معركة كرن

معركة كرن
	جزء من حملة شرق أفريقيا في الحرب العالمية الثانية
	; Keren Battlefield
التاريخ	5 فبراير – 1 أبريل 1941
المسقط	إرتريا ; Coordinates:
النتيجة	فوز الحلفاء
الخصوم
المملكة المتحدة الراج البريطاني ; فرنسا الحرة	مملكة إيطاليا Italian East Africa ;
القادة والزعماء
William Platt; Noel Beresford-Peirse; Lewis Heath	Nicolangelo Carnimeo; Orlando Lorenzini †
الوحدات المشاركة
4th Indian Infantry Division; 5th Indian Infantry Division; Free French Brigade of the Orient; Sudanese Defense Force	; 6 brigades of Colonial Troops
القوات
13,000	23,000
الخسائر
536 killed and 3,229 wounded	Italian: 3,000 killed and 4,500 wounded; Eritrean Ascari: 9,000 killed

معركة كرن Keren (أوCheren، وهوالتهجي الإيطالي القديم) نشبت كجزء من حملة شرق أفريقيا during the Second World War. The engagement took place fromخمسة February to 1 April 1941, between a mixed Italian army of regular and colonial troops and British (mostly Sudanese and Indian troops under the British flag) and Free French forces. The town of كرن، في مستعمرة إرتريا الإيطالية, was of strategic importance to both sides in 1941. The road and railway through Keren were the main routes إلى عاصمة المستعمرة أسمرة وميناء مصوع على البحر الأحمر، الذي استسلم للبريطانيين بعد المعركة.

خلفية

إرتريا

Italian East Africa, May 1940, before the conquest of British Somaliland

قيادة الشرق الأوسط

The British responded by building up a force of more than two divisions in Sudan and three in Kenya by early February 1941. The Sudan-based forces—commanded by Lieutenant-General William Platt and under the command of General Archibald Wavell (Commander-in-Chief British Middle East Command)—had launched an attack into Eritrea through Kassala on 18 January and by 1 February had captured Agordat some 160 kم (100 ميل) east of Kassala.

الغزوالإيطالي للسودان

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan shared a 1,600 kم (1,000 ميل) border with the AOI, and on أربعة July 1940, was invaded by an Italian force of about 6,500 men from Eritrea, which advanced on a railway junction at Kassala and forced the British garrison of 320 men of the SDF and some local police to retire, after inflicting casualties of 43 killed and 114 wounded for ten casualties. The Italians also drove a platoon of No ثلاثة Company, Eastern Arab Corps (EAC) of the SDF, from the small fort at Gallabat, just over the border from Metemma, about 320 kم (1,050,000 قدم) south of Kassala and took the villages of Qaysān, Kurmuk, and Dumbode on the Blue Nile. From there the Italians ventured no further into Sudan, owing to lack of fuel. They proceeded to fortify Kassala with anti-tank defences, machine-gun posts and strong-points, later establishing a brigade-strong garrison. The Italians were disappointed to find no strong anti-British sentiment among the native population.

Prelude

Keren

The advance of Platt's forces into Eritrea

المعركة

Sketch map of the Keren battlefield (not to scale)

خطة الهجوم

Vickers Wellesley of No. 47 Squadron RAF based at Agordat, Eritrea, in flight during a bombing sortie to Keren.

الأعقاب

تحليل

Graves of unknown Eritrean Ascaris killed in 1941 during the Battle of Keren

Ethiopians transporting supplies by camel through vegetation, 22 January 1941 (Photographer: FE Palmer, No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit).

الخسائر

مصوع

Italians repairing an Autoblinda Fiat-Ansaldo armoured car in East Africa, 1941

Notes

Citations

^ Stewart 2016, pp. 148–162.
^ Stegemann & Vogel 1995, pp. 262–263.
^ Raugh 1993, p. 72.
^ Stegemann & Vogel 1995, pp. 295.
^ Playfair 1954, pp. 170–171.

References

Brett-James, Antony (1951). . Aldershot: Gale & Polden. OCLC 4275700. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
Bruttini, A.; Puglisi, G. (1957). L'Impero tradito. Firenze: La Fenice. OCLC 860557190.
Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D., eds. (2005) [1995]. Oxford Companion to World War II. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 245–247. ISBN .
Ellsberg, Edward (1946). Under the Red Sea Sun. New York: Dodd, Mead. ISBN . OCLC 1311913.
Mackenzie, Compton (1951). Eastern Epic: September 1939 – March 1943 Defence. I. London: Chatto & Windus. OCLC 59637091.
Playfair, Major-General I. S. O.; et al. (1954). Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). . History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. I. HMSO. OCLC 494123451. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
Qureshi, N. A.; et al. (1963). Prasad, Bisheshwar (ed.). . Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War (1939–1945) (online ed.). Delhi: Combined Inter-Services Historical Section (India & Pakistan). OCLC 480344871. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
Raugh, H. E. (1993). Wavell in the Middle East, 1939–1941: A Study in Generalship. London: Brassey's UK. ISBN .
Stegemann, Bernd; Vogel, Detlef (1995). Germany and the Second World War: The Mediterranean, South-East Europe and North Africa, 1939–1941. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN .
Stevens, G. R. (1948). Fourth Indian Division. Toronto, Ont: McLaren and Son. OCLC 3809328.
Stewart, A. (2016). The First Victory: The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign (1st ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN .
. London: HMSO for Ministry of Information. 1942. OCLC 184818818. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
"The Brits Enter, the Italians Exit". The Eritrean Newsletter. Beirut: ELF Foreign Information Centre. I (34). 1979. OCLC 6056089.

للاستزادة

Ghergo, Giuseppe Federico (June 2011). "La battaglia di Cheren" [The Battle of Keren]. Storia Militare. Parma: Albertelli Edizioni Speciali (213). ISSN 1122-5289.
The Abyssinian Campaigns; The Official Story of the Conquest of Italian East Africa. London: HMSO for Ministry of Information. 1942. OCLC 184818818.