Anderson, Ross (2001) World War I in East Africa. PhD thesis. http

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Anderson, Ross (2001) World War I in East Africa. PhD thesis.

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WORLD WAR I IN EAST AFRICA
1916-1918
Ross Anderson
Octobcr 2001
Submitted Department Modem History, University of Glasgow in partial
to the
of
fulfilment for degree Doctor Philosophy
the of of
0
C Ross Anderson October 2001
ABSTRACT
The in East Africa is the lesser-known theatres the
campaign one of and understood of
First World War. Strategically East Africa has
to the
unimportant main war effort,
remained in the shadows of the much better known Western, Mesopotamian and
Palestine Fronts. Despite lasted from August 1914 November
this, the to
campaign
1918 large East Africa drawing in
the
and covered a portion of as well as majority of
its Scholarly have been by
population. works greatly outnumbered popular accounts
final
and the two years, 1916 to 1918, remain vague and contradictory. Nevertheless,
deal in it is
the
a great of valuable primary material exists various archives and aim of
this dissertation to describe the this
and analyse military operations of period.
At the the imperial in East Africa for
outbreak of war, powers were unprepared a
Although little in
the themselves,
major campaign. colonies possessed strategic value
the dynamics imperial The East African
of rivalry quickly generated armed conflict.
haphazardly from German
campaign evolved neutralising wireless communications
facilities
to to the the
and naval a wildly over-ambitious plan conquer whole of colony
with scant forces. The British wanted to keep any potential spoils for themselves, but
influenced by South Africa, largely
were also strongly the expansionist policies of
by Louis Botha Jan Smuts.
propounded
and
By September 1916, British forces, by Smuts, had bulk
the the
occupied
commanded
of German East Africa the towns in their
with all railways, and ports possession.
However, he had failed to bring the German Schuatruppe to battle it
and remained a
force. Furthermore, his
powerful and well-motivated reliance to manoeuvre and
reluctance to fight battles led his troops into territory
ever-deeper enemy and
dependent
inadequate lines
on of communication.
Smuts
his January 1917 he left for Imperial War
continued advance until when the
Conference. His forces in for further
terrible
were condition and unfit offensive
He by British General Hoskins for bare
operations. the three
was succeeded a months,
but,
instigated badly In May
who nevertheless needed reforms and reorganisation.
1917,
the South African, General, Deventer
van assumed command, an appointment
he
that hold Vah Deventer build
would until the end of the war. continued to on
Hoskins's
instigating fighting hard battles
work while an aggressive policy of
destroy German food These
whenever possible, while concurrently trying to supplies.
1917 November 1918
methods were continued throughout the
remainder of and until
when the war ended with the Schuatruppe being pursued from Portuguese East Africa
into Northern
Rhodesia.
For both
dominated by heavy fighting, but by
the the
sides,
campaign was not
health
questions The levels
of
and supply. of sickness, particularly malaria, were
many times worse than theatres hindered
other and constantly military operations.
The
distribution food
provision
and
of and other supplies was an enormous problem
that
by
was only partially solved the widespread use of motor vehicles and road
construction. For the British, Belgian Portuguese
their
relations with and allies were
imperial
never smooth friction In
as rivalries often created and misunderstanding. the
'
end, the East African
campaign was one of mobility and evasion and quite unlike
fought
campaigns in Europe Middle East.
the
and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
by
I
wish to acknowledge the excellent assistance and guidance provided my
Professor Hew Strachan.
supervisor,
Crown is the Her Majesty's
copyright material reproduced with permission of
Stationery Controller.
