A Third Front

Abstract

This chapter considers the final element of General Wavell's grand plan: providing support for the rebellion in Ethiopia. What this did was to open up a third front in the war for Italian East Africa, as mobile attacks on isolated posts and ambushes along the main routes helped to create “a deep sense of insecurity in the minds of Italian forces.” The defending troops came to fear the possibility of being captured by the irregular forces that increasingly swarmed around them and their real value lay in this psychological distraction. In sponsoring the use of these forces, Wavell demonstrated once again his formidable understanding of warfare and the degree to which the greatest weapon was not always bullets and bombs but something a little more sophisticated.