The Royal Corps Of Eritrean Colonial Troops (Italian : Regio corpo truppe coloniali d'Eritrea) were indigenous soldiers from Eritrea, who were enrolled as askaris in the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops (Regio Corpo di Truppe Coloniali) of the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) during the period 1889–1941. [1]
These regular troops played an important role in the initial conquest of the various colonial possessions of the Kingdom of Italy. They subsequently acted as garrison and internal security forces in the Italian Empire, and finally served in large numbers during the Italian conquest of British Somaliland [2] and the East African campaign of 1940-41 . [3]
Except for the German parachute division in Italy and the Japanese in Burma no enemy with whom the British and Indian troops were matched put up a finer fight than those Savoia battalions at Keren (Eritrea). Moreover, the Colonial troops, until they cracked at the very end, fought with valour and resolution, and their staunchness was a testimony to the excellence of the Italian administration and military training in Eritrea [4]
The Italian Army made extensive use of locally recruited indigenous soldiers in Italian East Africa. These troops comprised infantry, cavalry and some light artillery units. They were recruited initially from Eritreans and subsequently from Somalis, with Italian officers and some non-commissioned officers. The Italian Askaris fought in the First Italo–Ethiopian War, the Italian-Turkish War, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and World War II (East African Campaign). [5]
Out of a total of 256,000 Italian troops serving in Italian East Africa in 1940, about 182,000 were recruited from Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and the just recently occupied (1935–36) Ethiopia. In January 1941, Commonwealth and Free French forces [6] invaded Italian-occupied Ethiopia and the majority of the newly recruited Ethiopian Ascaris serving with the Italian Army in East Africa deserted. Most of the Eritrean Ascaris however remained loyal until the Italian surrender four months later. [7]
The name "ascar" is the Arab word for "soldier". The Eritrean Ascari originated from a mercenary Arab group employed by the Ottoman Empire and called Basci Buzuks . This irregular force was created in Eritrea by the Albanian adventurer Sagiak Hassan, who worked for local Eritrean tribes in the second half of the 19th century.
In 1885 the Italian colonel Tancredi Saletta, commanding officer of the Italian troops during the conquest of Eritrea, brought the Basci Buzuks (with their armaments and families) into Italian service as irregular auxiliaries. In 1889 the first four regular battalions of Eritrean soldiers were created in Asmara. Those Eritrean troops were incorporated into the Italian colonial Army with the name Ascari. They were successfully used in battle by the Italians, for the first time, against the Dervisci in Sudan. [8]
Initially the Eritrean Ascari comprised only infantry battalions, although Eritrean cavalry squadrons (Penne di Falco) and mountain artillery batteries were subsequently raised. By 1922 units of camel cavalry called "meharisti" had been added. Those Eritrean camel units were also deployed in Libya after 1932. During the 1930s Benito Mussolini added some armored cars units to the Ascari.
Prior to World War I service with the Ascari had become the main source of paid employment for the indigenous male population of Eritrea. During the expansion required by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, 40% of eligible Eritreans were enrolled in these colonial troops. [9]
Until 1915 Eritrean units wore white uniforms comprising long coats and loosely cut trousers for all occasions. Khaki drill clothing was subsequently adopted for active service and ordinary duties, though the white uniforms were retained for ceremonial duties.
Eritrean regiments in Italian service wore high red fezzes with coloured tufts and waist sashes that varied according to each unit. As examples, the 17th Eritrean Battalion had black and white tufts and vertically striped sashes; while the 64th Eritrean Battalion wore both of these items in scarlet and purple.
The Eritrean Ascari had the following ranks, from simple soldier to senior non commissioned officer: Ascari - Muntaz (corporal) - Bulukbasci (lance-sergeant) - Sciumbasci (sergeant). The Sciumbasci-capos (staff-sergeants) were the senior Eritrean non-commissioned officers and were chosen according to their fighting performance in battle. All of the commissioned officers of the Eritrean Ascari were Italian, who wore similar uniforms and insignia to their counterparts in the regular Italian Army [10]
The Eritrean Ascari were considered the best of Italy's colonial soldiers, with a reputation similar to that of the Gurkhas in the forces of the British Empire. They were accordingly widely employed in other Italian colonial possessions in Africa. Eritrean NCOs were seconded to newly raised Somali and Ethiopian units after 1936.
