RAINS SERVE TO AID NATIVE DEFENSE FORCE
DESSYE, Ethiopia. Jan. 10. (U.P)—Ethiopian warriors, their fury a white heat after months of restraint, are attacking Italians on all fronts, reports to Emperor Haile Selassie’s war headquarters indicated today.
Aided by rains pouring weeks before they were due, the warriors are reported to be attacking at every possible point, hoping to break the Italian morale—which is believed here to be below par. For weeks the Italians have made no advance while Ethiopian guerrilla bands have constantly attacked isolated outposts at night.
Reports to headquarters today told of an Ethiopian annihilation of an Italian tank and machine gun detachment on the far southern front in which many Italians were killed and one officer captured. The reports said the Ethiopians used tanks, and these were believed to be the ones captured long ago at Anale and reconditioned for use against their original owners.
From the northern front there were reliable indications that Ethiopians were generally successful in a number of minor engagements and that the Italians were unable to halt the fierce attacks of the warriors.
It was emphasized that in no case of a reported engagement was a mass attack meant. For months leaders, have hammered into the minds of the fierce warriors, that it would be suicide for them to attack the Italians except in small, highly mobile bands.
News from the south, as well as north, of the rains is of incalculable benefit to the Ethiopian high command.
It is hoped by Ethiopian officers here that the Italian mechanized units will be immobilized and that the armies will be on equal footing—with the Ethiopians having the tremendous advantage of mobility for sudden attack and retreat.
Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, CA, January 10, 1936