The Royal Navy had to protect trade while roughly 5,000 British troops defended British Somaliland against about 20,000 Italian troops based in Italian Somaliland. Italian submarines operating from Massawa immediately revealed the difficulty of sustaining long-range operations. German raiders such as Atlantis and Pinguin then became persistent threats, while Dorsetshire shelled Italian Somaliland without achieving much because few important targets were available. Escort work dominated the naval routine even when spectacular surface battles did not. The Indian Ocean convoy struggle had its own enemies, geography, timing, and operational rhythm.
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1940: surface raiders and a convoy war of its own
Early eastern operations centred on convoy protection against raiders and the limited Italian threat.