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Sounds exactly like what's happening in Gaza now.
Over 2,000 African Americans who supported pan-Africanism volunteered to fight for Ethiopia
However, the volunteers were blocked from departing to Ethiopia by the State Department. The only two Black Americans to reach Ethiopia were aviators John C. Robinson and Hubert Julian. That said, Americans weren't the only ones who tried.
"Forgotten native son": The Canadian who tried to raise an army for Ethiopia
Exceedingly rare Canada W...?
such a hard ass wiki photo
It's pretty much a historical constant in colonial expansion. They try to harm some of yours, you harm them back threefold (and often target civilians, which they sometimes didn't do in the first place). Italy's fellow latecomers and eventual fascist powers Germany and Japan did it in Namibia and Taiwan/Korea, the US did it in the Philippines, France did it in Algeria and Vietnam, and it's probably easier to list places the UK didn't do this.
Another aspect in which Israel feels like an anachronistic 19th/20th century colonial power in the 21st century.
Israel still uses Britain's colonial era counterinsurgency tactics deployed during the Palestinian Revolution. The difference is that the British could be reasoned with, which is why the White Paper was issued. One of the IDF's founding "heroes" was British Army Captain Orde Wingate, who formed the controversial Special Night Squads. The Special Night Squads, which numbered 50 officers and 150 Jews, were unique in their offensive role and reputation for particular brutality. They were essentially death squads. During one raid, in which future Israeli commanders Yigal Allon, Shimon Avidan, and Moshe Dayan participated, British troops had to tell the SNS to stop beating Palestinians and looting their houses. Eventually, Wingate, a rabid Zionist, was sent home for being overly political. After demanding the establishment of a Jewish state, he was banned from ever returning.
In 1966, former Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery told Moshe Dayan that Orde Wingate had "been mentally unbalanced and that the best thing he ever did was to get killed in a plane crash in 1944." However, Dayan, other SNS veterans, David Ben-Gurion, and other figures in the Yishuv viewed Wingate in a much different light.
Italy did it in Libya too.
The massacre
A list of atrocities committed by Italy
Italy committed most of its World War II crimes in Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, and Greece. They also committed genocide in Libya in the late 1920s and early 1930s. After switching sides, Italy prosecuted roughly 43,000 people for war crimes and/or collaboration, with 91 of them being executed. However, most of the others were quickly amnestied. The first amnesty came as early as 1946. With regard to fascist crimes, it excluded high ranking officials, crimes committed for material gain, or crimes carried out with excessive cruelty. Ironically, the amnesty led to an increase in prosecution of excesses committed by the partisans, whereas fascist crimes were treated more leniently. In practice, fascists benefited far more from the amnesty than imprisoned partisans, who were treated as common criminals. While surviving high-ranking officials could still be prosecuted, few were tried. More importantly, no Italians were tried by their own country for committing crimes in other countries. Italy also rejected extradition requests.
Italy refused to extradite any suspected war criminals to Ethiopia
Italy refused to extradite any suspected war criminals to Yugoslavia
Italy refused to extradite any suspected war criminals to Greece
Italy refused to extradite any suspected war criminals to Libya
The situation in Libya was more complex since the crimes had occurred earlier. The country was an Ottoman territory even before being colonized by the Italians. After the Italians were kicked out in 1943; the nation remained an Allied mandate until 1951. The new leaders were elites who preferred not to talk about the past. That said, once the Allies withdrew, the monarchy did request the extraditions of two leading perpetrators of the genocide who were still alive. The requests were rejected.
Here were some notable Italian war criminals:
Pietro Badoglio: A leading perpetrator of the Libyan genocide (his extradition was sought by Libya). He illegally used chemical weapons in Ethiopia.
Never prosecuted.
