SENUSSI TRIBES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 19

SENUSSI TRIBES

THREAT TO ITALIANS GREAT WAR CAMPAIGN RECALLED ROUTED BY BRITISH FORCES Discussing operations in Egypt, a recent cable message said that Senussi tribesmen were awaiting an opportunity to swoop down on the Italians. Doubtless (states a writer in the Dominion) these desert warriors nurse a grudge dating from the days when Marshal Graziani was Governor of Libya, and his methods with recalcitrant tribesmen were the reverse of gentle, but the fact that there is a possibility that they may be heard of in this war recalls that British and dominions troops had to undertake a campaign against them in the Great War. In those days the writ of Italy, to quote Nelson's history of the war, ran feebly in the interior of Libya. Italy had gained possession of the territory after the 1911 war with Turkey, but her rule was not made effective beyond the coastline, and Turkish regulars and Turkish guns remained behind to help the Arab and Berber tribes resist the alien rule. When Italy declared war on Austria the Italian force cf occupation fell back on the coast, and the inland tribesmen were left to their own devices. Stirred up by German and Turkish agents, they prepared for action. They hoped to gather to their standard the Bedouins of the Libyan Plateau and the great Senussi brotherhood. Strange Fraternity The Senussi form one of those strange religious fraternities common in North Africa. Their founder had no fault to find with British rule in fellowers. whose headquarters were the oases of the North Libyan desert, had Egypt. There was, however, a mass of tribesmen who called themselves Senussi and who were but loosely attached to the main organisation, ano some of these joined the other disaffected tribes. Led by a young officer of great ability—a man from Bagdad who later fought with Lawrence on the Allied side and lived to become Prime Minister of Iraq—they penned the Italians into their coastal .fortresses and sharply defeated them whenever they ventured into the open. The force was moulded into one with a certain amount of discipline and very fair fighting qualities. German Influence At first the movement was not directed against the British, but German influence and German money, together with pressure from Constantinople, induced them to take part in a grandiose plan for the invasion of Egypt. This plan, which seems to have a certain amount of affinity with the one the Italians now appear to be preparing, envisaged attacks along two lines from the Western Desert, coordinated with a revolt by a Sudanese sultan and a Turkish threat toward the Suez Canal. The Senussi succeeded in causing some perturbation by occupying some important oases snd were not finally overthrown till several thousand good British and dominion troops were brought against them. The main encounters occurred in the places which are now figuring in the news again. When trouble began to threaten, the British withdrew their posts from Solium and Sidi Barrani, as they have now done again, and held Mersa Matruh in some strength. Hostilities in this area began on December 13, 1915, when 1300 Arabs were driven back with heavy loss. Toward the end of the month a force of 3000 gathered on the outskirts of Mersa Matruh. A British force, consisting of part of a new New Zealand Brigade then training in Egypt, Sikhs, and detachments of the Australian Light Horse and British Yeomanry, went out against this, the first invasion of Egypt from the west since the tenth century. Heavy Enemy Defeats The enemy were located in a donga some eight miles from Mersa Matruh, and the force was completely routed by the attacking infantry with a loss of more than 500 killed and prisoners. The attacking mounted troops swept up most of the transport and supplies of the enemy. The next major engagement was on January 23, when British forces, increased by part of Genera] Lukin's South African Brigade, marched out in two columns, fell on the tents of the enemy, now 4500 strong, and drove them westward in utter rout with a loss of more than 600. After this the attack languished and the affair soon degenerated into little more than frontier brigandage. Mobile Columns Work Cleaning up went on, however, and the tribesmen were again beaten at Agagia. near Sidi Barrani. where the Dorset Yeomanry made a fierce chargeand the enemy commander and his staff were captured. On March 14 Solium was captured and the discomfiture of the rebels was completed by brilliant operations by the Duke of Westminster's detachment of armoured cars. All told, the enemy lost more than half his officers and all his artillery and machine-guns, besides having his men scattered far beyond the Egyptian border. The final spectacular effort of the campaign was the rescue of some sailors from two torpedoed British ships who, landing on the African coast, had fallen into the hands of the Senussi and had suffered every privation and indignity. From Solium a mobile force set out to cover the 70 miles necessary to reach the place where the captives were held. By an amazing combination of boldness and good fortune they found the prisoners and brought them safely back.