Battle of the Mandeb Straight

The second confrontation in the Spanish-Ethiopian war, the Battle of the Mandeb Straight saw a second successful offensive maneuver by Spain against the Ethiopians. Posted in the Mandeb Straight the Ethiopian Navy positioned itself to force the Spanish armada to stall in the bottleneck that is between the African coast and Yemen. The Spanish deployed their air force contingent against this blockade, successfully destroying it and the whole of the Ethiopian Navy.

The Spanish utilized fighters to draw the fire of Ethiopian aircraft and to sink many of the lighter ships while bombers later caught up and swept up the rest. At the end of the day the entire navy was destroyed and the Spanish lost four aircraft to anti-air guns.