Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

Interwar, Middle East, CASSA, 1936

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1936

Overview

Group of four people, including Ras Cassa, Ethiopian leader

Historical information

Leul Ras Kassa Hailu KS, GCVO, GBE, 7 August 1881 – 16 November 1956) was a Shewan nobleman, the son of Dejazmach Haile Wolde Kiros of Lasta, the ruling heir of Lasta's throne and younger brother of Emperor Tekle Giyorgis II, and Tisseme Darge, the daughter of Ras Darge Sahle Selassie, brother of Menelik II's father.
Although he had by birth a better claim to the throne than his younger cousin Ras Tafari (the later Emperor Haile Selassie I), Kassa valued loyalty over ambition, and was content with his fief of Selale province During the rise of Emperor Haile Selassie I, Ras Kassa was loyal to Selassie during numerous challenges to his rule.
Ras Kassa served as Qegnazmach ("Commander of the Army of the Right") during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Following the Ethiopian defeat he went into exile with his Emperor, spending most of his time in Jerusalem. In early 1941, during the East African Campaign of World War II, Ras Kassa returned to Ethiopia with the Emperor and Gideon Force. After the war, he became a Crown Counsellor.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-P1996.325.1b

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict

Contextual Information

Gideon Force was a small British and African Corps d’Élite with the Sudan Defence Force, Ethiopian regular forces and Arbegnoch (Amharic for Patriots). Gideon Force fought the Italian occupation in Ethiopia, during the East African Campaign of World War 2. The leader and creator of the force was Major (later Major General) Orde Wingate. At its peak, Gideon Force had fifty officers, twenty British NCOs, 800 trained Sudanese troops and 800 part-trained Ethiopian regulars, a few mortars but no artillery and no air support, except for intermittent bombing sorties. Assisted by the Arbegnoch, Gideon Force ejected the Italian forces in six weeks and captured 1,100 Italian and 14,500 Ethiopian troops, twelve guns, many machine-guns, rifles, ammunition and over 200 pack animals. Gideon Force was disbanded on 1 June 1941, Wingate returned to Egypt along with many of the troops of Gideon Force, who joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) of the Eighth Army.

Year

1936

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

Organisation Details
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