The
East African Campaign was a series of battles and guerrilla actions which started in
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, including what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika...
and ultimately impacted portions of
MozambiqueMozambique, 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. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
,
Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa 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. Although it had features of a charter colony the territory's treaties and...
,
British East AfricaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
,
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
, and the
Belgian CongoThe Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Background: 1884-1908:Until the later...
. The German colonial forces, led by
Lieutenant ColonelLieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and 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-VorbeckPaul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a German general, the commander of the German East Africa campaign in World War I, the only colonial campaign of that war in which Germany was not defeated.- Early life :...
, fought for the duration of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
and surrendered only after that war had ended.
Background
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, including what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika...
comprising the mainland part of modern-day
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central 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.The United...
,
BurundiBurundi , officially the Republic of Burundi, is a 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 size is just under 28,000 km² with an estimated population of...
, and
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
, was a large territory with complex geography, including parts of the extensive
Great Rift ValleyThe 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 East Africa...
,
Lake TanganyikaLake 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...
and
Lake VictoriaLake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after the United Kingdom's Queen Victoria, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the 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 peopleThe Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number is at around 1,328,000. The number of Swahili speakers, on the other hand, numbers at around...
and
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
traders, dominated trade with
Central AfricaCentral Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
in conjunction with British-controlled
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic 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
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and
MozambiqueMozambique, 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. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
.
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 BelfieldSir 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
HMS AstraeaHMS Astraea was an Astraea class second class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built towards the end of the nineteenth century, and survived to serve in the First World War.-Construction and commissioning:...
and
HMS PegasusHMS Pegasus was one of eleven Pelorus class cruisers ordered for the Royal Navy in 1893 under the Spencer Program and based on the earlier Pearl class cruisers. The class were fitted with a variety of different boilers most of which were not entirely satisfactory and by 1914 four ships had been...
bombarded
Dar es SalaamDar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre...
from several miles offshore. In response, the commander of the German forces in East Africa, Lieutenant Colonel
Paul Emil von Lettow-VorbeckPaul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a German general, the commander of the German East Africa campaign in World War I, the only colonial campaign of that war in which Germany was not defeated.- Early life :...
, bypassed Governor Schnee, nominally his superior, and began to organize his troops for battle. At the time, the German
SchutztruppeThe Schutztruppe was the African colonial armed force of Imperial Germany from the late 1800s 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
AskariAskari is an Arabic, Urdu,Turkish, Somali, Persian, 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 RiflesThe 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.
TavetaTaveta 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 AfricaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
. A tiny German navy on Lake Victoria existed in the form of a "pom-pom" armed tug boat, causing minor damage but a great deal of news. The British then mounted guns on two lake steamers, trapped the tug, which was scuttled, was later raised (the gun used elsewhere) and continued to serve German interests as an unarmed transport. 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
TangaTanga 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 RailwayThe 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 TangaThe 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 British Indian Expeditionary 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 KilimanjaroThe 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....
). 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.”
Naval war
The German naval command had just one major warship in the Indian Ocean when war was declared, the
light cruiserA light cruiser is a warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armoured cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way as an armoured cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
SMS
Königsberg. After limited opportunities for commerce raiding, the ship sank the cruiser HMS
Pegasus in
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic 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...
harbor and then retired into the
Rufiji RiverThe 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 draft monitors with 6 inch guns were brought from England that demolished the cruiser on 11 July 1915. The surviving crew of
Königsberg and her 10.5 cm (4.1 inch) main battery guns were taken over by the Schutztruppe. The British salvaged and used six 4-inch guns from the sunken
Pegasus, the so-called 'Peggy guns'.
Lake Tanganyika expedition
In 1915, two British motorboats,
HMS Mimi and HMS ToutouHMS Mimi and HMS Toutou were motor launches of the Royal Navy. After undergoing an unusual journey from Britain to Lake Tanganyika in the interior of Africa, the ships played an important role in the African naval struggle between Britain and Germany during World War I. The names mean Meow and...
were transported by land to the British shore of
Lake TanganyikaLake 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...