ii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MAP TITLE PAGE
I The Strategic Situation the Outbreak War 1914 8a
at of
2 The Strategic Situation September 1914 26a
at end
3 German East Africa 28a
4 The Strategic Situation I" October 1916 35a
5 The Situation in West, September October 1916 49a
the
-
6 The Kilwa Area, September October 1916 55a
-
7 Operations Against German Western Forces, 11 29 58a
the
-
October 1916
8 Operations North Rufiji 71a
the
of
9 Operations Around Kibata, November 1916 January 73a
-
1917
10 The Rufiji Area: General Smuts's Plan for the Offensive 80a
II The Advance Rufiji, 31 December 1916 15 82a
to the
-
January 1917
12 Operations North Rufiji, December 1916 January 89a
the
of
-
1917
13 Operations 2 nd Division, 20 December 1916 10 94a
the
of
-
Janu 1917
14 Operations Northey's Force, 19 December 1916 129a
of
-2
February 1917
15 Operations in South West, February March 132a
the
and
-
1917
16 2 nd Division Lines Communication, September 1916 159a
of
17 German Lines Communication, September 1916 163a
of
18 The Operational Situation, June 1917 222a
19 The Wintgens/Naumann Raid, February October 1917 229a
-
20 Operations Lindi, June 1917 231a
at
21 Operations Hanforce O'Grady, July 1917 237a
of and
22 Van Deventer's Plan, August 1917 244a
23 Northey's Situation, I" Week July 1917 248a
24 Hanforce O'Grady, September October 1917 256a
and
-
25 Lettow's Escape 277a
26 German Entry into Portuguese East Africa, 1918 282a
27 British Counter-Moves, January February 1918 292a
-
28_
Operations, Portuguese East Africa, April May 1918 302a
-
29
Operations, Portuguese East Africa, June September 308a
-
1918
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
TITLE
PAGES
I
Introduction
1-20
2 The Situation the End September 1916 21-40
at of
3
The Operations September 1916 January 1917 41-100
to
of
4
Reorganisation the Operations February to May 1917 101-144
and of
5 Supply Transportation 145-165
and
6
Disease Medicine 166-215
and
7 The Operations June to December 1917 216-280
of
8
The Operations 1918 281-319
of
9
Inter-Allied Cooperation
320-340
10 Conclusions
341-345
------- T
11
Bibliography
346-37
iv
CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION
The First World War has been intense description for
the
subject of and analysis
Given Western Front has
the there, the
over eighty years. scale of operations
bulk English language the
the
understandably received of attention, although recently,
theatres Mesopotamia, Gallipoli Palestine have to be
secondary of and come considered
in detail. The increased to hitherto
much greater opening of archives and access private
have develop
papers enabled scholars to their understanding of the conflict while also
disposing The background formulation
to the
of a number of popular myths enroute. and
has been
the tactics
execution of grand strategy, operations and examined under a critical
less light interesting
and nationalistic with very results.
It is true that to the Western Front, the in East Africa
compared campaign was
British
troop there
very small scale and strategically unimportant. strengths peaked at
58,000 in August 1916 349,311,
total
while wartime casualties of of whom nearly
330,000 5.62 the Western Front's 3.15
were sick, represented some per cent of and per
'
British Empire's losses. Yet it is become fixated
cent of the total easy to on numbers
it is lasted from August 1914 November
alone and worth recalling that the war there until
1918, huge Africa. It from the Kenya
covering a swathe of ranged modem states of and
Uganda in the through the Congo, Ruanda, Burundi, Tanzania in the to
north, and centre,
Zambia, Malawi Mozambique in Few inhabitants, European African,
the
and south. or
its irrevocably by
escaped effects or ravages, while the colonial empires were changed
the conflict. It is worth noting too that the casualties suffered were comparable to those
2
incurred in the Anglo-Boer War that had just twelve Perhaps
ended years previously.
insignificant
in local
terms, the
global war was of overwhelming consequence.
1
WO 33/ 858, European
War Telegrams, Series D, Volume 1,29' January 1915 29h February 1917, London: War Office, 1918.
-
Henceforth
Telegrams D 1. No. 1235, Telegram N 1394 General Headquarters War Office, 14 September 1916, 327-329;
to
pp.
Mitchell, Major TJ Smith, G M, Official History War, Medical Services, Casualties Medical Statistics, London:
and of the and
HMSO, 193 1, reprinted by Imperial War Museum Battery Press, [n. d. ]. Henceforth, Official History Medical Statistics. See
and
-
Table I "Approximate
Total Casualties in British Expeditionary Forces during the Great War", p. 12. East African troop casualties
349,311
reached over the course of the war as compared to 6,218,540 suffered on the Western Front and 11,096,338 throughout the
British forces
world-wide.
2
Official History
Medical Statistics, See Tables 2,3 4 253-254 for East Africa Tables 2,3 4 269 for South
- and on pp. and and on p.
