This June I am going to research the last italian stand in the "Africa Orientale Italiana " (AOI), when was fought the Gondar battle in November 1941.
Photo showing the British giving the "Honours of War" to the last Italians defending their A.O.I.
This last battle was fought after the italian forces under coronel Maraventano were forced to left the stronghold of Debra Marcos, a city that should have been under the orders of Agenore Frangipani. He was the last Italian governor of Addis Ababa in 1941 and was also the last governor of Scioa Governorate. Frangipane was forced to surrender Addis Ababa to the British on April 6, 1941, following the Allied advance. But he later committed suicide during the retreat, reportedly due to the dishonor of surrender.
Indeed the last phase of the British "Gojjam campaign" (in north-west Ethiopia) was made of a series of small battles, with few casualties on both sides, which nevertheless fixed on their positions and kept constantly in alarm the Italian forces defending Debra Marcos. The garrison commander, Colonel Saverio Maraventano, although certainly capable not only of covering his base, but possibly counterattacking towards Buriè, was compelled by orders given him in Addis Abeba on March, 30th to evacuate the whole region (because also the ethiopian "Bande"-read if interested :https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2024.2335753#d1e783 - that helped the Italians since 1936, have abandoned him), falling back across the Blue Nile towards Dessiè.
The Supreme Command of the Africa Orientale Italiana was thus losing its best opportunity to extend the struggle in the north-western area of the colony, where General Guglielmo Nasi still had a strong and efficient army corps deployed around Gondar, which could be decisively reinforced by Maraventano’s units. Orde Wingate, simply keeping his Gideon Force in being in the Debra Marcos area in late March – and with the fear inspired by the irregular bands of murderous Arbegnoch rebels, strongly encouraged in their activity by the British offensive – was able to force their italian enemy to make a strategic blunder, giving up the opportunity of creating in the Gojjam a forward defensive position for the main fortress of Gondar, the last bulwark of the Italian Empire.
In the Gondar redoubt and its offshoots (Blagir-Celgà, Tucul-Dinghià, Ualag and Culqualber-Fercaber) Nasi could instead count on the remaining 29,000 men (seven national battalions, six colonial ones, thirteen batteries and a reserve of five battalions).
I have already written that the sacrifice of the 1st Carabinieri Battalion in the heroic defense of the stronghold of Culqualber, on November 21, 1941, should not be forgotten.
In November 1941, Italian military operations in Abyssinia were concentrated on the defense of Gondar. General Guglielmo Nasi had established garrisons at Uolchefit, Celga Blagir, Tucul Denghià and Culqualber, in the Amhara region.
This mountain pass was very important. Culqualber guaranteed control of the north-eastern shore of Lake Tana and the Ouramba plain. At the same time, the enemy necessarily had to pass through here to advance on Gondar with its armored units and artillery.
The garrison, placed under the command of Colonel Augusto Ugolini, could count on the 1st Mobilized Carabinieri Group, veteran of the battles on the heights of Blagir and Ineet Amba. Their morale was high but the men were exhausted by privations and constant efforts. For months they had fed exclusively on bargutta, a mixture of grains and fodder for draft animals. It was impossible to quench their thirst, the rivers were in fact far away and on routes controlled by the enemy. Despite this, with team spirit, they worked to fortify the positions.
In October, a rapid advance had allowed them to conquer Larnbà Mariarn and an English counteroffensive had been repelled. The Carabinieri, in those days, counted 36 fallen and 31 wounded, an enormous sacrifice that gave respite to the stronghold of Culqualber. But the enemy did not take long to reappear.
The garrison consisted of 226 Carabinieri and 180 Zaptié (military recruited by the Carabinieri from the indigenous populations of our colonies, in this case they were Eritreans), 675 Blackshirts of the CCXL CC.NN. “Salerno” battalion, under the command of Senior Alberto Cassòli, and approximately 620 Ascari of Major Carlo Garbieri. The garrison was completed by two artillery batteries, the 43rd with 3 77/288 guns and 40 Italian gunners and the 44th, with 2 70/159 howitzers and 34 Eritrean gunners, a platoon of Engineers (65 nationals and 23 colonials) and finally a field hospital (with 2 doctors and the military chaplain).
