H.H. Haile Selassie, Emperor of Abyssinia, photographed with Winston Churchill shortly after the war.  Of these wartime allies, one could be described as a champion of Democracy; not the other, but then, the ancient, ramshackle Abyssinian Empire was far from ready for Democracy in the mid-20th century.  The Emperor was eventually deposed, in the aftermath of a disastrous famine, by the Derg, a sort of military Afro-Communist junta; they were no more democratic than the emperor - just more murderous, and no more efficient.  Hai, Ras Tafari ! JR.

The Lion and the Bulldog.

Warriors of the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Second Italo-Abyssinian War, 1935.  There is, as far as I know, no good estimate of the size of the Emperor's forces at the time of the invasion from Italian Somaliland.  Some things are clear, however; it numbered hundreds of thousands (far outnumbering the Italian force and its native auxiliaries); it was overwhelmingly composed of irregular tribal levies like this group; there was no standardisation of armaments (rifles of a wide range of origins and ages were used); the Ethiopians had little heavy equipment; and few of the defenders had any formal military training worth mentioning.  In fact, the situation was in most respects remarkably similar to that faced by Haile Selassie's predecessor, the great Emperor Menelek, in the First Italo-Abyssinian War (1895-'96); except, on that occasion, the Emperor's untrained tribal army (which had, however, thanks to their Emperor's foresight, at least been armed to a substantial extent with more-or-less modern rifles from various sources) managed at great cost to annihilate the invading Italian Army and its native levies at Adowa (Adwa), in the process inflicting what was probably the greatest defeat suffered by any European power at the hands of an African army during Europe's age of African colonisation.  There was to be no repeat performance in 1935.  The Italians were better commanded and by no means so complacent as their grandfathers had been, and the imbalance in terms of training and technology was just too heavily in favour of the Italians.  Best regards, JR.

Ethiopian warriors.

Shelling of the &quot;Alcázar de Toledo&quot; by Republican forces.
The Siege of the Alcázar commenced and Moscardó held out for General Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces for 70 days from 22 July to 27 September 1936. Day after day, the Colonel sent out his daily radio report: Sin novedad en el Alcázar (&quot;Nothing new at the Alcázar,&quot; or &quot;All quiet at the Alcázar&quot;, an ironic understatement). His defiance heartened Franco's supporters everywhere and maddened the Republicans, who committed vast forces in vain assaults on the Alcázar.
On 23 July, Republican forces captured Moscardó's 16-year-old son, Luis. They called the Alcazar on the telephone and Moscardó himself picked up the receiver. The political officer of the Republican force informed him that unless he surrendered the Alcazar, Luis would be shot. Moscardó asked to speak to his son. He then told Luis, &quot;Commend your soul to God and die like a patriot, shouting 'Long live Christ King' and 'Long live Spain.'&quot; &quot;That,&quot; answered his son, &quot;I can do.&quot; Luis was immediately shot. 
During the siege, a blindfolded Major Rojo approached the badly battered citadel with a white flag on September 9. His mission was to offer the garrison their lives if they would surrender. His proposal was rejected, but on leaving he asked Moscardó  if he could convey any requests to the outside. Moscardó asked that a priest might be sent to the garrison to baptise children born during the siege. The Republicans agreed and sent in Canon Vasquez Camarassa. Of the priests in Toledo, only seven who were in hiding escaped massacre by the Republicans, so the Canon was in that respect lucky to be alive, said to be because of his left-wing sympathies. He urged the civilians, the women and children in particular to leave under a white flag. The unanimous reply was a refusal. 
When the Alcazar was finally relieved, Moscardó is said to have greeted the relief  National force's commanding Colonel. He had lost his son but saved his garrison. He stood stiffly to the salute and said, &quot;No change to report.&quot;