In 1881, Italy had bought a foothold on the arid Eritrean coast line from
the impoverished
Turks who saw no value in it at all. Italy was bled white to provide the
gold poured into the
ancient slave-tradeing Arab village of Massawa to convert it into a modern
port. From
Mussolini's viewpoint to build in Massawa a strong Italian naval base.
>From that ,
submarines, destroyers, cruisers, and novel fast motor torpedo boats could
dominate the
vital Red Sea route.
In 1942 Massawa was best harbor in all the Red Sea and practically the only
one suitable
for naval base able to support operations in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient
Massawa lay on the hot Red Sea coastal desert, the traffic stream passing
via Suez
between Europe and Asia The north coast of the Red Sea bordering Arabia has
no harbors
at all. Massawa had blossomed into a modern harbor in 1942.
According the book : Under The Red Sea Sun by commander Edward Ellsberg
1945
Thank you
Yonatan
Received on Wed Oct 17 2012 - 19:33:37 EDT
