The First World War is often thought of as an exclusively European War, with the two fronts, Western and Eastern, being the only theatres of combat. In 1914, however, both Britain and Germany had overseas possessions. Germany’s main colonies were centred in Africa, and German East Africa, modern day Tanzania, was one of these. The country consists of dry mountainous land to the North and North-East, developing into a plateau and eventually jungle as you travel south. The geography of the country is very important to understand Lettow’s tactics and strategy. In 1914 German East Africa was bordered by British East Africa, to the North, Mozambique, a Portuguese colony, to the South, and the Belgian Congo to the West. It was completely surrounded by enemies, and due to British sea power, cut off from other German colonies, and the Fatherland. There were two main railways, one which ran from Dar-es-Salaam, the capital, located half way down the coast, to Lake Tanganyika, and the Northern railway, which ran from Tanga to Kilimanjaro. These proved vital for troop movement in the early part of the campaign.
At the outbreak of war, Lettow recognised that he did not have sufficient man power to invade the British colony. Instead he focused on defence and guerrilla tactics. The strength of his force at this time was made up of 216 European officers, and 2,540 Askari. These were enlisted in the Colonial army, with a further 45 Europeans, and 2,154 Askari, in the local Police Forces. These were only fighting men, and Lettow assumes that there were roughly 3,000 European settlers who volunteered to fight, or help the army, and 11,000 Askari. Most of these were involved as porters, carrying food and equipment through the dense jungle later in the campaign. However, the Germans were always outnumbered, often substantially, by Entente forces.
By mid-August, Lettow had organised his troops, and had positioned them along the border to the North. From the Northern Line, and the bases along it, he sent flying columns into British East Africa (Uganda and Kenya) to destroy the rail way line, capture watering holes, and molest British forces. He knew that he could not achieve a total victory, and so settled to tie up as many men as possible, and cause as much damage as possible, to prevent them from reaching the Western Front.
Getting into November the British wanted a quick capture of German East Africa. They, under Arthur Aitken, launched a two pronged assault from British East Africa in the North. They planned to capture the German base around Mount Kilimanjaro, and the northern town of Tanga, which lay on the coast. To achieve this they brought in Indian troops from the sub Continent, and led their assault. The first action was at Kilimanjaro, where well placed machine guns and riflemen were able to drive back the attack. Heavy and precise fire beat back the British three times, before cavalry was sent to try and flank the German troops. They were mown down, however, by well placed machine guns.
The main action of 1914 took place at Tanga. It has undertaken by three brigades of Indian troops. Lettow had gathered around 1,000 troops to Tanga, but most of those were still travelling there on the 3rd of November, when the first attack took place. Aitken thought that Lettow must have mined the harbour, since he was reinforcing it quite strongly. Lettow had no mines at all during his campaign. Even so, Aitken landed his men around three miles from the town, on a beach that made the headland of a small paeninsula. The ground between the landing site and town was covered in bush, but the beach and headland provided enough cover to land. On the 3rd of November the British attacked. They were checked by the local garrison, as well as some of the troops that had already arrived. Two other companies arrived, from New Moshi, a small town on the Northern Railway, and they flanked the Indians, and drove them back with a bayonet charge. The Indians retreated to the landing site, and camped there for the night. By 3am, now on the 4th, Lettow arrived. He reconned the British landing area, with a Captain von Hammerstein, on bicycles. Based on the information of the country side, Lettow set up several companies along the path which the British would take. He placed machine guns, and his Askari, on favourable ground, with over lapping fields of fire, and at places which allowed them good manoeuvrability.
At 3pm the attack began. The Germans were initially driven back to the town, but two companies that had been held in reserve now joined the fight and managed to drive back the Lancashire Regiment, one formed from long serving Europeans, with heavy losses. After this success, they drove the Kashmir Rifles out of houses they had occupied. However, it was not going all Lettow’s way. In the south of the town, the Askari were retreating, through palm plantations, which provided good cover. The Headquarter staff rallied them however, and Captain von Hammerstein, and Lettow, joined in the fighting. Lettow only had one more company in reserve, but was waiting for the arrival of another. The German line was under great pressure at this point, but the British failed to capitalise. Even with inferior numbers, the Germans managed to flank the Southern side of the British line, and opened up a devastating burst of machine gun fire. This caused the British line to break, and the Askari and the other German forces charged them. It was growing dark, and the troops had become disorganised in the bush, so Lettow withdrew for the night. In the morning he followed up his successful defence with an attack on the British landing site. The Indian forces were already climbing on aboard the ships. The German’s attacked, and captured a great amount of munitions and supplies. A British medical officer who Lettow later met, put the British killed at nearly 1,500. Lettow had lost 61 men.
