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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0715.PDF
MARCH 27TH, 1941. 235 ¥(/r//7 Berbera and Jijiga Captured : Fierce Fight at Keren : Goring's Tactics : Balloon Work BERBERA and Jijiga are twonames of good omen just now.In the language of our good friends across the Atlantic, each ofthem must have given Mussolini a headache. Last year we all of us feltdepressed when our troops had to evacuate the capital of British Somali-land on the advance of a vastly superior Italian force. The boastfulItalians had actually conquered a British colony, and we felt humiliated.The evacuation was only military com- monsense, but it meant a loss of pres-tige ; and in the Black Continent prestige counts for far more than inEurope. These memories make it all the more gratifying that that accounthas been squared. Three As One TPHE actual capture was a smart piece•*• of work, and once again the three Services showed that exemplary co-operation which has been one of the outstanding features of the Africanoperations. First the R.A.F. photo- hed the whole place, so that aPear picture of the best places to effect a landing might be obtained. Thenthey went on to bomb all Italian aero- dromes within reach, especiallyDiredawa on the Djibuti railway. That had the effect of leaving theenemy in blindness, and unable to undertake any overhead interferencewith our naval and military forces. It seems that the expedition started fromAden, but this has not been definitely announced. The convoy crossed thewater by night, and two landings were effected by moonlight. One was madeby Indian regiments and the other by an irregular force of Somalis and Arabsunder British leadership. The war- ships supported the troops withaccurate fire, and the Italian garrison was overcome after a short but fairlyspirited resistance. R.A.F. armoured cars took part in the capture, but whatpart is not clear. There is now no doubt which side enjoys most prestigein the eyes of the African natives. In the meantime the British force MY ECHO, MY SHADOW AND ME : An impression by -'J.P." of an incident duringthe recent raid on Berlin. In his report a pilot said: " . . . the searchlights threw shadows of my aircraft on the clouds of smoke, appearing at times as if three orfour other machines were flying in formation.'' which conquered Italian Somalilandhas been pushing northwards into Abyssinia from the South up the RoyalRoad which the Italians had made, and a few days after the capture of Ber-bera this southern force occupied Jijiga, an important place on one ofthe few roads in that part of the country. It is, in fact, a road junc-tion, with one branch leading to Harar, some 50 miles to the West,which is the capital of that province of Abyssinia. Naturally the SouthAfrican Air Force co-operated by raid- ing Harar and the roads round it. TheItalians in Addis Ababa now command only one road leading to the sea,namely, one which runs down to French Somaliland. Up in the North in Eritrea a changehas come over the situation. The British-Indian force which is besiegingKeren from the West remained com- paratively quiet for about threeweeks, though we may be sure that the time was not wasted in idleness.The R.A.F. had been hammering the defences of the place and the roadsbehind it, while the converging force from the North, which includes a'FreeFrench contingent, had been making progress. "When the time was judgedappropriate by the General, the Indians and their British comradesmade a fine assault from the West. The country in front of them was aseries of steep hill peaks, but on such terrain the sepoys from the N.W.Frontier are quite at home. They scaled them,- fighting their way up,and a Scottish regiment put in a fine bayonet charge. Guns were in action,but the R.A.F. seem to have done most of the bombardment. Thegunners were firing upward, probably at targets which they could not see,while the bomb-aimers looked down on them. The R.A.F. kept it up allday, and cleared the way for the assaulting troops on many difficult
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