Haile Selassie's war

by Anthony Mockler

""Half-man, half-snake" was how the Emperor Haile Selassie was described by one of his most ferocious rivals, the eunuch Balcha, who had commanded the artillery at the battle of Adowa where the first Italian invasion of Ethiopia was bloodily repulsed. Forty years later the old Galla warrior was to die, machine-gun in hand, once again attempting - this time without success - to halt the Italian intruders." "Anthony Mockler's epic history is divided into three parts. First the scene is set in Ethiopia, still feudal, and in Italy, newly fascist. The second part describes in compelling detail the Italian invasion and the battles in the north: it ends with the invaders in undisputed control of their new Roman Empire and with Haile Selassie living in apparently hopeless exhile near Bath." "The final section recounts how, following Italy's entry into World War II, British Somaliland was invaded and conquered and fears of a British debacle spread all over East Africa. But then the tide of batt