Elmira District Secondary School - Oracle Yearbook (Elmira, Ontario Canada)

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N. QL. X : I .- ,, 9 ' , A 4 A Ill .I .-an s, . IIA A . ... . 1 5 -. F - G.-A e , - ,.,.. Ei' F' 1 W M Eigflillsfigl-.a isf fi- - fe, .. ' S f ,. f ' 3' -- 'N J A S mnxhld : I THE DEFENCE OF MOYALE By DAVID ROWLAND, GRADE XII I Winner First Prize Prosej In the month of August, 1940, at the little frontier town of Moyale, there was stationed a small British garrison. It consisted of fifty men from 'each of the four Soudanese battalions defending Kenya against an Italian attack. The 6th, 13th, 16th and 42nd Battalions were re- presented, and, as a defence against a mechanized attack, four rapid- fire anti-tank guns with thirty-two members of the South African Field Force had been added but a fortnight previously. This small force was under the command of Major G. R. Smith-Dorrien. Against his force was arrayed the strength of one full Italian mechanized bri- gade, the 32nd, consisting in the main, of native Askaris. Major Smith-Dorrien had orders to hold Moyale only long enough to inflict a few casualties on the ene- my, and to iind out the strength of their attackers. But the High Com- mand never expected that the Ital- ians would hurl an entire brigade against such an unimportant post as Moyale. Thus, when, on the twenty-second of August, the Ital- ians crossed the border in force, Smith-Dorrien was unprepared to meet such an assault. Swiftly he collected approximately seventy- five of the Soudanese infantry-men, and with one gun and its crew, hurled them against the attacking enemy tanks. The rest of the men quickly gathered a quantity of food into the small mud fort overlooking Moyale and constituting the only defence of the town. Here the re- maining men repaired and spent the next few hours strengthening the walls and mounting the three remaining guns. During the after- noon, the remnants of the defend- ing force withdrew to the fort. Al- though they had lost sixteen dead and thirty-four wounded, they had .brought off their gun, after inflict- ing heavy casualties on the enemy. All night the sentries could hear the shouts of the Italians as they looted the town and sent pickets to surround the fort and prevent the garrison's withdrawing. Shortly before dawn one hundred villagers arrived, having stolen through the enemy pickets and reached, thefort. They were first armed, and then sent to the walls to assist in re- pulsing the attack that the enemy was sure to make as soon as it was light enough to see. The garrison now consisted of two hundred and fifty-four native soldiers, four anti-tank guns, , and twenty-eight South Africans, barely enough to provide pickets on the walls, much less to defend these same walls against an attack. At dawn the expected attack was launched. Fifteen Italian Fiat tanks, followed by a battalion of Askaris, dashed forward towards QA -.x ' X ,X

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X 14 THE ORACLE the gate of the fort. But here, two of the guns had been placed, and their fierce fire forced the tanks to withdraw, leaving their supporting infantry exposed to a withering fu- silade from the walls of the fort. After vainly attempting to advance in the face of this fire, the Askaris withdrew in disorder, leaving fifty- four bodies on the field, and carry- ing with them many wounded men. Direct assault having failed, the Italians and their native allies settled down to reduce the fort by siege. The troops dug in and brought up a number of field pieces. With these and their machine guns, they forced the British garrison to withdraw from the walls to the greater safety of the barracks. That night a group of the villagers sallied out and collected the arms and equipment of the dead Askaris lying before the fort. Two of these were still alive, but so far gone that, out of pity, the natives shot them. The shots aroused the Italian pickets, who had their men stand to and man the parapet against a supposed night attack. After shooting off a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition into the darkness, the enemy came to the conclusion that the attack was a false alarm, and they ceased firing. After the sun rose, and through- out the day, the Italians kept up a desultory artillery and small arms fire. For the next two days the small garrison was left in peace, save for this fire, the enemy sending raiding parties into the outlying villages after food. On the fourth day, a flight of Hawker Hart Medium bombers flew low over the fort, dropping food and water to the beleaguered garrison, which was in dire need of these essentials. A dis- patch-case for Major Smith-Dor- rien was also dropped. After com- pleting this necessary work, the planes turned their attention to the Italians, planting several sticks of bombs in the centre of their camp, causing great havoc. Major Smith-Dorrien had receiv- ed orders to evacuate Moyale, if it was possibleg if not, to surrender his men and the fort to the enemy. That evening the major called the officers to his quarters, and told them his decision-the garrison would attempt to fight its way through the enemy. At ten o'clock that night every man was served out two hundred rounds of ammunition, three days' emergency rations, and a number of hand grenades. A number of men were also told off to carry the wounded men in litters. The anti- tank guns were limbered up, and with a detachment of the 13th Sou- danese leading, the tiny column moved out by the east gate. Ra- pidly the force crossed the inter- vening space, and at word from their officers, the black warriors stormed the trenches and broke the besieging forces. At the bayonet point the Askaris were driven from their shelter trenches and forced to flee. As the column passed through the empty trenches, there was a thunderous roar, and Moyale fort vanished in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, there remained only a big heap of rubble. All excess ammunition and explosives had been made useless to the enemy. Two days later the little column entered Buna. Here a relief column was in the process of being organ- ized to go to the aid of Major Smith-Dorrien's force. Although they had lost over twenty men, nearly one-tenth of the entire force, the small force had stopped the ad- vance, into Kenya, of the 32nd Ital- ian tanks, and, had caused over one hundred casualties among the ene-