Battle of Keren - Aftermath

Aftermath

Determined Italian troops retreated to Adi Tekelezan. Their new position, however, was considerably less tenable than Keren had been, and Italian forces finally surrendered to British forces on 1 April 1941. Within a week of the Italian surrender at Adi Tekelezan, both Asmara and Massawa surrendered despite orders from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to continue to fight.

Massawa—fallen due to the loss of Keren—was subsequently used as a staging port for both British and American naval forces.

The battle is still today considered a positive episode in Italian military history, despite its outcome, thanks to the bravery of the Italian and colonial troops and the skilled leadership shown by the defeated commander, General Carnimeo. In the account of the battle written in Eastern Epic, Compton Mackenzie wrote:

Keren was as hard a soldiers' battle as was ever fought, and let it be said that nowhere in the war did the Germans fight more stubbornly than those Savoia battalions, Alpini, Bersaglieri and Grenadiers. In the five days' fight the Italians suffered nearly 5,000 casualties – 1,135 of them killed., the gallant young Italian general, had his head blown off by one of the British guns. He had been a great leader of Eritrean troops.

The unfortunate licence of wartime propaganda allowed the British Press to represent the Italians almost as comic warriors; but except for the German parachute division in Italy and the Japanese in Burma no enemy with whom the British and Indian troops were matched put up a finer fight than those Savoia battalions at Keren. Moreover, the Colonial troops, until they cracked at the very end, fought with valour and resolution, and their staunchness was a testimony to the excellence of the Italian administration and military training in Eritrea.