French Somaliland was the scene of only minor skirmishes during World War II, mostly between June and July 1940. After the battle of France and the armistice of 22 June 1940, the colony's status was briefly in limbo until a governor loyal to the client Vichy regime was installed on 25 July. It was the last French colony in Africa to remain loyal to the Vichy regime, only surrendering to Free French forces on 26 December 1942.
French Navy officer Pierre Nouailhetas governed the colony for most of the period it was loyal to the Vichy regime. After a British aerial bombardment against the colony in 1940, Nouailhetas instituted a brutal reign of terror in French Somaliland, targeting both European and African residents perceived as collaborating with the Allies; he was eventually recalled and forced to retire as a result of his action.
From September 1940, the colony was under an Allied blockade, with many of its inhabitants fleeing to the neighbouring colony of British Somaliland. After the colony's liberation by Free French forces, numerous officials were appointed as its governors and French Somaliland was only starting to recover from the blockade when the war ended in 1945.
Background
In 1934–35, Italo-Ethiopian tensions were affecting the Horn of Africa while in Europe German re-armament weighed on the French government. Looking for Italian support against Germany in the event of war, France ceded several territories, including a small piece of territory in northern Somaliland to Italian Eritrea, in the Mussolini–Laval Accord of 7 January 1935. This treaty was never ratified by Italy and although preparations were made to transfer the territory, it was not actually transferred prior to the outbreak of war in 1940.
In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and the French government paid increased attention to the defence of French Somaliland. In January 1938 an Italian force moved down onto the plain of Hanlé in French territory and encamped there. Italy claimed that this territory lay on the Ethiopian side of the border, as per the Franco-Ethiopian treaty of 1897. The French colonial minister, Georges Mandel, and the commander-in-chief at Djibouti, Paul Legentilhomme, responded by strengthening the colony's defences to unprecedented levels: 15,000 troops were stationed there and posts were established at Afambo, Moussa Ali and even on the other side of the Italians. The landward fortifications were augmented extensively with concrete.
In October 1938, in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, Italy demanded concessions from France, among them a free port at Djibouti and control of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway. The French refused the demands, believing the true Italian intention was outright acquisition of the colony. On 30 November, after anti-French protests in Rome, the Italian foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, demanded the cession of French Somaliland to Italy. Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies on the "natural aspirations of the Italian people", he inspired shouts of "Nice! Corsica! Savoy! Tunisia! Djibouti! Malta!"
On 18 December 1938, there was a counter-demonstration in Djibouti in the course of which a huge crowd gathered in the centre of town waving the French flag and shouting pro-French slogans. Meanwhile, the Italians built a string of small posts (Abba, Dagguirou, Gouma, etc.) inside the western border of French Somaliland, claiming in late 1939 that the territory had always been part of Ethiopia. In April 1940, they claimed that the French had built a post at Afambo in undisputedly Italian territory, although there is no record that there had been a post there before the Italians built one in October 1940.
In January 1940, the Italian viceroy and commander-in-chief in East Africa, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, submitted a proposal to Rome for a "surprise" invasion of French Somaliland involving sixteen motorised battalions and a force of 6,000 Azebo Galla and 6,000 Danakil tribesmen already near the frontier. The plan was soon leaked and in response General Guglielmo Nasi was replaced as governor of Harar by a civilian, Enrico Cerulli. The "Danakil horde" continued to monitor the frontier.
On the eve of World War II, Fauque de Jonquières, a battalion commander, was in charge of the local intelligence outfit, itself an arm of the Section d'Études Militaires (SEM), the Deuxième Bureau station in Marseille. After the Italian conquest of Ethiopia he gave money, arms, advisors, propaganda and refuge to the Ethiopian resistance. One French reserve officer, P. R. Monnier, was killed on a secret mission in Ethiopia in November 1939. Despite the fact that British Somaliland bordered French Somiland and both were surrounded by Italian East Africa, no Anglo-French joint military planning took place prior to a meeting at Aden in June 1939. In January 1940, a second conference was held at Djibouti. There it was resolved to raise an "Ethiopian Legion" in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but not to use it without an Italian declaration of war. The British Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, General Archibald Wavell, also agreed that the French commander-in-chief at Djibouti, Paul Legentilhomme, would hold supreme command over the military forces in both Somalilands should war come with Italy.
War with Italy and armistice Fighting during 10–25 June
Italy's declaration of war on France and Britain came on 10 June 1940, and the next day Legentilhomme was named supreme commander of all Allied forces in the Somaliland theatre. In French Somaliland he had a garrison of seven battalions of Senegalese and Somali infantry, three batteries of field guns, four batteries of anti-aircraft guns, a company of light tanks, four companies of militia and irregulars, two platoons of the camel corps and an assortment of aircraft.
