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Gideon Force
Gideon Force was a small British and African special force, a Corps d'Élite with the Sudan Defence Force, Ethiopian regular forces and Arbegnoch (Amharic for Patriots). Gideon Force fought the Italian occupation in Ethiopia, during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. The leader and creator of the force was Major (later Colonel) Orde Wingate. At its peak, Gideon Force had fifty officers, twenty British NCOs, 800 trained Sudanese troops and 800 part-trained Ethiopian regulars, a few mortars but no artillery and no air support, except for intermittent bombing sorties.
The force operated in difficult country at the end of a long, tenuous supply-line, on which perished nearly all of the 15,000 camels used as beasts of burden. Gideon Force and the Arbegnoch ejected the Italian forces commanded in Ethiopia by General Guglielmo Nasi (the conqueror of British Somaliland). The campaign took six weeks; 1,100 Italian and 14,500 Ethiopian troops were captured along with twelve guns, many machine-guns, rifles, much ammunition and over 200 pack animals. Gideon Force was disbanded on 1 June 1941, Wingate resumed this substantive rank of Major and returned to Egypt, as did many of the troops of Gideon Force, who joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in the Eighth Army.
During the First Italo-Abyssinian War (1895–1896), the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) had been defeated by the forces of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia at the Battle of Adowa. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October 1935, the Italians invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. On 9 May 1936, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, proclaimed Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI), formed from the newly conquered Ethiopia and the colonies of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, making the AOI a threat to the British supply route along the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Kingdom of Egypt remained neutral during the war but the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 allowed the British to occupy Egypt to defend the Suez Canal. Egypt included the Sudan as a condominium known as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were vulnerable to an Italian invasion but Mussolini looked forward to propaganda triumphs in the Sudan and British East Africa (Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda). Comando Supremo (the Italian General Staff) had planned for a war after 1942 and in the summer of 1940 was not prepared for a long war or the occupation large parts of Africa.
The British had based forces in Egypt since 1882 but these were greatly reduced by the terms of the treaty of 1936. A small British and Commonwealth force garrisoned the Suez Canal and the Red Sea route, which was vital to British communications with its Indian Ocean and Far Eastern territories. In mid-1939, Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the new Middle East Command, over the Mediterranean and Middle East. Until the Franco–German Armistice of 22 June 1940, French divisions in Tunisia faced the Italian 5th Army on the western Libyan border. In Libya, the Italian Army had about 215,000 men and in Egypt, the British had about 36,000 troops, with another 27,500 men training in Palestine. Wavell had about 86,000 troops at his disposal for Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran and East Africa, whose frontiers were guarded by an average of about eight men to 1 mi (1.6 km).
Wavell resolved to conduct the delaying actions recommended in Operations against Italian East Africa by his Operations Section of August 1940. Pressure was to be maintained everywhere to make the Italians exhaust their resources, a limited offensive in Sudan was to be conducted at Kassala and an advance was to be made on Kisimayu by January or February 1941. The Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden convened a conference in Khartoum at the end of October 1940, with the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and others. Attempts would be made to encourage unrest among local civilians, particularly in Ethiopia, where Mission 101 had crossed the frontier on 12 August and the inclusion Ethiopian irregular forces was agreed upon at the conference. In November 1940, the British and Commonwealth forces gained an intelligence advantage when the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS) at Bletchley Park broke the high grade cypher of the Regio Esercito in East Africa. Later that month, the replacement cypher for the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) was broken by the Combined Bureau, Middle East (CBME).
In August 1939, Wavell had ordered a plan covertly to encourage the rebellion in the western Ethiopian province of Gojjam, that the Italians had never been able to repress. In September, Colonel Daniel Sandford arrived to run the project but until the Italian declaration of war, the conspiracy was held back by the policy of appeasement. Mission 101 (named after the No. 101 fuze) was a force composed of British, Sudanese and Ethiopian soldiers formed to co-ordinate the activities of the Ethiopian resistance. In June 1940, Selassie arrived in Egypt and in July, went to Sudan to meet Platt and discuss plans to re-capture Ethiopia, despite Platt's reservations.
In July, the British recognised Selassie as emperor and in August, Mission 101 entered Gojjam province to reconnoitre. Sandford requested that supply routes be established before the rains ended, to the area north of Lake Tana and that Selassie should return in October, as a catalyst for the uprising. Gaining control of Gojjam required the Italian garrisons to be isolated along the main road from Bahrdar Giorgis south of Lake Tana, to Dangila, Debre Marqos and Addis Ababa, to prevent them concentrating against the Arbegnoch. Italian reinforcements arrived in October and patrolled more frequently, just as dissensions among local potentates were reconciled by Sandford's diplomacy.
The Frontier Battalion of the Sudan Defence Force, established in May 1940, was joined at Khartoum by the 2nd Ethiopian and 4th Eritrean battalions, raised from émigré volunteers in Kenya. Operational Centres of an officer, five NCOs and several Ethiopian troops, were formed and trained in guerrilla warfare, to provide leadership cadres; £1 million was set aside to finance operations. Major Orde Wingate was sent to Khartoum with an assistant to join the HQ of the SDF. On 20 November, Wingate was flown to Sakhala to meet Sandford and the RAF managed to bomb Dangila, drop propaganda leaflets and supply Mission 101, which raised Ethiopian morale, having suffered much from Italian air power since the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Mission 101 managed to persuade the Arbegnogh north of Lake Tana to spring several ambushes on the Metemma–Gondar road and the Italian garrison at Wolkait was withdrawn in February 1941.
