an advance force of the South African Division captured Jumbo. From 24 to 25 January, Cunningham's troops fought on the Turbi Road. The southern Ethiopia attack was stopped in mid-February by heavy rain, which made movement and maintenance of the force very difficult. From 1 February, they captured Gorai and El Gumu. On 2 February, they took Hobok. From 8 to 9 February, Banno was captured. On 15 February, the fighting was on the Yavello Road. The two South African Brigades then launched a double flanking movement on Mega. After a three-day battle in which many of the South Africans, equipped for tropical conditions, suffered from exposure because of the heavy rain and near freezing temperatures, they captured Mega on 18 February. Moyale, south-east of Mega on the border with Kenya, was occupied on 22 February by a patrol of Abyssinian irregular troops which had been attached to the South African Division. War at sea, 1941 The success of Operation Begum in gaining control of the seas off East Africa eased the supply of the British land forces; ships on passage to and from the Mediterranean supplemented the Red Sea Force ships in offshore operations. The German ship sailed from Kisimayu in Italian Somaliland on 31 January and rendezvoused from 14 to 17 February with the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis and three British ships taken as prizes. The carrier , en route to the Mediterranean to replace Illustrious, formed Force K with the cruiser and in Operation Breach on 2 February 1941, dispatched Fairey Albacores to mine Mogadishu harbour, bomb the ordnance depot, airfield, the railway station, petrol tanks at Ras Sip and the customs shed. The cruisers Shropshire, Ceres and Colombo blockaded Kisimayu and in the Red Sea, Pantera, Tigre and Leone based at Massawa in Eritrea made another fruitless sortie. Leatham formed Force T with the carrier , the cruisers Shropshire, Hawkins, Capetown and Ceres, with the destroyer Kandahar to support Operation Canvas, the invasion of Italian Somaliland from Kenya. About fifty Italian and German merchant ships had been stranded at Massawa and Kisimayu on the outbreak of war and few were seaworthy by the time of the British invasion of the AOI but about twelve ships made the attempt. On the night of 10/11 February, eight Italian and two German ships sailed from Kisimayu for Mogadishu or Diego Suarez (now Antsiranana) in Madagascar.