DARING VENTURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1941, Page 5

DARING VENTURE

WORK OF BRITISH MISSION IN ABYSSINIA ARMY OF TRIBESMEN TRAINED & EQUIPPED. ITALIANS FAIL TO LOCATE BASE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. January 19. A British military mission has been operating in Abyssinia for more than six months, training and equipping tribesmen. This has been revealed in Khartoum. A handful of British officers and non-commissioned instructors, specially selected for their knowledge of the and its dialects, penetrated the enemy lines and 500 miles into the interior of the country. In the jungleclad mountains round Lake Tana they established a camp. Here, in a short time, an army of tribesmen numbering thousands was rapidly being trained. Regular shipments of arms have been sent into Abyssinia to equip this force. The Italians knew that a British unit was at work and made repeated attempts to find it, but the hostile tribesmen made this impossible. Abyssinians. armed with the latest types of rifles and light guns, arc now taking revenge on the Italians, harassing supply columns, ambushing patrols and attacking Italian army camps and aerodromes. Another force, comprising tribesmen who have escaped over the border, is being trained in the Sudan, A message from Khartoum states that the British staff officers and noncommissioned officers and instructors constituting the mission were specially picked for their knowledge of the country and its dialects. They slipped through the Italian defences, trekked five hundred miles, in the rainy season, to the interior and' established their camp in the jungle-clad, mountainous region of Lake Tana, among the tribes who were most strongly opposed to the Italians. The Italians absolutely had no authority over this! territory. The mission rapidly trained a native army which will soon -be i totalling thousands and for which, re- i gular consignments of arms are sent in ’ from Khartoum. The Italians repeatedly and vainly attempted to find the camp, but hostile tribesmen barred the way to troops j and spotting from the air was virtually impossible. I These Abyssinian patriots have been ; attacking the Italians for weeks. Hal-: ian control is virtually confined to the , large towns and some of the main, roads.