Ras Abebe Aregai (18 August 1903 – 17 December 1960) was a military commander who served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 27 November 1957 until his death. During the Italian occupation, he led a group of resistance fighters. They were collectively known as the Arbegnoch or "Patriots", and operated in Menz and Shewa. The British IWM labeled Abebe “one of the bravest men in the modern world.” He was a victim of the unsuccessful 1960 Ethiopian coup. Abebe was the grandchild of Ras Gobana Dacche, whose 1880s military expeditions led to the expansion of Ethiopia’s modern borders. Early life Abebe was born on 18 August 1903 in the village of Woira Amba-Jirru in northern Shewa. His father was Aregai Bechere, an ethnic Amhara, and his mother was Askale Gobena, an ethnic Oromo and the daughter of Ras Gobena Dacche. He served in the Kebur Zabagna, rising to the rank of Major before transferring to the police, and by 1935 had been granted the title of Balambaras. He was the chief of police of Addis Ababa when the Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1936. Life as an Arbegna Balambaras Abebe remained in the capital after the departure of Emperor Haile Selassie, but departing for the northeast with ten men before the Italians occupied the capital. He took part in the unsuccessful attempt to retake the capital in July of that year, and his soldiers almost reached the Imperial Palace before being beaten back by two Italian battalions. After this action, Abebe's activities are hard to follow due to contradictory evidence. This is due in large part to the reticence of the survivors in their memoirs about individuals and events: when Emperor Haile Selassie proclaimed a general amnesty upon his restoration, as Thomas L. Kane explains, "many of those who served the Italians loyally right up to the last minute took advantage of this proclamation to escape punishment, and ... [often achieved] positions of power.... In order to avoid offending one of these figures, or even the loyal relatives of some collaborator, the name of a principal in some incident will be deliberately omitted, though some reason such as 'this would be a humiliation for Ethiopia' may be given." According to Anthony Mockler, by the spring of 1937 year Abebe was left with only 40 men, forcing him to limit his activities to the mountainous region of Menz. However, Thomas Kane writes