Part 27 (1/2)

MAJESTY ORDERS ME TO CONVEY HIS FELICITATIONS ON YOUR ELEVATION TO

THE

RANK OF MARSHAL OF THE ARMY AND TO THANK YOU FOR THE IMPECCABLE

EXECUTION OF YOUR DUTY IN RECAPTURING ADO WA STOP WITH THE ATTAINMENT

OF

THIS OBJECTIVE I CONSIDER THAT YOUR MISSION IN EASTERN AFRICA HAS

BEEN

COMPLETED STOP YOU HAVE EARNED THE GRAtitUDE OF THE NATION BY YOUR

OBVIOUS MERITS AS A SOLDIER AND YOUR STEADFAST DISCHARGE OF YOUR DUTY

AS A COMMANDER STOP YOU ARE REQUESTED TO HAND OVER YOUR COMMAND TO

GENERAL PIE TRO BADOGLIO ON HIS IMMINENT ARRIVAL IN AFRICA

Marshal De Bono accepted both his prorace that it could have been mistaken, by an uninformed observer, for profound relief His departure for Rome was completed with such despatch as to avoid by a hair's breadth the selio was a fighting soldier He had staffed the headquarters before Adowa, although he had played no part in that debacle, and he was a veteran of Caporetto and Vittorio Veneto He believed that the purpose of as to crush the enemy as swiftly and as ruthlessly as was possible, with the use of any weapon at his disposal

He cary with everything he found, and impatient of the policies and concepts of his predecessor, although in truth seldo coic situation

He inherited a huge, well-equipped ar tactical position and backed by a istics inventory that was alpine in proportions

The snificently equipped airforce of the expedition was flying unopposed over the A i one of the first dinners at the new headquarters, Lieutenant Vittorio Mussolini, the younger of the Duce's two sons, one of the dashi+ng Regia Aeronautica aces, regaled his new cohlands and Badoglio, who had not had close aerial support in any of his previous cahted with this new and deadly weapon He listened transfixed to the young flier's descriptions of the effect of aerial boroup of three hundred or ure The young Mussolini told hile hundred-kilo bomb from an altitude of less than a hundredhorse rose, and the dark-robed leader was thrown so high by the blast that he see-tip as I passed It was a spectacle of great beauty and lio was happy that his new co men with such fire in their veins, and he leaned forward in his seat at the head of the table to peer down over the glittering silver and sparkling leaded crystal at the flier in his handsome blue uniform The classical features and dark curly head of hair were the artist's conception of young Mars Then he turned to the airforce Colonel who sat beside hi uainst but I would be interested to have your opinion

Should we use the nitrogenlanced for confire ”I think the answer lio nodded The thinking agreed with his own, and the next as shi+pped from the warehouses of Massahere De Bono had been content to let thehts of the Regia Aeronautica were based Thousands upon thousands of the wild tribesmen of Ethiopia would come to know the corrosive dehen later they endured boreater than most European troops were able to muster yet they could never come to terms with this terrible substance that turned the open pastures of their mountain fastness to fields of terror Barefoot, as most of them were, they were pathetically vulnerable to the silent insidious weapon that flayed the skin fro flesh frole decision was one of nalled the change fro invasion, to the new concept of total ith only one objective

MUSSOlini had wanted a hawk, and he had chosen well

The hawk stood in the centre of the lofty second-storey headquarters office at Asmara, He was too consumed with furious impatience to sit at the wide desk, and when he paced the tiled floor, his heels cracked on the ceramic like drum beats The elasticity of his stride was that of a er than sixty-five

He carried his head low on boxer's shoulders, thrusting his chin forward a heavy chin below a big shapeless round nose, a short-cropped grey mustache and a wide hard mouth

His eyes were deep sunken into dark cavities, like those of a corpse, but their glitter was alive and aware as he worked swiftly through the lists of his divisional and regi each by one criterion only, ”Is he a fighting man?” Too often the ansas ”no,”, or at the least uncertain, so it ith a fierce pleasure that he recognized one ithout question a hard-fighting man on whom he could rely

”Yes,” he nodded vehemently ”He is the only field commander who has displayed any initiative, who has rips with the enelance again at the reports he held in his other hand ”He has fought one decisive action, inflicting almost thirty thousand casualties without loss hione without suitable recognition The man should have had a decoration, the order of St Maurice and St Lazarus at the least Good led out and rewarded Look at this this is typical!

