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East African Campaign (World War I)
Encyclopedia
The East African Campaign was a series of battles and guerrilla actions which started in German East Africa
and ultimately affected portions of Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia
, British East Africa, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo
. The campaign was effectively ended in November 1917. However, the Germans entered Portuguese East Africa and continued the campaign living off Portuguese supplies.
The strategy of the German colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel
(later Generalmajor) Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
, was to drain and divert forces from the Western Front to Africa. His strategy failed to achieve these results after 1916, as mainly Indian and South African forces, which were prevented by colonial policy from deploying to Europe, conducted the rest of the campaign. Nevertheless, the Germans fought for the whole of World War I
, receiving word of the armistice on 14 November 1918 at 7:30 a.m. Both sides waited for confirmation, and the Germans formally surrendered on 25 November. German East Africa ultimately became two League of Nations Class B Mandates, Tanganyika Territory
of the United Kingdom
and Ruanda-Urundi
of Belgium
, while the Kionga Triangle
became a mandate of Portugal
.
(comprising Burundi
, Rwanda
, and the mainland part of modern-day Tanzania
) was a large territory with complex geography, including parts of the extensive Great Rift Valley
, Lake Tanganyika
and Lake Victoria
. It varied from the mountainous, well-watered and fertile north-west, to the drier and sandy or rocky center, with wildlife-rich grasslands in the north-east and vast areas of uninhabited forest in the south-east. Its coast, inhabited by the Swahili people
and Arab
traders, dominated trade with Central Africa
in conjunction with British-controlled Zanzibar
and the coasts of modern-day Kenya
and Mozambique
.
At the start of the Great War, Governor Heinrich Schnee of German East Africa ordered that no hostile action was to be taken. To the north, Governor Sir Henry Conway Belfield
of British East Africa stated that he and "this colony had no interest in the present war." The colonial governors, who often met in prewar years, had discussed these matters and wished to adhere to the Congo Act of 1885, which called for overseas possessions to remain neutral in the event of a European war. And, neither colony had many troops.
warships and bombarded Dar es Salaam
from several miles offshore. In response, the commander of the German forces in East Africa, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
, bypassed Governor Schnee, nominally his superior, and began to organize his troops for battle. At the time, the German Schutztruppe
in East Africa consisted of 260 Germans of all ranks and 2,472 Askari
, and was approximately numerically equal with the two battalions of the King's African Rifles
(KAR) based in the British East African colonies.
On 15 August, German Askari forces stationed in the Neu Moshi region engaged in their first offensive of the campaign. Taveta
on the British side of Kilimanjaro fell to 300 askaris of two field companies with the British firing a token volley and retiring in good order. In September, the Germans began to stage raids deeper into British East Africa
and Uganda
. German naval power on Lake Victoria was limited to a tugboat
armed with one "pom-pom
" gun, causing minor damage but a great deal of news. The British then armed the Uganda Railway
lake steamers , , Winifred
and Sybil
as improvised gunboats. Two of these trapped the tug, which the Germans scuttled. The Germans later raised her, dismounted her gun for use elsewhere and continued to use the tug as an unarmed transport. However, with the tug’s "teeth removed, British command of Lake Victoria was no longer in dispute."
In an effort to solve the raiding nuisance and to capture the entire northern, white settler region of the German colony, the British command devised a two-pronged plan. The British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" of 8,000 troops in two brigades would carry out an amphibious landing at Tanga
on 2 November 1914 to capture the city and thereby control the Indian Ocean terminus of the Usambara Railway
(see Battle of Tanga
). In the Kilimanjaro area, the Force "C" of 4,000 men in one brigade would advance from British East Africa on Neu-Moshi on 3 November 1914 to the western terminus of the railroad (see Battle of Kilimanjaro
). After capturing Tanga, Force "B" would rapidly move north-west, join Force "C" and mop up what remained of the broken German forces. Although outnumbered 8:1 at Tanga and 4:1 at Longido
, the Schutztruppe under Lettow-Vorbeck prevailed. According to the British Official History of the War the events are described as one of "the most notable failures in British military history."
