The Conquering Lions of Judah - Ethiopia pulls an Italy TL

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  • Oct. 3rd, 1935
    Gondar, Begemdir, Ethiopia


    Ras Abebe Aregai strode into the center of the camp of the rank-and-file infantry of the 1st Imperial Guards Company as he called out, "Comrades!" to which the men stood to attention at and listened as he called out, "It's great to see you here! But it will even be better to see you soon breaking through the Europeans' line! Then we'll teach these European dogs how to FIGHT!" At these last lines, the soldiers shouted their approval as the Ras waited for them to calm down before continuing his speech.

    "They thought they could bully us into submission! They'd thought we'd give way and fall!"

    While he said this, Abebe could hear a bit of booing as he climbed onto the top of a Japanese tank to stand to full attention to the soldiers under his command.

    "But today, we'll show them that the Ethiopian Army bows to no one!"

    As he said this, he made grand sweeping gestures with his arms in his appeal to the mass of infantrymen aroused by his rhetoric and shouting nationalistic slogans that had been ingrained into them by Tekle's regime.

    "TODAY, WE'LL SHOW THEM THE MIGHT OF THE ETHIOPIAN EMPIRE!"

    The sound of engines quickly approaching their position caused the Ras to look up, with a bit of fear as he remembered his days in the deserts of Egypt during the World War, but was relieved when he saw they were the biplanes of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force heading towards their targets at the border and turned his head back to the infantrymen in front of him.

    Ras Abebe Aregai shouted, "Get into formation! WE GO TO WAR!" as he jumped off the tank, smirking at the prospect of liberating his fellow Africans from the oppression of the European Empires.

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    This particular excerpt was inspired by the opening cinematic from World In Conflict and I don't claim credit from those behind the writing of that aforementioned cinematic (i.e. belongs to Massive Entertainment).
     
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    Five Ethiopian soldiers are shown in the bombed-out remains of a house in the city of Asmara, one of them smiling at the camera as three others handle a Japanese artillery piece and fire it at another house, causing it to collapse in on itself. The fourth and fifth ones are crouching near the window, firing a heavy machine gun into the distance and providing covering fire to their comrades in the streets. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian officer in the background is barking orders at those operating the artillery piece while one of his subordinates operates the radio and calls out random coordinates.

    Camera changes views to to the streets below the group’s hideout.

    Ethiopian soldiers, equipped with submachine guns and light machine guns, run across the streets under withering hail of bullets from an unseen Italian machine gun that tears into the bodies of particularly unlucky Ethiopian troops. One Ethiopian soldier flings a stick grenade before throwing himself to the ground with his hands over his Stahlhelm helmet, an explosion shortly occurring as he picks up his rifle and sprints out of sight. He is followed by several Ethiopian soldiers, one of which carries the Ethiopian flag in his grasp but slumps to the ground, dead, as another Ethiopian soldier picks up the flag after slinging his submachine gun over his shoulder and continues advancing.


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    (Ethiopian militias crossing the Mareb River, circa. 1935)
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    From pg. 4 of
    The Conquering Lions of Ethiopia - a history of the modern Ethiopian Army, from 1913-91 by Bahru Zewde

    . . . To understand the actions of the Imperial Ethiopian Army throughout the 20th Century, we must first look at the man who led Ethiopia into the modern age - Fitawrari Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariam. Although the Imperial Ethiopian Army’s modernity goes as far back as Emperor Menelik II’s reign, its modern history truly begins with Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariam who was responsible for political maneuvering behind Ethiopia’s entry into the First World War. The Imperial Ethiopian Army was originally a small outfit of professional troops that had been trained and equipped with the assistance of the Russian Empire in 1911-13 but it experienced a massive expansion after the First World War - this time, with the assistance of Japan. Believing that possessing a strong military was required for the survival of an independent Ethiopia, Tekle turned towards any country willing to assist him in this mission as the Japanese - wanting to forge closer relations with Ethiopia and expand their influence in the independent world - provided it in cooperation with Fascist Italy under Il Duce Benito Mussolini. With this, Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariam established a foundation for not only the Imperial Ethiopian Armed Forces as a whole but Ethiopia’s tactics, operations and strategies long after his death.

    Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariam had been Ethiopia’s Premier since 1918, Emperor Iyasu V having appointed him to the office with its first Premier having succumbed to the Spanish Flu pandemic and Tekle seemingly being the most capable candidate. Tekle had an impressive record in having received his education in Moscow and as an able military commander during the Ethiopian Civil War’s duration while proving himself an able diplomat in the foreign relations field, successfully cementing an de-facto alliance between Addis Ababa and Tokyo. Utilizing these successes and his own relationship with Iyasu, he was largely responsible for establishing Africa’s first Fascist state under his own leadership in the Tewahedo Party in the period between World War 1 and 2. Tekle is also credited with having successfully modernized the Ethiopian Empire and preserving her sovereignty from Western attempts which sought to turn Ethiopia into a de-facto colony - despite essentially being an Italian client state prior to 1935. Tekle is largely seen in a positive light by many in Ethiopia in spite of his multiple atrocities against various ethnic groups in the southern lowlands, forced conversions of Ethiopian Muslims and Jews to Christianity, reducing Muslims to the status of second-class citizens, etc.

    From pg. 37 of Operation Alula: The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-37 by Gebru Tareke

    . . . To conclude, Operation Alula saw Ethiopian forces attain massive tactical and operational successes but failed to achieve any of its expected strategic goals. This is due to a number of reasons - unexpectedly fierce resistance from Italian forces, the failure to successfully wipe out Italy’s aerial and naval arms in Eritrea, the cult-of-the-offensive mentality of Ethiopia’’s senior command and Addis Ababa’s interference. The failure to render the Royal Italian AIr Force and Navy unoperational ultimately resulted in the most damage to the Ethiopian war effort in Eritrea as the RA escaped to fight another day, allowing for them to provide support to Italian forces at Keren. This allowed Italian forces on the ground to halt the Ethiopian advance at a choke point in the Highlands of Eritrea and deal heavy casualties while carrying out “The March of Iron Will”, a fighting retreat towards the Italian-held coast in which they were evacuated to Mogadishu. Despite these Italian successes, Ethiopia could ultimately claim victory with the rapid Ethiopian advance and occupation of the former Italian Eritrea with it suffering acceptable casualties that averaged around 21,000 overall casualties out of a force of 150,000 men while Italian forces suffered a total of 36,000 casualties.

    The inability to halt Italian forces from their evacuation at Massawa led to their relocation to Italian Somaliland where Rome would quickly dispatch the ruthless General Rodolfo Graziani to Mogadishu where he was placed in command of all Italian forces in their remaining East African colony. A general mobilization effort occurred throughout Italian Somaliland where hundreds of thousands of young Somali men were called up in the expansion of Italian colonial forces, the colonial administration making appeals to their native population of “avenging Ahmad Gran” and “Greater Somalia” while also calling upon them to “defend Western civilization in Africa from the Oromo hordes”. In reaction to this, the Ethiopian government continued to mobilize more and more men in similar appeals to “avenge those who had been lost to Gran’s occupation” and “liberate the Somalis from Italian occupation” as Ethiopian troops from the northern front were shifted to southeastern Ethiopia. This ultimately extended the Second Italo-Ethiopian War to 1936 and into 1937 with the opening up of the Ogadeni Front where Italian and Ethiopian forces battled one another in the desert surroundings of Ethiopia’s Somali-inhabited territories in a war of maneuver.
     
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