Potterill Family

In the south, with 1st Field Company, S.A.E.C. back with 1st S.A. Infantry Brigade Group after completing the bridge at Balad, 1st Transvaal Scottish went into the lead along the main road to Miesso, with the Natal Carbineers in support, while the Dukes were directed along the old Southern route. The Transvaal Scottish, with Addis Ababa 320 miles ahead, drove through the almost deserted streets of Harar before daybreak on 27 March, and pushed on in the direction of Diredawa. Less than 10 miles out from Harar the advance guard was held up on the high plateau by a demolished bridge. A near-by brickfield provided material for filling the gap and a section of 1st Field Company, S.A.E.C. soon had the column on the move again, only to strike another blown bridge 2 miles further on. Here a Transvaal Scottish platoon, almost all of whom were miners from the Sub Nigel Gold Mine, helped the Sappers build up two stone walls some 30 feet high and had the vehicles pushing on in an amazingly short time.
With the Hubeta Pass plunging down 4,000 feet into the Great Rift Valley in a 10-mile defile of twisting spirals only a few miles ahead, Lieutenant-Colonel Hartshorn chafed at every delay, but after only another 4 miles 1st Field Company, S.A.E.C. had to tackle a further demolition and build a deviation over a stream.
Speed was imperative if the Italians were to be driven off the pass before nightfall and 'A' Company and armoured cars from No. 3 S.A. Armoured Car Company, once they were through the detour, moved fast near the shores of Lake Aramaio as they headed for the long straight stretch of road before the top of the pass. The road ran between the cultivated slopes of two mountains but only a short distance ahead, where it plunged down in a serpentine descent to Diredawa, the country was wild, and reminiscent of the Barberton district. Carved out of almost perpendicular cliff faces, the road invited major demolitions and road-blocks of the most formidable kind.
A thousand feet below, a stream ran through a deep gorge, and the mountain rose sheer from the other side of the road. Here the Italians had decided to fight a further delaying action before their Awash River line, with two machine-gun companies consisting largely of regular officers whose units had disintegrated. They had taken up position in the hills at right angles to the road, but with a flank exposed as the inevitable result of continued desertion by Colonial troops. Bombardment from the air hit Italian columns on the move at Diredawa, Gota and Miesso; and Native soldiers vanished with their arms. Battalions were rapidly reduced, sometimes to 100 men or less, and at Miesso the 15th Artillery Group of 65 mm guns had no men left in the ranks and had to load its guns on to lorries, while the 13th Pack Artillery Group had to employ officers and Blackshirts in place of African gunners and muleteers. The Italians had no option but to fall back, with rearguards imposing what delay they could.
At about 3.30 p.m. Captain Briscoe's force of five armoured cars and nine troop-carriers entered the Hubeta Pass. Two armoured cars quickly fell out. As the column rounded the next bend another came to a halt and less than half a mile down the pass they reached the first demolition, which brought the whole convoy to a stop. Captain Briscoe and an Engineer officer were approaching the hole in the road at about 4 p.m. when a '7-pounder' shell whistled overhead and exploded not far away.
Deploying quickly, Lieutenant Deryck Klapka's No. 5 Platoon was soon scrambling up and down the slopes of a series of hills on which the Italians had dug in their machine-guns on the approaches to Hubeta Mountain. The dominating, boulder-strewn hills opposite the enemy positions, though covered by fire, had been left unoccupied and Numbers 6 and 7 Platoons clambered up them. No. 5 Platoon, climbing steeply, descended equally steeply into a gully. Then, climbing again as they crossed the hills, they toiled for an hour in full fighting kit before reaching a point near a Native village on Hubeta itself. Here they came under vicious machine-gun fire. On the far side of the road, Numbers 6 and 7 Platoons were also under fire from small-arms and artillery, apparently from a motorized rearguard under Colonel Buonamico and the 1st Artillery Group of 77 mm guns.
'C' Company of the 1st Transvaal Scottish had by now debussed and Lieutenant A. O. McLaren's No. 11 Platoon was ordered to scale the heights dominating the turn-off to Carsa and Asba Littorio, while Major H. A. Olsen took the other two platoons of the company across miles of open field to outflank Hubeta and force the enemy off the crest.
Under fire from some thirty enemy machine-guns, No. 5 Platoon was pinned down behind a cactus hedge which hid it but offered no protection from the spray of bullets. It could make no headway with its three Bren guns and the men's rifles. The platoon signaller could not stand up and Lieutenant Klapka borrowed a steel mirror from one of his men to flash a message saying he was pinned down. He was ordered to attack while No. 14 Platoon tried to lend support by firing on Hubeta at long range with its Vickers guns. No. 16 Platoon, close to the convoy, was finding its mortars outranged by the Italians and one bomb almost hit Klapka's platoon before the Transvaal Scottish mortar detachments had to cease fire. To knock out two machine-gun posts, Major B. J. H. Mawson brought one gun of 2nd Anti-Tank Battery, S.A.A. into action on the pass.
As No. 5 Platoon moved forward, the owner of the steel mirror, who had just returned it to his left-hand breast pocket, was hit three times. The mirror deflected a bullet which almost certainly would otherwise have proved fatal. While the platoon pressed on towards the western extremity of the enemy-occupied crest, Major Olsen's two platoons made all speed for the feature's eastern flank, swarming up it at sunset. To their astonishment, they found the position unoccupied.
Moving on and firing Brens from the hip and throwing grenades, Major Olsen's men stormed the Italians from the rear as they tried to beat off Klapka's attack from one side. Enemy resistance collapsed and prisoners were being rounded up by nightfall. Fifty Italians with sixteen machine-guns and two mortars had manned the positions which had peppered Captain Briscoe's men.
