================================================== Amazing tales from Africa - REVIEW - HISTORY -------------------------------------------------- Newcastle Herald (Australia)-September 10, 2011 Author: MIKE Scanlon GIFTED sportsman Ken Burke served in a highly secret guerilla war behind enemy lines during World War II. It was so secret that the role he and his mates played, helping to free a nation, is surprisingly unknown even 70 years later. Little did the Novocastrian realise when he enlisted for war service at Hamilton in 1939 that he'd end up in the remote Horn of Africa helping freedom fighters. In distant Ethiopia, Burke and his Aussie gunners fought and bluffed their way through a bizarre war; employing the hit-and-run tactics used by T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) during World War I. The former rugby fullback for Newcastle Wanderers and NSW Waratahs was among five daring Australians who fought an extraordinary war in Italian-occupied Ethiopia for six months in 1941. They were the spearhead of a much larger British military force supporting the exiled Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. Historians also believe they pioneered missions for Britain's now legendary Special Operations Executive. But initially, it was simply five young Australians, lots of camels, explosives and some native patriots. Pitted against them was the 250,000-strong Italian army, which had conquered Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) in a bloody campaign five years before. Codenamed 101, the aim of this mission impossible was to dislodge Italian soldiers from a series of forts in the Ethiopian highlands. The four maverick Aussie sergeants involved - Ron Wood, John (Ken) Burke, Bill Howell and Ted Body - were led in their unorthodox war by a skilled young officer named Lieutenant Allan Brown. Theirs was one of the most successful guerilla operations of the whole of World War II, yet they received scant recognition then, or now. By June 1941, there were other massive priorities. Greece had already fallen to German armies and "Desert Fox" Rommel was in North Africa. As well, Britain's war commander in Ethiopia was the eccentric "Napoleon of guerilla warfare", Major Orde Wingate, who was disliked by his military establishment. The story of the five Aussies may never have been known if it hadn't been for former policeman, private eye and now author, Duncan McNab. In his new book, Mission 101, McNab tells the remarkable true story of the five Aussies' untold war. The late Ken Burke was Duncan McNab's uncle. As a child McNab pestered the war veteran for stories, later discovering that the war yarns were true. Ken Burke died in 1966 at the age of 60, but many of his stories were later passed onto McNab by Burke's wife Grace, who died in 2009 aged 96. Burke's small commando unit set off from Khartoum in December 1940 on an appalling wilderness trek (without radio) in enemy-held Ethiopia to link up with native patriots. The daily desert heat was relentless and they froze at night. Water was scarce and there was also a good chance of being shot, bombed, catching malaria, dysentery, altitude sickness or even being eaten by lions. They lost 47 camels who fell over cliffs or into ravines, or died of exhaustion. Parts of them were eaten to supplement meagre rations. Bigger British parties following found "the stench of dead camels handy as a navigational aid". But soon the guerilla group was making country life difficult for the Italian invaders; booby-trapping roads with mines to cause havoc with convoys, blowing up bridges and ammunition dumps and attacking outlying forts at night. Surprisingly, the Aussies lost only a handful of native troops. Earlier, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini had made it a brutal war in Ethiopia. He'd invaded in 1935 with 1 million well-armed troops, 595 tanks and 390 aircraft, and introduced chemical warfare by using mustard gas. Ethiopia had 13 old planes, four pilots and an army equipped with ancient rifles, bows, arrows and shields. The Australians, meanwhile, wore no disguises, but sported luxuriant beards. They still wore their Aussie uniforms - slouch hat and shorts - and had guns on their hips. No one would have recognised the Australian football hero Ken Burke, who had stepped into the national spotlight as fullback for the Newcastle side when they played the New Zealand All Blacks in 1929. The high point of the Ethiopian campaign for the Aussies came near war's end when they conned a vastly superior Italian force inside Fort Mota into surrendering. They attacked at night in heavy rain and strong winds with a mere 21 men. For almost two days, their machine guns peppered the parapets from afar and their mortars coughed shells deep inside the fort. Moving closer, Burke even lobbed hand grenades over the walls to soften up the defenders. Over champagne and later tea, the demoralised Italians, possibly 2500 soldiers, finally surrendered. Later, when the Aussies tallied up their expenses for almost six months of constant warfare and travelling, their war was cheap - costing Britain precisely £200. Mission 101, by Duncan McNab, is published by Macmillan Australia.
Earlier Post regarding Mission 101 and the book by Duncan McNab: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/north-africa-med/38491-mission-101-author-shines-light-forgotten-aussie-wwii-legend.html?highlight=mission+101
The book Mission 101 also goes into the self-harm (suicide attempt) by Ord Wingate after the Campaign.
