page_title: Tabora Offensive
section_title: Capture of Ruanda, Urundi and Kigoma
hierarchical_section_title: Tabora Offensive / Capture of Ruanda, Urundi and Kigoma
caption_attribution_description: English: Kigoma brigade sud lt col Thomas 2e regiment august1916, Force Publique, East African Campaign, WWI, German East Africa, Tanzania
context_page_description: The Tabora Offensive was an Anglo-Belgian offensive into German East Africa, which ended with the Battle of Tabora in the north-west of German East Africa, it was part of the East African Campaign in World War I. The forces of the Belgian Congo crossed the border with German East Africa and captured the port city of Kigoma and the city of Tabora. In August a smaller Lake Force under the command of the South African brigadier general Crewe, launched a parallel attack from Uganda, also aimed at taking Tabora. The completion of the Tabora Offensive not only left much of the Ruanda-Urundi territory under Belgian military occupation but gave the Allies control of the important Tanganjikabahn railway.
context_section_description: In April 1916 two columns of the Force Publique advanced on Tabora. The first column (Brigade Nord), under the command of colonel Molitor, crossed the German East African border north of Lake Kivu and occupied Kigali on 6 May 1916. After the conquest of Ruanda in May 1916 by the Belgo-Congolese forces, the brigade advanced to Biharamulo on 24 June. It reached Lake Victoria near Mwanza on 30 July 1916, after heavy fighting in the Ussuwi region, including a bloody skirmish in Kato on 2 July. St. Michaël fell on 21 August 1916.
  The second column (Brigade Sud) occupied Usumbura on 6 June and Kitega on 16 June. In early July they advanced southwards from Usumbura along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The Belgian ship Netta sailed along the northeast coast in support of the land offensive, this naval presence led to the coastal towns of Rumonge and Nyanza being abandoned by the Schutztruppe. On 18 July the fortifications at Kigoma were bombed by two of the Belgian floatplanes and a petrol depot was set alight. On 19 July aerial photographs were taken and airborne leaflet propaganda was dropped over the old town of Ujiji, printed in Swahili, to prepare the local population for the arrival of the Allied troops. Brigade Sud took the fort at Kasulu on 24 July. In order to avoid Graf von Goetzen falling into Allied hands, General Lettow-Vorbeck ordered that the ship be scuttled. 
  On 27 July Netta shelled targets south of Kigoma. Later that same day, the Allies had captured a railway bridge near the port, advancing from the north and the east, which threatened to isolate Kigoma completely. This led the German naval commander on the lake, Gustav Zimmer, to retreat from the town and head south via railway and using Mwami, a steamer sent from Dar-es-Salam by rail. On 28 July Netta surprised the German boat Wami, while she was unloading troops and supplies, she was scuttled by her crew after being locked in. On 29 July Brigade Sud captured the port of Kigoma, terminus of the strategic railway line from Dar Es Salaam passing through Tabora to Kigoma and on 2 August Ujiji was under Allied control. After the German withdrawal from the lake, control of the surface of Lake Tanganyika passed to the British and Belgians.
  In early August 1916 both columns started their converging marches to Tabora. The smaller British force, commanded by the South-African Brigadier General Charles Crewe, took Mwanza on 14 July 1916 and Shinyanga on 28 August. Crewe was in a race with the Belgian forces to reach Tabora but the British Lake Force was slowed down because of severe supply problems.
caption: Brigade Sud at the railway station of Kigoma, August 1916.
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