. They captured the German ship
Kingani, renaming it
HMS FifiHMS Fifi was an armed paddle steamer, captured from the Germans by Royal Navy units during the Battle for Lake Tanganyika, and used to support Anglo-Belgian operations on the lake and its surrounding areas...
, and with two Belgian ships under the command of Commander
Geoffrey Spicer-SimsonCommander Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson DSO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Home Fleets. He is most famous for his role as leader of a naval expedition to Lake Tanganyika in 1915, where he commanded two small ships which destroyed a superior German flotilla...
, 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 GötzenThe MV Liemba, formerly the Graf von Götzen, is a passenger cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The ship was built in 1913 in Germany, and was one of three vessels operated by the Germans to control Lake Tanganyika during the early part of World War I...
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 reinforcements, 1916
General
Horace Smith-DorrienGeneral 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 the Great War.-Early life and career:...
was assigned with orders to find and fight the Schutztruppe, but he contracted pneumonia during the voyage to
South AfricaThe Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day state of the Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unity 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. SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE 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...
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
IndiaIndia, 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, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
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
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
military units based in
MozambiqueMozambique, 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. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
. A large
Carrier 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....
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 EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
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 CongoThe Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Background: 1884-1908:Until the later...
advanced from the west in two columns, over Lake Victoria and into the Rift Valley. Another contingent advanced over Lake Nyasa (
Lake MalawiLake Malawi , is an African Great Lake and the most southerly lake in the East African Rift valley system. The lake, third largest in Africa and eighth largest in the world, is situated 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
UjijiUjiji is the oldest town in western Tanzania almost due west from Zanzibar. It is about 6 miles south of Kigoma. Current population data are not available. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 4,100...
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 RiflesThe 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 theater 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 CabinetThe 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 PubliqueThe "Public Force" or Force Publique was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, , through the period of direct Belgian rule...
', started their campaign on 18 April 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur, Colonel Molitor and Colonel Olsen. They captured
KigaliKigali, population 851,024 , is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is situated in the 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 Rwanda are located...
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 1916 Burundi as well as Rwanda was effectively occupied.
Force Publique then started a thrust to capture
TaboraTabora 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 miles 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 Mahiwa, the Schutztruppe’s 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 ZeppelinZeppelin LZ 104 , designated L.59 by the German Imperial Navy and nicknamed Das Afrika-Schiff ["The Africa Ship"], 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...
traveled over 6,800 km (4,200 miles) 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
MozambiqueMozambique, 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. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498...
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 [captain] Theodor Tafel, who was forced to surrender, being out of food and ammunition.
The army then reentered German East Africa and crossed into
Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa 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. Although it had features of a charter colony the territory's treaties and...
in August 1918. On 13 November 1918, two days after the
ArmisticeThe armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918, and marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front...
was signed in France, the German Army took and occupied its last town,
KasamaKasama 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 MemorialThe 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
ZambiaThe 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. The capital city is...
. As requested, he marched his undefeated army to
AbercornMbala is Zambia’s most northerly large town, 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. Under the name Abercorn, Mbala was a key outpost in...
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 four hundred thousand 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 six hundred thousand African bearers. The Allies employed nearly a million people in their fruitless pursuit of Lettow-Vorbeck and his handful of warriors.
- The achievement of Lettow-Vorbeck deserves undying fame. He 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. By this yardstick he was successful.
- 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 forces lost over ten thousand men, two thirds 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. No one bothered to record their fate. 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 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....
- Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE 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...
- Geoffrey Spicer-Simson
Commander Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson DSO was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Home Fleets. He is most famous for his role as leader of a naval expedition to Lake Tanganyika in 1915, where he commanded two small ships which destroyed a superior German flotilla...
- History of Kenya - Colonial History
- History of Tanzania - First World War
- Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was a German general, the commander of the German East Africa campaign in World War I, the only colonial campaign of that war in which Germany was not defeated.- Early life :...
- East African Campaign (World War II)
The East African Campaign refers to the battles fought in East Africa during World War II. The battles of this campaign were fought between the forces of the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations, and several allies on one side, and the forces of the Italian Empire on the other...
- Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika (book)
- German East Africa
German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, including what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika...