As we have seen, in West Africa the German colony of Togoland fell to Allied forces within two weeks of war being declared, and Kamarun was captured by British, French and Belgian forces by March 1916. Meanwhile, South African troops, after a delayed start, secured the surrender of German South West Africa by mid-1915. The fourth and the last German colony, however, German East Africa, was quite another matter. Here, in fact, resistance began from the beginning of the war and did not end until the 14th November 1918, three days after the war officially ended in Europe!
The length of the conflict and the success of the German resistance was mainly, indeed, almost entirely due to one man, the German commander in the colony, Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (pictured here and his career covered below). Despite the fact that he was totally cut off from receiving military supplies, and that he was surrounded on all sides by Allied forces (four British possessions, the Belgian Congo and Portuguese East Africa – see map), he saw his task as keeping as many Allied troops as possible in this colonial side-show. This would ease pressure on his country’s forces fighting along the Western Front. He was fully aware, of course, that he was seriously outnumbered by the armies that surrounded the colony. He could only muster some 11,000 Askaris (local soldiers) and 3,000 Germans, compared with an allied combined force some ten times larger, including 125,000 from the British Empire and South Africa, and a further 40,000 from Belgium and Portugal. To meet this challenge, Lettow-Vorbeck chose not to disperse his troops across the vast territory under his command. In small numbers they were very unlikely to survive a major onslaught. Instead – and it proved a wise decision – he kept his army intact and resorted to guerrilla warfare, a method of fighting which, given the right terrain, was a time-proven means of harrowing, impeding, and, at best, repulsing a larger, conventional force. East Africa was the right terrain for this tactic – mountain ranges clothed in thick scrub, and lowland covered in dense, tall growth and prone to flooding. And a number of raids were made into hostile territory (particularly British East Africa and Northern Rhodesia) in order to keep the enemy on the borders and minimise incursions. In so doing he avoided serious defeat and inflicted a surprising number of casualties upon his array of enemies. It proved to be a legendary campaign, and one that, in the event, tied down upward of 130,000 Allied troops.
Inxfact, however, the fighting in German East Africa opened with a conventional contest of arms, the Battle of Tanga, fought in the early days of November, 1914 (and arrowed in maps above and below). Lettow-Vorbeck had initiated the fighting in the first month of the war by attacking British positions near Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria in British East Africa. In response a British-Indian force of some 8,000 men, sent from Bombay, was landed near the German East African port of Tanga on the 3rd November. This was the colony’s most important sea port, and, served by the Usambara railway, gave ready access inland. Beingxconfident of success, the British commander, Major General Arthur Edward Aitken, made no attempt to conceal the landing, and carried out no reconnaissance to assess the strength and position of the German opposition. By the time the troops had embarked and were ready to march on the town – around noon on the 4th – Lettow-Vorbeck had made his force up to a thousand men and reinforced his defences.
The four-pronged attack on the port (see map) proved a disaster. It must be said that, despite well concealed defences and a powerful volume of rifle and machine-gun fire along the whole front, British and Ghurka troops did manage to reach the town’s customs house. The bulk of the invasion force, however, made up of Indian reservists who were ill-trained, poorly equipped, and lacking in experience, were stopped in their tracks and put to flight. It started as a disorderly retreat and ended in a total rout, a pure debacle. General Aitken, furious and frustrated, belatedly ordered a general retreat, and a German counter-attack that evening assisted, driving the invading troops back to the beach and their boats. They re-embarked and departed on the 5th November. For Lettow-Vorbeck it was a triumph, and it confirmed his status as an outstanding military commander. Outnumbered eight to one, he had soundly defeated one of the world’s most successful armies, and virtually sent them packing. And at a cost of 150 casualties, he had inflicted over 850 casualties on his enemy and, as a welcome bonus, had captured a good number of rifles and machine guns, 600,000 rounds of ammunition, medical supplies, tents, blankets and a quantity of food. But significant above all was the fact that Britain’s failure to secure the harbour at Tanga – to serve as a base for future operations – meant that the conquest of German East Africa was not going to be a quick fix, like the taking over of Kamarun, or even the capture of German South West Africa. A long task lay ahead.
Incidentally, the Battle of Tanga is sometimes known as the Battle of the Bees because during the advance towards the town, British and German forces alike were attacked a number of times by a vast swarm of angry bees, doubtless disturbed by the small-arms fire. ……
…… After an official inquiry into the conduct of the attack on Tanga, Major General Aitken (1861-1924) was demoted to colonel. Later, however, it was felt that he was made a scapegoat for the defeat, and he was formerly exonerated in 1920. He retired the following year.
Over the next four years Lettow-Vorbeck (the “Lion of Africa”), in addition to frequent raids into neighbouring territories, fought a war of movement, a campaign of hit-and-run over a colony three times the size of Imperial Germany. There were a number of minor battles and skirmishes, but his tactics punished the enemy and left his own forces fit to fight another day. This said, the number of German forces was slowly being eroded, as were the military supplies they depended upon. Furthermore, in common with their enemies, they faced a harsh tropical climate and the deadly diseases this 
harboured. This not only affected the fighting men, but also the vast number of unpaid carriers or porters required to move equipment and supplies. Horses could not survive the tsetse fly, and the narrow tracks prohibited the use of vehicles. It is estimated that for every man the Allies lost in battle, at least thirty were lost through sickness. Indeed, in one case, the 9th South African Infantry, which had seen very little active service, began with 1,135 men in February 1916 and was down to 116 by October. It was in view of such figures that, over the years, the Allies replaced many Indian troops and South Africans with men from Nigeria and the Gold Coast, they being accustomed to the oppressive climate. But even then, large numbers of these men went sick or died of malnutrition because the daily food ration was so meagre. And these appalling conditions were not confined to those engaged in fighting. Thousands of civilians and porters, caught up in the violence, were killed by military action or simply starved to death.