Notable events in the history of Italy's Eritrean Ascaris included:
One of the most famous Italian officers who commanded groups of Eritrean Ascari in Ethiopia and Eritrea was Amedeo Guillet.
At the beginning of World War II the Italian Viceroy Amedeo Duke of Aosta gave lieutenant Guillet command of the 2,500 strong Gruppo Bande Eritrea, an irregular unit made up mainly of recruits from Hamasien. This force was primarily a cavalry one, but also included camel mounted troops and some Yemeni infantry led by Eritrean Ascari NCOs.
At the end of 1940 the Allied forces faced Guillet on the road to Amba Alagi close to Cherù. He was charged with the task of slowing the Allied advance from the North-West. His Eritrean ascaris had some success in doing this but suffered many casualties. Guillet's most important battle happened towards the end of January 1941 at Cherù when he decided to attack enemy armoured units. At dawn the Gruppo Bande Tigre, armed only with sabres, rifles and hand grenades charged an Allied column which included armoured vehicles. They passed unhurt through the Allied force who were caught unaware. Guillet then turned to charge again. In the meantime however, the Allies had organised themselves and fired horizontally with their howitzers, inflicting heavy losses on the Italian-led troops and their horses. This was the last cavalry charge Commonwealth forces faced and the last but one in the history of Italian cavalry. [15]
Guillet's Eritrean ascaris suffered losses of about 800 in little more than two years. In March 1941 his forces found themselves stranded outside the Italian lines. Guillet began a private war against the Allies. Hiding his uniform near a farm owned by Italian colonists, he conducted guerrilla raids with his remaining askaris against Allied forces for almost eight months. He was one of the most famous Italian "guerrilla officers" in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia during the Italian guerrilla war, a failed attempt to prevent Italian East Africa from being dissolved. [16]
Many Eritrean Ascari fought for the independence of Eritrea after WWII. Among these was Hamid Idris Awate, nicknamed the Father of Eritrea because he fired the first shots of the Eritrean War of Independence against the Ethiopians. [17]
After the official end of the Italian Empire in 1947, the Italian government had created organizations dedicated to the welfare of former Ascaris living in Italy and Eritrea.
In 1950 the Italian authorities created a pension fund for nearly 140,000 Eritrean Ascari who had served in the Italian Colonial Army. Even if the amount was minimal (the equivalent of $100 yearly), this was paid through the Italian Embassy in Asmara and was of some value in the underdeveloped economy of Eritrea after World War II.
During the 1992-93 UN Intervention in the Somali civil war, an elderly Ascari joined an Italian unit with his original uniform and rifle, stating that he had sworn a lifetime oath to "Italy, to the King and to the Duce." By the end of the mission he had been given the rank of marshal. [18]
In 1993, 1,100 Ascari were still living in Eritrea. By 2006 only 260 were known to still be alive. One surviving ascari, Beraki Ghebreslasie, lives in Rome. [19]
The Battle of Adwa was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Ethiopian army, led by Ras Makonen Wolde Mikael, managed to defeat the heavily outnumbered invading Italian and Eritrean force led by Oreste Baratieri on Sunday, March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa. The decisive victory thwarted the campaign of the Kingdom of Italy to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, European powers had carved up almost all of Africa after the Berlin Conference; Ethiopia was among the few countries to still maintained their independence. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later.
An askari or ascari was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa, particularly in the African Great Lakes, Northeast Africa and Central Africa. The word is used in this sense in English, as well as in German, Italian, Urdu, and Portuguese. In French, the word is used only in reference to native troops outside the French colonial empire. The designation is still in occasional use today to informally describe police, gendarmerie and security guards.
