Word: asmara
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Forty miles from Aduwa, at the frontier, the sound of those bombs reached Italian troops already on the march. In the darkness, long before the bombers had left their Asmara base, white-bearded old General de Bono, commander-in-chief, had gone with his chief-of-staff, General Melchiade Gabba, and other staff officers to a cleared mountain top from which they could have an unobstructed view of the frontier river, the Mareb, and the rude camel tracks leading up to the mountains and Aduwa...
Soon after dawn in Asmara, Eritrea, Il Duce's Son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano climbed into his flying clothes and stepped out to start the war personally. Seven huge Caproni bombers, black against the pale morning light, were already lined up; their engines idling. Il Duce's two sons, Bruno and Vittorio, now lieutenants in the air force, saluted, and took their places. Overalled mechanics crouched under each plane, screwing fuses in gleaming rows of high explosive bombs. In his pilot's seat Count Ciano opened the throttle, then waved his hand as a signal...
Back at the Asmara base, hours later, Count Ciano proudly showed that he too had been under fire. There were two little bullet holes in the tail of his plane...
...losses in the capture of Aduwa have been entirely insignificant. Casualty lists will be published in due time." All the publicity, flag waving and glory went to the capture of Aduwa, but this advance, due south from Asmara was not necessarily the most important in the Italian campaign. Two other Italian armies were in the field last week biting their way too into Ethiopia without benefit of foreign war correspondents...
Chief news source from the Italian side is General Staff Headquarters at Asmara, Eritrea. Last week Italian troop movements from the north were well covered, but no U. S. correspondent ventured into the malarial jungles through which Italian armies were closing in on Ethiopia from the south and east...