Battle of Tanga
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military conflict
The Battle of Tanga, also known as the Battle of the Bees, was an unsuccessful invasion of the Port of Tanga in German East Africa by the British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" on 3–5 November 1914 during World War I. Under the command of the Major-General Arthur Aitken, British forces attacked Tanga in concert with Indian Expeditionary Force "C", which concomitantly attempted to capture Longido. The battle was the first major engagement of the East African campaign and saw Aitken's troops defeated by a smaller force of German Schutztruppen under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and forced to retreat. Lettow-Vorbeck's men captured weapons, medical supplies, tents, blankets, rations and several Maxim guns after the battle, which played a major role in allowing his troops to resist the Allies for the rest of the world conflict.
Background
Tanga, situated only Template:Convert from the border of British East Africa (modern-day Kenya), was a busy port and the ocean terminal of the important Usambara Railway, which ran from Tanga to Neu Moshi at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanga was initially to be bombarded by Royal Navy warships, but this part of the plan was scrapped. An agreement was in place guaranteeing the neutrality of the capital Dar es Salaam and Tanga, but now the accord was modified and it seemed "only fair to warn the Germans that the deal was off."<ref>Farwell 1989, p. 166.</ref>
Instead, the British resolve to capture German East Africa was to be implemented with an amphibious attack on Tanga.<ref>Aitken's orders: "The object of the expedition under your command is to bring the whole of German East Africa under British authority." See Farwell 1989, p. 163.</ref> Unlike the plan on paper, however, the attack turned into a debacle. On 2 November 1914, the British protected cruiser Template:HMS arrived. The ship's commander, Captain Francis Wade Caulfeild, went ashore giving Tanga one hour to surrender and take down the flag of the German Empire. Before departing, he demanded to know if the harbour was mined; it was not, but he was assured that it was.<ref>Farwell 1989, p. 167.</ref> After three hours, the flag was still flying and Fox departed to bring in the Force "B" convoy of fourteen troop transports.<ref>Miller 1974, p. 58.</ref> This gave time for both the Schutztruppen and the citizens of Tanga to prepare for an attack. The German commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, rushed to Tanga. He reinforced the defences (initially only a single company of Askaris) with troops brought in by railway from Neu Moshi, eventually numbering about 1,000 in six companies. His second-in-command was former German East Africa Company Captain Tom von Prince.
Battle
Captain Caulfeild ordered the harbour swept for mines during 2 November and well into the next day. During the sweeping, the Force "B" commander, Aitken, began the unopposed landing of troops and supplies in two groups at the harbour and three miles east of the city on a mine-free beach.<ref>Miller 1974, p. 59.</ref> By evening on 3 November, the invasion force was ashore with the exception of the 27th Mountain Battery and the Faridkot Sappers.<ref>Farwell 1989, p. 168.</ref> At noon on 4 November, Aitken ordered his troops to march on the city. Well concealed defenders quickly broke up their advance. The fighting then turned to skirmishing amidst the coconut and palm oil plantations by the southern contingent and bitter street-fighting by the harbour force.
The Kashmir Rifles and the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment of the harbour contingent made good progress; they entered the town, captured the customs house and Hotel Deutscher Kaiser and ran up the Union Jack. But then the advance was stopped.<ref>Farwell 1989, p. 170.</ref> Less-well trained and equipped Indian battalions of Richard Wapshare's 27th (Bangalore) Brigade scattered and ran away from the battle. The 98th Infantry were attacked by swarms of angry bees and broke up. The bees attacked the Germans as well, hence the battle's nickname.<ref>Farwell 1989, p. 171.</ref> British propaganda transformed the bee interlude into a fiendish German plot, conjuring up hidden trip wires to agitate the hives.<ref>Hoyt 1981, p. 50.</ref> The 13th Rajputs failed to play a significant role in the battle as their morale had been shaken when witnessing the retreat of the 63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry.
