Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

===Military operations===
[[File:Lieutenant General Sir George Erskine, Commander-in-Chief, East Africa (centre), observing operations against the Mau Mau.jpg|thumb|Lieutenant General Sir [[George Erskine]], Commander-in-Chief, [[East Africa Command]] (centre), observing operations against the Mau Mau]]
The onset of the Emergency led hundreds, and eventually thousands, of Mau Mau adherents to flee to the forests, where a decentralised leadership had already begun setting up platoons.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p37">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=37}}.</ref> The primary zones of Mau Mau military strength were the [[Aberdare Range|Aberdares]] and the forests around Mount Kenya, whilst a passive support-wing was fostered outside these areas.<ref name="Elkins 2005 pp37-38">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|pp=37–38}}.</ref> Militarily, the British defeated Mau Mau in four years (1952–1956)<ref name="Clough 1998 p25b">{{Harvnb|Clough|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jpbZEfiAPW0C&pg=PA25 25]}}.</ref> using a more expansive version of "coercion through exemplary force".<ref name="French 2011 116">{{Harvnb|French|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cd6VtsGltmAC&pg=PA116 116]}}.</ref> In May 1953, the decision was made to send General [[George Erskine]] to oversee the restoration of order in the colony.<ref name="Edgerton 1989 83">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=83}}.</ref>

By September 1953, the British knew the leading personalities in Mau Mau, and the capture and 68 hour interrogation of [[General China]] on 15 January the following year provided a massive intelligence boost on the forest fighters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98279887 |title=They Follow the Dug-Out General. |newspaper=[[The Sunday Mail (Brisbane)|Sunday Mail]] |location=Brisbane |date=19 April 1953 |access-date=17 November 2013 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18508452 |title=End May Be Near For The Mau Mau |newspaper=[[The Sunday Herald (Sydney)|The Sunday Herald]] |location=Sydney |date=30 August 1953 |access-date=17 November 2013 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=9 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409023617/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18508452 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://www.psywar.org/maumau.php "PSYOP of the Mau-Mau UprisingSGM"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426161001/https://www.psywar.org/maumau.php |date=26 April 2020 }} Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.) 4 January 2006, accessed 9 November 2013</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18413571 |title=Mau Mau General Surrenders |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=9 March 1954 |access-date=9 November 2013 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=9 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409023618/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18413571 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="French 2011 32">{{Harvnb|French|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cd6VtsGltmAC&pg=PA32 32]}}.</ref><!-- In late 1953, security forces swept the Aberdare forest in Operation Blitz and captured and killed 125 guerrillas.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}}--> Erskine's arrival did not immediately herald a fundamental change in strategy, thus the continual pressure on the gangs remained, but he created more mobile formations that delivered what he termed "special treatment" to an area. Once gangs had been driven out and eliminated, loyalist forces and police were then to take over the area, with military support brought in thereafter only to conduct any required pacification operations. After their successful dispersion and containment, Erskine went after the forest fighters' source of supplies, money and recruits, i.e. the native Kenyan population of Nairobi. This took the form of Operation Anvil, which commenced on 24 April 1954.<ref name="French 2011 116to117">{{Harvnb|French|2011|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cd6VtsGltmAC&pg=PA115 116–7]}}.</ref>

