History
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 (Eritrea). 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
The Italian Army made extensive use of locally recruited indigenous soldiers in Italian East Africa. These troops comprised infantry, cavalry and some light artillery units. They were recruited initially from Eritreans and subsequently from Somalis, with Italian officers and some non-commissioned officers. The Italian Askaris fought in the First Italo–Ethiopian War, the Italian-Turkish War, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and World War II (East African Campaign).
Out of a total of 256,000 Italian troops serving in Italian East Africa in 1940, about 182,000 were recruited from Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and the just recently occupied (1935–36) Ethiopia. In January 1941, British Commonwealth forces invaded Ethiopia and the majority of the newly recruited Ethiopian Askaris serving with the Italian Army in East Africa deserted. Most of the Eritrean Ascaris however remained loyal until the Italian surrender four months later.
Read more about this topic: Eritrean Ascari
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)