PolarBear
Major
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2007
- Messages
- 6,706
The launch of Tomahawk Cruise missiles from naval ships against Gaddafi's bases in Libya reminds me of an earlier instance when naval rockets were used to bring down an African dictator: the British Abyssinian Expedition of 1868.
"A Victorian campaign in Africa that reveals the organizational skill of British commanders in hostile and unknown terrain. Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia, piqued by British disinterest in his remote empire, imprisons a British Envoy and other Europeans. In 1868 a column under Robert Napier, extensively outfitted, superbly organized, marches to Theodore's capital at Magdala. Defeated in his initial attack on the British, Theodore releases the hostages, but unappeased, the British storm and destroy the citadel, leaving Theodore dead before returning home."
Wm. Hocker has commemorated that event in his Abyssinian War series set 74
Royal Naval Brigade Rocket Battery
"A Victorian campaign in Africa that reveals the organizational skill of British commanders in hostile and unknown terrain. Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia, piqued by British disinterest in his remote empire, imprisons a British Envoy and other Europeans. In 1868 a column under Robert Napier, extensively outfitted, superbly organized, marches to Theodore's capital at Magdala. Defeated in his initial attack on the British, Theodore releases the hostages, but unappeased, the British storm and destroy the citadel, leaving Theodore dead before returning home."
Wm. Hocker has commemorated that event in his Abyssinian War series set 74
Royal Naval Brigade Rocket Battery
