January 1941 British forces launched concurrent offensives from Sudan and Kenya into Italian East Africa.
As covered in earlier posts, at the end of January 1941 British forces launched concurrent offensives from Sudan and Kenya into Italian East Africa.
In the northern portion of this offensive, British forces made initial good progress but then quickly bogged down in a protracted fight at Keren in Eritrea. On 27 March the British finally broke through the Italian defences at Keren thus culminating an eight-week battle that had cost them 536 dead and 3,229 wounded.
During the same struggle the Italians lost at least 3,000 killed, 4,500 wounded and over 3,000 taken prisoner. Now with their main defensive line broken and many of their best units severely depleted from the recent heavy fighting, the Italians were thoroughly demoralized and hard pressed to offer further coordinated resistance against the advancing British units.
As such, the British made good progress and in less than a month completed their conquest of Eritrea taking many thousands of prisoners in the process for minimal loss to themselves.
The key prize in this victory was the port city of Massawa, which served as the main Italian naval base on the Red Sea.
At the beginning of the war, the Italians had maintained a strong naval squadron at this base consisting of seven destroyers, eight submarines, two torpedo boats and several other ships. In the intervening period, some of these vessels had been lost including a destroyer and four submarines sunk by British forces while the four remaining submarines were all withdrawn from the area.
By April 1941 the forces remaining at Massawa consisted of six destroyers, two torpedo boats and several auxiliary craft. Likewise, more than two dozen Italian and German merchant ships sheltered at Massawa and the surrounding area.
Now with the British pressing in on them, these naval assets came under attack. On 1 April the Italian destroyer Leone accidentally ran aground 15 miles north of Awali Hutub and was subsequently scuttled by its crew. The next day the five remaining Italian destroyers departed Massawa in a desperate one-way sortie to attack Port Sudan. In anticipation of this action, the British had already deployed two squadrons of Swordfish to the area.
These aircraft came from the aircraft carrier Eagle, which was awaiting outbound passage through the Suez Canal. The next morning these Swordfish, along with Blenheim bombers, carried out a series of attacks that sank the destroyers Nazario Sauro and Daniele Manin and drove off Pantera and Tigre in damaged conditions.
That afternoon the British found the latter two vessels aground and abandoned off the Arabian coast where they were finished off by British aircraft and gunfire from the destroyer Kingston. The fifth Italian destroyer, Cesare Battisti, suffered early engine trouble and was scuttled off the Arabian coast to avoid action with British forces.
Over the next few days the British conducted a series of attacks and bombardments against Massawa culminating in a major assault on the night of 7-8 April.
During these attacks British aircraft destroyed the Italian torpedo boat Giovanni Acerbi while artillery hit and damaged the torpedo boat Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. For their part, the Italians scored a notable success on the 6th when a MAS motor torpedo boat hit and damaged the British light cruiser Capetown outside of the harbour.
However, this proved to be a fleeting accomplishment as all Italian resistance collapsed two days later. Prior to this the Italians scuttled the damaged Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, the minelayer Ostia and five MAS boats. They further scuttled 11 Italian and six German merchant ships worth 89,870 tons, several minor vessels and a floating dock in Massawa.
Meanwhile, five additional Italian merchant ships worth 38,125 tons were scuttled near the Island of Dalac while three others worth 23,765 tons were scuttled at Assab on 10 April. Of these merchant ships, many were later recovered and put into British service. Likewise, the British seized large quantities of rolling stock and stores, and they were able to put the port back into working order before month’s end.
Through these events and other similar successes in the south, the British accomplished their key strategic objective for the campaign. By gaining mastery over the Horn of Africa and eliminating Italian naval and air forces from the region, the British secured their vital seaborne lines of communication to the Middle East.
Additionally, since the area was no longer considered a war zone, the United States lifted restrictions prohibiting its merchant ships from entering the Red Sea. As such, American merchant ships would soon join the ranks of British and Allied vessels delivering supplies and stores to the British forces throughout the region.
The British also enjoyed considerable materiel success against the Italians. In addition to the maritime losses already described, the British destroyed five Italian divisions and several independent battalions and captured over 40,000 prisoners and 300 guns during their conquest of Eritrea.
Meanwhile, British forces to the south and west enjoyed similar success as they completed their conquest of Italian Somaliland, recaptured British Somaliland and advanced into the heart of Abyssinia seizing the capital of Addis Ababa on 6 April.
When these successes were added together (including Eritrea), the British had thus far collected over 105,000 prisoners within the region. Although sizable Italian forces still remained in the interior of Abyssinia, they were isolated and severely weakened and could do little more than tie down British units engaged in mopping up operations.
Pictured here are prewar images of the aforementioned Italian destroyer Nazario Sauro (top) and the British light cruiser Capetown (bottom). Aldo Fraccaroli and Royal Navy official photographer, Public Domain. For more information on this and other related topics, see Blue Water War, the Maritime Struggle in the Mediterranean and Middle East, 1940-1945.
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