The German naval command had just one major warship in the Indian Ocean when war was declared, the light cruiser
. After limited opportunities for commerce raiding, Königsberg sank the cruiser HMS Pegasus in Zanzibar
harbour and then retired into the Rufiji River
delta. After being cornered by warships of the British Cape squadron, including an old battleship, two shallow-draught monitors with 6 in (152.4 mm) guns were brought from England that demolished the cruiser on 11 July 1915. The surviving crew of Königsberg and her 4.1 in (104.1 mm) main battery guns were taken over by the Schutztruppe. The British salvaged and used six 4 in (101.6 mm) from the sunken Pegasus, the so-called 'Peggy guns'.
. They captured the German ship Kingani, renaming it , and with two Belgian ships under the command of Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson
, attacked and sunk the German ship Hedwig von Wissmann in a bid to secure the lake as the strategic key to the western part of the German colony. The Graf von Götzen
was the only German ship to survive. Lettow-Vorbeck then had its Königsberg gun removed and sent by rail to the main fighting front. The ship was scuttled after a floatplane bombing attack by the Belgians on Kigoma and before advancing Belgian colonial troops could capture it. It was later refloated and used by the British and is still in service today plying the lake under the Tanzanian flag.
was assigned with orders to find and fight the Schutztruppe, but he contracted pneumonia during the voyage to South Africa
which prevented him from taking command. In 1916, General J.C. Smuts
was given the task of defeating Lettow-Vorbeck. Smuts had a large army (for the area), some 13,000 South Africans including Boers, British, and Rhodesians as well as 7,000 India
n and African troops. In addition, not under his direct command but fighting on the Allied side, was a Belgian force and a larger but ineffective group of Portuguese
military units based in Mozambique
. A large Carrier Corps
of African porters under British command carried supplies for Smuts' army into the interior. Despite all these troops from different allies, it was essentially a South African operation of the British Empire
under Smuts' control. During the previous year, Lettow-Vorbeck had also gained personnel and his army was now 1,800 Germans and some 12,000 Askaris.
Smuts' army attacked from several directions, the main attack was from the north out of British East Africa, while substantial forces from the Belgian Congo
advanced from the west in two columns, over Lake Victoria on the British troop ships and and into the Rift Valley. Another contingent advanced over Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi
) from the south-east. All these forces failed to capture Lettow-Vorbeck and they all suffered from disease along the march. One unit, 9th South African Infantry, started with 1,135 men in February, and by October its strength was reduced to 116 fit troops, without doing much fighting at all. However, the Germans nearly always retreated from the larger British troop concentrations and by September 1916, the German Central Railway from the coast at Dar es Salaam to Ujiji
was fully under British control.
With Lettow-Vorbeck's forces now confined to the southern part of German East Africa, Smuts began to withdraw his South African, Rhodesian and Indian troops and replaced them with askaris of the King's African Rifles
. By the start of 1917, more than half the British Army in the theatre was composed of Africans, and by the end of the war, it was nearly all African troops. Smuts himself left the area in January 1917 to join the Imperial War Cabinet
at London.
The colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo, 'Force Publique
', started their campaign on 18 April 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur, Colonel Molitor and Colonel Olsen. They captured Kigali
on 6 May. The German askaris in Burundi fought well, but had to give way to the numerical superiority of Force Publique. By 6 June, Burundi as well as Rwanda was effectively occupied.
Force Publique and the British Lake Force
then started a thrust to capture Tabora
, an administrative center of central German East Africa. They marched into German territory in three columns and took Biharamuro, Mwanza, Karema, Kigoma and Ujiji. After several days of heavy fighting, they secured Tabora. To forestall Belgian claims on the German colony, Smuts ordered their forces back to Congo, leaving them as occupiers only in Rwanda and Burundi. But the British were obliged to recall Belgian-Congolese troops to help for a second time in 1917, and after this event the two allies coordinated campaign plans.
, the Schutztruppes last stand in defense of their colony, where they lost 519 men killed, wounded or missing and the British Nigerian brigade 2,700 killed, wounded or missing. After the news of the battle reached Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to Generalmajor.
In early November 1917, the German High Command made an attempt to deliver much-needed supplies to Lettow-Vorbeck by air from Germany. The naval dirigible L.59
traveled over 4200 mi (6,759.2 km) in 95 hours, but in the end the mission failed when the airship received an "abort" message over the radio from the German admiralty.
