page_title: African theatre of World War I
section_title: Military operations, 1914–1915
hierarchical_section_title: African theatre of World War I / East Africa / East African campaign, 1914–1915 / Military operations, 1914–1915
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Reiter zu Pferd
context_page_description: The African Theatre of the First World War comprises campaigns in North Africa instigated by the German and Ottoman empires, local rebellions against European colonial rule and Allied campaigns against the German colonies of Kamerun, Togoland, German South West Africa and German East Africa. The campaigns were fought by German Schutztruppe, local resistance movements and forces of the British Empire, France, Italy, Belgium and Portugal.
context_section_description: On the outbreak of war there were 2,760 Schutztruppen'and 2,319 men in the King's African Rifles in East Africa. On 5 August 1914, British troops from the Uganda Protectorate attacked German outposts near Lake Victoria and on 8 August HMS Astraea and Pegasus bombarded Dar es Salaam. On 15 August, German forces in the Neu Moshi region captured Taveta on the British side of Kilimanjaro. In September, the Germans raided deeper into British East Africa and Uganda and operations were conducted on Lake Victoria by a German boat armed with a QF 1 pounder pom-pom gun. The British armed the Uganda Railway lake steamers SS William Mackinnon, SS Kavirondo, SS Winifred  and SS Sybil  and regained command of Lake Victoria, when two of the British boats trapped the tug, which was then scuttled by the crew. The Germans later raised the tug, salvaged the gun and used the boat as a transport.
  The British command planned an operation to suppress German raiding and to capture the northern region of the German colony. Indian Expeditionary Force B  of 8,000 troops in two brigades would land at Tanga on 2 November 1914 to capture the city and take control the Indian Ocean terminus of the Usambara Railway. Near Kilimanjaro, Indian Expeditionary Force C of 4,000 men in one brigade, would advance from British East Africa on Neu-Moshi on 3 November, to the western terminus of the railway. After capturing Tanga, Force B would rapidly move north-west to join Force C and mop up the remaining Germans. Although outnumbered 8:1 at Tanga and 4:1 at Longido, the Schutztruppe under Lettow-Vorbeck defeated the British offensive. In the British Official History, Charles Hordern, wrote that the operation was "... one the most notable failures in British military history".
caption: German colonial volunteer mounted patrol in 1914
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