Rodolfo Graziani: A leading perpetrator of the Libyan genocide (his extradition was sought by Libya). Employed concentration camps in Ethiopia, resulting in the deaths of thousands of victims. He waged brutal reprisals against civilians in response to partisan warfare. Graziani was nicknamed the "butcher of Fezzan". He was the field marshal whom the two Ethiopian men were trying to assassinate, as stated in the title.
In 1950, Graziani, who'd been imprisoned since 1945, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for treason for collaborating with the Germans after Italy switched sides, but was released after serving only another four months.
Emilio De Bono: A leading perpetrator of the Libyan genocide. He was one of those chiefly behind the use of poison gas and concentration camps there, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.
Executed by Mussolini for switching sides after the Verona Trial.
Alessandro Biroli: The Italian military governor of Montenegro
For partisan reprisals, Biroli ordered that 50 Montenegrin civilians be executed for every Italian killed, and 10 for every Italian wounded.
Never prosecuted.
Mario Roatta: In 1941–1943, during the 22-month existence of the Province of Ljubljana, Roatta ordered the deportation of 25,000 people, which equaled 7.5% of the total population. The operation, one of the most drastic in Europe, filled up Italian concentration camps on the island of Rab, in Gonars, Monigo, Renicci d'Anghiari, Chiesanuova and elsewhere. The survivors received no compensation from the Italy after the war.
Roatta also ordered summary executions, hostage-taking, and the razing of entire villages, for which after the war the Yugoslav government sought unsuccessfully to have him extradited for war crimes. He was quoted as saying "Non dente per dente, ma testa per dente" ("Not a tooth for tooth but a head for a tooth"), while Robotti was quoted as saying "Non si ammazza abbastanza!" ("There are not enough killings") in 1942.
One of Roatta's soldiers wrote home on July 1, 1942: "We have destroyed everything from top to bottom without sparing the innocent. We kill entire families every night, beating them to death or shooting them."
Roatta was sentenced to life in prison in absentia after escaping from a hospital where he was being held and fleeing to Spain. The Italian High Court of Appeal overturned his sentence in 1948, and he returned to Italy in 1966. Roatta died a free man in 1968.
Orlando Lorenzini
"Lorenzini was responsible for a chemical attack with mustard gas on rebels that sheltered at Ametsegna Washa cave. After the rebels surrendered, Italian troops separated the men and adolescent boys of fighting age from the women and small children. Tying the males together at the shoulders in groups of two, they marched them away from the cave. About 800 Ethiopian men and boys were killed outside the cave, either by gunshot or by being pushed to their deaths into a deep canyon."
Killed in action in 1940.
The Allies, especially the British, were reluctant to punish Italian war criminals. The Italian establishment was adamantly opposed. At the time, Italy had a thriving Communist Party, which had even more power shift to them with the demise of Mussolini's regime. Many the partisans were communists, including Mussolini's executioner. Not conducting a far more extensive judicial purge was seen as essential to bolster Italy's anti-Communist position. That said, they did allow Italian partisans to act with impunity for a limited time. Their toleration of mass reprisals was clear down to a local level. In Piedmont, British Army colonel John Melior Stevens bluntly summarized Anglo-American policy when addressing the National Liberation Committee there.
During this time, the partisans massacred thousands of fascists, including many war criminals. The partisan leaders feared that the definitive transfer of power and the return to "legality bourgeois" would prevent a radical purge. Their desire to act quickly is best seen in a letter in which social liberal Giorgio Agosti wrote to a party Dante Livio Bianco, commander of the Giustizia e Libertà formations. In this letter, Agosti said, "We need... before the Allied arrival, a San Bartolomeo of fascists that take away the desire to start over for a good number of years."
It hurts to acknowledge this, but Palmiro Togliatti, the man who signed off on the amnesty, was a communist. Extremely common L from Italy.
There's been some good quality historical posting going on here of late. Respek
Thank you for these posts. As an Italian, our school system completely fails to teach this kind of stuff to us. But learning that so many fascists got away with their crimes scot-free is crucial to understand our modern circumstances