Some recollections of a platoon commander in the East African Campaign (1940-
41) and on 22nd East African Brigade Staff in Madagascar (1942-43). These theatres
represented the first conclusive Commonwealth victories of World War II. John Pitt
was a young Tanganyika Forest Officer on Kilimanjaro who, in anticipation of the
Italians entering the War in Abyssinia, Joined up in June 1940 for training in the Kenya
Regiment and was then posted to the Tanganyika l/6th Battalion, Kings African
Rifles (the 1st to 5th coming from Nyasaland, Kenya and Uganda). Until new
battalions were formed, this small force was strung across 1,000 miles of Kenya’s arid
Northern Frontier from Sudan to the Indian Ocean confronting a massive army of
Italians and Ethiopians while a Commonwealth force of all arms was being assembled
from East Africa, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, South Africa and supporting units from
India. They went into battle as the East Africa Command.
After skirmishes on the border and attacking Afmadu, from February 1941 a rapid
advance was made up the Somali Coast to and onwards from Mogadisho, as much by
circumventing enemy strongpoints as by pitched battles, then turning west from
Somaliland and entering Abyssinia to cross the Awash River on the way to Addis
Ababa. By that time the rainy season had set in and very wet it was. Pitt probably
encountered greater hardships from the climate than the enemy, being rationed to a
gallon of water a day, with half handed over to mess cooking in Somalia, but being
flooded out at night under his groundsheet in Abyssinia. The l/6th KAR, the South
Africans and the Nigerians were the first to enter Addis Ababa.
There remained two main areas of resistance, to the south and west to capture
Jimma and to the north-west later to capture Gondar. An immediate move was made
to the south and south west, l/6th KAR being with the force that moved south
through the Lakes, then west to fight a significant battle at Colito on the Bilate River
and an opposed crossing of the large River Omo, collecting prisoners by the thousand,
numerous generals and the occasional Italian paymasters. By that time the Emperor
Haile Selassie had entered Addis Ababa.
In July 1941 1 / 6th KAR moved north through Addis over the good Italian roads to
Dessie to relieve the 22nd Indian Division, which had captured Eritrea and the Duke
of Aosta at Amba Alagi, to fight in the Western Desert. In November, after the rains
had eased in the north-west high country, the final assault was made, 1 / 6th KAR
making the move 200 miles to the west to Lake Tana and undertaking some of the most
severe actions of the campaign to capture Kulkaber and Gondar, thus ending the East
African campaign.
After 22 EA Brigade returned to Kenya, it was re-equipped and in June 1942 was
shipped to Madagascar to garrison Diego Suarez after capture by a force from UK.
Pitt was now a Liaison Officer between l/6th KAR and Brigade, which gave him
scope for reconnaissance, especially after the Brigade sailed to Majunga on the west
coast and undertook the capture of the rest of the Island from Tananarive in the centre
and down to the east coast, with sorties to east coast harbours from June to November
1942, which involved a series of actions. Pitt had been allocated a motorcycle, then a
truck, which gave him scope for reconnaissance, not least for local provisions and
French cuisine. During the period to July 1943, when the Tanganyika Government
recalled him to Forest duties, Pitt undertook a number of assignments which involved
being a railway transport officer, reporting on airfields and military features lest Japan
moved east, and preparing information for a handbook for the War Office of southern
Madagascar so that he obtained a thorough insight into the local conditions and
ecology.
Clarification
For the sake of the historical record, I should like to correct a small point in Sir Roger
Swynnerton’s review.
It was the 5th Indian Division which fought the campaign through Eritrea to Amba
Alagi, January to May 1941, together with the 4th Indian Division, which had been
transferred to the Sudan after their success in the Western Desert at Sidi Barrani. The
4th Indian Division fought through to the finish of the battle of Keren at the end of
March, when they returned to the Western Desert.
These two Regular Army divisions were supported throughout the campaign by the
Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry, 144th Field Regiment RA, of which I was a member. The
Duke of Aosta surrendered to Major General Mayne, commanding the 5th Indian
Division, and the Duke was escorted down the mountain, Amba Alagi, by Brigadier
Marriott (29th Indian Infantry Brigade), whom he had known in pre-war days, at Eton I
believe.
Dr. Francis G. Smith (Tanganyika 1949-62)
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