British units were closing in on the Schutztruppe and on 23 November 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck crossed south into Portuguese Mozambique
to gain supplies by capturing Portuguese garrisons. By leaving German East Africa, he no longer had to defer to the civil authority of Governor Schnee. With his caravans of troops, carriers, wives and children, he marched through Mozambique for the next nine months, avoiding capture, but unable to gain much strength. Lettow-Vorbeck's army was divided into three groups on the march. He eventually learned that he had lost a thousand-man detachment under Hauptmann Theodor Tafel, who was forced to surrender, being out of food and ammunition.
The army then reentered German East Africa and crossed into Northern Rhodesia
in August 1918. On 13 November 1918, two days after the Armistice
was signed in France, the German Army took and occupied its last town, Kasama
, which had been evacuated by the British. The next day at the Chambezi River, Lettow-Vorbeck was handed a telegram announcing the signing of the armistice and he agreed to a cease-fire: the 'Von Lettow-Vorbeck Memorial
' marks the spot in present-day Zambia
. As requested, he marched his undefeated army to Abercorn
and formally surrendered there on 23 November 1918.
German East Africa
German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
and ultimately affected portions of Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
, British East Africa, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
. The campaign was effectively ended in November 1917. However, the Germans entered Portuguese East Africa and continued the campaign living off Portuguese supplies.
The strategy of the German colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
(later Generalmajor) Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of the German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force that never exceeded about 14,000 , he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops...
, was to drain and divert forces from the Western Front to Africa. His strategy failed to achieve these results after 1916, as mainly Indian and South African forces, which were prevented by colonial policy from deploying to Europe, conducted the rest of the campaign. Nevertheless, the Germans fought for the whole of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, receiving word of the armistice on 14 November 1918 at 7:30 a.m. Both sides waited for confirmation, and the Germans formally surrendered on 25 November. German East Africa ultimately became two League of Nations Class B Mandates, Tanganyika Territory
Tanganyika Territory
Tanganyika Territory was a British colony between 1919 and 1961. Prior to the end of the First World War was part of the German colony of German East Africa. After the war had broke out, the British invaded the German East Africa, but were unable to defeat the German Army...
of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Ruanda-Urundi
Ruanda-Urundi
Ruanda-Urundi was a Belgian suzerainty from 1916 to 1924, a League of Nations Class B Mandate from 1924 to 1945 and then a United Nations trust territory until 1962, when it became the independent states of Rwanda and Burundi.- Overview :...
of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, while the Kionga Triangle
Kionga Triangle
The Kionga Triangle was a tiny territory on the border between German East Africa and the Portuguese colony of Portuguese East Africa , totalling just 1000 km² .Originally, the Germans established this as their outpost south of the Rovuma River, and there was a settlement...
became a mandate of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
Background
German East AfricaGerman East Africa
German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
(comprising Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, and the mainland part of modern-day Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
) was a large territory with complex geography, including parts of the extensive Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...
, Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia; it is also the world's longest freshwater lake...
and Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....
. It varied from the mountainous, well-watered and fertile north-west, to the drier and sandy or rocky center, with wildlife-rich grasslands in the north-east and vast areas of uninhabited forest in the south-east. Its coast, inhabited by the Swahili people
Swahili people
The Swahili people are a Bantu ethnic group and culture found in East Africa, mainly in the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya, Tanzania and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number in at around 1,328,000. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil,...
and Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
traders, dominated trade with Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
in conjunction with British-controlled Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
and the coasts of modern-day Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
.
At the start of the Great War, Governor Heinrich Schnee of German East Africa ordered that no hostile action was to be taken. To the north, Governor Sir Henry Conway Belfield
Henry Conway Belfield
Sir Henry Conway Belfield KCMG JP born on 29 November 1855 and died on 8 January 1923. Sir Henry attended the Rugby School, Warwickshire and University of Oxford. He was a qualified barrister in 1880 and practiced law in England until 1884. Sir Henry joined Malayan Civil Service from 1884 until 1912...
of British East Africa stated that he and "this colony had no interest in the present war." The colonial governors, who often met in prewar years, had discussed these matters and wished to adhere to the Congo Act of 1885, which called for overseas possessions to remain neutral in the event of a European war. And, neither colony had many troops.
Beginning, 1914–1915
In East Africa, the Congo Act was first broken by the British. On 5 August 1914, troops from the Uganda protectorate assaulted German river outposts near Lake Victoria, and on 8 August a direct naval attack commenced when the Royal NavyRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
warships and bombarded Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...
from several miles offshore. In response, the commander of the German forces in East Africa, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of the German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force that never exceeded about 14,000 , he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops...
