Prince of Lasanod
Eid trim pending
It was the Ethiopian Emperor known as Iyasu V, apparently he also reverted to Islam. May Allah reward him with Jannah. Whilst the so called "friendly Somali tribes" were fighting with the British.
Although the British annihilation of the Somali leader, Mohamed Abdullah Hassan - in England normally known as "the mad Mullah" - took twenty years and was finally made utilizing an independent air force unit, this war is not well known to the public. And yet this is the story of one of the first examples of the utilization of modern arms against a powerful people's army, who had the nearly total control of an immense area with strong-points which could not be overrun without extremely severe losses, and with utilization of the sanctuary on the other side of international borders. The parallel with Vietnam is obvious.
The British considered him a religious, fanatic rebel, although an opposition member of the Parliament in London described him as "a brave man, striving to be free".
In 1907 Mohamed Abdullah was forced to withdraw to the Italian side of the border, but two years later he was back and the British had to withdraw to Berbera and two other coastal towns and leave the tribes in the hinterland to their own. In order to have some control, the British supplied rifles and ammunition to "friendly" tribes.
During the First World War, Sheik Mohamed Abdullah got help from the new Turkish oriented Ethiopian Emperor, Lij Yasu, who provided him with weapons, ammunition and a Turkish fortress architect, who assisted in the construction of about 30 stone forts in Northern Somalia and the Ogaden.
In the main fort, Taleh, he had a German mechanic, Emil Kirsch, producing ammunition. Kirsch had fled from Djibouti to Ethiopia in 1917 and was sent by Lij Yasu to Sheik Mohamed as a "present" on a 5 month contract. The Dervishes wanted him to produce rifles without supplying tools and raw materials and to repair Maxim machine-guns without any spare parts.
He succeeded in a "rope-escape" with his Nyasa servant from the 10 meter high tower, but died of thirst after six days without food and water.
After the First World War it was decided that the British should go into the offensive to annihilate the Mullah and his regime.
Force Z arrives
As previous operations had been costly and had given no permanent results, it was decided to try an air expedition. The advantages of such an operation would be:
•It could be carried out at a relatively low cost;
•Only a force of 250 men would be needed, compared to a long term army campaign with at least 5.000 troops;
•An aerial expedition could be prepared and transferred rapidly
•If a failure, the losses would be bearable.
It was decided to dispatch a self contained RAF unit "Force Z" to Berbera under the command of Group Captain R. Gordon in the last half of 1919 [OK Xaar Belaayo, tell us this British guy was your uncle]. The group had 12 DH9 aeroplanes out of which one was an ambulance plane, 36 officers (incl. 4 medical officers) and 189 other ranks (incl. 25 medical personnel) and had rations, fuel, spare parts, ammunition etc. to operate independently for 6 months 3).
In November 1919 Gordon arrived at Berbera together with his aerodrome engineer and his supply-officer as an advance party. In order to keep the plans secret, they wore no RAF insignia, but came as the advance party for an oil-exploring company.
They started up with preparing an aerodrome ("site for drilling equipment") at Berbera. Next an aerodrome was made near Burao, 140 km. from Berbera and 150 km. from Eli Dur Elan fort, where the Mullah was suspected to be.
Force Z blev transporteret til Berbera ombord på HMS Ark Royal 4).
Fra An Extract from Jane's Fighting Ships for 1919.
During December more than 20 tons of supplies as well as 2.000 camels were moved to the aerodrome at Burao - a 6 day's ride.
On 30th December, the main force, with the aeroplanes, arrived by Royal Navy to Berbera.
The same day the Governor, F. G. Archer, sent a flysheet to "the Dervishes of the Mullah Mohamed Ben Abdullah Hassan of Ogaden" carried by British Officer "who like the birds in the air flies fast and far" granting safe conduct for the followers of the Mullah if they surrendered and offering a reward for the capture of the Mullah: 5.000 piaster, 500 to 1.100 for his brothers and 250 to 500 piaster for his sons and some of his leaders.
Phase 1 - Air Attacks
On the 19th January, Force Z was ready in Burao and two days later it was ready for the first phase: to locate and bomb the Fort of Medish and Jid Ali.
The first bomb hit next to Mohamed Abdullah, and his sister and the man standing next to him were killed.
Phase 2 - Combined Operations
After 4 days of bombing and strafing where a great part of the camels and cattle were killed, it was decided to go on to the second phase, a combined operation with the Camel Corps.
On the 27th, the camel corps was at Jid Ali Fort and after bombing by RAF the fortress fell with no losses on the British side. The Mullah had fled towards the east, presumably to Taleh. On the 29th the RAF found Taleh: no sign of troop movements, but the aerial photographs taken on the 1st of February revealed a huge fort complex.
The main fort was 100x200 yards and had 12 turrets more than 10 meters high, with grain silos for each turret and accommodations for more than 5.000 soldiers with camels.
It was decided to make a new aerodrome at Gaolo. This would take approximately 3 weeks but after a bombing of Taleh on the 3rd where the forts were bombed with 112 20 and 2-lbs. bombs, the village was bombed with incendiary bombs and the cattle and camels strafed with machine guns.
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