Since the Allies were outnumbered by about 40,000 to 9,000 along the Somaliland frontier, no offensive actions were planned, although Legentilhomme did receive an order on 11 June to resist "to the end" (jusqu'au bout). The intention was to pin down the Italians while stoking an Ethiopian revolt. The Italians did undertake some offensive actions beginning on 18 June. From Harrar Governorate, troops under General Guglielmo Nasi attacked the fort of Ali-Sabieh in the south and Dadda'to in the north. There were also skirmishes in the area of Dagguirou and around the lakes Abbe and Ally. Near Ali-Sabieh, there was some skirmishing over the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway. In the first week of war, the Italian Navy sent the submarines Torricelli and Perla to patrol French territorial waters in the Gulf of Tadjoura in front of the ports of Djibouti, Tadjoura and Obock. By the end of June the Italians had also occupied the border fortifications of Magdoul, Daimoli, Balambolta, Birt Eyla, Asmailo, Tewo, Abba, Alailou, Madda and Rahale.
On 17 June some Italian Meridionali Ro.37bis aircraft undertook reconnaissance of Djibouti, noting five or six warships in the port and about twenty aircraft at a nearby aerodrome. That same day, the French evacuated the outlying station of Dadda'to and Douméra on the border, although whether it had come under Italian attack is a matter of dispute. The French soon re-occupied it. On 21 June eleven Caproni Ca.133s bombed Djibouti in the largest raid of the colony's brief war. Anti-aircraft fire was intense and two Italian aircraft failed to return, but fires and explosions were seen in Djibouti. Overnight, several waves of Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers attacked the port facilities. On 22 June the Italians suspected the British might try to establish a forward base at Djibouti, and five Ro.37bis, four CR.42 and one CR.32 aircraft based out of Dire Dawa strafed the airfield there. An Italian pilot described this attack in his diary: "The anti-aircraft defence is very poor ... We make another turn to see if any of the French fighters will have the courage to take off. Not one!" Some French Potez 25 TOE reconnaissance aircraft bombed Italian installations at Dewele in retaliation.
Armistice of Villa Incisa General Charles de Gaulle's appeal of 18 June for French officers and soldiers to ignore the impending Franco-Italian armistice was itself ignored by most officers in Somaliland. Only Legentilhomme himself was in favour of siding with De Gaulle and "Fighting France". On 25 June the Armistice of Villa Incisa came into effect, ending the war between Italy and France. It called for the demilitarisation of Somaliland "for the duration of hostilities between Italy and the British Empire," and granted Italy "full and constant right to use the port of Djibouti with all its equipment, together with the French section of the railway, for all kinds of transport" (article 3). The location for the surrender of "all movable arms and ammunition, together with those to be given up to the troops effecting the evacuation of the territory ... within 15 days" (article 5), the procedures for demobilisation and disarmament of French forces (article 9) and the conditions of wireless communication between France and the colonies (article 19) were left to an Italian Armistice Control Commission. Legentilhomme procrastinated in carrying out the armistice terms, since he had lost contact with the government in France. On 28 June, when the Italians demanded that he fulfill certain clauses, he denied all knowledge of any such clauses.
Fighting after the armistice
Between 1 and 10 July several clashes with the Italians took place on the plain of Hanlé, at Ali-Sabieh and along the railroad. The border area of western French Somaliland was occupied by Italian troops. Under increasing British pressure, they withdrew from Hanlé beginning in October 1940 and from Dagguirou by April 1941, when the French had returned. When the government on 10 July learned that the armistice was not yet in effect in Somaliland, President Philippe Pétain sent General Gaëtan Germain as his personal representative to correct the situation. Germain arrived at Asmara on 14 July. On 19 July the local conseil d'administration (administrative council) voted unanimously (with the exception of Legentilhomme) to remain loyal to Pétain's collaborationist government at Vichy. Germain then negotiated the resignation of Legentilhomme and convinced the armistice commission then being set up that it was inadvisable and impractical to demilitarise French Somaliland, in which approximately 8,000 soldiers (with tanks and airplanes) remained on guard. French troops with withdrawn from British Somaliland. On 23 July Germain succeeded Legentilhomme as commander-in-chief of French forces. On the same day, Governor Hubert Jules Deschamps (FR) was dismissed for his refusal to expel the British consul, with whom he had reached an agreement to supply the colony with food. Germain succeeded him as well, thus becoming the supreme civil and military authority in the colony. He entered Djibouti on 25 July. According to the Service historique de l'armée de terre, the official archives of the French army, which has a dossier of events in French Somaliland from 17 June through 11 July, the colony "ceased to be a theatre of operations" on 28 July.