East Africa Campaign

In World War I, joint British‐South African campaign to take German colony of East Africa (later Tanganyika, now Tanzania) 1914–18. The campaign made little headway until General Jan Smuts took charge 1916 and the Germans were steadily driven back from then until their final defeat November 1918.

The campaign began when a British warship bombarded Dar‐es‐Salaam August 1914, while on land, the British made a number of battalion‐strength attacks across the border from Uganda and Rhodesia. Various small gains were made but the campaign essentially consisted of small‐scale skirmishes and border raids until General Smuts arrived in Mombasa February 1916 with some 30,000 South African troops to reinforce the British and take command of the operation.

Smuts attacked with two divisions, one feinting to confuse the defences, and by April he had driven back the Germans and set up his command at Moshi. The Germans, under General Lettow‐Vorbeck, fought well but were heavily outnumbered. The main railway line was cut in several places July 1916, fragmenting the German forces and Smuts then was able to deal with them individually. However, the difficult country made progress slow and it was not until 14 November 1918 that resistance was finally overcome and Lettow‐Vorbeck surrendered.