Word: somalilanders
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Early last week the South African and British column pushing up from Italian Somaliland approached Giggiga, 50 miles east of Harar. Its supply lines were then about 600 miles long, and were potentially threatened from the east by Italians garrisoning British Somaliland, which the Italians occupied last summer. The threat was removed at the strategic moment by a British naval force which appeared off Berbera, British Somaliland's capital and main port, one midnight, and landed men and machines in two places near the town. By 9:30 a.m. they had taken it. They pushed inland at once...
...soon as that column got word that British Somaliland was British again, it captured Giggiga, a nondescript one-square town of tin-and straw-roofed houses. From there the troops pushed on for Harar. Soon they reached trouble. Between Giggiga and Harar lies some grim hill country. There the motor road turns and digs through narrow denies, and the hills, with their boulders and scrub, afford plenty of cover for defenders. It is the sort of country where a handful ought to be able to hold off an army...
...Africa had resolved themselves into one campaign-an encirclement of Addis Ababa. When he took Ethiopia, Benito Mussolini's strategy was to send his main attack (Marshals De Bono and Badoglio) southward from Eritrea, and to meet it with a smaller containing attack (General Graziani) northward from Italian Somaliland. This time the British strategy was to bottle as many troops as possible in Eritrea and then converge on Addis Ababa from the northwest and south. The main British attack came from the south...
From Italian Somaliland, up across the savannas, a British force last week advanced to near Giggiga, from which a road leads 50 miles to Harar, thence to the railway from the sea to Addis Ababa...
...From other quarters, other spurs drove in for the encirclement. This week the British announced that a naval force had made a landing and captured Berbera, capital of British Somaliland. While this did not mean that all British Somaliland was again in British hands, it did mean that the column advancing on Harar was comparatively free to go ahead without fear of being hit on the flank. The Italians were expected to resist at Harar. If the British could break that resistance, they could probably go on to Addis Ababa without taking Cheren. But now they will have to hurry...