Qualla: Battle of Agordat (1941)

Battle of Agordat (1941): Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. At dawn on 21 January 1941, Lieutenant Amedeo Guillet led the Gruppo Bande Amhara - a squadron of Ethiopian and Eritrean cavalry officered by Italians - in a surprise charge from the rear of an Anglo-Indian column advancing through the Eritrean lowlands. His horsemen broke into the British lines shouting, firing, slashing with sabers among the supply trucks and infantry. When the Allies rallied, Guillet's deputy Lieutenant Renato Togni and his platoon of thirty colonial soldiers charged a column of Matilda tanks head-on. All thirty died. The main Italian force, given twenty-four extra hours by that suicidal gesture, reached the defensive position at Agordat. The Battle of Agordat that followed - 26 to 31 January 1941 - was the first major British victory in the East African Campaign, fought by Indian soldiers under British officers against Italian soldiers and Eritrean askari in terrain that should have favored the defenders. Four tanks decided it.

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Battle of Agordat (1941): Ultra Eavesdropping

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The British went into Eritrea knowing nearly everything the Italians had planned. By November 1940, the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park and the Cipher Bureau Middle East in Cairo had broken the replacement ciphers for the Regia Aeronautica and Regio Esercito. ...

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Battle of Agordat (1941): The Terrain at Agordat

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Agordat is a small town on the north bank of the Baraka River, a watercourse that is dry most of the year and edged with palm groves where it runs past the town. The Italians chose it as a defensive position because the terrain did most of the work for them. Two roads from Kassal...

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Battle of Agordat (1941): Five Days of Fighting

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The 4th Indian Division moved against Agordat from 26 January. Initial attacks by the 4th Sikh Regiment and the 3/1st Punjab on Laquetat ridge were repulsed. The 3/14th Punjab climbed Mount Cochen in the dark on the night of 28 January. On 29 January the Italians reinforced Coche...

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Battle of Agordat (1941): Four Matildas on 31 January

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The decisive morning was 31 January. Four Matilda I infantry tanks from the 7th Royal Tank Regiment had arrived at the front. The Italian M11/39 tanks and Fiat L3 tankettes defending Agordat were obsolete - some of the L3s were crewed by German volunteer sailors stranded in Massa...

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Battle of Agordat (1941): What the Battle Cost

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The casualty figures for the Italian-led side are worth sitting with. The Italian forces and the Eritrean and Ethiopian askari who fought beside them lost, across Agordat, Barentu, and the retreat to Keren, 179 officers, 130 NCOs, 1,230 Italian other ranks, and 14,686 askari - a ...

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