World War: Long Enough for Aosta

• Share

The simultaneous upsies and dazies of Italian Imperial fortunes were last week exemplified by two brothers. Just after the Duke of Spoleto was named King of Croatia with pomp and jubilation, his elder brother the Duke of Aosta yielded up the trappings of his authority as Viceroy of Ethiopia.

Month ago, when the Nazis were sprinting across Libya toward Egypt and the British needed every man they could muster from East Africa, Lieut. General Alan Gordan Cunningham offered the Duke of Aosta peace terms. The Duke was in such a hopeless military position that he must have eyed the terms wistfully, even though accepting them would have meant giving up his much-loved gaudy uniforms; but he had strict orders not to give in—having lost Ethiopia, he might as well detain as many British as possible as long as possible.

Therefore he rejected the British terms, retired with 7,000 Italians and 31,000 Ethiopians to the highest fortress he could find—Amba Alagi, a 10,000-foot crag near the Addis Abaha-Eritrea road—and waited.

Last week the British had crept and climbed to positions all around him, making Amba Alagi uncomfortable for other reasons besides altitude. He decided that he had detained the British long enough, asked for peace terms. The British gladly delivered. Neither Cairo nor London divulged the terms in detail, but one of them was said to be certain: the Duke of Aosta would have to surrender not only his fancy uniforms but also his own fancy person. For the British the capitulation was timely, because they still needed every man they could muster.