- ^ a b Sbacchi 1978, p. 43.
- ^ a b Antonicelli 1975, p. 79.
- ^ Labanca 2004, pp. 28–66.
- ^ Dominioni 2008, p. 7.
- ^ Labanca 2004, pp. 146–148.
- ^ a b Barker 1968, pp. 1–6.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Mockler 2003, p. 46.
- ^ Shinn & Ofcansky 2013, p. 392.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kallis 2000, p. 126.
- ^ Stearns & Langer 2002, p. 677.
- ^ Crozier 2004, p. 108.
- ^ Stackelberg 2009, p. 164.
- ^ Kallis 2000, p. 127.
- ^ a b c Kallis 2000, p. 145.
- ^ S2CID 143863579.
- ^ Calvitt Clarke 1999, pp. 9–20.
- ^ "Selassie's Guard Fights on UN Side". Eugene Register-Guard. 2 June 1951.
- ^ "Haile Selassie's Draft Order". The Afro American. 17 April 1948.[dead link]
- ^ a b c Stapleton 2013, p. 203.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 57.
- ^ Norway, Neville Shute (1954). Slide Rule. London: William Heinemann. pp. 212–215.
- ^ Othen 2017, pp. 238–239.
- ^ Othen 2017, p. 238.
- ^ Nicolle 1997, p. 18.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 47.
- ^ Baer 1976, p. 13.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 318.
- ^ Nicolle 1997, p. 41.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 237, 267.
- ^ Gooch 2007, p. 301.
- ^ a b Gooch 2007, p. 299.
- ^ a b Barker 1968, p. 222.
- ^ a b c Barker 1971, p. 33.
- ^ Nicolle 1997, p. 11.
- ^ Recovery of the aerial photographs of Ethiopia in the 1930s
- ^ a b Barker 1971, p. 35.
- ^ Clarence-Smith 1989, p. 103.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 157.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 170.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 36.
- ^ Nicolle 1997, p. 8.
- ^ a b Holt 2011, p. 1384.
- ^ Holt 2011, p. 1392.
- ^ Holt 2011, pp. 1394–1395.
- ^ Mockler 2003, p. 75.
- ^ a b c d Kallis 2000, p. 128.
- ^ Kallis 2000, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 187–210.
- ^ a b Barker 1971, p. 45.
- ^ a b c Barker 1968, p. 219.
- ^ Time, December 2, 1935.
- ^ Time, February 10, 1936.
- ^ Palla 2000, p. 104.
- ^ Mack Smith 1983, pp. 231–232.
- ^ Mack Smith 1983, p. 232.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Safire 1997, p. 318.
- ^ a b Barker 1968, pp. 237–238.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 247–256.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 105.
- ^ Abbink, De Bruijn & Van Walraven 2003, p. 94.
- ^ Abbink, De Bruijn & Van Walraven 2003, p. 95.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 70.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 76.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 112.
- ^ Barker 1971, pp. 123, 121.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 109.
- ^ Akyeampong & Gates 2012, p. 543.
- ^ Spencer 2006, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Spencer 2006, p. 59.
- ^ a b Spencer 2006, p. 61.
- ^ Spencer 2006, p. 62.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 126.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 125.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 262–263.
- ^ a b c d Abbink, De Bruijn & Van Walraven 2003, p. 97.
- ^ a b Nicolle 1997, p. 12.
- ^ a b Barker 1971, p. 127.
- ^ a b c Marcus 1999, p. 32.
- ^ Abbink, De Bruijn & Van Walraven 2003, p. 102.
- ^ Mockler 2003, p. 168.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 282.
- ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- JSTOR 217347.
- ^ a b c Mockler, Anthony (2003) Haile Selassie's War, pp. 163 – 169
- ^ Sbacchi 1978, p. 37.
- ^ Sbacchi 1997, p. xxi.
- ^ Sbacchi 1978, pp. 43, 36–38.
- ^ Sbacchi 1997, pp. xxi–xxii.
- ^ Barker 1968, pp. 91.
- ^ Mack Smith 1983, p. 234.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 131.
- ^ Kallis 2000, pp. 124, 197–198.
- ^ a b Kallis 2000, p. 74.
- ^ a b Barker 1971, pp. 131–132.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 133.
- ^ Salerno 1997, pp. 66–104.
- ^ Holt 2011, pp. 1381–1401.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 159.
