The return of Adowa: how would you defend Ethiopia?

The year is 1930. Emperor Haile Selassie, long may he reign, is concerned at the apparent Italian sabre rattling; particularly, the fort they are building at Wawal. He is concerned that this could lead to open war: a war which, for all their bravery, he believes his badly outgunned armed forces unable to fight. He has appointed you, his special advisor, to plan a defence of his country against Italian invasion, by any means neccessary.

(Note: OTL history in diplomatic terms is to be vaguely kept to, as in the Italians, unless deterred diplomatically or attacked first, invade in October 1935. Good luck!)
 
I am under the impression the Italians won the war through gratuitously deployment of mustard gas via airplane.

Deploying one's own air force is very expensive and it takes time to build the necessary skills; might it be prudent to buy lots of ground-based AA equipment?
 
Create large stocks of Mustard and Chlorine gas as well as other affordable chemical weapons. When the Italians break the Taboo, unleash hell on them as well.
 
Seeing as Italy was able to employ chemical weapons from aircraft thanks to her complete aerial superiority, perhaps a Flying Tigers type organization would be effective?


Bill
 
The italians DID use chemical weapons, but that was not how they won the war.
They had betterly trained and betterly equipped troops (how strange to say that :D), their air force was virtually unchecked (most of the planes did not used chemical substances, but an aircraft shooting bullets often make the infantryman flee, especially if the latter has just a blade weapon or a 1800 musket), and they had artillery.

Barring a UK intervention to seal the channel against furher troop reinforcements from Italy, I cannot see how the Negus could win.

Also, remember that this war was still conducted witha "colonialist" mentality which made it somewhat "acceptable" by the Powers that Were: building roads, digging wells, making schools, train the savages to behave and so on. (obviouvsly I am exaggerating, but that is how many old-minded europeans still reasoned)
Do not forget that in Ethiopia at the time slavery was still legal.
 

Markus

Banned
A lot of the Ethiopian "Army" did not even have rifles or formal western military training for that matter. On the bright side, lot´s of nations sit on mountains of WW1-weapons ranging from a handgun to a 155mm cannon ... and they are usually a bit short of money. So let´s go shopping:

-bolt action rifles
-light, air cooled machine guns
-heavy, water cooled machine guns(a few)
-3inch mortars
-light artillery
-triple-A
-instructors(any White Russian looking for a job?)

An Air Force would be a nice thing to have but its absurdly expensive and requires skilled personnel to keep it operational. Still, some bi-planes for recon are a must. Chemical weapons are a dead end. On one would sell them and Ethiopia can not make them.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
1930 is a bit too late to modernize the Ethiopian army in time. Remember most soldiers are more or less parts of private armies of different governors or other powerful aristocrats. The military structure must be completely changed, so there is a paid professional army, not a feudal army living of the land. The power of the aristocracy would need to be undermined, so soldiers would have their loyalty to the state and emperor and not just their commander. During the conflict with Italy there were som serious defections among the aristocracy, which allowed Italy to move faster. Those wouldn't be so bad, if that didn't mean Ethiopia also lost several units due to them being under the command of the traitors. The high aristocracy must be cut of from the army.

Also, Ethiopia must learn to use guerill tactics earlier. The myth that one can only win battles if you fight your enemies head on in honourful battle need to be crushed.

And something need to be done about the Oromos, their betrayal was a painful blow to the Amharic armies.
 
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