Word: berbera
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...little Berbera, capital of British Somaliland, last week went down in the annals of World War II on the same list as Andalsnes, Namsos, Narvik and Dunkirk. Another "strategic withdrawal" was performed there by the British after only two weeks of fighting against Italy's mechanized invasion. To Italy went 344,700 new subjects in 68,000 square miles of new territory which, while far from rich or productive, rounded out her total hold on Africa's northeast shoulder, rid her of a rear threat to further operations against the British in Egypt, Suez, Palestine, the Sudan...
That torrid little country (see map) is about the size of Missouri. Its capital, Berbera, is on the coast but has no port facilities. It has a municipal water system but no railway, no bank, no hotel. A coast road connects it through the secondary "port" of Zeila with Djibouti in French Somaliland which fell into Italy's hands in June...
British Somaliland looks and feels like a cross between the Montana badlands and Death Valley. Except in the mountains near the coast, which rise as high as 6,500 ft. in a wall behind Berbera, it rains only 2½ inches per year. In July and August a hot, dry monsoon blows from the blazing Ethiopian hinterland. Nothing grows in British Somaliland except thorn trees, dense dry "bush" and tough desert fodder to keep alive the nomadic natives' herds of sheep, goats, camels, ostriches...