Africa. Casualties
amongst the troops are fewer in the East African campaign than the South African, but the inclusion of the
followers'
figures for former
the the
reverses situation.
1
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
Over the forty it has been than
past years, popular accounts rather academic
have bulk limited It has been
studies that provided the of the coverage of the campaign.
that the has been by the the
only very recently scholarly neglect rectified publication of
first Hew Strachan's The First World War devotes
volume of which a substantial and
3
informative Africa. Apart from
to this
chapter excellent and much-needed work, which
is literature in English, German French,
the
a wide-ranging synthesis of existing and most
has been directed detailed labour,
attention onto studies of subjects such as medicine and
transport.
The has been in
question of strategy and operational aims never covered great
depth, lack importance. Certainly,
to the theatre's the
perhaps owing of strategic question
fought
the the
of why campaign was actually requires greater examination as politics
involved involved London. However, David
were complex and many players outside of
French has British decision British
two
produced useful studies of making, namely
4
Strategy War Aims 1914 1916 The Strategy Lloyd George Coalition. At
and and ofthe
-
is East Africa.
present, there nothing of similar value concerned specifically with
This is from
not want of resources as a vast amount of primary and secondary
in languages, but it has been fully in
material exists several not exploited the published
histories. Study has been helped by
official the
not relative paucity of reliable secondary
information in English. In English, Official History died
the the
author of authoritative
before
the be finished late 1916
second and concluding volume could and the period of to
5
the in November 1918 On hand,
war's end the
remains vague and contradictory. other
the Belgians detailed history forces'
thorough their
produced a and of own operations.
3
Strachan, Hew, The First World War: ToArms, Volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, 495-643.
pp.
4
French, David, British Strategy War Aims 1914-1916, Unwin Allen, London, 1986; The Strategy Lloyd George
and and and of the
Coalition,
1916-1918,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995; but include Gooch, John, The Plans Wor:
other earlier, still useful sources of
The General Staff British Military Strategy 1900-1916, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974; Rothwell, VF British War
and
c
Aims and Peace Diplomacy 1914-1918, Oxford, 1971; Guinn, Peter, British Strategy Politics 1914-1918, Oxford: Clarendon
and and
Press, 1965. The German is in Louis, W R, Great Britain Germany's Lost Colonies, Oxford: Clarendon Press,
view considered
and
1967.
5
Hordem, Lieutenant
Colonel Charles, History Great War: Militapy Operations East Africa: August 1914 September 1916,
the
of
-
Volume
1, London:
HMSO,
1941, Nashville, Tennessee: The Battery Press, 1990. Henceforth, Hordern, Military
reprinted
2
background
These
volumes are well-documented and possess excellent maps, with good
direct
But, Belgian
British Portuguese
as
coverage of concurrent and operations.
in in late 1917, it is to the
the only a partial corrective
participation campaign ended
6
deficiency. It that the Portuguese Government never produced an official
appears
forces
largely their
account of the considerable, although unsuccessful, operations of
during
the
campaign.
is history
On the German side the coverage variable, with the naval providing a
defence land
great deal of useful information on the of the colony while the operations
7
detail. Apart from
disappointingly the
volumes are thin and short on narrative memoir
in largely
accounts, a number of books emerged the post-war years aimed at chronicling
from indignation
and justifying German rule. Much of the debate resulted at the victors'
German to hold It that the
accusations of atrocities and alleged unfitness colonies. seems
rise of Nazism and the d6bacle of the Second World War put paid to further interest in
from former GDF,
the subject. In recent years, secondary works emerged mainly the and,
Wilhelmine they
although slanted against the and capitalist regimes, contained some
8
insights.
useful
Much historiographical deficiency be traced to the fact that the bulk
the can of
of
by
English language based the
all modem accounts are on version of events presented
General Lettow-Vorbeck the German Colonel Meinertzhagen the
von on side and on
9
British. While both first-hand keen be
were participants and observers, neither could
described impartial had his domestic to The former's
as and each own points score.
Operations East Africa. A partial draft of Volume II can be found in the Public Record Office (PRO), London in the CAB 44 series.
A for in CAB 45 WO 808
number of maps and sketches the planned volume are contained the and series.
