book's value.

These range from photographs of the Home Fleet being

misidentified (p. 54) to the bizarre statement that the Versailles Treaty
limited German battleship construction to a maximum of 35,000 tons (the
Versailles Treaty actually forbade Germany from having battleships, and
since Germany was not a signatory to the Washington or London Naval
Treaties, the author is presumably trying to refer to the Anglo-German Naval
Accord).
Though possessing no new insights and little critical thought, this book
does provide a good overview of the epic events of 18-27 May which saw
the brief life of the Bismarck come to a close. Those seeking more detail and
background are advised to consult one of the many other titles dealing with
this subject. Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story by the senior surviving
officer, Baron Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg, is particularly interesting
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1980).

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5893/19498489.09.01.22

MARK E. STILLE
Vienna, Virginia

The Ethiopian Patriots: Forgotten Voices of the Italo-Abyssinian War,

1935-41. By Andrew Hilton. Stroud: Spellmount, 2007. Illustrations. Maps.
Index. Paper. Pp. 192.

The Italo-Abyssinian conflict is a relatively neglected topic in the

historiography of the origins and course of the Second World War. Yet
Italy's invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935 began the slide that led to
another global conflict and dealt the League of Nations a fatal blow. Its
ineffectual sanctions were in place from November 1935 to June 1936, lifted
after the fall of Addis Ababa to Italian forces, which allowed Mussolini to
proclaim victory. In reality, Abyssinian resistance continued as an irritant to
the fascist occupiers. Finally, when General Wavell, with Churchill's
blessing, elected to send in forces from the Sudan to collaborate with the
Abyssinian guerrillas, the end was swift and within three months Emperor
Haile Sellassie had been restored to his throne, returning in triumph to his
capital exactly five years since Italian forces entered it on 5 May 1936.
Andrew Hilton's welcome contribution to the literature consists of
interviews conducted with the survivors from the Abyssinian resistance
movement. His study began when he noticed several elderly Abyssinian men
dressed in colonial-style uniforms at the emperor's ceremonial funeral in
November 2000. He was introduced to the Patriots and soon became
fascinated by their tales of a medieval force, armed with spears, sticks, and
single-shot rifles bravely attempting to stem the invasion of a modern
twentieth century army brisling with artillery, machine guns, tanks, and
aircraft. They told him of pitched battles where "bullets showered down like
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Copyright (c) Global War Studies. All rights reserved.
rain drops," which were no contest. Despite the disparity in equipment, the
Patriots determined to fight on.
The Association of Ethiopian Patriots turned out to hold no archives. To
record their stories for posterity Hilton, encouraged by noted expert
Professor Richard Pankhurst of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis
Ababa, recruited a history undergraduate, Yonatan Sahle (the son of his taxi
driver!) to conduct interviews with veterans. In all, fourteen interviews were
conducted in the capital between 2003 and 2004. After they were translated
and transcribed into English, Hilton set about making corrections (though he
has commendably retained their manner of speaking) and adding notes. The
veterans ranged in age from seventy-seven to ninety-one, making this the
last opportunity to capture their memories.
To these veterans, the Italian invasion of their homeland was equivalent to
the Nazi aggressions that were to follow and their eventual rescue of the
same magnitude as the D-Day landings to the liberation of Western Europe.
After each incident or battle with the Italian occupying forces, the Patriots
would compose chanting songs, several of which are included here. All the
veterans were happy to be explicit about their deeds, which accords with the
tradition of "boasting ceremonies."
As a non-historian, Hilton enlisted the help of Professor Pankhurst, who
contributes a short introduction to contextualize the interviews, and the late
Bill Deedes, a young Morning Post journalist sent to East Africa in 1935 to
cover the war, who wrote the foreword. There is also a useful glossary and
note on firearms together with a chronology. Illuminating maps are included
and there are sixteen pages of rare photographs culled from the Imperial War
Museum, the Bettmann Collection, and the author's collection, which help
bring the stories to life. Each interview transcript is preceded with a
photograph of the subject.
It would be remiss of this reviewer to recount the often fascinating stories
within. What does come across is the unremitting devotion of the Patriots to
their emperor, their loathing for the Italians who were seen as selfish
colonizers with no benign streak unlike the British, and the absolute
determination to continue the struggle notwithstanding the seemingly
hopeless odds stacked against them. Had the League of Nations provided
modern weapons for the Patriots then the Italian invasion might have been
thwarted. As it was, it took the illegal spraying of mustard gas (the effects of
which are referred to in grisly detail) to subdue the warriors before survivors
took to the hills and mountains to continue the struggle.
A substantial study still needs to be written on the Italo-Abyssinian War
and its author would do well to consult this book, a labor of love which
contains some fascinating insights into an almost forgotten conflict.

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5893/19498489.09.01.23

STEVEN MOREWOOD
University of Birmingham
Global War Studies 9 (1) 2012 │ 121

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