, bypassed Governor Schnee, nominally his superior, and began to organize his troops for battle. At the time, the German Schutztruppe
Schutztruppe
Schutztruppe was the African colonial armed force of Imperial Germany from the late 19th century to 1918, when Germany lost its colonies. Similar to other colonial forces, the Schutztruppe consisted of volunteer European commissioned and non-commissioned officers, medical and veterinary officers. ...
in East Africa consisted of 260 Germans of all ranks and 2,472 Askari
Askari
Askari is an Arabic, Bosnian, Urdu, Turkish, Somali, Persian, Amharic and Swahili word meaning "soldier" . It was normally used to describe local troops in East Africa, Northeast Africa, and Central Africa serving in the armies of European colonial powers...
, and was approximately numerically equal with the two battalions of the King's African Rifles
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from the various British possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the East African colonies as well as external service as...
(KAR) based in the British East African colonies.
On 15 August, German Askari forces stationed in the Neu Moshi region engaged in their first offensive of the campaign. Taveta
Taveta
Taveta is the name of a tribe of East Africa, the name of the principal town in the land of the Taveta people, and also the name of the surrounding subdistrict of Kenya.-The people of Taveta:...
on the British side of Kilimanjaro fell to 300 askaris of two field companies with the British firing a token volley and retiring in good order. In September, the Germans began to stage raids deeper into British East Africa
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. German naval power on Lake Victoria was limited to a tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
armed with one "pom-pom
QF 1 pounder pom-pom
The QF 1 pounder, universally known as the pom-pom, was an early 37 mm British autocannon. It was used by several countries initially as an infantry gun and later as a light anti-aircraft gun. The name comes from the sound it makes when firing....
" gun, causing minor damage but a great deal of news. The British then armed the Uganda Railway
Uganda Railway
The Uganda Railway is a railway system and former railway company linking the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean at Mombasa in Kenya.-Origins:...
lake steamers , , Winifred
SS Winifred (1901)
SS Winifred was a cargo and passenger Lake Victoria ferry in East Africa.The Uganda Railway had begun shipping operations on the lake in 1901 with the launch of the 110 ton , built by Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was a small general purpose vessel but the...
and Sybil
SS Sybil (1901)
SS Sybil was a cargo and passenger Lake Victoria ferry in East Africa.The Uganda Railway had begun shipping operations on the lake in 1901 with the launch of the 110 ton , built by Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was a small general purpose vessel but the...
as improvised gunboats. Two of these trapped the tug, which the Germans scuttled. The Germans later raised her, dismounted her gun for use elsewhere and continued to use the tug as an unarmed transport. However, with the tug’s "teeth removed, British command of Lake Victoria was no longer in dispute."
In an effort to solve the raiding nuisance and to capture the entire northern, white settler region of the German colony, the British command devised a two-pronged plan. The British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" of 8,000 troops in two brigades would carry out an amphibious landing at Tanga
Tanga, Tanzania
Tanga is both the name of the most northerly seaport city of Tanzania, and the surrounding Tanga Region. It is the Regional Headquarters of the region.With a population of 243,580 in 2002, Tanga is one of the largest cities in the country...
on 2 November 1914 to capture the city and thereby control the Indian Ocean terminus of the Usambara Railway
Usambara Railway
The Usambara-Railway was the first railway to be built in German East Africa and what is today Tanzania.- German East-Africa :A railway company was created in 1891 with the aim, to connect the port of Tanga at the Indian Ocean with the Lake Victoria by passing south of the Usambara Mountains. ...
(see Battle of Tanga
Battle of Tanga
The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force “B” under Major General A.E. Aitken to capture German East Africa during World War I in concert with the invasion Force “C” near Longido on the slopes of...
). In the Kilimanjaro area, the Force "C" of 4,000 men in one brigade would advance from British East Africa on Neu-Moshi on 3 November 1914 to the western terminus of the railroad (see Battle of Kilimanjaro
Battle of Kilimanjaro
The Battle of Kilimanjaro at Longido took place in German East Africa in November 1914 and was an early skirmish during the East African Campaign of the First World War.-Background:...
