War in East Africa

Foreign volunteers, collaboration and Axis Allies 1939-1945.

Moderator: George Lepre

Post Reply
User avatar
tigre
Patron
Posts: 6959
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:42 pm
Location: Argentina

War in East Africa

Post by tigre »

Hello to all :D; a short story..................

The conquest of Moyale (British).

The (British) Force Commander in East Africa, General Dickinson argued that it was essential to relieve the French in Djibouti from the Italian pressure and due to the logistical problems with an advance on Kismayu, the Italian Moyale should be attacked instead. But the Italians went ahead and moved before. The first serious attack against the British Moyale took place at dawn on 1 July 1940, some 70 shells fell on the fort in the first 10 minutes. The bombing was followed by an infantry assault with about 1,000 men. The company A. / 1 ​​KAR stood firm and by 08:15 hours the attack had been repulsed. At 10:30 hours took place a new attack and this time the Italians came about 200 meters from the British positions before withdrawing. Enemy fire continued intermittently throughout the day and in total some 350 artillery and mortar shells fell on the fort, but many did not explode and damage was slight. Company C / 1 KAR was dispatched from Buna and around 07:00 hours on July 2 maintained the Moyale airfield, the bulk of the battalion soon followed reinforced with a Platoon of the 22 Mountain Battery.

On July 9, 1940 the Company D / 1 KAR relieved the A company which lost his leader (Cap. Drummond) during a skirmish on 10 July 1940. By July 11, the Italians had occupied firmly the Lone tree crest and the evacuation of Moyale became urgent. On July 13, the 5. KAR was dispatched from Wajir to cover the retreat. During the night from 14 to 15 July the garrison of Moyale (5 Platoons and 2 mortars squads of 1. KAR, one Platoon of 1/3 KAR and a small fraction of engineers) withdrew silently through the Italian lines. Since the first attack in Moyale (British) casualties were 10 dead, 35 wounded and 9 missing.

Sources: The King's African Rifles - Lieutenant-Colonel Volume 2By H. Moyse-Bartlett.

Any precision about the Italian forces? TIA. Cheers. Raul M 8).
Attachments
image011.jpg
image011.jpg (30.61 KiB) Viewed 3603 times
Serás lo que debas ser o no serás nada. General José de San Martín.
Post Reply