OTHER AFRICAN OPERATIONS

The fighting along the African coast during this period was minor but picturesque. On February 26, 1915, the British military authorities announced that the coast of German East Africa would be blockaded on February 28, four days being allowed for the departure of neutral vessels. Some minor successes, chiefly naval, were obtained by the British during the month of March, when they occupied Shirati on Lake Victoria Nyanza and established there a base for armed steamers.

It was here on March 6, 1915, that the Muanza, the only German armed steamer that remained on the lake, was destroyed by the British steamer Winifred.

In April, 1915, Major General Tighe, who had won distinction in the Indian Service, was appointed to command the British troops in German East Africa. During this month there was some desultory fighting along the edges of Kilmanjaro, and repeated but ineffectual attempts were made to cut the Uganda Railway line; otherwise there were no hostile movements worthy of note in this region.

On March 9, 1915, a German column, marching along the Maru River to invade the Karungu district on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza, was defeated and scattered, after a short engagement, by a force of British troops under Colonel Hickson.

Along the region between the Uganda Railroad and the German frontier there were frequent skirmishes during May between British patrols and German troops, in which the losses were trifling on either side. The German forces had been operating for some time from the fortified port of Bukoba, and it was important to the future movements of the British that the place should be destroyed. On June 20 an expedition was dispatched by steamer from the British port at Kisumu, 240 miles away on the eastern shore; at the same time it was planned that British troops on the Kagora River were to cross the thirty miles that divided them from the German fortified port.

On June 25, 1915, Brigadier General J. A. Stewart, commanding detachments of the First Loyal North Lancashires, King's African Rifles, and the Twenty-fifth Royal Fusiliers reached Bukoba. The port was attacked by land and water. The British were in superior numbers, having only about 400 against them, but the Germans fought intrepidly, and their Arab allies showed great bravery. The British success was not easily won. The Germans lost most of their artillery and there were heavy casualties. The wireless station was ruined, boats in the harbor were sunk or captured, and the destruction wrought by the British on the port was complete.

The capture of Bukoba was important to the British, for as a direct result the Uganda borders were kept clear of the enemy for the greater part of the summer of 1915.

The German town of Sphynxhaven on the eastern shore of Lake Nyassa was attacked on May 30, 1915, by a British naval force under Lieutenant Commander Dennistoun, supported by field artillery and a landing party of King's African Rifles. During the sharp, short engagement that followed the place was bombarded from the water, the enemy was driven out, and great quantities of rifles, ammunition, and military stores fell to the British.

The climatic conditions in the low-lying Nyassaland and Uganda borders in the summertime caused the British soldiers more suffering and deaths than their enemies. Insect pests like the tsetse fly swarm around Lake Victoria Nyanza, while different fevers of peculiarly malignant varieties lie in wait to attack the European. There is the terrible sleeping sickness that spares neither white nor black race. The great lake cannot be bathed in without danger for its abounds in crocodiles and hippopotami.

Guerrilla warfare was kept up during most of the summer of 1915 along the northeastern borders of Rhodesia and in Nyassaland. On June 28 the Germans were driven off when they attacked in two bands on the Saisa River, near Abercorn. A month later, having gathered 2,000 men, they besieged the place for six days, when British reenforcements arriving they were driven off. During these skirmishes and engagements the Belgian troops were of great service to the British in defending the frontier between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika, and especially the western shore of the latter lake.

It was in this summer of 1915, during the early days of July, that the German cruiser, the KÖnigsberg, met her end. Late in October of 1914 she was in shelter at a point some distance up the Rufiji River, where the water was so shallow that a ship of ordinary draft could not approach. When the British discovered the location of the cruiser they sank a collier across the mouth of the river to prevent the German boat from reaching the sea. The KÖnigsberg, surrounded by forests and thick jungle growth, was exactly located by British aircraft. On July 4, 1914, Vice Admiral King Hall, commander in chief of the Cape station, entered the river with the monitors Severn and Mersey and opened fire.

The crew of the KÖnigsberg had been active in fortifying their position during the time the cruiser had been sheltering in the river. They had established shore batteries with German thoroughness that commanded all the turnings of the river, and there were observation towers from which they could get the range of any vessel attacking. The British could not get a clear view of the enemy because of the dense jungle, but their aeroplanes were of great service in directing the action of the guns. There was never any doubt of what the ultimate fate of the KÖnigsberg would be.

On July 4, 1915, the British bombarded the cruiser for six hours, when she was seen to be on fire. The attack for some reason was not renewed until July 11, 1915, when the cruiser was found to be completely destroyed, whether as the result of the British shells or because she was blown up by her own crew was not discovered at the time. The annals of naval warfare offer no more curious story than this of the German cruiser, which lay for so many months helpless in a jungle river, surrounded by steaming swamps, while far beyond lay the longed-for open sea.[Back to Contents]