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The East African campaign (also known as the Abyssinian campaign) was fought in East Africa during the Second World War by Allies of World War II, mainly from the British Empire, against Italy and its colony of Italian East Africa, between June 1940 and November 1941.
The Order of battle of the East African campaign shows the ground forces of both sides in East Africa on the date that the Italians declared war on Britain and France, 10 June 1940 and for the British and Commonwealth forces involved in the 1941 offensive.
Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) [3] was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 after the Second Italo-Ethiopian War through the merger of Italian Somaliland, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire. [4] Italian East Africa was divided into six governorates.
The Italian invasion of British Somaliland (3–19 August 1940) was part of the East African campaign (1940–1941) in which Italian, Eritrean and Somali forces of Fascist Italy entered the Somaliland Protectorate and defeated its garrison of British, Commonwealth and colonial forces supported by Somali irregulars.
The Italian 12th Colonial Brigade (General Orlando Lorenzini) at Kassala retired on the night of 17/18 January 1941, which to the British suggested that the situation in Egypt was affecting Italian strategy in East Africa and that a bolder British policy was justified.
In January 1941, other British Commonwealth forces launched an invasion of Italian East Africa. By November of that year, at the conclusion of the East African campaign , the last organized Italian troops surrendered with military honors in Gondar while some Italian officers started a guerrilla war , mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea .
The Battle of Gondar or Capture of Gondar was the last stand of the Italian forces in Italian East Africa during the Second World War.The battle took place in November 1941, during the East African Campaign.
The Duke of Aosta and his garrison surrendered to the British commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Cunningham, on 19 May 1941. [6] The Duke and the garrison were accorded the honours of war. [7] [8] [9] This capitulation marked the end of any significant Italian control on East Africa, although some garrisons would continue to fight until ...