Italian colonial troops in Eritrea
Gabriele Esposito describes the composition and organisation of the Italian colonial forces that fought in Eastern Africa during 1935-1941
Gabriele Esposito describes the composition and organisation of the Italian colonial forces that fought to conquer Eastern Africa during 1935-1941.
In 1935, with the war mobilisation caused by Mussolini’s decision to invade Ethiopia, the Italian colonial military forces of Eritrea were greatly expanded and completely reorganised. Two entire divisions were formed with Eritrean soldiers, which were assembled into a Corpo d’Armata Eritreo (Eritrean Army Corps) commanded by General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli:
I Eritrean Division
I Brigade
• I Group of Eritrean Battalions
1st Native Battalion
6th Native Battalion
16th Native Battalion
• V Group of Eritrean Battalions
7th Native Battalion
15th Native Battalion
• I Group of Eritrean Mountain Artillery III Brigade
• II Group of Eritrean Battalions
3rd Native Battalion
11th Native Battalion
• VI Group of Eritrean Battalions
2nd Native Battalion
13th Native Battalion
24th Native Battalion
• III Group of Eritrean Mountain Artillery
II Eritrean Division
II Brigade
• III Group of Eritrean Battalions
5th Native Battalion
21st Native Battalion
• VII Group of Eritrean Battalions
4th Native Battalion
19th Native Battalion
22th Native Battalion
• II Group of Eritrean Mountain Artillery IV Brigade
• IV Group of Eritrean Battalions
9th Native Battalion
12th Native Battalion
17th Native Battalion
• VIII Group of Eritrean Battalions
8th Native Battalion
20th Native Battalion
• IV Group of Eritrean Mountain Artillery
The 10 infantry battalions existing in 1934 were expanded to 26 and 20 of the latter participated to the invasion of Ethiopia as part of the Eritrean Army Corps. The 4th Battery of Mountain Artillery, disbanded in 1926, was reformed in 1935 and together with the existing three it was expanded to become an artillery group. Also the cavalry, which consisted of a single squadron in 1934, was enlarged: it was reorganised as the Gruppo Squadroni di Cavalleria Coloniale with two mounted squadrons and one half-squadron equipped with machine guns. Following the occupation of Addis Abeba this was expanded with the addition of a third squadron, which was raised from former members of the recently-disbanded Ethiopian Imperial Guard. On 12 September 1936 the Eritrean military forces were absorbed into the newly-formed Forze Armate dell’Africa Orientale Italiana (ie Military Forces of Italian Eastern Africa) and thus were assembled with the colonial military forces raised in Somalia.
In 1908 the Italian territories in Somalia were unified into a single colony and thus the local military forces assumed the new official title of Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Somalia Italiana (Royal Colonial Troops of Italian Somaliland). By that time the Somali infantry companies had already been increased from three to six; the expansion of the Somali infantry units, however, continued also during the following years.
By 1914 the number of infantry companies had been increased to 16, 10
of which had been recruited during 19081914. In 1916, to cut economic costs, three of the existing companies were disbanded. Also Somalia, like Eritrea, had to contribute to the Italian military efforts during the difficult occupation of Libya. During March 1913 four of the existing infantry companies were assembled together in order to form a temporary battalion, known as I Battaglione Benadir, which was sent to fight against the insurgents in North Africa. In April 1914 this first battalion was disbanded and its companies were sent back to Somalia; a new II Battaglione Benadir was organised to replace it, which was created by assembling together three of the existing infantry companies. Also this other temporary battalion was quite short-lived, since it was disbanded in 1916.
A III Battaglione Benadir was organised with four companies in the spring of
1914 and was soon sent to Libya; after fighting against the Senussi for several years, it was disbanded in 1921. The experiences in Libya showed that the Somali independent infantry companies could serve very well if grouped together into battalions. As a result, in 1925, it was decided to assemble them together on a permanent basis. The first three permanent infantry battalions of
Somalia, each with three companies, were organised during 1925; another three were formed the following year.
