The differences between the model A and model B are unknown. 1 Fiat 3000 A was acquired in 1925. 3 Fiat 3000 B were acquired in 1930. Undoubtedly they were used in the Italo-Ethiopian War, which began in the Ogaden, in December 1934, with a confrontation between Italian and Ethiopian soldiers at the water holes of Welwel. |
Rome used Somalia and Eritrea as bases from which to launch its attack in October 1935. The issue was never in doubt; Emperor Haile Selassie had neither the armaments nor the disciplined troops necessary to fight the modern war that Italy mounted. In May 1936, after a terrible war that featured aerial bombardment and poison gas, he went into exile, and Italy proclaimed an East African empire consisting of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and its colony of Somalia. After Italian troops were ejected from the area by British troops, Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa in May 1941, Haile Selassie worked consistently to restore Ethiopia's sovereignty and to fend off British colonial encirclement and the isolation of his state. He regarded British activities in Somaliland as subversive and turned to the United States, which he concluded would be the dominant postwar power, to balance the political threat. American lend-lease and other assistance permitted Ethiopia to rebuff Britain and to secure the return of the Ogaden in 1948. |
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Last Update: Thursday, February 13, 2003 |
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