May 1947

He wasn't even named Lawrence, he thought to himself. But TE Lawrence had paved such a path through the British popular consciousness that his friends called him that.

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Colonel Edward 'Mad Ed' Smith was a decades-long veteran of the British Indian Army, an organization that was not only significantly downsized from its wartime strength, but was, shortly, to cease to exist. He had gotten this post on account of his Arabic knowledge--but as it turned out, not many Somalis spoke much Arab, though he seemed to be slowly getting the hang of Somali, which had a lot of loan-words. Most of the time he had to work through his staff, a mixed bunch of Africans, Brits and a few Arabs, who exchanged words with their Somali recruits in everything from freshly taught bad English to scattered Italian sentences.

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In retrospect, the Eritrean posting would have been a better choice, but here he was now in Mogadishu, head of a programme training four independent brigades of Somalis that would serve as the nexus for an independent Somali Army, whenever that happened. Former NCOs from the King's African Rifles--a few from British Somaliland, but many from Kenya or even further afield--served as the thickener, while novice Somali recruits, mostly without any military experience (though there were some former Italian askaris among them), learned how to march in circles and clean their worn Lee-Enfields. The initial days had been farcial, but it was getting better, slowly.

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What he worried about were the Somali officers that would probably be required, now that secret documents suggested Britain might be forced to abandon Mogadishu. A few were going to [REDACTED] but most were going to RMA Sandhurst, a cadre of officers who had demonstrated key skills like "literacy". They might be good chaps, he supposed, but they would lack the experience of the Ethiopians. There weren't any provisions for heavy weapons yet, either, at least anything heavier than a PIAT or a Vickers gun, although he had heard they might get a few Tiger Moths and start training pilots in Kenya soon.

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He heard yelling outside. Not another fight, dammit. He donned his hat and took a gander outside to assess the situation.

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British forces are presently training 4 infantry brigades in Mogadishu and 2 in Asmara, consisting of local forces, armed with more or less standard light infantry weapons of British design. They have veteran African NCOs and will soon have trained, if novice, native officers.