Baron Amedeo Guillet was an officer of the Italian Army and an Italian Diplomat. Dying at the age of 101, he was one of the last men to have commanded cavalry in war. He was nicknamed Devil Commander and was famous during the Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia in 1941, 1942 and 1943 because of his courage.
Savari was the designation given to the regular native Libyan cavalry regiments of the Italian colonial army from 1912 to 1943, in Italian Tripolitania and Italian Cyrenaica, and later in Italian Libya. The word "savari" was derived from a Persian term for "horsemen" (Savārān).
Hamid Idris Awate was an Eritrean revolutionary and prominent guerrilla commander, and a symbol of the Eritrean War of Independence and independence struggle.
The Italian order of battle for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War on 8 October 1935. The Ethiopian order of battle is listed separately.
Zaptié was the designation given to locally raised gendarmerie units in the Italian colonies of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Eritrea and Somaliland between 1888 and 1943.
Dubat ; Arabic:العمائم البيضاء ); ḍubbāṭ: English: White turban) was the designation given to members of the semi-regular armed bands employed by the Italian "Royal Corps of Colonial Troops" in Italian Somaliland from 1924 to 1941. The word dubat was derived from a Somali phrase meaning "white turban".
The Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was a conflict fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Ethiopia and Somalia, in a short-lived attempt to re-establish Italian East Africa. The guerrilla campaign was fought following the Italian defeat in the East African campaign of World War II, while the war was still raging in Northern Africa and Europe.
Italian Eritreans are Eritrean-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Eritrea during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Eritrea.
Bands was an Italian military term for irregular forces, composed of natives, with Italian officers and NCOs in command. These units were employed by the Italian Army as auxiliaries to the regular national and colonial military forces. They were also known to the British colonial forces as "armed Bands".
The muntaz was a military rank of the Italian colonial troops, equivalent to the rank of corporal in the Italian Royal Army Regio Esercito.
Italian Eritrea was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in 1869, which came under government control in 1882. Occupation of Massawa in 1885 and the subsequent expansion of territory would gradually engulf the region and in 1889 the Ethiopian Empire recognized the Italian possession in the Treaty of Wuchale. In 1890 the Colony of Eritrea was officially founded.
The Cacciatori d'Africa were Italian light infantry and mounted infantry units raised for colonial service in Africa. Cacciatori units later served in Somalia, Eritrea, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica for the Italian colonial empire. Partially mechanised in the early 1920s, the Cacciatori d'Africa remained part of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali until 1942.
Italian Spahis were light cavalry colonial troops of the Kingdom of Italy, raised in Italian Libya between 1912 and 1942.
The Royal Corps of Colonial Troops was a corps of the Royal Italian Army, in which all the Italian colonial troops were grouped until the end of World War II in North Africa campaign.
The Royal Corps of Somali Colonial Troops was the colonial body of the Royal Italian Army based in Italian Somaliland, in present-day northeastern, central and southern Somalia.
The Battle of Agordat was fought near Agordat in Eritrea from 26 to 31 January 1941, by the Italian army and Royal Corps of Colonial Troops against British, Commonwealth and Indian forces, during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. The British had the advantage of breaking Italian codes and cyphers before the offensive and received copious amounts of information from Italian sources on the order of battle and plans of the Regia Aeronautica and the Italian army.
The siege of Saïo or battle of Saïo took place during the East African Campaign of World War II. Belgo-Congolese troops, British Commonwealth forces and local resistance fighters besieged the fort at the market town of Saïo in south-western Ethiopia in 1941. The siege lasted for several months, culminating in an Allied attack on the Italian garrison thereby forcing it to surrender.
Augusto Ugolini was an officer in the Royal Italian Army during World War II, best known for his leadership during the battle of Culqualber, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor.
Volterra, Alessandro. "Sudditi coloniali< Ascari eritrei 1935-1941". FranAngeli, Milano, 2005
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