Italy's defeat in the North African theater hastened their disintegration throughout Africa.

With the Italian army in North Africa resolved, Wavell was also freed to support the outnumbered British forces in East Africa.

Although even if the British army in North Africa and East Africa were combined, it still did not have half the strength of the Italian army in East Africa. But at this time, no one dared to pat their chests to guarantee that the Italian army would win.

With the support of the North African Army, Wavell was able to use almost 100,000 troops in East Africa.

Looking at the strategic map, Wavell smiled and said to many generals in his headquarters: "In recent months, we have been bullied by the Italians in East Africa in order to win the war in North Africa, and now it is finally time to counterattack, and we want to give them some color." ”

I saw Wavell use the telescopic pole to circle an area on the map next to the wall, and he couldn't laugh.

"Ethiopia!" The generals who reacted quickly had already guessed Wavell's intentions.

There are many reasons why Admiral Wavell decided to start a counterattack against Italy from Ethiopia.

On the one hand, Ethiopia's strategic geographical location is extremely important. Italy had long sought to annex Ethiopia in order to connect it with Eritrea and Italian Somalia, then infiltrate Sudan, and then connect with Libya to establish an Italian African colonial empire.

In this way, Italy would have access to the East without going through the Suez Canal, and it would also endanger Britain's access to the East through the Suez Canal, as well as their colonies in Africa.

Although the Ethiopian people made great efforts to resist the Italian invasion, they still did not escape the fate of being colonized.

On the other hand, the excessive use of poison gas by the Italian army during the conquest also made the Ethiopian people hold a grudge against the Italians, thinking that one day they must avenge their deep hatred. This provided a popular basis for Wevelzer to rebel against the local people.

And it was this psychology of the Ethiopian people that Wavell took advantage of the Ethiopian uprising to think of a strategy to contain the Italian East African army.

"The task of contacting the Ethiopian guerrillas is left to you, Colonel Harrell. Tell them to concentrate all available manpower and sow chaos in Ethiopia, and that our troops of the British Empire will cooperate with them on the front lines of the battlefield to carry out a large-scale frontal attack on the Italian army. General Wavell said to his descendant, Colonel Harrell.

Although Britain is the same as Italy is a Western colonizer and invader, but at least Britain did not torture Ethiopian officers and soldiers with poison gas, in the eyes of Ethiopians, the British obviously have to be kinder, plus Britain is not to take over the Italian colony, but to help Ethiopia restore independence.

Therefore, there is no doubt that the Ethiopian people will side with Britain in the choice between Britain and Italy.

It's not that the British have given up the idea of colonialism and are so compassionate that they suddenly want to change their ways and become good people.

Wavell decided to help Ethiopia become independent rather than take over the colony. One is that the current British Empire really does not have the energy to expand its colonies, and there is no way to be distracted to manage new colonies. Even its original colony is on the verge of falling apart.

On the other hand, after all, Wavell's forces are still at a disadvantage. Although he concentrated the troops brought back from North Africa, if he wanted to win a more secure victory, he had to win as much as possible the Ethiopian uprising.

Only in this way could the rear of the Italian East African army be pinned down so that it could not be taken care of, and thus the risk of war with it could be reduced.

And since Ethiopia is to be fought for, it is naturally more tempting to help its independence than to continue to colonize them.

Sure enough, the day after Colonel Harrell left for Ethiopia, he sent back the news: "Colonel Harrell has now negotiated with the supreme commander of the Ethiopian guerrilla forces, and he has conveyed the intention of Admiral Wavell, and the Ethiopian guerrillas have also expressed their willingness to cooperate with the British in this operation." ”

"I beg you to convey to Commander Wavell that our army can unite the people to launch an armed uprising in Ethiopia within the appointed time. In due course, our army will capture the government, hospitals, warehouses and police stations, as well as power supply stations in large and medium-sized cities in our country, to cooperate with your army's actions. Laika, the leader of the Ethiopian guerrilla forces, assured Harrell, the representative of the British army.

After receiving the news that the Ethiopian guerrillas had agreed to cooperate vigorously, Wavell was pleased to laugh loudly in the headquarters: "God-given opportunity! East Africa will be restored in my hands! ”

You must know that the Ethiopian guerrilla forces are not ordinary militias, and their predecessors were the armed forces of the Ethiopian government.

Ethiopia was the first sovereign African state to be recognized by a European power, and the Ethiopian forces also developed rapidly at one time, even having an air force unit called the Royal Ethiopian Air Force.

The Ethiopian Air Force was established in 1924 with only a handful of French aircraft, and just 11 years later, in 1935, this air force was completely destroyed by the Italian invasion. That's why the Ethiopians hated the Italians so much, and it was they who destroyed the Ethiopian dream of an air force.

As for the Ethiopian army, it was reorganized into a guerrilla army, which was nominally disbanded at the request of the Kingdom of Italy, but in fact it remained in the territory all the time, causing riots from time to time.

With this powerful guerrilla force in response, Wavell finally ordered a counterattack in East Africa after a week of preparation.

He first ordered the Anglo-Indian 4th and 5th Divisions to launch a fierce attack on the Italian forces in Kasala, and the next day captured the Italian troops that could not be withdrawn, creating a first-mover advantage.

At the same time, an armed uprising broke out in Ethiopia with the support of the British army, which greatly affected the supply of the Italian army in the rear and the stability of order, and disturbed the morale of the Italian army in East Africa.

Three days later, the British entered Kismayo without resistance, seven days later the British occupied Mogadishu, seizing supplies including 400,000 gallons of gasoline, and by the 11th day, Italian Somalia had been captured by the British.

In Karen, Ethiopia, although the British army was stubbornly resisted by the elite Italian army's Black Shirts, due to the flank attack of the local guerrillas, the British army finally conquered Karen at the cost of 3,000 casualties, and captured more than 10,000 Italian officers and soldiers, including the Black Shirts.

At the same time, another Australian assault force, mixed with the British, captured the Duke of Aosta and his 50,000 soldiers in a single assault at the cost of 135 deaths.

Afterwards, when Wavell asked Churchill about the results of the battle, he said the classic line quite vividly: "There are too many Italian soldiers to be captured, and it is impossible to count them for a while, probably capturing officers on 5 acres of land and soldiers on 200 acres of land." ”

And Wavell's line was also printed on the front page of the British Times and was vigorously distributed.

In this war, Italy itself lost all its colonies in East Africa, not to mention that it also gave the already disheartened British people a renewed hope of victory and the courage to continue their opposition to the Allies.