Battle of Tanga
Battle of Tanga | |||||||
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Part of the East African Campaign of World War I | |||||||
"Battle of Tanga, 3rd–5th November, 1914" by Martin Frost (1875–1927) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Tom von Prince † |
Michael Tighe | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
250 (Initially) 750 (Reinforcements) Total: 1,000 |
4,000 (Initially) 5,000 (Reinforcements) 1 Astraea-class cruiser Total: 9,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
16 Germans killed[1] 55 Askaris killed[1] 76 Germans & Askaris wounded[1] |
360 killed[2] 487 wounded[2] 148 missing[3] |
The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British
Prelude
Instead, the British resolve to capture German East Africa was to be implemented with an amphibious attack on Tanga.
Battle
Captain Caulfeild ordered the harbor 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 harbor and three miles east of the city on a mine-free beach.
The colonial volunteers of the 7th and 8th Schützenkompanien [rifle companies] arrived by rail 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."[13]
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."[14]
Aftermath
Furious and frustrated, Aitken ordered a general withdrawal.[15] In their retreat and evacuation back to the transports that lasted well into the night, the British 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.[16] 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."[2]
The successful defence of Tanga was the first of many achievements of Paul von 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."[16] Casualties included 360 killed and 487 wounded on the British side;[2] the Schutztruppe lost 16 Germans and 55 Askaris killed, and 76 total wounded.[1]
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.[17]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d Miller 1974, p. 71,
- ^ a b c d Miller 1974, p. 70.
- ^ The Battle of Tanga, German East Africa, 1914 A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College
- ^ Farwell 1989, p. 166.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Farwell 1989, p. 167.
- ^ Miller 1974, p. 58.
- ^ Miller 1974, p. 59.
- ^ Farwell 1989, p. 168.
- ^ Farwell 1989, p. 170.
- ^ Farwell 1989, p. 171.
- ^ Hoyt 1981, p. 50.
- ^ Miller 1974, p. 68.
- ^ Miller 1974, p. 69.
- ^ Hoyt 1981, p. 52.
- ^ a b Farwell 1989, p. 178.
- ^ von Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul (1920). Meine Erinnerungen aus Ostafrika. Hase & Köhler., p. 39/40
References
- ISBN 0-393-30564-3.
- 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. ISBN 0-02-555210-4.
- 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. ISBN 0-02-584930-1.
- Paice, Edward. Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007. ISBN 0-297-84709-0.
- von Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul. My reminiscences of East Africa. London: Hurst, 1920 OL 7107291M
Further reading
- 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. OCLC 52490038
- Harvey, Kenneth J. The Battle of Tanga, German East Africa 1914. [Washington, DC]: Storming Media, 2003. OCLC 634605075
- 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