In 1928, to cut economic costs, the V Battalion and the VI Battalion were disbanded; three years later, in 1931, also the III Battalion and the IV Battalion were temporarily disbanded for just a few months. The V Battalion and the VI Battalion were reorganised only in 1935, at the outbreak of the war between Italy and Ethiopia. Following the disbandment of two battalions in 1928, the number of companies in the remaining ones was augmented from three to four; of these one was made up of amhara soldiers (a term used by the Italians to indicate Eritrean or Ethiopian men living in Somalia) for three battalions. From 1929, one company in each Somali infantry battalion became a machine gun one. One year later, in 1930, the number
of fusilier companies in each unit was reduced from three to two. Shortly before the outbreak of war with Ethiopia, in 1935, another six battalions of Somali infantry were raised (bringing the total number of such units to 12).
In addition to the above, the Somali infantry also comprised some minor corps that performed garrison duties: the Independent Company of Migiurtinia (active since 1931), the Independent Company of Nogal (active during 1928-1930), the Presidial Company of Mogadishu (made up of veterans, active since 1926) and the Centuria Presidiaria of Mogadishu (a depot company, active since 1913). In 1912 the first two independent Machine Gun Sections were organised in Somalia, followed by another 14 during the years 1913-1918. In 1925-1926 these were all absorbed into the newly-organised infantry battalions, but during 1935 another five independent Machine Gun Sections were raised for the war against Ethiopia.
The colonial artillery of Somalia was organised during 1906 as a single
company, structured on four sections; one of the latter, three years later, was given mules to transport its light pieces. In 1925 a new section transported on dromedaries was raised, followed by a second one in 1926, and also the section having mules received dromedaries. As a result of these changes, the Somali artillery was completely reorganised and came to comprise the following units: seven positional sections and three
Sezioni Cammellate. In 1927 these were expanded, respectively, to 18 and 7 (each with two artillery pieces and two machine guns). Very soon, however, the seven Sezioni Cammellate were separated from the rest of the artillery and were organised as an independent artillery group with four batteries (increased to seven in 1935); the 18 positional sections, instead, were reduced to 14 and later to 8. In 1929 the Somali artillery was reorganised on three camel batteries and on five positional sections. A single company transported on motor vehicles was added to this establishment in 1931, which was expanded to become an artillery group with three batteries in 1935.
On 12 September 1936, following the proclamation of the Italian Empire and the unification of all the Italian colonies in Eastern Africa into a single administrative entity (the Africa Orientale Italiana), the colonial military forces of Eritrea and Somalia were assembled together into a new and larger military structure called the Forze Armate dell’Africa Orientale Italiana.
Italian Eastern Africa also comprised the newly-conquered territories of Ethiopia. These were extremely vast and had a large population so Mussolini hoped to recruit a great number of new colonial military units from them. In the end, however, just a small number of Ethiopian colonial corps could be raised by the Italians before the outbreak of World War II because the great majority of the local population hated the new government of the invaders. In addition, in several peripheral areas of Abyssinia, there were substantial bands of irregular insurgents that were still active and that were still fighting against the Italians. In practice, Ethiopia was never fully pacified before Italy’s entrance in the new global conflict.
The Military Forces of Italian Eastern Africa were organised during 1937, after the Italian colonial possessions were restructured on five autonomous administrative entities: Eritrea, Amhara (northern Ethiopia), Galla-Sidama (southwestern Ethiopia), Harar (south-eastern Ethiopia) and Somalia.
The colonial infantry was reorganised and expanded on a total of 16 brigate indigene (native brigades), each of which comprised the following units: four infantry battalions, one field battery, two batteries equipped with mortars and one company of engineers. The infantry battalions had three companies of fusiliers and one company equipped with machine guns. In some brigades one of the infantry battalions was replaced by a cavalry group with two squadrons. In total, the 16 native brigades comprised 58 infantry battalions and five cavalry groups; 10 of them had four infantry battalions each, five had three infantry battalions and one cavalry group, only
one had just three infantry battalions. They were distributed among the five administrative regions of Italian Eastern Africa as follows: three in Eritrea, four in Amhara, four in Galla-Sidama, three in Harar and two in Somalia.
