ITALIAN "HEROES"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 89, 11 October 1941, Page 10

ITALIAN "HEROES"

WOLCHEFIT GARRISON

ROME CLAIMS GLORY

NATIVES PAY PRICE

(Rec. 1.30 p.m.)

RUGB\, October 10.

Comment has been made in London, on the Italian Government's effort to make capital out of the resistance of the garrison at Wolchefit, in Abyssinia.

When most of the Italian forces in that country surrendered, two contingents holding strong positions in the mountain country of Gondar and Wolchefit refused to lay down their arms, and during the whole rainy season, when the approaches to their strongholds were impassable, they continued their resistance.

Wolchefit surrendered on September 27. The Italian Press and radio have been loud in their praise of the "heroic

garrison," and rightly so. Brave men deserve praise. But credit should be given where credit is due. The total strength of the Wolchefit garrison when it surrendered was just over 3000, and of these 1631, a little more than half, were Italian. The rest were African troops.

On September 10 an order of the day, issued by the Italian general, had given the casualty figures for the four months' siege as:—Killed, 54 Italians, 193 Africans: wounded, 89 Italians, 456 Africans; total, Italians 143, Africans 649.

For every two Italians killed or wounded there were nine Africans. It is easy to see who bore the brunt of the fighting. The Italians lost only 17 men out of every hundred, while the Africans lost 61.—8.0. W.