Operation Sheep Drop — The 2nd Italian-Ethiopian War, 1935.In the mid 1930’s the fascist

Operation Sheep Drop — The 2nd Italian-Ethiopian War, 1935.In the mid 1930’s the fascist state of Italy was much like Nazi Germany, striving to regain old power, glory, and of course new territories. Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini sought to revive the ancient Roman empire under his fascist regime.  As a result in the 1930’s Italy began to invade and conquer countries in Africa to add to her new Roman empire.One nation on Mussolini’s hit list was Ethiopia.  Ethiopia was one of the few nations that was able to resist being conquered by European colonial powers during the 19th century, and as a result Ethiopians can trace an uninterrupted national heritage and sovereignty that goes back to biblical times.  In the 1890’s, Italy attempted to conquer Ethiopia and make the country one of its few African colonies.  The invasion was a complete disaster with a massive Ethiopian army driving the Italians out of the country with heavy causalities. Mussolini could not stand such a failure in Italian history.  In 1935 a large Italian Army of 500,000 troops invaded Ethiopia.  The Italians really had the Ethiopians on the ropes, as they were armed with modern weapons such as airplanes, tanks, heavy artillery, machine guns, and poison gas.  However things were not all sunshine and roses for the Italians.  During the World War II era Italian soldiers probably had it the worst of all major powers (maybe with the exception of the Soviets).  Life in the Italian Army mean’t poor training, crappy weapons, terrible equipment, and ridiculously incompetent officers.  It also mean’t being sent to die in some of the more inhospitable regions of the world.  One phase of the Ethiopian campaign involved a 120 mile advance through the Danakil Desert. The desert was a barren wasteland, making it so that all of the Italians supplies, ammo, medicine, food, and equipment had to be para-dropped to the Italian Army.  Between all the hardships the Italian Army had to offer, it would be the food that broke the back of the Italian soldier.As a person of Italian descent myself, I can tell you that Italians are damned passionate about good fresh food.  Because of the scorching heat of the Danakil Desert, meat would spoil very quickly.  As a result Italian soldiers were forced to live off of packaged and processed rations.  Eventually the soldiers grew sick of this and at one point even rebelled, refusing to eat their nasty processed foods.  Morale was sinking and it seemed a crises was brewing that could jeopardize the entire invasion.To solve this a solution was created to transport live animals to the troops.  A new parachute harness was created for sheep and other species of livestock with the idea of parachuting live animals to the Italian Army.  The men could keep and raise the animals, saving them for later slaughter and butchering without worrying about spoiled meat.  The ambitious plan was conducted by 25 special aircraft designated to drop rations, water, and of course live sheep.  By the time the Italian Army had finished its journey through the Danakil Desert, 72 sheep and 2 cows had dropped live to the Italian Army.Despite hardships and setback the Italians were victorious.  The Ethiopians fought bravely but could not match the Italians advanced weapons.  Italy would not fare so well during World War II.  Ethiopia would eventually be liberated by resistance forces with the help of the British Army.  Today the tactic of para-dropping supplies is a common staple of modern military logistics, although the dropping of live animals is not so common. -- source link

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