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Concept
Royal Corps of Eritrean Colonial Troops
Summary
The Royal Corps Of Eritrean Colonial Troops were indigenous soldiers from Eritrea, who were enrolled as askaris in the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops (Regio Corpo di Truppe Coloniali) of the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) during the period 1889–1941.
These regular troops played an important role in the initial conquest of the various colonial possessions of the Kingdom of Italy. They subsequently acted as garrison and internal security forces in the Italian Empire, and finally served in large numbers during the Italian conquest of British Somaliland and the East African campaign of 1940-41 .
Except for the German parachute division in Italy and the Japanese in Burma no enemy with whom the British and Indian troops were matched put up a finer fight than those Savoia battalions at Keren (Eritrea). Moreover, the Colonial troops, until they cracked at the very end, fought with valour and resolution, and their staunchness was a testimony to the excellence of the Italian administration and military training in Eritrea
The Italian Army made extensive use of locally recruited indigenous soldiers in Italian East Africa. These troops comprised infantry, cavalry and some light artillery units. They were recruited initially from Eritreans and subsequently from Somalis, with Italian officers and some non-commissioned officers. The Italian Askaris fought in the First Italo–Ethiopian War, the Italian-Turkish War, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and World War II (East African Campaign).
Out of a total of 256,000 Italian troops serving in Italian East Africa in 1940, about 182,000 were recruited from Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and the just recently occupied (1935–36) Ethiopia. In January 1941, Commonwealth and Free French forces
invaded Italian-occupied Ethiopia and the majority of the newly recruited Ethiopian Ascaris serving with the Italian Army in East Africa deserted. Most of the Eritrean Ascaris however remained loyal until the Italian surrender four months later.
The name "ascar" is the Arab word for "soldier".
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