4th (Uganda) Battalion, King’s African Rifles, parading on a beach, Mombassa, Kenya, 1939 (b/w photo)

Men of the 4th (Uganda) Battalion, The King’s African Rifles, parading on a beach after arriving in Mombassa, Kenya, for a training exercise, 1939. Photograph, World War Two, East Africa, 1939. The first task of the King’s African Rifles in the Second World War was the defence of Kenya against a possible invasion from the north by the Italians from their colonial possession of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia). In the summer of 1940, alongside other British colonial units, the regiment fought a series of border engagements with Italian troops. Despite their superiority in men and equipment and some local successes, the Italians showed little stomach for an invasion. By mounting a series of vigorous small-scale offensives, which culminated in the capture of the Italian fort at El Wak, the British forces in Kenya succeeded in wresting the initiative from their enemies, and so laid the foundations for the invasion of Abyssinia later in the year. From an album of 608 photographs compiled by Colin Campbell of the King’s African Rifles.