Evening star., 1935-12-22
Gorabai Defense in European
Style Fatal for Chief AfUerk
Great ShOan COnqueror Is FeIIed by
Italian Bomb in FOrtreSS-LOSS
of Mobility SpeILed Defeat.

giving himself two lines Of barbed
wire and revetments, and digging into
solid rock for his dugouts. Gorahai's
waterholes are cut into the summit of
the eminence, bored down TO feet into
solid rock with savage ingenuity.
When Afwerk had done with his
fortress, it was a modernized version
of a medieval castle, with an outer de-
fense and a barbican, an inner wall
and a keep. The whole was composed
of natural rock festooned with barbed
wire, q meeting Of medieval and modern
methods.
Grasped European Ideas.
The thing proved formidable. No
one will know how many Italian
Somalis, whom Gen. GRAHAM threw
against Afwerk in late October and
early November, met their deaths
against these obstacles. AfWerk had
grasped accurately the spirit of Euro
pean defenses; he had not wired a
line without first affording it a traverse
for his machine guns. To put it
briefly, for three weeks Afwerk raised
hell with the Italian design. Above all,
he convinced his people that they could
take the starch out of the Italians,
which was his chief intention.
This was a fatal conviction, for the
Italians, particularly under the i'm
placable Graziani, began putting on the
pressure gradually. At first only few
bombs fell a few sections fought their
way to Afwerk's barbican. Then, by
degrees, the place turned hellward, and
no defender knew a moments respite
from the roar of airplanes and the
whine of missiles. Afwerk, despite his
knowledge OF European methods,
formed a new resolve: To hold Gorahai
at all costs.
There was no use for such a
desperate resolve; the plan was, as
any railway spy knew, to give the
Italians hard going, meanwhile basing
back upon Daggah Bur. with still the
main resistance upon the Jijiga mas
sif. But Afwerk, for his mechanics
of field Notifications and his new
knowledge of war, was warrior still.
His people had suffered death; he
would not fall back. It was his
tragedy that a little military learn
ing is a dangerous thing. Had he
gained none of it, surely Afwerk
would have fought as of old, with
detached striking force posted in
small detachmentS along many lines,
and these striking independently with
great dispatch upon isolated sections
of the enemy communications.
Worked Machine Gun Himself.
When things grew into matter of
hundreds of wounded, who were
dying the long death of the Ogaden,
Afwerk took to machine cunning on
his own. He presented the spectacle
of a brigadier turned vengeful, work.
ing weapon with his own hands,
the first to take risks. 1t was in
evitable that one of the small air
bombs, no larger than a can of to-
matoes, should have hit his weapon.
When it struck, Afwerk suffered leg
injuries and should have evacuated.
An army commander could have
court -martialed him for such conduct.
Still he remained on, being carried
about by his bondsmen, meanwhile
his legs slowly swelling. In the end
his wounds killed him, in Gorahai,
which he had sworn to defend.
When there were services for him
In Harar, the church sounded like
vast beehive at the moment Of the
swarm. A soldier brandished his
knife and said to me: Go away.
You are white. In this moment it is
difficult for me to distinguish your
nationally. I only see your white
facet"
(Copyright 1875. bv the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc. and
Fox Movitone News