This withdrawal, after the disastrous conclusion of the Battle of France and the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, had repercussions among British leaders.

The Italian garrison made a precipitate retreat back to Ethiopia and local troops deserted en masse.

A British military administration was imposed on the protectorate, the local police and the Somaliland Camel Corps were re-established, civilians were disarmed and the economy was revived.

[1][a] On 3 August 1940, British reconnaissance aircraft discovered that about 400 Italian troops had crossed the Ethiopian–British Somaliland frontier at Biyad, near Borama (Boorama).

A Rhodesian infantry company blocking the road retreated, after knocking out three light tanks, while the main British force slowly retired from the town.

Major-General Alfred Reade Godwin-Austen had been sent to command the forces in British Somaliland and on 14 August, judged that the situation at Tug Argan was irretrievable and was instructed by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Middle East Henry Maitland Wilson to withdraw from the protectorate (Wavell was in Britain).

The former Senior Administrative Officer of the protectorate, Reginald Smith, made several secret journeys to the land to glean information.

In Cairo, General Archibald Wavell, GOC-in-C Middle East Command concocted Operation Camilla, a deception to mislead the Italians about the transfer of troops to Sudan.

The operation was intended to convince the Italians that the troops movements were part of a plan to invade British Somaliland in February 1941 and then advance on Harar.

[10] Training began in January, ships were converted to carry troops, two of the lighters, designed by the Sea Transport Officer, Aden, Commander Vernon were to be used as floating piers, fitted with ramps to ease the unloading of the MT, including armoured cars.

With fire support from the cruisers and destroyers, the invasion force was to land on beaches between reefs to the east and west of Berbera, create a bridgehead and then re-occupy the protectorate.

[11] On 14 March the first echelon departed Aden at 10:45 p.m. but only 10 nmi (12 mi; 19 km) out, tows parted, some wrapping around the ships' propellers.

To keep to the schedule a quick change of plan was made; Kandahar left the tugs and lighters for Beaconsfield and Tuna to tow.

The naval ships went ahead to make rendezvous 10 nmi (12 mi; 19 km) north of the Berbera Light at 1:00 a.m. on 16 March according to the plan.

Caledon, Chantala, Chakdina, Netravati and Parvati were to arrive off the west beach at 2:30 a.m. and drop anchor near Glasgow which would be showing a red light out to sea.

Kandahar and Kingston found their gap in the reef off the eastern beach at 3:00 a.m. although the reconnaissance photographs had shown this to be the harder of the two to find.

[17] Due to a mistake, the Aden Pioneers, who were unarmed, had been ordered to attack with the Punjabis and their commander, Captain S. J. H. Harrison wrote later, The sun was just peeping over the eastern skyline [;] we came under rifle fire...when to our utter amazement we saw the Italian enemy leaping out of their trenches and racing towards transport vehicles....The vehicles started up and the entire enemy column high-tailed in a great cloud of yellowish grey dust...southwards...to Hargeisa....[18]A diversion to the east of Berbera was engaged by sixty members of the garrison but the landing party suffered only one Somali soldier killed and a British officer wounded.

A wireless message sent to London that "The British flag flies again over Berbera" but the invaders had forgotten to bring one and had to borrow it from a resident.

[19] The second echelon ships had arrived by the time that Berbera fell and tugs checked the harbour for mines with Oropesa sweeps.

The Shaad and customs piers had been damaged but could be repaired with local materials; demolitions at the power station and refrigerating plant required assistance from Aden to make them operational.

On 25 February the division departed Mogadishu and on 17 March, patrols of the 3rd (Nigerian) Brigade reached Jijiga, cutting the road to Harar, the Italian line of retreat from the protectorate.

On 20 March, a party of Nigerian troops reached Tug Wajale, from whence two armoured cars drove to Berbera along the road from Hargeisa and joined with the Aden Striking Force.

[15][b] On 21 March, Lieutenant-General Alan Cunningham, commander of the East African Force, visited to congratulate the victors, to make arrangements for the expansion of the port facilities and announce the establishment of a British military administration.

[24] The Italian occupation had lasted seven months; in the British official history volume I (1957), I. S. O. Playfair wrote that the port was quickly prepared, despite a shortage of lighters, no electric lights, the heat and the Kharif (autumn wind) blowing sand and increasing the surf.

The economy of the protectorate had been greatly harmed by the war, internal trade had stopped, there were no regular shipping services with Aden and only dhows were available.

Once Berbera replaced Mogadishu as an entrepôt, demand for labour increased; payment in wages and in food acted as an economic stimulus and local businessmen immediately made use of the sea traffic to and from Berbera; a return to normal conditions did not occur Zeila and Boramo, near the border with French Somaliland, due to the need to blockade the pro-Vichy regime.