). After capturing Tanga, Force "B" would rapidly move north-west, join Force "C" and mop up what remained of the broken German forces. Although outnumbered 8:1 at Tanga and 4:1 at Longido
Battle of Kilimanjaro
The Battle of Kilimanjaro at Longido took place in German East Africa in November 1914 and was an early skirmish during the East African Campaign of the First World War.-Background:...
, the Schutztruppe under Lettow-Vorbeck prevailed. According to the British Official History of the War the events are described as one of "the most notable failures in British military history."
Naval war
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
. After limited opportunities for commerce raiding, Königsberg sank the cruiser HMS Pegasus in Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
harbour and then retired into the Rufiji River
Rufiji River
The Rufiji River lies entirely within the African nation of Tanzania. The river is formed by the convergence of the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers. It is approximately 600 km long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania and its mouth on the Indian Ocean at a point between Mafia Island called Mafia...
delta. After being cornered by warships of the British Cape squadron, including an old battleship, two shallow-draught monitors with 6 in (152.4 mm) guns were brought from England that demolished the cruiser on 11 July 1915. The surviving crew of Königsberg and her 4.1 in (104.1 mm) main battery guns were taken over by the Schutztruppe. The British salvaged and used six 4 in (101.6 mm) from the sunken Pegasus, the so-called 'Peggy guns'.
Lake Tanganyika expedition
In 1915, two British motorboats, HMS Mimi and Toutou were transported by land to the British shore of Lake TanganyikaLake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia; it is also the world's longest freshwater lake...
. They captured the German ship Kingani, renaming it , and with two Belgian ships under the command of Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson
Geoffrey Spicer-Simson
Commander Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson DSO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Home Fleets...
, attacked and sunk the German ship Hedwig von Wissmann in a bid to secure the lake as the strategic key to the western part of the German colony. The Graf von Götzen
MV Liemba
The MV Liemba, formerly the Graf von Götzen, is a passenger and cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika...
was the only German ship to survive. Lettow-Vorbeck then had its Königsberg gun removed and sent by rail to the main fighting front. The ship was scuttled after a floatplane bombing attack by the Belgians on Kigoma and before advancing Belgian colonial troops could capture it. It was later refloated and used by the British and is still in service today plying the lake under the Tanzanian flag.
British Empire reinforcements, 1916
General Horace Smith-DorrienHorace Smith-Dorrien
General Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien GCB, GCMG, DSO, ADC was a British soldier and commander of the British II Corps and Second Army of the BEF during World War I.-Early life and career:...
was assigned with orders to find and fight the Schutztruppe, but he contracted pneumonia during the voyage to South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
which prevented him from taking command. In 1916, General J.C. Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
was given the task of defeating Lettow-Vorbeck. Smuts had a large army (for the area), some 13,000 South Africans including Boers, British, and Rhodesians as well as 7,000 India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n and African troops. In addition, not under his direct command but fighting on the Allied side, was a Belgian force and a larger but ineffective group of Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
military units based in Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
. A large Carrier Corps
Carrier Corps
The Carrier Corps was a military organisation created in Kenya in World War I to provide military labour to support the British campaign against the German Military forces in East Africa, commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck....
of African porters under British command carried supplies for Smuts' army into the interior. Despite all these troops from different allies, it was essentially a South African operation of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
under Smuts' control. During the previous year, Lettow-Vorbeck had also gained personnel and his army was now 1,800 Germans and some 12,000 Askaris.
Smuts' army attacked from several directions, the main attack was from the north out of British East Africa, while substantial forces from the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
advanced from the west in two columns, over Lake Victoria on the British troop ships and and into the Rift Valley. Another contingent advanced over Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi , is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the Great Rift Valley system of East Africa. This lake, the third largest in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world, is located between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania...
) from the south-east. All these forces failed to capture Lettow-Vorbeck and they all suffered from disease along the march. One unit, 9th South African Infantry, started with 1,135 men in February, and by October its strength was reduced to 116 fit troops, without doing much fighting at all. However, the Germans nearly always retreated from the larger British troop concentrations and by September 1916, the German Central Railway from the coast at Dar es Salaam to Ujiji
Ujiji
Ujiji is the oldest town in western Tanzania, located about 6 miles south of Kigoma. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 4,100. Part of the Kigoma/Ujiji urban area, the regional population was about 50,000 in 1978....
was fully under British control.