During the particularly hazardous advance of No. 5 Platoon, Private F. R. Potterill evacuated two badly wounded comrades and earned the immediate award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Private W. A. Flemmer, who died of wounds, was the only South African lost in the action. Booty included thirty lorries, three field guns, two mortars and numerous machine-guns, and some 200 prisoners were taken.
While 'B' Company of the Transvaal Scottish was trying to link up with 'A' Company across the rough terrain during the bitterly cold night, enemy ammunition dumps in Diredawa were being destroyed, and thunderous explosions lit up the sky. Disintegration among enemy troops was mounting and 17th Colonial Brigade left the town with only 600-700 men. The Italians themselves had withdrawn the arms from two Colonial Battalions, whose men dispersed. Reaching Miesso in no condition to fight, remnants of the Brigade had to be directed straight back to Adama, while the Italian motorized group took up positions to block the road south from Miesso into the Chercher Mountains and to Asba Littorio.
By daybreak on 29 March, the enemy had withdrawn from the Hubeta Pass and patrols were pushing forward down the pass, on which they encountered some enormous demolitions, of which the third was the most serious. Luckily, the Italians made little serious attempt to cover these demolitions with fire, and 10th and 12th Batteries of 4th Field Brigade, S.A.A. helped to discourage them from increasing their efforts in this respect. At five of the steepest places on the descent to Diredawa the enemy blasted the mountainside and cut the road. One of the craters was 70 yards across and it was at first estimated that it would take eight days to fill.
The 2nd Nigeria Regiment was moved up to help repair the road and with 1st Field Company, S.A.E.C. and 54th East African Field Company working round the clock the road was open within thirty-six hours.
While work on the pass was proceeding, a patrol of the Transvaal Scottish worked its way down towards Diredawa. An enemy armoured car and staff car were sighted but fled. Vickers guns covering the road opened fire and the staff car overturned. Its occupants were unhurt and jumped on to the armoured car, which then sped on and touched off another demolition, which cut off a working party of forty of their own men, three field guns and four huge 10-ton diesel lorries.
On the morning of Saturday, 29 March, an Italian car drove out from Diredawa towards the pass, carrying an agitated Assistant Governor with a letter begging Lieutenant-Colonel Hartshorn to enter the town before nightfall as the Italian troops had disappeared and the citizens were being menaced by the local Natives. Seven Italians had been murdered and mutilated by armed deserters from the Italian Colonial Infantry, and the Transvaal Scottish swooped down into the Great Rift Valley to block the last enemy outlet to the sea and restore order in Diredawa. There they were met with harrowing and conflicting tales of mutiny by Somali, Abyssinian and even Eritrean troops.
General Gazerra had already been called from the Southern Command to Addis Ababa on 25 March to be told that the Viceroy no longer intended to hold the line of the Awash River. The capital was to be declared an open city and the Comando Superiore was being moved northward to Amba Alagi. All troops south of the Blue Nile were to pass to Southern Command if and when possible. They were to hold out as long as they could to tie up maximum British forces. The Duke of Aosta's Chief of Staff, General Trezzani, had flown to see General de Simone on 28 March to tell him the same discouraging news, with exhortations to hold on the Awash River line at least long enough to allow time for the troops at Addis Ababa to pull out towards Dessie and Amba Alagi. The same day, General Varda, previously commanding the Addis Ababa garrison, was instructed to establish defences in the area of Dessie to cover the southern approach to Amba Alagi, where the Duke himself was to take command on 7 April.
Guards were posted at strategic points in Diredawa, but when darkness fell danger of serious trouble was still imminent. The arrival of armoured cars and troop-carriers after nightfall brought the unruly mob somewhat to its senses, but the Transvaal Scottish were forced to fire on rioters looting European homes.
Next day, shooting continued and a force of rebels tried to take possession of the aerodrome, where the South African and Royal Air Force attacks had left the runways littered with burnt-out aircraft and reduced the hangars to little more than steel skeletons. Cars from No. 3 S.A. Armoured Car Company at last brought the town under control and also cleared the aerodrome. The Italian civilians, thankful that they had been saved from a blood-drunk mob, offered champagne to South Africans in the shabby hotel, and local Greeks predicted the fall of Addis Ababa and the utter collapse of the Italian forces within twenty days. South African War Correspondent Carel Birkby thought them too optimistic.
...
The 1st S.A. Infantry Brigade Group, on arrival at Addis Ababa, had completed a trip of 1,500 miles in twenty-five days, as part of the amazing advance of 1,725 miles by East Africa Force in a total of only fifty-three days against an enemy always numerically superior, and in face of all the most trying problems presented by bad roads, heavy demolitions, a pressing scarcity of water in the early stages and, now, torrential rain which robbed many of the men of rest during the final night's move before entry into the capital. During the whole of its advance from the Juba, 11th African Division had only once, at the Babile Gap, found it necessary to use more than one brigade at a time. Even then, only one extra battalion was employed.
Though 1st Transvaal Scottish, with tammies and red hackles, did later march through the streets of Addis Ababa to the strains of their pipes' 'Athol Highlanders', there was as little ceremony about the South African brigade's entry as there was about General Wetherall's acceptance of the city's surrender. The Natal Carbineers helped police the town and guarded prisoners at the racecourse. In one of the suburbs the Adjutant discovered two hitherto unnoticed cavalry regiments, complete with horses, and these troops were also disarmed, to add to already arduous guard duties.

The Potterill Family

Alfred Ernest Potterill

Frederick Roy Potterill

Marjory Irene (Potterill, Dwyer) Botha

Mary Olive Vyvyan (Potterill) Clulow