[dehai-news] History Flashback: Feb. 10, 1941| Push into Eritrea - TIME


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From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu May 14 2009 - 13:51:17 EDT


TIME Partners with CNN
 
Push into Eritrea

Monday, Feb. 10, 1941
 
British Empire forces, which had driven 70 miles into Eritrea from the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, last week took Agordat (see map, p. 23). This
town, 2,000 feet up on the Eritrean plateau, is strategically placed at
the junction of a railway to Massaua on the Red Sea and a new highway to
Addis Ababa. Agordat was defended by one Italian division. In taking the
town, the attackers claimed "many hundreds of prisoners," but the
Italians were not entirely surrounded, and the main body retreated into
increasingly mountainous country behind Agordat.
 
With Agordat in their possession, the British were set to cut off
Northern Eritrea and eventually squeeze Ethiopia. Against the day when
the Ethiopian squeeze might be applied, Negus Haile Selassie and Crown
Prince Asfa Wassan, a slim lad of 24 who divorced his wife be ause her
father submitted to the Italians, rallied their compatriots.
 
In their Eritrean push, the British used a skill which was more than
tactical. The region around Agordat is inhabited by a tribe of pure
Hamites, direct descendants of ancient Egyptians, in religion mostly
Moslem. There are also quite a few Indians in Eritrea. They do not like
their Italian any more than any other white masters.
 
With their great experience in ruling native populations, the British
staged their attack on Eritrea largely with Indian troops - also mostly
Moslems. These troops not only fought fiercely against the Italians;
they were well received by the natives. It also looked well to the whole
Middle Eastern Moslem world, which is already largely pledged to Britain
although Signer Mussolini declared himself Defender of Islam in 1937. In
the East the British had once more reversed their old maxim, Divide and
Rule, to read: Unite and Revolt.
 
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,932537,00.html

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