East African campaign (World War I)

East African Campaign (World War I)
Part of African theatre of World War I
Date August 3, 1914-November, 1918 Location Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique Result Treaty of Versailles
Belligerents
Great Britian, South Africa, France, Belgium, Portugal	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Jan Smuts	Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
Strength
40,000	15,500

Introduction

German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda) was a large territory with complex geography (including the massive Rift Valley and Lake Victoria). The land is fertile and recieves a moderate rain throughout the year.

At the start of the war, the German colony administrator, von Schnee, ordered that no hostile action was to be taken. To the north, the British Governor of Kenya stated that Kenya "had no interest in the present war" (Keegan, "World War I", pg. 210). The reason for this was, in part, neither colony had many troops. But the commander of the tiny German army in East Africa, Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, ignored von Schnee and assembled his army for battle. At the start of the war, the German forces were about 200 officers, and 2,500 Askari.

The War Begins, 1914-1915

Main article: Paul_Erich_von_Lettow-Vorbeck § World_War_I_career

The fighting in German East Africa began in September of 1914. The Germans staged raids into neighboring Kenya and Uganda. Lettow-Vorbek also created a tiny navy and his boats sailed on Lake Victoria, causing minor damage but a great deal of news. The British created some gun-boats in England and sent them in pieces via railroad to Lake Victoria to take control over the lake. The British also sent two brigades from India to deal with the German army. The British tried to land the troops at Tanga on November 2 1914 but the Germans completely disrupted the landing.

Main article: Battle_of_Tanga

Heavy and accurate fire prevented the British from moving off the beaches and finally forced the Anglo-Indian brigades to re-embark three days later. The supplies left behind on the beaches kept Lettow-Vorbeck's tiny army equiped for the next year (Keegan, "World War I", pg 211).

The Arrival of General Smuts, 1916

In 1916, General Jan Smuts was given the task of defeating Lettow-Vorbeck. Smuts had a large army (for the area), some 13,000 Boers, English, and Rhodesian as well as 7,000 Indian and African soldiers. Also, not under his direct command but fighting on his side, was a small Belgian force and a larger but totally ineffective Portugese unit based in Mozambique. Despite all these troops from different countries, this was essentially a South African operation under Smuts control. During the previous year, Lettow-Vorbeck had also gained troops and his army was now 3,500 Germans and some 12,000 askaris.

Smuts army attacked from several directions, the main attack was from the north out of Kenya, a small Belgian unit advanced from the west, over Lake Victoria and into the Rift Valley. Another force advanced over Lake Nyasa (modern-day Lake Malawi) from the south-east. All these forces failed to catch Lettow-Vorbeck and they all suffered terribly from disease along the march. One unit (9th South African Infantry) started at a strength of 1,135 in February and by October was down to 116 men, without doing much fighting at all (Cyril Falls, "The Great War" pg. 253). However, the Germans always retreated, and by September of 1916, the German railway from the coast at Dar-es-Salaam to Ujiji was under British control.

At this point, with Lettow-Vorbeck's forces confined to the southern part of German East Africa, Smuts began to withdraw his South-African, Rhodesian, and Indian troops and replace them with African soldiers. By the start of 1917 more than half the British army was composed of African soldiers, and by the end of the war, it was nearly all African troops. Smuts himself left the area in January of 1917 to go to London.

Last Years, 1917-1918

Despite continued efforts to capture or destroy Lettow-Vorbeck's army, the British failed to end the German resistance. In fact, the German army was able to tie down large British forces and even defeat them upon occasion. For example, the Germans beat the British at a battle near Mahiwa in October 1917. They lost 100 men and the British lost 1600.

In 1918, Lettow-Vorbeck raided south into Portuguese Mozambique to gain recruits and supplies by capturing small Portuguese garrisons. The German army re-entered German East Africa in August 1918 and it won its last victory at the city of Kasama on November 13, two days after the armistice was signed in Europe. Lettow-Vorbeck finally surrendered his undefeated army at Abercorn in present-day Zambia on November 23.

Assessment

In this campaign, disease killed or incapacitated 30 men for every man killed in battle (on the British side) (Keegan "World War I", pg. 300).

As Cyril Falls writes

The achievement of Lettow-Vorbek 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. (Cyril Falls, "The Great War" pg. 254.