In March 1916, the Allies planned a new offensive. General Jan Smuts became overall commander and brought with him 20,000 South African troops, many of whom he had commanded during the conquest of German South-West Africa. In May he launched an attack out of British East Africa and Uganda in the north, whilst troops invaded from the Belgian Congo in the west, and from Northern Rhodesia in the south-west. Despite this overwhelming show of force, the Germans, avoiding direct conflict, but inflicting damage by ambush and rearguard skirmishes, managed to survive. Nonetheless, the sheer weight of numbers, the territory overrun, and the Germans’ dwindling supplies of war material were factors for concern. The invasion from the Belgian Congo, in particular, the so-called Tabora Offensive, saw the seizure of Kigoma and Tabora, two important centres, and the valuable capture of the recently completed railway from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma on Lake Tanganika. Butxthe turning point came with the four-day Battle of Mahiwa (or Ngomano) in October 1917, south of Dar es Salaam. Here the Germans gained a resounding victory over three battalions of Nigerian forces in a battle regarded by many as the most savage in the history of African conflict. But success came at a price. Having used 850,000 rounds of ammunition, the German supply was virtually at an end. And by now all of the coast of German East Africa was under British control, and most of the west of the colony was occupied by Belgian forces. In December 1917 the colony was declared an allied protectorate.
Byxthen, however, Lettow-Vorbeck had taken his beleaguered army into the Portuguese colony of East Africa (23rd November, 1917), still determined to tie up as many Allied troops (and especially British troops) as possible. As noted earlier, when Portugal entered the war in May 1916, there had already been a long border conflict between the Germans and Portuguese in the opening phases of the war, lasting, in fact, until late 1916, but this was a full-scale invasion by his diminished but still active army. There was little fighting save for the odd skirmish, but for close on a year this “nomadic tribe” moved around the colony, evading defeat and living off the land or by food seized from Allied garrisons. This long and determined resistance against a far superior enemy made him one of the greatest guerrilla fighters in military history, but it came at a cost. For thousands, these tactics left death, injury and starvation in their wake. As one observer commented, “We are no longer agents of culture, our track is marked by death, and by plundered and evacuated villages, just like the progress of our army and our enemy armies in the Thirty Years’ War.” Finally, on thex28th September, 1918, with the British still in pursuit, Lettow-Vorbeck re-entered German East Africa and, turning west, moved into Northern Rhodesia. It was here, on the 14th November that he heard of the armistice. He continued on to Kasama (in today’s Zambia), agreed to a cease fire (marked today by the Chambeshi Monument – pictured above), and then surrendered his unbeaten army – just 155 Germans and 1,168 Askaris – further north at Abercorn on the 25th November. His task was over and so, at last, was the misery of a savage war. In this minor, colonial engagement, the British Empire lost over 10,000 casualties, and the Germans about 2,000, but as far as East Africans are concerned, thousands of porters and camp followers died on both sides, together with a like number of civilian casualties. The surrender at Kasama, three days after the armistice was signed, marked the final end of the series of torrid battles waged for the capture of Germany’s four African colonies, and the literal ending of the First World War!
Paulxvon Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964) was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Imperial German
Army in 1890. From 1904 to 1909 he served in German South West Africa, at the time of the rebellion and genocide of two of its native peoples, the Herero and Nama. In April 1914, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was assigned the task of commanding the defence of German East Africa, an appointment which, at that time, must have been seen as a command of somewhat short duration! In fact, as we have seen, such was his outstanding ability as an exponent of guerrilla warfare – many military historians regard him as one of the greatest exponents – that he kept his enemy at bay until the end of 1917, and then roamed at will in Portuguese East Africa for almost a year. In March 1919, now a Major General, he returned home to a hero’s welcome, the only German commander who had successfully invaded a part of the British Empire and, reportedly, never suffered a defeat in battle. In that year he visited London and met and became a life-long friend of his major opponent, the South African military leader Jan Smuts. The following year, however, he lost his commission because of his part in the Kapp Putsch (an attempt to overthrow the German government in Berlin). In the 1930s, though far right in politics, he openly opposed Hitler’s Nazi regime, and was never recalled to active service. He spent his last years in Hamburg, writing his memoirs.
Incidentally, as noted earlier, in November 1917 the German high command attempted to use a zeppelin (the L.59) to deliver much needed war supplies to their armed forces in German East Africa (Operation “Chinese Snow”). With fifteen tons of cargo, it was launched from Bulgaria, but over 4,000 miles into its journey (close to Khartoum in the Sudan), it was recalled. Apart from losing power, it was reported that the prepared landing zone at Mahenge had been occupied by Allied forces. The L.59 – dubbed “The Africa Ship” made it back safely, but was lost during a bombing raid on Malta in April 1918.
At sea, a task force under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee sent two cruisers, the SMS Konigsberg and the SMS Emden to support German East Africa. For a time they defended the arrival of supplies coming into the port of Tanga, but eventually the Konigsberg was blockaded in the Rufiji River, some 300 miles south of Tanga, and was scuttled in July 1915, and the Emden was sunk by an Australian cruiser off the Cocos Islands ….. but not before they had destroyed HMS Pegasus off Zanzibar in September 1914, and a Russian cruiser off Penang the following month.
At the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 the four German colonies were transferred to neighbouring colonies, with Britain and South Africa taking the lion’s share in Eastern and Southern Africa, and France in West Africa. The Africans themselves were given no part in the settlement. It was simply a division of the spoils, a slight readjustment of the “Scramble for Africa”! The map here gives some idea as to how Germany would have carved up Africa after their victory! It was published in Berlin in 1917.
