Abyssinia

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30.6.41 [George Orwell]

June 30, 2011 in Abyssinia, Germany, Internationale, Lemberg, Lithuania, Minsk, Political, Russia, U.S.S.R., War-time, national anthem, tanks by orwelldiaries

No real news of the Russo-German campaign. Extravagant claims by both sides, all through the week, about the number of enemy tanks, etc., destroyed. All one can really believe in is captures of towns, etc., and the German claims so far are not large. They have taken Lemberg and appear to have occupied Lithuania, and claim also to have by-passed Minsk, though the Russians claim that their advance has been stopped. At any rate there has been no break-through. Everyone already over-optimistic. “The Germans have bitten off more than they can chew. If Hitler doesn’t break through in the next week he is finished”, etc., etc. Few people reflect that the Germans are good soldiers and would not have undertaken this campaign without weighing the chances beforehand. More sober estimates put it thus: “If by October there is still a Russian army in being and fighting against Hitler, he is done for, probably this winter.” Uncertain what to make of the Russian government’s action in confiscating all private wirelesses. It is capable of several explanations.

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31.5.41 [George Orwell]

May 31, 2011 in Abyssinia, Addis Ababa, Political, South Africa, Union Jack, War-time by orwelldiaries

Still not quite happy about Abyssinia. Saw to-day the news-reel of the South African troops marching into Addis Ababa. At the Emperor’s palace (or whatever the building was) the Union Jack was hauled up first and only afterwards the Abyssinian flag.

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14.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 14, 2011 in Abyssinia, America, Benghazi, Cairo, China, Egypt, French West Africa, Germany, Indians, Japan, Negroes, Political, Red Sea, Russia, South Africa, Tobruk, War-time, non-aggression pact by orwelldiaries

The news today is appalling. The Germans are at the Egyptian frontier and a British force in Tobruk has the appearance of being cut off, though this is denied from Cairo. [1] Opinion is divided as to whether the Germans really have an overwhelming army in Libya, or whether they have only a comparatively small force while we have practically nothing, most of the troops and fighting vehicles having been withdrawn to other fronts as soon as we had taken Benghazi. In my opinion the latter is the likelier, and also the probability is that we sent only European troops to Greece and have chiefly Indians and Negroes in Egypt. D., speaking from a knowledge of South Africa, thinks that after Benghazi was taken the army was removed not so much for use in Greece as to polish off the Abyssinian campaign, and that the motive for this was political, to give the South Africans, who are more or less hostile to us, a victory to keep them in good temper. If we can hang on to Egypt the whole thing will have been worth while for the sake of clearing the Red Sea and opening that route to American ships. But the necessary complement to this is the French West African ports, which we could have seized a year ago almost without fighting.

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7.4.41 [George Orwell]

April 7, 2011 in Abyssinia, Balkans, Battle of Cape Matapan, Belgrade, Benghazi, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Jugo-Slavia, Libya, Liddell Hart, Pioneers, Political, U.S.S.R., War-time, conscription by orwelldiaries

Belgrade bombed yesterday, and the first official announcement this morning that there is a British army in Greece – 150,000 men, so they say. So the mystery of where the British army in Libya had gone to it at last cleared up, though this had been obvious enough when the British retreated from Benghazi. Impossible to say yet whether the treaty of friendship between Jugo-Slavia and the U.S.S.R. means anything or nothing, but it is difficult to believe that it doesn’t point to a worsening of Russo-German relations. One will get another indication of the Russian attitude when and if the Emperor of Abyssinia is restored – i.e., whether the Russian government recognises him and sends an ambassador to his court.

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14.3.41 [George Orwell]

March 14, 2011 in Abyssinia, Balkans, Black Sea, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Haffner, Italy, Libya, Metaxas, Norway, Political, Salonika, Sicily, Tripoli, Turkey, U.S.A., War-time, Wavell, berlin, bombs, planes, propaganda, public opinion by orwelldiaries

For the last few days there have been rumours everywhere, also hints in the papers, that “something is going to happen” in the Balkans, i.e. that we are going to send an expeditionary force to Greece.  If so, it must presumably be the army now in Libya, or the bulk of it.[1]  I had heard a month back that Metaxas [2] before he died asked us for 10 divisions and we offered him 4.  It seems a terribly dangerous thing to risk an army anywhere west of the Straits.  To have any worthwhile ideas about the strategy of such a campaign, one would have to know how many men Wavell disposes of and how many are needed to hold Libya, how the shipping position stands, what the communications from Bulgaria into Greece are like, how much of their mechanised stuff the Germans have managed to bring across Europe, and who effectively controls the sea between Sicily and Tripoli.  It would be an appalling disaster if while our own main force was bogged in Salonika the Germans managed to cross the sea from Sicily and win back all the Italians have lost.  Everyone who thinks of the matter is torn both ways.  To place an army in Greece is a tremendous risk and doesn’t offer much positive gain, except that once Turkey is involved our warships can enter the Black Sea: on the other hand if we let Greece down we have demonstrated once and for all that we can’t and won’t help any European nation to keep its independence.  The thing I fear most is half-hearted intervention and a ghastly failure, as in Norway.  I am in favour of putting all our eggs in one basket and risking a big defeat, because I don’t think any defeat or victory in the narrow military sense matters so much as demonstrating that we are the side of the weak against the strong.

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