- ^ Baer 1976, p. 299.
- ^ Baer 1976, p. 298.
- ^ Lowe & Marzari 2010, p. 307.
- ^ Marcus 1999, p. 20.
- ^ USSD 1943, pp. 28–32.
- ^ Marcus 1999, p. 22.
- ^ Lamb 1999, p. 214.
- ^ Mack Smith 1983, p. 231.
- ^ Jeffrey Legro, Cooperation Under Fire: Anglo-German Restraint During World War II (Cornell University Press, 2005).
- ^ Walter Laqueur, The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 57.
- ^ Baudendistel 2006, p. 131.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 56.
- ^ Clark 1959, p. 20.
- ^ Paolo Tripodi. "L'eredità coloniale in Somalia" Section: 'Adua vendicata'. St. Martin P. Inc., New York, 1999.St. Martin P. Inc., New York, 1999
- ^ "The use of chemical weapons in the 1935–36 Italo-Ethiopian War" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. October 2009.
- ^ a b c Smart 1997, pp. 1–78.
- ^ Zamorani, Massimo. La strage della "Gondrand", in "Storia militare", XXI, nº 236, May 2013, pp. 37–39
- S2CID 145516332.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 281.
- ^ Barker 1968, p. 272.
- ^ Cannistraro 1982, p. 5.
- ^ Barker 1971, p. 156.
- ^ Cernuschi 1994, p. 74.
Sources
Books
- Abbink, Gerrit Jan; De Bruijn, Mirjam; Van Walraven, Klass, eds. (2003). Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History. African Dynamics. Vol. II (illus. ed.). Leiden, NL: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12624-4. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
- Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Gates, Henry Louis, eds. (2012). Dictionary of African Biography. Vol. II. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 9780195382075.
- Antonicelli, Franco (1975). Trent'anni di storia italiana: dall'antifascismo alla Resistenza (1915–1945) lezioni con testimonianze [Thirty Years of Italian History: From Antifascism to the Resistance (1915–1945) Lessons with Testimonials]. Reprints Einaudi (in Italian). Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore. OCLC 878595757.
- Baer, George W. (1976). Test Case: Italy, Ethiopia, and the League of Nations. Stanford, California: Hoover Institute Press, Stanford University. ISBN 978-0-8179-6591-4.
- Barker, A. J. (1968). The Civilising Mission: The Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–6. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-93201-6.
- Barker, A. J. (1971). Rape of Ethiopia, 1936. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-02462-6.
- Baudendistel, Reiner (2006). Between Bombs and Good Intentions: The Red Cross and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–1936. Human Rights in Context. Vol. I. Oxford: Berghahn. ISBN 978-1-84545-035-9.
- Candeloro, Giorgio (1981). Storia dell'Italia Moderna [History of Modern Italy] (in Italian) (10th ed.). Milano: Feltrinelli. OCLC 797807582.
- Cannistraro, Philip V. (1982). Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-21317-5.
- Clarence-Smith, W. G. (1989). The Economics of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 978-0-7146-3359-6.
- Clark, D. K. (1959). Effectiveness of Toxic Chemicals in the Italo–Ethiopian War. Bethesda, Maryland: Operations Research Office.
- Crozier, Andrew J. (2004). The Causes of the Second World War. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-18601-4.
- Del Boca, Angelo; Rochat, Giorgio (1996). I gas di Mussolini: il fascismo e la guerra d'Etiopia [Mussolini's Gas: Fascism and the Ethiopian War]. Primo piano (in Italian). Roma: ISBN 978-88-359-4091-3.
- del Boca, Angelo (2005). Italiani, brava gente? Un mito duro a morire [Italians, Good People? A Myth dies Hard]. I colibrì (in Italian). Vicenza: N. Pozza. ISBN 978-88-545-0013-6.
- Del Boca, Angelo (2009). Gli italiani in Africa Orientale - II. La conquista dell'Impero. Milan: Mondadori. ISBN 978-88-04-46947-6.
- Dominioni, M. (2008). Lo sfascio dell'impero: gli italiani in Etiopia [The Collapse of the Empire: The Italians in Ethiopia]. Quadrante Laterza, 143. Roma: Laterza. ISBN 978-8-84-208533-1.
- Gooch, John (2007). Mussolini and His Generals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7.
- Kallis, Aristotle (2000). Fascist Ideology Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21612-8.
