The Travails of Ethiopia
After the fall of Gondar, Morris Hirsch complained to the nurses at the hospital ship at Berbera, in British Somaliland, that he belonged to the forgotten legion.
However, Ethiopia has been engaged with the world since the time of Solomon and has always been able to reassert its independence. The Red Sea has been important to Greeks, Persians, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Turks, Venetians, Portuguese, the Vatican, Mahdists (Sudanese), Galla (Bantu), the French, Italians, British and currently all the actors in the Middle East.
The Abyssinian Campaign secured the Red Sea access to the Suez Canal. 70,000 Commonwealth troops defeated 300,000 Italian military forces by effective combined operations: motorized troops, artillery and light tanks. The RAF and SAAF provided reconnaissance, bombing and supplies by parachute to the Patriots (Arbegnoch, local irregular guerrillas). The Patriots spied on the Italians, besieged them, overran them and cut off escape routes in the mountain passes, having fought them since the invasion in 1935. Their attempt to assassinate the Italian viceroy, Marshall Rodolfo Graziani, in February 1937, was followed by cruel repression. The Duke of Aosta succeeded Graziani in November 1937 and adopted milder methods but resistance continued.
The Commonwealth victory in Abyssinia followed the fall of France and the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk, a terrific defeat. While the Abyssinian campaign was rapidly succeeding, the British Army was forced to evacuate Greece and Crete, overrun by the Wehrmacht. (But this delayed its attack on Russia by a month, so it failed to reach Moscow before the winter snows.)
At the Victory Parade in Gondar, the final Abyssinian battle, the remaining Commonwealth forces were drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, the Sudan, Ethiopia, the Gold Coast, India, South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and the United Kingdom, as well as the Belgium Congo's Force Publique, the Free French and, of course, the Patriot guerrillas.
Eritrea continued under British administration without incidence until September 1952, when it became an autonomous province of the Ethiopian Empire. (But subsequently fought for independence.) Haile Selassie's modernization program was only modestly successful. Widespread domestic discontent, economic disparity, and devastating droughts in the early 1970s culminated in a military uprising in 1974 by the Derg, a Marxist military junta, supported by the Soviet Union. More misery ensued and the Derg was overthrown in 1991, followed by more disaster.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
Excerpt from Dr. Morris Isaac Hirsch's Unpublished Memoirs. Hirsch Archives.
Also:
Encyclopedia Britannica 1964 Volume 8 page 787
Photo Credits:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1657553880/haile-selassie-cheetah-1962-animal-print
Dec, 31 1960 The Illustrated News, London