to Allied merchant ships and endangered British sea lanes along the coast of East Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. (The Kingdom of Egypt remained neutral during the Second World War but the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 allowed the British to occupy Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.) Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were also vulnerable to invasion but the Italian General Staff had planned for a war after 1942; in the summer of 1940 Italy was far from ready for a long war or for the occupation of large areas of Africa. Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, was appointed Viceroy and Governor-General of the AOI in November 1937, with a headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. On 1 June 1940, as the commander in chief of (Italian East African Armed Forces Command) and (General of the Air Force), Aosta had about and metropolitan troops (including naval and air force personnel). By 1 August, mobilisation had increased the number to On 10 June, the Italian army was organised in three corps and one division commands, Northern Sector, in Asmara, Lieutenant General Luigi Frusci (Italian Eritrea) Southern Sector, in Jimma, General Pietro Gazzera Eastern Sector, in Addis Ababa, General Guglielmo Nasi Giuba Sector, in Mogadishu, Lieutenant General Carlo De Simone (Southern Italian Somaliland) Aosta had two metropolitan divisions, the 40th Infantry Division "Cacciatori d'Africa" and the 65th Infantry Division "Granatieri di Savoia", a battalion of (elite mountain troops), a battalion of motorised infantry, several Blackshirt battalions and smaller units. About 70 per cent of Italian troops were locally recruited Askari. The regular Eritrean battalions and the (RCTC Royal Corps of Somali Colonial Troops) were among the best Italian units in the AOI and included Eritrean cavalry (Falcon Feathers). (On one occasion a squadron of horse charged British and Commonwealth troops, throwing small hand grenades from the saddle.) Most colonial troops were recruited, trained and equipped for colonial repression, although the Somali Dubats from the borderlands were useful light infantry and skirmishers. Irregular were hardy and mobile, knew the country and were effective scouts and saboteurs, although sometimes confused with Shifta, marauders who plundered and murdered at will. Once Italy entered the war, a 100-strong company was formed from German residents of East Africa and stranded German sailors. Italian forces in East Africa were equipped with about machine-guns, 24 M11/39 medium