Word: eritrea
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...problem. Army regulations demand that every British infantryman be issued a steel helmet. But the Sikhs insist on wearing turbans, over which no steel helmet can fit. Finally, the Sikhs worked out an agreement with their British officers, accepted the helmets. Last week as they edged ahead through central Eritrea each Sikh wore a turban on his head, obediently dangled a British helmet from his haversack...
CAIRO--British mechanized forces, biting off the entire northern triangle of Italian Eritrea, have reached the Red Sea and captured the town of Mersa Taclai while R.A.F. bombers laid siege to the Eritrean capital of Asmara, it was stated officially today...
With Agordat in their possession, the British were set to cut off Northern Eritrea and eventually squeeze Ethiopia. Against the day when the Ethiopian squeeze might be applied, Negus Haile Selassie and Crown Prince Asfa Wassan, a slim lad of 24 who divorced his wife be ause her father submitted to the Italians, rallied their compatriots...
...their Eritrean push, the British used a skill which was more than tactical. The region around Agordat is inhabited by a tribe of pure Hamites, direct descendants of ancient Egyptians, in religion mostly Moslem. There are also quite a few Indians in Eritrea. They do not like their Italian any more than any other white masters...
With their great experience in ruling native populations, the British staged their attack on Eritrea largely with Indian troops - also mostly Moslems. These troops not only fought fiercely against the Italians; they were well received by the natives. It also looked well to the whole Middle Eastern Moslem world, which is already largely pledged to Britain although Signer Mussolini declared himself Defender of Islam in 1937. In the East the British had once more reversed their old maxim, Divide and Rule, to read: Unite and Revolt...