Battle of Tug Argan

Battle of Tug Argan
Part of the East African Campaign of World War II
Map depicting the location of the Battle of Tug Agran and the subsequent British retreat from Berbera
Date 11–15 August 1940 Location British Somaliland Result Italian victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Italy
Commanders and leaders
A. R. Godwin Austin Arthur Chater	Carlo de Simone Guglielmo Nasi
Strength
5,000 regular and colonial infantry	At least 24,000 colonial troops with 5,000 Italian regulars
Casualties and losses
38 killed 102 wounded 120 missing 7 aircraft destroyed 5 artillery pieces captured 5 mortars captured	465 killed 1530 wounded 34 missing

The Battle of Tug Argan was a land battle between forces of the British Empire and Italy which took place on 11–15 August 1940 in what was British Somaliland (later independent and renamed Somalia). The battle was part of the Italian conquest of British Somaliland, in which Italy successfully attempted to conquer the latter British colony, and thus is included in the larger East African Campaign of the Second World War.

Italian invasion forces were advancing northwards on a north-south road towards the colonial capital of Berbera through the Tug Argan (named after the dry riverbed, or "tug," running across it) gap in the Assa range of hills, when they encountered British units lying in fortified positions on a number of widely distributed hills across the gap. Italian forces, after an intense four day encounter, overcame the relatively weak British positions and were able to force the gap, with the British being forced to retreat to Berbera.

With the Italian victory at Tug Argan, the position of British forces in Somaliland was compromised, and colonial authorities were forced to initiate a naval evacuation of the garrison form Berbera. As a result, Italy was able to quickly secure British Somaliland, which proved a propaganda coup for Italy despite the lack of strategic value to the territory.

As Italy entered the war at the conclusion of the Battle of France, their Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini looked to Africa as a possible location for easy propaganda victories to justify his joining the conflict and to glorify Italy's hitherto speculative role it. The British Somaliland colony, a weakly defended area located in modern Somalia, looked to the dictator easy prey. Despite Italy being logistically unready for a conflict in that region, an attack on Somaliland was authorized, set for late 1940. Italian forces in East Africa were relatively strong in numbers, if not in quality, with 29 colonial brigades, each consisting of several infantry battalions and some light artillery, concentrated around the recently conquered Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The Italians also possessed at least 60 medium and light tanks and 183 aircraft, both fighters and medium/light bombers.

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