Qualla: Battle of Keren https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Keren https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren Battle of Keren: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. Subadar Richhpal Ram of the Rajputana Rifles had both feet on the crest of Acqua Col when the mine took one of them off. He kept giving orders from the rocks, directing his men, and died soon after. He would be awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously, and an Indian Army barracks in Delhi would bear his name. But in February 1941, on a nameless saddle in the Eritrean highlands, Richhpal Ram was simply one more soldier trying to dislodge the Savoia Grenadiers from granite positions that had been designed by geology to be unbreakable.

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Image: Marco Fera | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Keren: Why Keren Mattered https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. Keren is a small town in the Eritrean highlands at about 15.78 north, 38.45 east. In 1941 it sat astride the only road and railway from the Sudanese border to Asmara and the Red Sea port of Massawa. Whoever held Keren controlled whether Italy could supply its colony of Italian Er...

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Image: Marco Fera | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-why-keren-mattered.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Keren: The Gorge https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Dongolaas Gorge admits a single road through a funnel of cliffs. Looking up at it from below, the British saw Mount Sanchil on the left with its saddle of secondary peaks - Brig's Peak, Hog's Back, Flat Top - and on the right the massif of Mount Zeban and Mount Falestoh crown...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-the-gorge.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Keren: First Assault, 5 to 13 February https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 4th Indian Division came up the gorge on 5 February. The 2nd Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders clawed their way to the top of feature 1616 - Cameron Ridge - and the 3/14th Punjab Regiment advanced onto Brig's Peak. A Savoia Grenadiers counter-attack drove them back. The Cameron...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-first-assault-5-to-13-february.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Keren: Who Was There https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. The attacking force was extraordinary in its composition. Most of the infantry were Indian: Punjabis, Sikhs, Rajputs, Mahrattas, Pathans, Baluchis. Among them fought Scottish Highlanders and Yorkshire regiments. The artillery included Sudanese gunners. And from the north, Briggsf...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-who-was-there.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Keren: Dologorodoc, 15 March https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. Platt paused, regrouped, and attacked again on 15 March. The 2nd Highland Light Infantry made no ground in daylight under fire from Sanchil. That night, the 3/5th Mahratta Light Infantry took the lower feature called Pinnacle under Lieutenant-Colonel Denys Reid. The 2nd West York...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-dologorodoc-15-march.mp3 0:06 6 full Battle of Keren: The Railway Tunnel https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. Heath changed tack. If Sanchil was impossible, he would send the attack up the railway line through the tunnel below Cameron Ridge, under the noses of defenders looking the wrong way. On the night of 24 March the West Yorkshires and Mahrattas took three small hills overlooking th...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-the-railway-tunnel.mp3 0:06 7 full Battle of Keren: What Followed https://qualla.com/battle-of-keren/ Photo credit Marco Fera, CC BY-SA 3.0. Massawa surrendered on 8 April after the Italians tried and failed to scuttle their Red Sea Flotilla in the harbour mouth. The 13th French Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade took the Italian Admiralty building. On 11 April Roosevelt declared the Red Sea no longer a combat zone. American...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/f/g/3/battle-of-keren-wp/sfg3-battle-of-keren-what-followed.mp3 0:06 8 full