- Lamb, Richard (1999). Mussolini as Diplomat. New York: Fromm International. ISBN 978-0-88064-244-6.
- Leckie, Robert (1987). Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-015812-5.
- Lowe, Cedric James; Marzari, F. (2010) [1975]. Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940. Foreign Policies of the Great Powers. Vol. VIII (online ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-88880-4.
- ISBN 978-0-394-50694-4.
- Mack Smith, D. (1983) [1981]. Mussolini. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-586-08444-1.
- Mallet, Robert (2015) [2015]. Mussolini in Ethiopia, 1919–1935. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107090439.
- Marcus, Harold, ed. (1999). Haile Selassie I: My Life and Ethiopia's Progress: The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Selassie I, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Vol. II. Translated by Gebions, Ezekiel. Chicago: Research Associates School Times Publications. ISBN 978-0-948390-40-1.
- Mignemi, A., ed. (1982). Si e no padroni del mondo. Etiopia 1935–36. Immagine e consenso per un impero [Yes and no: Masters of the World. Ethiopia 1935–36. Image and Consensus for an Empire] (in Italian). Novara: Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Provincia Novara Piero Fornara. OCLC 878601977.
- Mockler, Anthony (2003). Haile Selassie's War. New York: Olive Branch Press. ISBN 978-1-56656-473-1.
- Nicolle, David (1997). The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935–1936. Westminster, Maryland: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-692-7.
- Othen, Christopher (2017). Lost Lions of Judah: Haile Selassie's Mongrel Foreign Legion. Amberley. ISBN 978-1-4456-5983-1.
- Palla, Marco (2000). Mussolini and Fascism. Interlink Illustrated Histories. New York: Interlink Books. ISBN 978-1-56656-340-6.
- Pankhurst, R. (1968). A Brief Note on the Economic History of Ethiopia from 1800 to 1935. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University. OCLC 434191.
- Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy 1931–1941. Washington, DC: United States Department of State. 1983 [1943]. from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017 – via Hyperwar Foundation.
- Rochat, Giorgio (2008). Le guerre italiane 1935-1943. Milano: Einaudi. ISBN 978-88-06-19168-9.
- ISBN 978-0-340-02394-5.
- Safire, William (1997). Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (rev. expanded ed.). New York: norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04005-0.
- Sbacchi, A. (1997). Legacy of Bitterness: Ethiopia and Fascist Italy, 1935–1941. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Red Sea Press. ISBN 978-0-932415-74-5.
- Shinn, D. H.; Ofcansky, T. P. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Historical dictionaries of Africa (2nd ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7194-6.
- Smart, J. K. (1997). "History of Chemical and Biological Warfare: An American Perspective" (PDF). In Zajtchuk, Russ (ed.). Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Textbook of Military Medicine: Warfare, Weaponry and the Casualty: Part I. Vol. III (online ed.). Bethesda, Maryland: Office of The Surgeon General Department of the Army, United States of America. OCLC 40153101. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-59907-000-1.
- Stackelberg, R. (2009). Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-37331-9.
- Stapleton, Timothy J. (2013). A Military History of Africa: The Colonial Period: from the Scramble for Africa to the Algerian Independence War (ca. 1870–1963). Vol. II. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39570-3.
- Stapleton, Timothy (2018). Africa: War and Conflict in the Twentieth Century. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 9781351104661.
- Stearns, Peter N.; Langer, William Leonard (2002). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval and Modern (6th, online ed.). New York: Bartleby.com. OCLC 51671800.
- Sullivan, Barry (1999). "More than Meets the Eye: The Ethiopian War and the Origins of the Second World War". In Martel, G. (ed.). The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered A. J. P. Taylor and the Historians (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 178–203. ISBN 978-0-415-16325-5.
Journals
- Cernuschi, Enrico (December 1994). "La resistenza sconosciuta in Africa Orientale" [The Unknown Resistance in East Africa]. Rivista Storica (in Italian). OCLC 30747124.
- Calvitt Clarke, J. (1999). "Japan and Italy squabble over Ethiopia: The Sugimura affair of July 1935". Selected Annual Proceedings of the Florida Conference of Historians: 9–20. ISSN 2373-9517. Archived from the originalon 8 June 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
- Holt, Andrew (2011). "No more Hoares to Paris': British Foreign Policymaking and the Abyssinian Crisis, 1935". Review of International Studies. XXXVII (3): 1, 383–1, 401. ISSN 0260-2105.