The Battle of Tanga was Lettow’s greatest triumph. For it he was promoted General, and awarded the Pour le Merite (known as the ‘Blue Max’). He only learnt this when a British officer, under a white flag, came to present him with the intercepted telegram. Lettow fought only one more major engagement in the North, and the only one in British territory, at Jassini. He won the battle, but lost both alot of men, and a lot of ammunition. He knew he could not risk another engagement like it. He concentrated on defence and guerrilla strikes against the British. There were not many land engagements after Tanga, the British were demoralisied, and the Germans couldn’t attack. Two important things did happen after Tanga, and then next chapter in the land campaign. In July 1915, the Koeningsberg, a German Cruiser, was sunk in the Rufiji Delta. It had powerful guns on board, which Lettow managed to salvage. He had not got a lot of artillery, and the field guns he did have were not that powerful. The crew of the cruiser also joined his ranks. Lettow would send these guns all around the country, and they help in the defence of several key areas. The Berlin command had also sent a blockade runner to help resupply the Germans. They had learnt of his victories, and they acted as a great morale boost in the Fatherland. With captured British rifles, and now these new supplies he got, Lettow’s army was arming itself with modern weaponery.
Early in 1916, the British offensive began in earnest again. This time they had sent Jan Smuts, the Bore war hero, was given overall command. He was also given command of nearly 45,000 troops, though a lot of these were proters. The first battle these new troops fought was at Salatia. This was a communications and railway base, from which some of Lettow’s flying columns attacked British East Africa. It was thought to be lightly defended, with only one Company guarding it, and no artillery. The Entente attack was plaugued by bad information. They bombarded the secondary trenches, instead of the front line ones, had seriously under estimated the number of troops there, and had thought that they had no artillery. The South Africans came under bombardment, but managed to break through the first line of defences. Lettow and his officers were always very careful with the placement of machine guns, and this served them well here. When the South Africans broke through, machine guns from further up the hill opened fire and drove them back. Troops had been sent from a nearby town, Taveta, once the German’s had learnt of the attack. They now arrived, and flanked the enemy, driving the 6,000 strong force back, while incurring minor casualities.
Lettow, however, couldn’t meet all the Entente advances, and fought a rear guard action through out 1916. He used ambushes and road blocks to attack small British vanguards, and only fought them on his terms. Disease also took hold in the South African camp. One unit of South African Infantry lost over 1,000 men, and they had not engaged Lettow’s forces in that time. However, Smuts always had men to replace the ones that died, and by September of 1916, he had penetrated down to Dar es Salaam and had taken over both railways. Lettow was now stuck in the dense jungle of the Rufiji Delta. With the campaign season over, Smuts stopped the advance. He was eventually recalled to London, to form part of the war time cabinet. His place was taken by another South African, General van Deventer. It was only in July 1917 that he launched his attack. Dividing his forces, Lettow and another commander managed to evade this attack, but the third force, under a Major Taffel, was forced to surrender, and Lettow lost nearly 5,000 men. Lettow, despite this set back, fought one of his last major battle of the war here. Nigerian troops, fighting for the British, had moved up to a position near a German detatchment, under General Wahle. They were trying to envelope it when Lettow moved up to Wahle’s position, unseen by the Nigerians. On the 15th, they beat back the Nigerians, and forced them to take cover. The next day, Lettow planned to counter attack and drive the Nigerians back further. There was around 100 metres between the two forces. On the 16th He sent Captain Goering, with two companies to flank the Nigerians on their left side. However, this Captain came across another brigade that had moved up to attack Wahle’s left, they also did not know of Lettow’s arrival with more troops. Both had been caught by surprise, but Goering recovered and charge the Nigerians. They broke, and Goering managed to captured a field piece and 150,000 rounds of ammuntinion. Other companies had been in action aswell and had driven the Nigerians back, and had occupied defensive ground. The next day, fresh Nigerian troops were sent against Wahle and Lettow’s line. There was a good chance that their line would break, but they held firm. The Nigerian attack was not helped by the marshy ground they had to cross to get to Lettow. Lettow, over the next few days, strengthend the front, knowing that the commander, a General Reves, would bleed his troops dry trying to win by a frontal assault. After four days, on the 18th, the attacks stopped, and Lettow had won his greatest victory, excepting Tanga. With 1,500 men, he had held off a detatchment of 6,000, killing at least 1,500 of them, though he thinks that this estimate is too low. He lost 81 Askari, and 14 Europeans. However, there were 367 wounded Askari and 55 Europeans wounded. 1 Askari and 1 European were lost, and never found. He had captured enough supplies to last him for the beginning of 1918, in total he had captured a field gun, 9 machine guns and 200,000 rounds of ammunition.
After this victory, he moved into Mozambique. He led the British troops on a chase over the country, capturing minor Portugese garrisons, and towns, and essentially becoming a nomadic horde, living off plunder. No other battles were fought, but he continued his use of ambush and guerrilla warfare. He hoped to gain recruits from the local tribes, but was unsuccessful. In August 1918, four years after he started his war against the British, he crossed over into Northern Rhodesia. He captured towns, and villages, whenever he was running low on supplies. On November 13th he captured the abandoned town of Kasama. This was to be his last action, as he was informed of the Armisitce and surrendered his forces on the 14th on the Chambesi river. A monument now marks the spot. He returned to Germany as the only undefeated German commander of World War One.
General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
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