With Lettow-Vorbeck's forces now confined to the southern part of German East Africa, Smuts began to withdraw his South African, Rhodesian and Indian troops and replaced them with askaris of the King's African Rifles
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from the various British possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the East African colonies as well as external service as...
. By the start of 1917, more than half the British Army in the theatre was composed of Africans, and by the end of the war, it was nearly all African troops. Smuts himself left the area in January 1917 to join the Imperial War Cabinet
Imperial War Cabinet
The Imperial War Cabinet was created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the spring of 1917 as a means of co-ordinating the British Empire's military policy during the First World War...
at London.
Belgian-Congolese participation
Belgian-Congolese participation in the campaign was sizeable—for the logistics alone some 260,000 carriers were mobilized, not counting troops.The colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo, 'Force Publique
Force Publique
The Force Publique , French for "Public Force", was both a gendarmerie and a military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, , through the period of direct Belgian colonial rule...
', started their campaign on 18 April 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur, Colonel Molitor and Colonel Olsen. They captured Kigali
Kigali
Kigali, population 965,398 , is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is situated near the geographic centre of the nation, and has been the economic, cultural, and transport hub of Rwanda since it became capital at independence in 1962. The main residence and offices of the President of...
on 6 May. The German askaris in Burundi fought well, but had to give way to the numerical superiority of Force Publique. By 6 June, Burundi as well as Rwanda was effectively occupied.
Force Publique and the British Lake Force
Lake Force
Lake Force was a unit of the British Army stationed in the Uganda Protectorate on the west coast of Lake Victoria under the command of Brigadier-General Sir Charles Crewe in 1916, during the East African campaign of the First World War . It consisted of 2,800 soldiers and 10,000 porters...
then started a thrust to capture Tabora
Tabora
Tabora is the capital city of Tanzania's Tabora Region with a population of 127,880 . Tabora region is one of the largest geographical regions of Tanzania.- History :...
, an administrative center of central German East Africa. They marched into German territory in three columns and took Biharamuro, Mwanza, Karema, Kigoma and Ujiji. After several days of heavy fighting, they secured Tabora. To forestall Belgian claims on the German colony, Smuts ordered their forces back to Congo, leaving them as occupiers only in Rwanda and Burundi. But the British were obliged to recall Belgian-Congolese troops to help for a second time in 1917, and after this event the two allies coordinated campaign plans.
Last years, 1917–1918
Despite continued efforts to capture or destroy Lettow-Vorbeck's army, the British failed to end German resistance. First, Major General Reginald Hoskins (of the KAR) took over, then another South African, Major General J.L. van Deventer was assigned command. Van Deventer then launched a major offensive in July 1917. The Germans’ tactical skill could delay but it could not halt; by early autumn they were pushed 100 mi (160.9 km) south. They were still able to tie down large British forces and even defeat them on occasion. In mid-October 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck fought a pivotal and costly battle at MahiwaBattle of Mahiwa
The Battle of Mahiwa fought between German and British Imperial forces was a battle of the East African Campaign of World War I. The battle began when South African and Nigerian troops under Lieutenant General Jacob van Deventer engaged a column of German forces under the command of General Paul...
, the Schutztruppes last stand in defense of their colony, where they lost 519 men killed, wounded or missing and the British Nigerian brigade 2,700 killed, wounded or missing. After the news of the battle reached Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to Generalmajor.
In early November 1917, the German High Command made an attempt to deliver much-needed supplies to Lettow-Vorbeck by air from Germany. The naval dirigible L.59
Zeppelin LZ104
Zeppelin LZ 104 , designated L.59 by the German Imperial Navy and nicknamed Das Afrika-Schiff , was a German dirigible during World War I, famed for attempting a long-distance resupply mission of the beleaguered garrison of Germany's East Africa colony.-Africa flight :The L.59 was a naval airship...
traveled over 4200 mi (6,759.2 km) in 95 hours, but in the end the mission failed when the airship received an "abort" message over the radio from the German admiralty.
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
to gain supplies by capturing Portuguese garrisons. By leaving German East Africa, he no longer had to defer to the civil authority of Governor Schnee. With his caravans of troops, carriers, wives and children, he marched through Mozambique for the next nine months, avoiding capture, but unable to gain much strength. Lettow-Vorbeck's army was divided into three groups on the march. He eventually learned that he had lost a thousand-man detachment under Hauptmann Theodor Tafel, who was forced to surrender, being out of food and ammunition.