From 21 October, artillery fire operated and bombs launched by the air force thundered. On 5 November an attack was repelled; on the 12th a second and more powerful one was repelled; on the 18th the enemy air action became more fierce: nine aircraft were shot down by the Carabinieri, but on the 20th and 21st a new air assault, aggressive and continuous, was successfully accompanied by the relentless advance of the tanks.
The Carabinieri did not abandon their positions until they were overwhelmed. Almost all of them sacrificed themselves. It was one of the most bloody battles in Italian East Africa.
It is noteworthy to remember the sacrifice of the "Camicie Nere" of the Salerno fascist battalion CCXL: only a few dozen survived the fight and all of them were wounded. It was one of the highest percentages of casualties in all WW2.
Photo of the last Ascari (who fought in Gondar) and still living in 2003: Beraki Ghebreslasie. Another Ascari -Unatù Endisciau- received the italian gold medal of military valor at the Cuqualber battle
One ascari living in Roma in 2003 fought in Cuqualber and Gondar: Beraki Ghebrelslasie. Here it is his narration of these battles, when interviewed in that year:
..the remaining forces of the Duke of Aosta took up positions in defense of redoubts with the intention of resisting the overwhelming enemy units as long as possible. On May 19, 1941, after two weeks of heroic resistance, the stronghold of Amba Alagi surrendered, which received the honors of war from the English. There were still 80,000 Italians under arms, under the command of General Gazzena, in the south-western sector, and General Nasi, in the north-western sector.....I was assigned to the contingent of General Guglielmo Nasi in Gondar, Ethiopia. He immediately divided us into several points: Culquaber, Uolchefit and Debra Tabor. I was in Culquaber, about 40 km from Gondar. We were isolated, with no possibility of receiving reinforcements, but we felt protected by the mountains. It was a strategic point at 2,000 m above sea level. A formidable natural fortress.....Gondar had been chosen as the last defense of the empire because it towered over the surrounding Ethiopian plateau. To reach it, attackers were forced to climb steep rocky slopes and supplies could only reach it via difficult mule tracks. On these positions, the Italian troops and the Ascari competed in heroism, holding their own against an overwhelming enemy for a long time........The artillery and the English air force were decimating us, day after day. I had lost all my dearest comrades and I was certain that I would not survive either. General Nasi is a hero, if I am alive today I owe it only to him. We, his men, were the last to lower the Italian flag. We resisted, without eating or sleeping for five long days. There were only a few of us left but we had all become brothers. All of us. I will never forget them.
In the final phase of the fighting at Gondar and Culqualber, the Regia Aeronautica could only counter a hundred English aircraft with two Fiat C.R.42 “Falco” fighters.
Both were lost during desperate fighting: the British killed the Italian pilot Malavolti, who attacked with the last one but they later dropped on Gondar to honor him this message:"Tribute to the pilot of the Fiat. He was a brave man. South African Air Force."
Photo of pilot Ildebrando Malavolta. his gold medal for military valor states:"A skilled and generous fighter pilot, who had already distinguished himself in the past, with the aim of providing precise information to his own commands on the size and location of enemy armed forces besieging a stronghold, he volunteered to carry out the sortie alone, despite the precarious efficiency of the old aircraft available and the certain opposition of superior enemy air forces. He carried out the mission successfully; on the way back, attacked by two fighter aircraft, he managed, after a strenuous fight, to shoot down one and force the other to crash-land. Reached near our advanced lines by a third attacker who approached him under cover of clouds, despite being short of ammunition, he boldly engaged in combat. Mortally wounded, he ended his young life with the supreme holocaust to the Fatherland. The enemy, by means of a message launched from an airplane, paid his pious and chivalrous homage to the hero. Sky of the A.O.I. (Gondar), October 24, 1941."
