Wars Involving Somalia - East African Campaign, Battle of Mogadishu, War in Somalia, Advance of the Islamic Courts Union (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 53. Chapters: East African Campaign, Battle of Mogadishu, War in Somalia, Advance of the Islamic Courts Union, Battle for Central Somalia, Somali Civil War, Ogaden War, Shifta War, Attempts at reconciliation in Somalia, Consolidation of states within Somalia, Operation Gothic Serpent, Galgala campaign, Somalia Medal, Battle of South Mogadishu, 1982 Ethiopian-Somali Border War, Ottoman-Portuguese Conflicts. Excerpt: The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in East Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941. Under the leadership of the British Middle East Command, British allied forces involved consisted not only of regular British troops, but also many recruits from British Commonwealth nations (Sudan, British Somaliland, British East Africa, the Indian Empire, South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, British West Africa, as well as the British Mandate of Palestine). In addition to the British and Commonwealth forces, there were Ethiopian irregular forces, Free French forces, and Free Belgian forces. The Italian forces included Italian nationals, East African colonials (Eritreans, Abyssinians, and Somali Dubats), and a small number of German volunteers (the German Motorized Company). The majority of the Italian forces were East African colonials led by Italian officers. Fighting began with the Italian bombing of the Rhodesian air base at Wajir in Kenya, and continued, pushing the Italian forces through Somaliland, Eritrea, and Ethiopia until the Italian surrender after the Battle of Gondar in November 1941. On 9 May 1936, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed his "Italian East African Empire" (Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI). The empire was formed from the newly occu...