lieutenant-general [[carlo de simone|carlo de simone]], issued instructions on 25 july, as commander of the main force, the harrar division with eleven african infantry battalions in three brigades, the three blackshirt battalions and the tanks and armoured cars. the french and british were to be prevented from uniting and receiving reinforcements to attack harrar by occupying british somaliland and defeating the garrison. because the hills rose to over , parallel to the coast some inland, there were three approaches to berbera for wheeled and tracked vehicles for the italians to consider. the direct route with the widest pass was via hargeisa and the italian plan was for the western column to seal off french somaliland and then send light forces eastwards along the coast road. the eastern column (brigadier-general [[arturo bertello]]) would move to [[oodweyne|odweina]] and burao in the south, to cover the flank of the central column and be prepared to link up with it if necessary. de simone, with the central column would establish a base at hargeisa and adalek then carry the main weight of the attack through the mirgo pass towards berbera. the western column (lieutenant-general [[sisto bertoldi]]) was to advance towards [[zeila]] to seal the border with french somaliland and then move eastwards along the coast road towards berbera.