The army then reentered German East Africa and crossed into Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
in August 1918. On 13 November 1918, two days after the Armistice
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
was signed in France, the German Army took and occupied its last town, Kasama
Kasama, Zambia
Kasama is the capital of the Northern Province of Zambia, situated on the central-southern African plateau at an elevation of about 1400 m. Its population, according to the 2000 census, is approximately 200,000. It grew considerably in the 1970s and 1980s after construction of the TAZARA Railway...
, which had been evacuated by the British. The next day at the Chambezi River, Lettow-Vorbeck was handed a telegram announcing the signing of the armistice and he agreed to a cease-fire: the 'Von Lettow-Vorbeck Memorial
Von Lettow-Vorbeck Memorial
The Von Lettow-Vorbeck Memorial in the Northern Province of Zambia commemorates the final cessation of hostilities of World War I, three days after the Armistice in Europe.-The reasons for the Memorial:The Memorial bears a plaque which reads:...
' marks the spot in present-day Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
. As requested, he marched his undefeated army to Abercorn
Mbala
Mbala is Zambia’s most northerly large town and seat of Mbala District, occupying a strategic location close to the border with Tanzania and controlling the southern approaches to Lake Tanganyika, 40 km by road to the north-east, where the port of Mpulungu is located. It had a population of about...
and formally surrendered there on 23 November 1918.
Assessments
- In this campaign, disease killed or incapacitated 30 men for every man killed in battle on the British side.
- In one capacity or another, nearly 400,000 Allied soldiers, sailors, merchant marine crews, builders, bureaucrats, and support personnel participated in the East Africa campaign. They were assisted in the field by an additional 600,000 African bearers. The Allies employed nearly 1 million people in their fruitless pursuit of Lettow-Vorbeck and his handful of warriors.
- Lettow-Vorbeck was cut off from home. He could entertain no hope of a decisive victory. His aim was purely to keep the British on the stretch as much as possible for as long as possible and to make them expend the largest possible resources in men, in shipping, and in supplies. He failed to divert Allied manpower from Europe after 1916. Indian and South African forces, which were not deployable to Europe, took up most of the fighting instead. In 1917–1918 some shipping was diverted to the African theatre, but not enough to inflict difficulties on the Allied fleets.
- In retrospect, the East African campaign came to look like a 'sideshow' of the First World War. As memory focused on the vast slaughter of the Western Front, the Indians, Africans and British who had borne the pains of that 'poisonous country' were all but forgotten. Even today, it is only possible to give approximations of the total fatalities. The British Commonwealth forces lost over 10,000 men, ⅔ of them from disease. German losses were about 2,000. But the black people of East Africa suffered far more as carriers who died from disease, exhaustion and military action. One modern estimate is 100,000 dead on all sides. Black civilians also suffered dreadfully. War devastated many localities, bringing hunger, disease and death in its train. Thousands of Africans perished in the outbreak of influenza that swept over their continent at the end of the war.
- An unknown Belgian missionary in Congo wrote about the Congolese community as a society where "the father is at the front, the mother mills grains for the soldiers, while the children are carrying the food to the front." No Congolese colonial troops fought in Europe, but the people of the Congo also paid a high price in the Great War.
See also
- Carrier CorpsCarrier CorpsThe Carrier Corps was a military organisation created in Kenya in World War I to provide military labour to support the British campaign against the German Military forces in East Africa, commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck....
- Jan SmutsJan SmutsJan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
- Geoffrey Spicer-SimsonGeoffrey Spicer-SimsonCommander Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson DSO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Home Fleets...
- History of Kenya – Colonial History
- History of Tanzania – First World War
- Paul Emil von Lettow-VorbeckPaul Emil von Lettow-VorbeckPaul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of the German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force that never exceeded about 14,000 , he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops...
- East African Campaign (World War II)East African Campaign (World War II)The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in East Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941....
- Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika (book)
- German East AfricaGerman East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
- West Africa Campaign (World War I)West Africa Campaign (World War I)The West Africa Campaign of World War I consisted of two small and fairly short military operations to capture the German colonies in West Africa: Togoland and Kamerun.-Overview:...