A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991: Updated and Revised Edition by Bahru Zewde

Author:Bahru Zewde [Zewde, Bahru]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780852557860
Goodreads: 768093
Publisher: James Currey
Published: 2001-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

4.2 Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu, holder of various ministerial posts and provincial governorships, one of the commanders on the northern front in 1935–1936

The final battle in the north, the Battle of Maychaw, which in common parlance has become the generic appellation for the whole war, was actually in the nature of an epilogue. Emeru’s army was not at all involved. The imperial troops of Mulugeta had been virtually nullified at Amba Aradom. The shattered and demoralized troops of Ras Kasa and Ras Seyum – or what was left of them – were scarcely in a position to make any meaningful contribution to the war effort. The only fresh force was the Imperial Bodyguard. For the young Ethiopians who constituted it, Maychaw was a testing-ground, as indeed it was of modern Ethiopia. And they stood the test remarkably well, given the fact that the outcome of the battle was almost predetermined.

It was inconceivable that the Italians, ensconced in their impregnable fortifications and enjoying the domination of the sky which was the hallmark of the whole war, could have been defeated by the Ethiopians. The problem was compounded for the latter by the 156 procrastination that characterized the emperor’s command. Successive postponements of the attack squandered the only possible advantage the Ethiopians had – the element of surprise. The thirteen-hour combat which finally took place on 31 March 1936, although marked by some initial successes for the Ethiopians, ended in their rout. The disorderly retreat was to cost them more lives than the actual battle. Still smarting from a punitive campaign sent against them by Tafari’s government in the late 1920s, for cattle-raiding, the Rayya and Azabo peoples found this an ideal opportunity to settle past scores. The fleeing soldiers were mercilessly mutilated and plundered. Another scene of the gruesome aftermath of the whole disaster was enacted on the shores of Lake Ashange, a short distance to the south of Maychaw, as Italian pilots sported with the harried Ethiopians, alternately showering them with bombs and mustard-gas. After that, the road was clear for the Italians, first to Dessie, which they reached on 4 April 1936, and then to Addis Ababa, which they entered on 5 May.

Although it was the most decisive, the northern front was not the only front: Ethiopians faced Italians in the south and south-east as well. The Italian forces were led by the man who was to symbolize the darkest face of Italian rule in Ethiopia, General (later Marshal) Rodolfo Graziani. He was reputed to have vowed to deliver Ethiopia to il Duce Mussolini ‘with the Ethiopians or without them, just as he pleases’ (Del Boca, 113). Through his impatience for the laurels of victory, Graziani turned a defensive assignment into a second offensive. The Ethiopian forces were commanded in the south by Ras Dasta Damtaw, governor of Sidamo, and in the south-east by Dajjach Nasibu Zamanuel, governor of Harar. Compared with the northern front, the southern front was characterized by more youthful and energetic Ethiopian leadership and slightly better armament.

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