At the beginning of November 1941, the Regia’s command tried a few more symbolic links to Gondar, to support – at least psychologically – the besieged. On November 9, the SM75 I-LAME took off from Rome under the command of lieutenant Guido Bertolini (the other members of crew were the second pilot lieutenant Fernando Battezzati, the wireless operator, lieutenant Carlo Profumo and the engineer, lieutenant Giacomo Timolina). The aircraft – loaded with about 100 kg of medicals, cigarettes, food and mail – made a stop over in Libya to reach directly Djibouti on November 11 at 8.00 am. The bad weather conditions and the dark had in fact prevented commander Bertolini from landing at once at Gondar. On November 12 at 1.40 am, the SM75 took off again from the Somali airport, heading to the Italian stronghold. After about one hour of navigation, due to a violent storm and bad visibility, the machine crashed on the summits of the Debra Tabor massif. The whole crew perished in the terrible disaster. With this casualty the epic deeds of the SM75 employed in the links to IEA came to an end: a long and difficult operational cycle which, unfortunately, did not prevent shortly after the collapse of the last strip of the Italian empire. On November 27, in the Italian manufacture Savoia Marchetti of Vergiate (Lombardy) the engineers were fighting against time, trying to fit a new machine (the SM75 I-LINI) with four 413 litres supplementary fuel tanks and one Salmoiraghi auto-pilot device for night-flight. On the same day, general Guglielmo Nasi’s troops were surrendering after a six-months siege. Alberto Rosselli
Once the Allied troops had taken the passes around Culqualber, they gained control of the heights overlooking Gondar and reached the town on 23 November 1941. There they found huge defenses and were initially blocked by heavy fighting.
However the garrison of Gondar was seriously depleted. The final assault on Gondar, where Nasi had his headquarters, started at 5:30 a.m. on 27 November. The Azozo airfield was the initial objective; it was captured by midday of 27 November with bloody fights and shortly afterwards, Commonwealth troops reached Fasilides Castle.
After the conquest of Culqualber, the British had easier and less defended access to Gondar and it became superfluous to conquer the other strongholds of Ualag, Chercher, Celgà and Gorgorà. The final offensive against the stronghold of Gondar was launched at 04:30 on 27 November 1941: the KAR of the 25th Brigade attacked from the south supported by 60 tanks, while from the east attacked the 26th Brigade of Ethiopian irregulars and a battalion of Gaullists. Around 10:00 Nasi communicated to Rome that the enemy had now penetrated the city, at 11:00 the locality of Azozò with its airport fell after very heavy fighting and at the same time some British tanks entered the city. Shortly after midday, while Ethiopian irregulars were looting the first houses on the outskirts and military warehouses, the indigenous population also began to loot Italian property. At 1.30 pm Nasi communicated to Rome that: «Gondar is all a volcano with gunpowder magazines exploding and warehouses burning. The battle is lost. I no longer have any strength to maintain it, no means to direct it». At 2.30 pm the Italian commander sent two parliamentarians towards the British lines, when Ethiopian squads and regular formations were now in the city centre. Around 4.00 pm some British tanks reached the Bank of Italy, where Nasi had his headquarters, and a British lieutenant requested the last governor of the A.O.I. to surrender, while the British flag was raised with difficulty on the roof of the bank. Two hours later -after more heavy fighting- Nasi formally surrendered to General James and, after having made arrangements for the delivery of weapons and the surrender of the last strongholds, the following morning nearly all resistance ceased. W. E.
At 4:30 p.m., while the Kenya Armoured Car Regiment (KAR) penetrated the outskirts of the town, Nasi sent his last message to Italy, explaining that the reserve brigade had been deployed on the southern front but had been unable to stop the attack, that enemy troops had passed the barbed wire and enemy armoured vehicles had entered the town. Nasi surrendered soon after.
The fall of Gondar and the end of Italian East Africa were solemnly celebrated on 1 December afterrnoon by General Fowkes' troops with a large parade at Azozò airport, where the fighting had been particularly hard.
Some Italian outposts fought on until 30 November, marking the end of the battle. The last italians accepted to surrender only at 1 am of December first in the northernmost hill of Ambazzo, north of Gondar.
So, it is useful to pinpoint that the last Italian flag in Ethiopia and AOI went down in December 1941 and not in November, as it is usually written in History books.
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The following are excerpts taken from this U.K. official book:
"The King's African Rifles" -volume 2, by Lieiutenant-Colonel H. Moyse Barlett
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In autumn 1941 General Nasi initially had nearly 40000 soldiers in the Gondar area (only 17000 were Italians), but -from November to December first, when ended the last six months stand of his troops- he had only 23000 (nearly half of them wounded and all without food & sleep, when made POWs).
Finally, we must remember that more than 6000 Italians died in combat in this last defense of their Empire (1/3 of their total last forces under General Nasi) and the survivors received the "Honours of War" from the British.
VIDEOS:
1) British video of the Gondar fall in 1941: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75XyseCEb_Q
2) Video showing the small "tanks" created by Italians in Gondar:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e2u3H044ZI&t=220s
3) Italian video showing Gondar in 1940-1941: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7besrthvPw