The colonial volunteers of the 7th and 8th Schützenkompanien (rifle companies) arrived by railway to stiffen the pressed Askari lines. The normally mounted 8th Schützenkompanie had left their horses at Neu Moshi. By late afternoon on 4 November, Lettow-Vorbeck ordered his last reserves, the 13th and 4th Askari Feldkompanien (field companies) – the 4th had just reached Tanga by train), to envelop the British flank and rear by launching bayonet attacks along the entire front to "bugle calls and piercing tribal war cries." At least three battalions of the Imperial Service Brigade would have been wiped out to a man, if they had not taken to their heels. All semblance of order vanished as Force B's retirement "degenerated into total rout."<ref>Miller 1974, p. 68.</ref>
Still outnumbered eight to one, caution overtook some of the German officers. Through a series of errors by the buglers and misunderstandings by an officer to disengage and consolidate, the Askari withdrew to a camp several miles west of Tanga. As soon as Lettow-Vorbeck learned of this, he countermanded the move and ordered a redeployment that was not completed until early morning. "For nearly all of the night [before sunrise 5 November], Tanga was Aitken's for the taking. It was the most stupendous irony of the battle."<ref>Miller 1974, p. 69.</ref>
Aftermath
Furious and frustrated, Aitken ordered a general withdrawal.<ref>Hoyt 1981, p. 52.</ref> In their retreat and evacuation back to the transports that lasted well into the night, the attacking troops left behind nearly all their equipment. "Lettow-Vorbeck was able to re-arm three Askari companies with modern rifles, for which he now had 600,000 rounds of ammunition. He also had sixteen more machine guns, valuable field telephones" and enough clothing to last the Schutztruppe for a year.<ref name="Farwell, p. 178">Farwell 1989, p. 178.</ref> On the morning of 5 November, Force B's intelligence officer—Captain Richard Meinertzhagen—entered Tanga under a white flag, bringing medical supplies and carrying a letter from General Aitken apologizing for shelling the hospital. The streets of Tanga were strewn with dead and wounded. German doctors and their African orderlies worked tirelessly and "with a fine disregard for their patients' uniforms."<ref name="Miller, p. 70">Miller 1974, p. 70.</ref>
The successful defence of Tanga was the first of many achievements of Lettow-Vorbeck during his long campaign in East Africa. For the British, however, the battle was nothing short of a disaster, and was recorded in the British Official History of the War as "one of the most notable failures in British military history."<ref name="Farwell, p. 178"/> Casualties included 360 killed and 487 wounded on the British side;<ref name="Miller, p. 70"/> the Schutztruppe lost 16 Germans and 55 Askaris killed, and 76 total wounded.<ref name="Miller 1974, p. 71"/>
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck initially estimated the number of British killed at 800 but later said that he believed the number was more likely over 2,000. The Germans subsequently released the British officers who had been wounded or captured after they gave their word not to fight again during the war.<ref>Template:Cite book, p. 39/40</ref>
See also
Notes
References
- Farwell, Byron. The Great War in Africa, 1914–1918. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989. Template:ISBN.
- Hoyt, Edwin P. Guerilla: Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany's East African Empire. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1981; and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. 1981. Template:ISBN.
- Miller, Charles. Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in German East Africa. London: Macdonald & Jane's, 1974; and New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1974. Template:ISBN.
- Paice, Edward. Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007. Template:ISBN.
- von Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul. My reminiscences of East Africa. London: Hurst, 1920 Template:OL
Further reading
Template:Library resources box
- Anderson, Ross. 2001. "The Battle of Tanga, 2–5 November 1914". War in History. 8, no. 3: 294–322.
- Anderson, Ross. The Battle of Tanga 1914. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2002. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
- Harvey, Kenneth J. The Battle of Tanga, German East Africa 1914. [Washington, DC]: Storming Media, 2003. Template:OCLC
- Page, Melvin E. (Melvin Eugene). 2003. "The Battle of Tanga 1914 (Review)". Journal of Military History. 67, no. 4: 1307–1308.
External links
- Francis W. Caulfeild at The Dreadnought Project
- Pages with broken file links
- Conflicts in 1914
- 1914 in German East Africa
- Battles of the East African campaign (World War I)
- Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
- Battles of World War I involving British India
- Battles of World War I involving Germany
- 1914 in Kenya
- Tanga, Tanzania
- Battles of World War I involving Indian Princely States
- November 1914 in Africa
- Amphibious operations involving the United Kingdom