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Gideon Force
Gideon Force was a small British and African special force, a Corps d'Élite with the Sudan Defence Force, Ethiopian regular forces and Arbegnoch (Amharic for Patriots). Gideon Force fought the Italian occupation in Ethiopia, during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. The leader and creator of the force was Major (later Colonel) Orde Wingate. At its peak, Gideon Force had fifty officers, twenty British NCOs, 800 trained Sudanese troops and 800 part-trained Ethiopian regulars, a few mortars but no artillery and no air support, except for intermittent bombing sorties.
The force operated in difficult country at the end of a long, tenuous supply-line, on which perished nearly all of the 15,000 camels used as beasts of burden. Gideon Force and the Arbegnoch ejected the Italian forces commanded in Ethiopia by General Guglielmo Nasi (the conqueror of British Somaliland). The campaign took six weeks; 1,100 Italian and 14,500 Ethiopian troops were captured along with twelve guns, many machine-guns, rifles, much ammunition and over 200 pack animals. Gideon Force was disbanded on 1 June 1941, Wingate resumed this substantive rank of Major and returned to Egypt, as did many of the troops of Gideon Force, who joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in the Eighth Army.
During the First Italo-Abyssinian War (1895–1896), the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) had been defeated by the forces of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia at the Battle of Adowa. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October 1935, the Italians invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. On 9 May 1936, the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, proclaimed Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI), formed from the newly conquered Ethiopia and the colonies of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, making the AOI a threat to the British supply route along the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Kingdom of Egypt remained neutral during the war but the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 allowed the British to occupy Egypt to defend the Suez Canal. Egypt included the Sudan as a condominium known as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were vulnerable to an Italian invasion but Mussolini looked forward to propaganda triumphs in the Sudan and British East Africa (Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda). Comando Supremo (the Italian General Staff) had planned for a war after 1942 and in the summer of 1940 was not prepared for a long war or the occupation large parts of Africa.
The British had based forces in Egypt since 1882 but these were greatly reduced by the terms of the treaty of 1936. A small British and Commonwealth force garrisoned the Suez Canal and the Red Sea route, which was vital to British communications with its Indian Ocean and Far Eastern territories. In mid-1939, Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the new Middle East Command, over the Mediterranean and Middle East. Until the Franco–German Armistice of 22 June 1940, French divisions in Tunisia faced the Italian 5th Army on the western Libyan border. In Libya, the Italian Army had about 215,000 men and in Egypt, the British had about 36,000 troops, with another 27,500 men training in Palestine. Wavell had about 86,000 troops at his disposal for Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran and East Africa, whose frontiers were guarded by an average of about eight men to 1 mi (1.6 km).
Wavell resolved to conduct the delaying actions recommended in Operations against Italian East Africa by his Operations Section of August 1940. Pressure was to be maintained everywhere to make the Italians exhaust their resources, a limited offensive in Sudan was to be conducted at Kassala and an advance was to be made on Kisimayu by January or February 1941. The Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden convened a conference in Khartoum at the end of October 1940, with the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and others. Attempts would be made to encourage unrest among local civilians, particularly in Ethiopia, where Mission 101 had crossed the frontier on 12 August and the inclusion Ethiopian irregular forces was agreed upon at the conference. In November 1940, the British and Commonwealth forces gained an intelligence advantage when the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS) at Bletchley Park broke the high grade cypher of the Regio Esercito in East Africa. Later that month, the replacement cypher for the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) was broken by the Combined Bureau, Middle East (CBME).
In August 1939, Wavell had ordered a plan covertly to encourage the rebellion in the western Ethiopian province of Gojjam, that the Italians had never been able to repress. In September, Colonel Daniel Sandford arrived to run the project but until the Italian declaration of war, the conspiracy was held back by the policy of appeasement. Mission 101 (named after the No. 101 fuze) was a force composed of British, Sudanese and Ethiopian soldiers formed to co-ordinate the activities of the Ethiopian resistance. In June 1940, Selassie arrived in Egypt and in July, went to Sudan to meet Platt and discuss plans to re-capture Ethiopia, despite Platt's reservations.
In July, the British recognised Selassie as emperor and in August, Mission 101 entered Gojjam province to reconnoitre. Sandford requested that supply routes be established before the rains ended, to the area north of Lake Tana and that Selassie should return in October, as a catalyst for the uprising. Gaining control of Gojjam required the Italian garrisons to be isolated along the main road from Bahrdar Giorgis south of Lake Tana, to Dangila, Debre Marqos and Addis Ababa, to prevent them concentrating against the Arbegnoch. Italian reinforcements arrived in October and patrolled more frequently, just as dissensions among local potentates were reconciled by Sandford's diplomacy.
The Frontier Battalion of the Sudan Defence Force, established in May 1940, was joined at Khartoum by the 2nd Ethiopian and 4th Eritrean battalions, raised from émigré volunteers in Kenya. Operational Centres of an officer, five NCOs and several Ethiopian troops, were formed and trained in guerrilla warfare, to provide leadership cadres; £1 million was set aside to finance operations. Major Orde Wingate was sent to Khartoum with an assistant to join the HQ of the SDF. On 20 November, Wingate was flown to Sakhala to meet Sandford and the RAF managed to bomb Dangila, drop propaganda leaflets and supply Mission 101, which raised Ethiopian morale, having suffered much from Italian air power since the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Mission 101 managed to persuade the Arbegnogh north of Lake Tana to spring several ambushes on the Metemma–Gondar road and the Italian garrison at Wolkait was withdrawn in February 1941.
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