- Labanca, Nicola (2004). "Colonial rule, colonial repression and war crimes in the Italian colonies". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 9 (3): 300–313. S2CID 144498755.
- Sbacchi, Alberto (1978). Marcus, H. G. (ed.). "The Price of Empire: Towards an Enumeration of Italian Casualties in Ethiopia 1935–40". Ethiopianist Notes. II (2). ISSN 1063-2751.
- Salerno, Reynolds M. (1997). "The French Navy and the Appeasement of Italy, 1937–9". ISSN 0013-8266.
Further reading
Books
- Burgwyn, H. J. (1997). Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918–1940. Praeger Studies of Foreign Policies of the Great Powers. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-94877-1.
- Crociani, P.; Viotti, A. (1980). Le Uniformi Dell' A.O.I., Somalia, 1889–1941 [Uniforms of Italian East Africa, Somalia, 1889–1941] (in Italian). Roma: La Roccia. OCLC 164959633.
- De Bono, E. (1937). La conquista dell' Impero. La preparazione e le prime operazioni [The Preparation and First Operations]. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Roma: Istituto Nazionale Fascista di Cultura. OCLC 46203391.
- Del Boca, A. (1965). La guerra d'Abissinia: 1935–1941 [The Ethiopian War 1935–1941] (in Italian). Milano: Feltrinelli. OCLC 799937693.
- Giannini, Filippo; Mussolini, Guido (1999). Benito Mussolini, l'uomo della pace: da Versailles al 10 giugno 1940 [Benito Mussolini, the Man of Peace: From Versailles to 10 June 1940]. Roma: Editoriale Greco e Greco. ISBN 978-88-7980-133-1.
- Graziani, R. (1938). Il fronte Sud [The South Front] (in Italian). Milano: A. Mondadori. OCLC 602590204.
- Kershaw, Ian (1999). Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04671-7.
- Matthews, Herbert Lionel (1937). Eyewitness in Abyssinia: With Marshal Bodoglio's forces to Addis Ababa. London: M. Secker & Warburg. OCLC 5315947.
- ISBN 978-0-14-028530-7.
- Shinn, David Hamilton; Prouty, Chris; Ofcansky, Thomas P. (2004). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4910-5.
- Starace, A. (1937). La marcia su Gondar della colonna celere A.O. e le successive operazioni nella Etiopia Occidentale [The March on Gondar, the Expedited Column A.O. and Subsequent Operations in Western Ethiopia]. Milano: A. Mondadori. OCLC 799891187.
- Walker, Ian W. (2003). Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts: Mussolini's elite Armoured Divisions in North Africa. Marlborough: Crowood. ISBN 978-1-86126-646-0.
- Willoughby, C. A. (1990) [1939]. "XI: The Italo-Ethiopian War" (PDF). Maneuver in War. FMRP 12, 13 (repr. online ed.). Washington, DC: Department of the Navy: Headquarters United States Marine Corps. pp. 230–285. OCLC 34869726. PCN 140 12130000. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
Theses
- May, M. A. (2000). Fuelling Fascism: British and Italian Economic Relations in the 1930s, League Sanctions and the Abyssinian Crisis (PhD). London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London). OCLC 940362449. Docket uk.bl.ethos.482810. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
External links
- Speech to the League of Nations, June 1936 Archived 22 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine (full text)
- British newsreel footage of Haile Selassie's address to the League of Nations
- Regio Esercito: La Campagna d'Etiopia
- Ethiopia 1935–36: mustard gas and attacks on the Red Cross (Full version in French) – Bernard Bridel, Le Temps
- The use of chemical weapons in the 1935–36 Italo-Ethiopian War – SIPRI Arms Control and Non-proliferation Programme, October 2009
- Mussolini's Invasion and the Italian Occupation
- Mussolini's Ethiopia Campaign
- OnWar: Second Italo–Abyssinian War 1935–1936
- The Day the Angel Cried
- The Emperor Leaves Ethiopia
- Ascari: I Leoni di Eritrea/Ascari: The Lions of Eritrea. Second Italo-Abyssinian war. Eritrea colonial history, Eritrean ascari pictures/photos galleries and videos, historical atlas...
- Ross, F. 1937. The Strategical Conduct of the Campaign and supply and Evacuation Programmes Archived 19 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Italian videos of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia on YouTube(in Italian)
- Songs of 2nd Italo-Abyssinian War