6
Royaume de Belgique, Les Campagnes Coloniales Belges 1914 1918, Tomes I-3, Bruxelles: Imprimerie Typographique de
-
11C. M., 1927-1932.
7
The interest include Assmann, Kurt Konteradmiral, Der Krieg See 1914 1918: Die Kampfe der Kaiserlichen
naval works of zur
-
Marine
in den Deutschen Kolonien, Berlin: Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, 1935; Raeder Manley, Der Kreuzerkrieg in den
and
ausldndisches Gewdssern, 3 Volumes, Berlin: Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, 1922-1937. The bare
military works are only summaries of
known
the situation and are much less valuable. See Der Wel1krieg 1914 bis 1918: Die Militarischen Operationen zu Lande: 9. Band,
"Der Krieg in den Kolonien bis Ende 1915. Die Ereignisse in Deutsche-Ostafrika bis Ende des Jahres 1915", Berlin: Verlag ES
zum
Mittler Sohn,
und pp. 480485 with Skizze 28; also 13. Band "Der Krieg in Ostaftika seit 1916 ", pp. 452462.
11
Stoecker, Helmuth (ed), German Imperialism Aftica. From beginnings Second World War, Transt Bemd Zoellner,
in the the
- until
London: C Hurst & Co, 1986 (originally in DDR 1977); Helbig, Klaus, Legende Wahrheit. Welikrieg in 0stafrika
published und -Der erste
und Rolle des Generals Lettow- Vorbeck, PhD Thesis, Leipzig: Karl-Marx University, 1968.
9
Lettow-Vorbeck,
General
Paul My Reminiscences East Africa, London: Hurst Blackett, 1920, Nashville,
von, of and reprinted
Tennessee:
The Battery Press, [n. d. j. Henceforth, Lettow, Reminiscences, Meinertzhagen, Colonel Richard, Army Diary 1899-1926,
London:
Oliver
Boyd, 1960.
and
3
from lack detail it largely from
memory and
account suffers a of precise as was written
has distinct hindsight, dealing tactical
or operational
a whiff of particularly when with
10
decisions. The by his former to the commander of the
esteem accorded enemies
it
Schutztruppe has his that was
given work an undeserved aura of authoritativeness;
German in English increased its
almost the sole account produced greatly attractiveness
decisive German
to monoglot authors. Von Lettow was the personality on the side and
The
for
was responsible the strategy of the campaign. work seems quite reliable when
but its discussing
dealing Lettow's
accuracy suffers whenever
with von own experiences,
from his immediate his
presence and often glib comments
events and personalities away
do the documents. Provided that it is used
not always stand when set alongside surviving
in it does, however, important
remain an memoir of
conjunction with other sources,
considerable value.
his intelligence
On British Meinertzhagen's time
the side, account of as an officer
in General Headquarters insider's that is both immediate highly
provides an view and
high It
critical of the conduct of the campaign, and most especially of the command. also
battle descriptions
that
provides a number of character sketches and are of considerable
However, doubts have been the Meinertzhagen's
value. raised about veracity of all of
"
the diary "corrected" the He talented
recollections and whether was after event. was a
but difficult keen to his
soldier, an unusual and personality who was present version of
Again, his is in December 1916, he
events. coverage of events uneven and ends when
from Like Lettow, Meinertzhagen is
the theatre
was evacuated on medical grounds. von
but be in isolation.
a useful guide, should not used
A have been in last 30 but
the
number of popular accounts written years, most of
them suffer from the Lettow Meinertzhagen, detailed
undue reliance on and and coverage
the beyond January 1917 is Charles Miller's book, The
of
period
virtually non-existent.
Battle for
Bundu, is being
the the the
often cited as standard popular account of
10
Lettow, Reminiscences,
p. vii. In the preface to his work, written soon after the war's end, von Lettow frankly admitted that the loss
his
of records, lack of time and inability to consult former colleagues made errors of detail inevitable.
"
Amongst
the reasons for this scholarly suspicion is the fact that Meinertzhagen's numerous volumes of diaries are composed of
typed, interleaved
ring-bound pages with captioned photographs. It would have been impossible to produce such an immaculate and
error-free work under wartime field conditions and the possibility of subsequent amendments cannot be discounted. His book, Army
Diary,
reproduces selected diary for
entries almost word word.
4