Italian Army Combat Analysis- Abyssinia

[Willdisco]

Hello,

I'm currently writing a dissertation in the style of a combat analysis of Italian troops during their invasion of Abyssinia. Does anyone know of any military journals (British or Italian) that may have primary reports on the Italian army? Any other help would also be appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Will

[steverodgers801]

Mussolini and his generals is a good book

[Orwell1984]

Wesley Wark's paper BRITISH INTELLIGENCE AND SMALL WARS IN THE 1930s

http://media.nara.gov/dc-metro/rg-263/6 ... -111-4.pdf

considers the Abyssinia campaign as one of its examples and gives reasons why it wasn't considered that important or relevant (rightly or wrongly) by the British. Look at pages 43-45

[jwsleser]

del Valle, Colonel Pedro A. USMC ROMAN EAGLES OVER ETHIOPIA . Del Valle was the official US military observer during the war.

There another observer book that covers Ethiopia. I can't remember the title, but it is in CARL. I will look for it tomorrow.

Pista! Jeff

[Orwell1984]

Came across the following in my searches too.
Written in 1936-7
Italo-Abyssinian War: The Strategic conduct of the campaign and supply and evacuation operations

http://www.benning.army.mil/library/con ... %20CPT.pdf

The bibliography of this paper should be useful to you as it lists many contemporary observers and articles on the campaign.

[Sid Guttridge]

As I understood it from a few years ago, the relevant Italian archives were not yet publicly open.

Is this still the case, eighty years after the event?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Pedro Ruíz]

Wildisco,I made a small study about the Italo-Ethiopian War 1936-36 in September of 2010 in the Forum of Comando Supremo.I put here the link,I hope that this article can be useful for you.I titled it,The Italian Fascist invasion of Ethiopia 1935-36.

http://www.comandosupremo.com/forums/to ... a-1935-36/

Best wishes

Pedro

[Pedro Ruíz]

In the article that I wrote in 2010,I made a defense of Ethiopia,the Italian invasion hasn´t any justification;the Ethiopia of Haile Selassie wasn´t any thread for any country and wasn´t a thread for Italy,was a very poor country lived poorly of the underdeveloped agriculture and cattle.

[Mechili]

The Italian Army has recently published a large two-volumes official history of the 1935-36 campaign. It is of course a good work and a great source, but that war has been for decades an area of bitter clashes between - let's call them collectively "left wing" historians and writers, on one side, and conservative "nationalistic" writers along with some Army persons, on the other. The former aim at establishing the criminal nature of that war of aggression; the latter maintain it was not worse than several colonial massacres that stained the hands of the British, French, Spanish etc. so we have nothing to feel ashamed of. An Army history, as one can easily figure out, is unlikely to lie with the "crime screamers".

1935 through 1940 a number of books and articles were of course published on the war. Despite the roaring Fascist rhetoric, not a few of those works may still be worth reading and sometimes display a surprising quality and a plenty of information (if slanted) that is hard to find in post-war works.

As for who caused the war, it is worth pointing out that to some "conservative" authors the ultimate warmongers were the Ethiopians, made cocky not only by their 1896 victory but also by some instigation activity set up by the British. This may sound hard to believe and running counter all evidence we have. However it is just fair to acknowledge that the Wal Wal Incident of 1934 (a mini-battle in the desert harbinger of the next year's war) seems really an Ethiopian rather than an Italian provocation, and the British had some officers there with the Ethiopians reconnoitering the Somali-Ethiopian border line - no wonder the Italians may have thought they had a hand in the action.

[jwsleser]

The book Mechili is referring to is La campagna italo-etiopica (1935-1936) published by the USSME. it is quite good. Like most of the USSME books, it is two volumes. The first is the narration (text), the second are documents and appendices.

Then there is the official history that was written right before the war. Only the first volume was completed.

Campagnia-A.O.I. 1.jpg (113.88 KiB) Viewed 4025 times

There are two US observers titles. I mentioned Del Valle's book, but that was his commercial title. Better if you can find a copy of his reports published by the Office of Naval Intelligence: Diary and Reports of the U.S. naval observer of Italian operations in East Africa, March 1937 by Del Valle, Pedro A. More details and overall a better source than his Roman Eagles.

This is also Report of military observer with Italian armies in East Africa Major Norman Fiske. This is a very good report with plenty of details. In all there are ten reports. These have been reprinted but I don't know if they have the excellent maps, pictures and diagrams found in the originals.

Pista! Jeff

[Pedro Ruíz]

Here in Internet,we can find the book written by the Colonel Feodor Konovalov,he was a Russian military advisor of the Emperor Haile Selassie.Konovalov was in the battle of Mai Ceu,the last battle also named "Battle of Ascianghi Lake" in the invasion of Ethiopia.There is also other book about the Italo-Ethiopian War written by the Marshall Pietro Badoglio,this -perhaps- is one of the best History of the Italo-Etiopian War 1935-36.

[jwsleser]

Badoglio's book La Guerra d'Ethiopia was translated into English in 1937 as The War in Abyssinia. It is an enjoyable read and actually a fairly good history. The separate maps in the rear pocket are excellent. One must be careful as Badoglio is prone to embellish his participation. It also focuses on the northern prong of the invasion so isn't a complete history of the war.

War-in-Abyssinia.jpg (29.15 KiB) Viewed 4001 times

Pista! Jeff

[Pedro Ruíz]

In the Second World War in the final stages of the East African´s campaign exactly in the battle of Amba Alagi,the info given by Marshall Badoglio in his book about the Italo-Ethiopian War was used by the British commander Maj-Gen Mosley Main for to study the Italians forts defended the last position of the troops led by Duke of Aosta.He had 8.000 troops weaponred with guns,machine-guns,mortars and rifles for to defend this last defensive position.The description made in this book by Badoglio gave the thought to the Gen. Main (chief of the 5th Indian Division) for to attack the main defensive positions of Italian troops.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little complement................

Krieg in Ostafrika.................

Source: Das Interessante Blatt. 10 Oktober 1935.

Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little more................

Krieg in Ostafrika.................

Source: Das Interessante Blatt. 10 Oktober 1935.

Cheers. Raúl M .