Saturday 1 October 2011

Rhodes The war in libya


In April Do  a landing was effected, without opposition, at Ras Makabes, a headland not far from the Tunis border, and a base was established near the old fort of Bu Kamesh.below composition figure by nardi
 The Italian force consisted of two brigades, one from Tripoli and one from Italy, under the command of Gen. Garioni, and it made short work of a few minor attacks delivered by the Arabs. A landing on this part of the coast would have been effected earlier if it had not been for the difficulty of keeping up supplies during the winter.'
 In April Italian warships appeared off the entrance to the Dardanelles. They were fired on by the Turkish forts, and their answer to this fire drew a fresh and very energetic protest from Vienna. The Italian ambassador was informed that if Italy" wished to resume her freedom of action "Austria could do the same. An d further action on similar lines" might have grave consequences.' After a daring exploit by Capt. Millo, who penetrated the Dardanelles in a small destroyer, the northern Aegean was left alone by the Italians, but in May the island of Rhodes and 12 small islands of the Sporades were occupied by Italy. Only in Rhodes was there any resistance, but the Italian force under Gen. Ameglio, which was formed in the main of troops from Tripoli and Bengazi, fought a brilliant little action at Psithos and captured some 2,000 Turkish regulars.
On May 2 Gen. Reisoli pushed back the Arabs some distance to the east of Homs, inflicting considerable loss, and five weeks later the Tripoli district once more became the scene of fighting. Encouraged by the long period of quiet the Turks and Arabs had come nearer the town, and a considerable force was entrenched near the oasis of Zanzur, a few miles west of Gargaresh. On June 8 two Italian brigades drove the enemy out of their positions, while a reserve brigade nearer Tripoli awaited the expected arrival of enemy reinforcements. The woman picyured here is one of hundreds that Italian soldiers took of nude ethnic women in their campaigns in africa and Libya.Italian infantry 1895. I dont know how much the uniform changed from here to libya
The Arabs came up in strength, but were soundly beaten, losing nearly 1,000 killed, while the Italians had over 300 casualties. A few days later the Arabs attacked the Italian positions near Horns, but were driven off with heavy loss (about 700 killed). They were taken in flank by a battalion of Bersaglieri, and after this repulse Horns was undisturbed by any further fighting. On June 15 an Italian force under Gen. Camerana landed near Misurata, and occupied the town some days later, and on June 27 Gen. Garioni started a series of operations from Bu Kamesh, which ended, after various successful actions, in the occupation of Zuara Transports actually left Italy for Zuara (Zoara) in Dec. but returned after being a month at sea in persistent bad weather.
and an advance towards the oases of Regdaline, from which the Arabs were driven on Aug. one of the interesting facts of the war in Africa and in Libia was the "Black wife" phenomenom according to historians in Italy the Catholic repression of sexual activity caused the Italian soldiers to regard the uninhibited sexual mores of the black women as something not much short of paradise..clip_image018clip_image020clip_image022clip_image002[9]clip_image001

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