March on Gondar
The March on Gondar was an action conducted by regular troops and volunteers following the secretary of the PNF Achille Starace aimed at occupying the Amara region and Lake Tana.
Background
After the victorious battles of Enderta, Tembien and Shire, the Ethiopian armies of the north had been annihilated, leaving the northern regions of the empire practically undefended. While Haile Selassie with the last remaining army was preparing to block the passage of the Italian troops along the road to the capital near Korem, the Italian troops proceeded to occupy the Alagi passes and the localities of Corbettà and Sekota, the capital of Wag.
In the void left by Ras Imru's troops retreating from Shire and counting on the ambiguous position of his lieutenant Ayalew Birru who had been in contact with the Italians for some time, a rapid column led by the secretary of the PNF Achille Starace was launched with the objective of conquering the capital of the Amara territory, Gondar, and controlling the territory of Lake Tana.
March
The column, composed of 3348 men and 500 vehicles loaded with ammunition and supplies, made up of the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment and the 82nd CCNN Battalion Benito Mussolini of Forlì, left Asmara on 15 March and quickly arrived on the Setit, the old border of the Eritrean colony, near the town of Omhajer. While covering the attackers from their backstopping positions in the nearby areas of occupation by Italian troops, after having crossed the border with speed, the fast-moving column now shifted its main effort toward Gondar on the only partially vegetation covered roadway and severely landslide system encountered by an Italian officer by the name of Malugani in 1909.
On 21 March, Badoglio reported to Starace via radio regarding the relationship between Dejac Ayalew Birru, who was the head of the forces that were to have been opposing the column and the higher command. He suggested contacting this Dejac in order to get their cooperation. Although this Dejac did not actively resist the column, he was not willing to cooperate with the Italian forces at all (at least at this time).
According to the memoirs of and Paolo Caccia Dominioni who took part in the march, the enemy was often sighted but never attacked, not even in the difficult passages of the Angereb River, of the Samboccò embankment. The Ethiopian troops however abstained from engaging in battle not so much because of an explicit order from Ayalew Birru but because they were pressed by the askaris of the third brigade under the command of General Cubeddu, who Badoglio had sent with the order to first flank and then precede the AO fast column, with the aim of protecting the safety of the secretary of the PNF. The rapid advance of the askaris did not in fact give the Abyssinian troops time to stop and organize a line of defense, forcing them constantly to retreat.
After crossing the Sengià on March 30th, Starace abandoned his vehicles because of impassable landslide conditions to march the last segment of there trip on foot. Cubeddu's askaris had made it to Gondar but were asking for permission for fast track access in the morning to get into the city, thus ending the march after 330km and 2 weeks of being in hostile controlled territory.
Starace stopped briefly in Gondar, spurred on by Mussolini who, for reasons of opportunity, wanted to occupy the shores of Lake Tana, the only English interest in Ethiopia, and eager to verify the feasibility of establishing a seaplane base there, on 11 April he set out again and, without encountering obstacles, reached the lake the following day, occupying the islands and the shore.
Aftermath
Because of the successful engagement of Gondar, Italian forces were able to reach a position just south of where Ethiopian troops had been stationed at Maychew. This put the Ethiopian armies at risk for an attack from the flank. But this was not the final destination of Starace's column; taking advantage of rivalries among local leaders, as well as the devastation of the Abyssinian armies, Starace’s march continued into the following weeks. Starace departed from Lake Tana and occupied Bahir Dar on 24 April, followed by Debre Tabor four days later, and continued on to the source of the Blue Nile on 3 May, entering Debre Markos on the 20th of the same month. In only sixty-five days, Starace’s forces covered a staggering 1700 km, occupying an area of territory of approximately 100,000 km².