Post by Diarist on Oct 30, 2015 11:33:23 GMT 1
I had a working breakfast with Aude Wingate this morning to discuss the chemical warfare problem. I asked him what kind of forces do you have available in Eritrea. I was totally surprised with his response. There are four Balilla-class Italian submarines with depth charges attached which will explode when the submarines dive below 20 feet. They also have several Italian army trucks which can be loaded with explosives and detonated at any desired target. They even have a dozen Italian deserters in their ranks, including a lieutenant.
They know two locations where chemical weapons are stored but we can't do anything until we are at war. By we, I mean we British. Eritreans and Abyssinians are not British. Also if Mussolini does invade Abyssinia, Britain and France won't be immediately at war either whereas Abyssinia will be. They've already prepared a few surprises for the Italians in Abyssinia. I told him that my mission was to capture the airfield at Teseney which is about 1 km east of the town. An Abyssinian force of about 8,000 troops will be marching north from Himora, a border town about 150 km further south so they won't arrive for about four days. That leaves 154th Brigade which should arrive before the end of the day. Ideally they will enter Teseney without a fight because we have already captured it.
I asked if his forces could mess with next airfield at Agordat a small market town half the way to Asmara, the Eritrean capital. He answered that they could probably capture it because they already use it as a base. He has friends in Teseney, too. We discussed arrangements for them to link up with us after we have captured the airfield. We discussed the communications my force had brought from Alexandria - they use different frequencies so hopefully no-one else will be listening.
Thomas arrived with Erwin in tow - they had been studying maps of our area of operations, (AO). Erwin and I then went to the 154th HQ to meet Colonel Cunningham, the Chief of Staff. They had also found a lieutenant who has a working knowledge of German so I left Erwin with him. I showed COL Cunningham my accreditations. "My unit is assigned to Combined Operations and we have our orders directly from Secretary Churchill. In fact I can't even tell you what our mission is, but we are here to make life easier for you", I told him. The Brigade is to relocate to Kassala if Mussolini invades Abyssinia. One battalion, minus a company, will move along the river and arrive at the border area after dark and keep a low key presence so as not to alarm the Italians/Eritreans. The other company of that battalion, minus heavy weapons, will remain in Khartoum. It will be airlifted into Eritrea when and if we go to war. If we close the Suez Canal to Italian shipping that's the signal that we are officially at war at 1 minute after midnight GMT. Only the Division commander, the Brigade commander and the commander of the forward battalion will be informed of this information. NOBODY ELSE! We shall have more plans for you when you are in Kassala.
I had to repeat all of it to Brigadier Vic Fortune, who has just arrived from commanding 5th Infantry Brigade, and he asked to speak to me alone. He obviously wasn't very pleased having a major giving him orders but I explained that these are orders from the General Staff and because of OPSEC the orders are being sent by courier, and that's me. Don't tell the division commander on the phone. I told him that he is one of a few dozen in Britain and France who know that we shall probably be going to war with Italy. Any loose-talk will get your troops killed and mine, too. We are going to teach this Mussolini bastard a lesson and we don't want anybody to spoil the surprise. The enemy here is no match for the Highlanders! He invited me to lunch and I suggested that Rommel joins us.