When he are that the eneh to lure that armour into a baited trap, to lead it skilfully and with cool courage on to his entrenched artillery It was a bold and resourceful stroke for an infantry commander to make and it deserved to succeed If only his artillery commander had been a man of equally steely nerves, he would have succeeded in luring the entire enemy armoured column to its total destruction It was no fault of his that the artillery lost their nerve and opened fire prelasses on the large glossy photographic print which depicted Colonel Count Aldo Belli standing like a successful big game hunter on the carcass of the Huround lay half a dozen corpses in tattered shammas These had been collected froive the photograph authenticity Against his better judge instincts of survival, Count Aldo Belli had returned to raphic records only after Major Castelani had assured him that the enemy had deserted the field The Count had not wasted tooGino to haste, and when it had been done he had returned swiftly to his fortified position above the Wells of Chaldi and had not raphs were an impressive addendurowled like an angry old lion ”Despite the incompetence of his junior officers, and there my heart aches for him, this man has wiped out half the ene arlasses

”The man's a fire eater no question about it I know one when I see one A fire-eater This kind of exaood work must be rewarded Send for him Radio him to come in to headquarters immediately” As far as Count Aldo Belli was concerned, the can had come upon a not unpleasant hiatus

The caineers froe, with functional a e systeive hi as alas of the highest quality with extensive covered earthworks, and Castelani had laid out carefully over-lapping fields of fire, and barbed-wire de fences in depth

The hunting in the area was excellent by any standards, with game drawn to the water in the Wells fros filled the heavens with the whistle of their wings, and wheeled in great dark flocks across the setting sun, affording s of dead birds

In the midst of this pleasantly relaxed at officer's sumlio's reputation had preceded him He was a notorious le-minded purpose by excuse or fabrication He was insensitive to political influence or power considerations so much so that it was rumoured that he would have crushed the very Fascist movement itself with force if the issue had been put into his hands back in 1922 He had an aler squarely on uts

They said his justice ift and merciless

The shock to the Count's systeled out frore's wrath for he could not convince himself that the small deviations fro, illustrated reports to De Bono had not been instantly discovered He felt like a guilty schoolboy summoned to dire retribution behind the closed doors of the headmaster's study The shock hit hi on a fresh onslaught of the malady first caused by the waters of Chaldi Wells, from which he had believed himself completely cured

It elve hours before he could sus into the RollsRoyce and to lie wan and palely resigned upon the soft leather seat

”Drive on, Giuseppe,” hethe order to the driver of the tu hot dusty drive into Ass, without even attees he knew he ned, abject his only solace was the considerable dae he would do this upstart, ill bred peasant, once he returned to Rome, as he was certain he was about to He knew that he could ruin the ave hi his man as he did, made the first stop outside the casino in Asmara's main street

Here, at least, Count Aldo Belli was treated as a hero, and he perked up visibly as the young hostesses rushed out on to the sidewalk to welcome hied and pressed, his hair porant cloud of expensive eau de cologne, the Count was ready to face his tornac, laughed that gay reckless laugh, snapped his fingers once to shohat he thought of the peasant who now ran this arether to control his fear and ht and across the street into the military headquarters

His appointlio was for four o'clock and the town hall clock struck the hour as hea young aide-de-camp They reached the end of the corridor and the aide-de-caany doors and stood aside for the Count to enter

His knees felt like boiled led and seethed, the palms of his hands were hot andeyelids as he stepped forward into the huge roo

He saw that it was filled with officers frorace was to beto shrivel, his shoulders slu, the Count stood in the doorway He could not bear to look at the toe caps Suddenly, he was assailed by a strange, a completely alien sound and he looked up startled, ready to defend hiainst physical attack The roo, slapping pallanced quickly over his shoulder to be certain there was no one standing behind hi directed at him

When he looked back he found a stocky, broad, shouldered figure in the unifor upon hireyeyes in deep dark sockets

If the Count had been in co from the roorip of iron, and the e of the trees of the Danakil desert

”Colonel, I arowled the General, hugging hiarlic and sesa fashi+on with the fragrant clouds of the Count's perfuer stand the strain, they alrab wildly at the General to prevent hi This threw both of them off balance, and they reeled across the ceramic floor, locked in each other's arled to free himself