My Reminiscences of East Africa

by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck

At Tanga things had been quiet since the big battle of November, 1914. On the 13th March, 1915, a ship went ashore on a reef, but got off again on the spring-tide. We at once began salving 200 tons of coal which had been thrown overboard.

Several rows of mines which had been made on the spot, and could be fired from the shore, proved ineffective, and it was found later that they had become unserviceable.

On the 15th August, 1915, the Hyacinth and four guard-boats appeared off Tanga. Our two 2·4-inch guns were quickly moved from their rest-camp at Gombezi to Tanga, and with one light gun from Tanga, took an effective part on the 19th August, when the Hyacinth reappeared with two gun-boats and six whalers, destroyed the steamer Markgraf and bombarded Tanga. One gun-boat was hit twice, the whalers, of which one steamed away with a list,[3] four times.

Bombardments of the coast towns were constantly taking place. On the 20th March a man-of-war bombarded Lindi, when its demand for the surrender of the troops posted there was refused. Similarly, the country south of Pangani was bombarded on the 1st April, the island of Kwale on the 12th, and the Rufiji delta on the night of the 23rd-24th.

For some months past hostile patrols had been visiting the Ssonyo country, between Kilima Njaro and Lake Victoria, and the natives seemed inclined to become truculent. As a result of their treachery, Sergeant-Major Bast, who was sent there with a patrol, was ambushed on the 17th November, 1914, and lost his life with five Askari. The District Commissioner of Arusha, Lieutenant Kaempfe of the Reserve, who had been called up, undertook a punitive expedition which reduced the Ssonyo people to submission.

It was not until July, 1915, that any further patrol encounters took place in this country; in one of them twenty-two hostile armed natives were killed. At the end of September and early October, 1915, Lieutenant Buechsel’s mounted patrol spent several weeks in Ssonyo and in the English territory without meeting the enemy, as an English post, which had evidently been warned, had made off.

On Lake Victoria the 7th Company at Bukoba and the 14th Company at Muansa could communicate with each other by wireless. The command of the Lake was undisputedly in the hands of the English, as they had on it at least seven large steamers. But in spite of this our small steamer Muansa and other smaller vessels were able to maintain great freedom of movement. While the Resident at Bukoba, Major von Stuemer, protected the frontier with his police and with auxiliaries furnished by friendly sultans, Captain Bock von Wülfingen had marched with the main body of the 7th Company from Bukoba to Muansa. From here he marched early in September, 1914, with a detachment composed of parts of the 7th and 14th Companies, Wassakuma recruits, and auxiliaries, along the eastern shore of Lake Victoria to the north, in the direction of the Uganda Railway. On the 12th September he drove back a hostile detachment at Kisii, beyond the border, but on hearing of the approach of other forces of the enemy he withdrew again to the south. After that the frontier east of Lake Victoria was only defended by weak detachments.

Warfare near Lake Victoria was for us very difficult; there was always the danger that the enemy might land at Muansa, or some other place on the south shore, seize Usukuma and threaten Tabora, the historic capital of the country. If, however, our troops remained near Muansa, the country round Bukoba, and therefore also Ruanda, would be in danger. The best results in this area were to be expected from active operations under a united command. But the execution of this idea was not quite easy either, for Major von Stuemer, who was the most obvious officer to be entrusted with it, was tied by his work as Resident to the Bukoba District, while that of Muansa was the more important of the two.

At the end of October, 1914, an attempt to take back part of the troops in boats from Muansa to Bukoba had been frustrated by the appearance of armed English ships at the former place. Apparently the enemy had deciphered our wireless messages and taken steps accordingly. On the 31st October a force of 570 rifles, 2 guns and 4 machine guns, left Muansa for the relief of Bukoba on board the steamer Muansa, 2 tugs and 10 dhows, but was scattered the same morning by hostile steamers which suddenly appeared; they were, however, collected again at Muansa without loss soon afterwards. On the same day the English tried to land at Kayense, north of Muansa, but were prevented; a few days later, the English steamer Sybil was found on shore at Mayita and destroyed.

On the 20th November, in a twelve-hours’ action, Stuemer’s detachment repulsed the English troops who had penetrated into German territory, north of Bukoba, and defeated them again, on the 7th December, at Kifumbiro, after they had crossed the Kagera river. On the 5th December, the English bombarded Shirarti from the Lake, without success, and Bukoba on the 6th.