====Operation Anvil====
{{main|Operation Anvil (Mau Mau Uprising)}}
[[File:Patrol Kenya.jpg|thumb|British Army patrol crossing a stream carrying [[FN FAL]] rifle (1st and 2nd soldiers from right); [[Sten]] Mk5 (3rd soldier); and the [[Jungle carbine|Lee–Enfield No. 5]] (4th and 5th soldiers)<ref>{{cite book |first=Bob |last=Cashner |title=The FN FAL Battle Rifle |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-78096-903-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpDvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 |page=15 |access-date=4 March 2019 |archive-date=9 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409023657/https://books.google.com/books?id=qpDvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
By 1954, Nairobi was regarded as the nerve centre of Mau Mau operations.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p124">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=124}}: "There was an unusual consensus in the ranks of both the military and Baring's civilian government that the colony's capital was the nerve center for Mau Mau operations. Nearly three-quarters of the city's African male population of sixty thousand were Kikuyu, and most of these men, along with some twenty thousand Kikuyu women and children accompanying them, were allegedly 'active or passive supporters of Mau Mau'."</ref> The insurgents in the highlands of the Aberdares and Mt Kenya were being supplied provisions and weapons by supporters in Nairobi via couriers.<ref name=henderson1958manhunt>{{Harvnb|Henderson|Goodhart|1958|p=14}}: "In the first months of the emergency the Mau Mau discipline was so strong that a terrorist in the forest who gave his money to a courier could be almost certain of getting what he wanted from any shop in Nairobi."</ref> Anvil was the ambitious attempt to eliminate Mau Mau's presence within Nairobi in one fell swoop. 25,000 members of British security forces under the control of General George Erskine were deployed as Nairobi was sealed off and underwent a sector-by-sector purge. All native Kenyans were taken to temporary barbed-wire enclosures. Those who were not Kikuyu, Embu or Meru were released; those who were remained in detention for screening.{{efn|During the Emergency, ''screening'' was the term used by colonial authorities to mean the interrogation of a Mau Mau suspect. The alleged member or sympathiser of Mau Mau would be interrogated in order to obtain an admission of guilt—specifically, a confession that they had taken the Mau Mau oath—as well as for intelligence.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p63">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=63}}.</ref>}}

Whilst the operation itself was conducted by Europeans, most suspected members of Mau Mau were picked out of groups of the Kikuyu-Embu-Meru detainees by a native Kenyan informer. Male suspects were then taken off for further screening, primarily at Langata Screening Camp, whilst women and children were readied for 'repatriation' to the reserves (many of those slated for deportation had never set foot in the reserves before). Anvil lasted for two weeks, after which the capital had been cleared of all but certifiably loyal Kikuyu; 20,000 Mau Mau suspects had been taken to Langata, and 30,000 more had been deported to the reserves.<ref name="Elkins 2005 pp121-125">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|pp=121–125}}.</ref>

====Air power====
For an extended period of time, the chief British weapon against the forest fighters was air power. Between June 1953 and October 1955, the RAF provided a significant contribution to the conflict—and, indeed, had to, for the army was preoccupied with providing security in the reserves until January 1955, and it was the only service capable of both psychologically influencing and inflicting considerable casualties on the Mau Mau fighters operating in the dense forests. Lack of timely and accurate intelligence meant bombing was rather haphazard, but almost 900 insurgents had been killed or wounded by air attacks by June 1954, and it did cause forest gangs to disband, lower their morale, and induce their pronounced relocation from the forests to the reserves.<ref name="Chappell 2011">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011}}.</ref>

At first armed [[North American Harvard|Harvard]] training aircraft were used, for direct ground support and also some camp interdiction. As the campaign developed, [[Avro Lincoln]] heavy bombers were deployed, flying missions in Kenya from 18 November 1953 to 28 July 1955, dropping nearly 6&nbsp;million bombs.<ref name="Chappell 2011 68">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011|p=68}}.</ref><ref name="Edgerton 1989 86+quote">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=86}}: "Before the Emergency ended, the [[RAF]] dropped the amazing total of 50,000 tons of bombs on the forests and fired over 2&nbsp;million rounds from machine guns during strafing runs. It is not known how many humans or animals were killed."</ref> They and other aircraft, such as blimps, were also deployed for reconnaissance, as well as in the [[propaganda|propaganda war]], conducting large-scale leaflet-drops.<ref name="Chappell 2011 67">{{Harvnb|Chappell|2011|p=67}}.</ref> A flight of [[de Havilland Vampire]] jets flew in from [[Aden]], but were used for only ten days of operations. Some light aircraft of the Police Air Wing also provided support.<ref>Smith, J. T. ''Mau Mau! A Case study in Colonial Air Power'' [[Air Enthusiast]] 64 July–August 1996 pp. 65–71</ref>

After the [[Lari massacre]] for example, British planes dropped leaflets showing graphic pictures of the Kikuyu women and children who had been hacked to death. Unlike the rather indiscriminate activities of British ground forces, the use of air power was more restrained (though there is disagreement<ref name="Edgerton 1989 86">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=86}}.</ref> on this point), and air attacks were initially permitted only in the forests. Operation Mushroom extended bombing beyond the forest limits in May 1954, and Churchill consented to its continuation in January 1955.<ref name="Chappell 2011"/>