During the years 1938-1940 the Italians expanded their military forces by recruiting new native brigades from the newly-conquered regions of Ethiopia. As a result, the number of brigate indigene was rapidly increased to 25 and that of cavalry groups to 16. During the 1940 war mobilisation another 10 colonial brigades were organised to fight against the British, comprising of a total of 42 infantry battalions. As a result of the above changes, this was the Italian order of battle in Eastern Africa during June 1940 (including metropolitan units):
Northern Theatre
Eritrea
5th Native Brigade, 8th Native Brigade, 12th Native Brigade, Armoured cars section Eritrea
Amhara
3rd Native Brigade, 4th Native Brigade, 19th Native Brigade, 21st Native Brigade, 22nd Native Brigade, Armoured cars section Amhara
Eastern Theatre
Scioa
20th Native Brigade, 23rd Native Brigade, Black Shirts’ African Group of Battalions, Armoured cars section Scioa
Harar
13th Native Brigade
14th Native Brigade
15th Native Brigade
17th Native Brigade
1st Squadron of armoured cars Armoured cars section Harar
Southern Theatre
Galla-Sidama
1st Native Brigade, 9th Native Brigade, 10th Native Brigade, 18th Native Brigade, 25th Native Brigade, Armoured cars section Galla-Sidama
Giuba
91st Native Brigade, 92nd Native Brigade, Armoured cars section Giuba, General Reserve, 40th Infantry Division Cacciatori d’Africa, 65th Infantry Division
Granatieri di Savoia, 2nd Native Brigade, 6th Native Brigade, 7th Native Brigade, 11th Native Brigade, 16th Native Brigade, 41st Native Brigade, 85th Native Brigade, 1st Special Company of Light Tanks, 2nd Special Company of Light Tanks
Seven of the new native brigades organised in 1940 did not have the opportunity to fight against the British, because their formation was not yet completed when the war began. As clear from the above, the numbering of the brigate indigene was not progressive. The metropolitan units in Eastern
Africa were very few, consisting of two infantry divisions and 25 battalions of paramilitary Black Shirts (the latter were grouped into the Black Shirts’ African Group of Battalions). The 40th Infantry Division bore the colonial denomination Cacciatori d’Africa, but was made up of metropolitan units exactly like the 65th Infantry Division.
The two companies of light tanks were equipped with the CV33, but there were also 24 M11/39 medium tanks in Eastern Africa; the 1st Squadron of armoured cars was equipped with the Fiat 611, while the various regional sections had the Lancia 1ZM. In addition to the regular military units listed above, the Italians could also count on their paramilitary police forces and on the Bande Irregolari
of semi-regular tribal fighters. The zaptiè gendarmerie was greatly expanded during 1935-1940 and by the outbreak of the hostilities it consisted of 3,500 gendarmes organised into six Gruppi or Groups (one for each of the six regions that made up Italian Eastern Africa).
The zaptiè also provided one combatant company, which was assembled with two companies of Italian Carabinieri in order to form an independent battalion. The latter was one of the last Italian units that surrendered to the British in 1941, after three months of desperate resistance.
Until 1938 the mounted bodyguard of the Italian viceroy in Addis Abeba continued to be made up of Somali zaptiè, but in that year the unit was expanded with the inclusion of some Eritrean elements. By 1939 it consisted of one Eritrean squadron and one Somali company; like all the Italian colonial units, it had white officers and black NCOs/soldiers. During the Ethiopian Campaign of 1935-1936 the Italians created a network of alliances with the local Abyssinian rulers who were favourable to the annexation of their country to the Italian colonies and thus were able to raise a large number of Irregular Bands from these local warlords.
When the occupation of Ethiopia was completed, most of these short-lived semi-regular corps were disbanded and their members were absorbed into the new native brigades that were in the process of being formed. Some bands, however, were retained in service until 1941 and were mostly employed by the Italians as counter-guerrilla forces. In addition to the new Bande Irregolari recruited from the Ethiopians, during the campaigns of 1940-1941 the Italians also deployed their excellent Eritrean Bande Armate and Somali Bande Dubat.
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