Battle of Tanga begins

On the morning of 2 November 1914 the British cruiser HMS Fox appeared off the port of Tanga in German East Africa. Behind her, out of sight of the shore, waited the transports carrying Major-General Arthur Aitken’s Indian Expeditionary Force “B”, about 8,000 soldiers. A battle was beginning that was meant to open for the British the way into the interior of the German colony.

The warning

The cruiser’s captain, Francis Caulfeild, went ashore and met a local official, Dr Auracher. He informed him that the local truce concluded in August by the commanders of British warships was no longer in force, and demanded the surrender of the town within an hour. This warning to the Germans had been agreed on 31 October at a conference in Mombasa, although it robbed the attackers of surprise.

Auracher replied evasively that he had to consult his superiors, and returned to the town. Instead of preparing a surrender, he alerted the garrison. The news reached the commander of the German colonial troops, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who was with his main forces at the foot of Kilimanjaro. Lettow-Vorbeck at once began moving his companies by rail to the coast. Tanga was the terminus of this line, which made his task much easier.

Lost hours

The British were in no hurry. They feared that the harbour entrance was mined and spent many hours sweeping it. Aitken eventually gave up landing in the port itself and chose beaches a few kilometres east of the town, near Ras Kasone. The staff knew almost nothing about the ground behind the beaches, covered with dense scrub, because no reconnaissance had been carried out.

The landing began only late in the evening of 2 November. The first ashore were the 13th Rajputs and the 61st Pioneers. The soldiers, exhausted by a two-week voyage, waded all night from the boats through the shallows to the shore. Many of them found themselves in tropical bush for the first time, and in the darkness nervous sentries fired blindly.

The beaches were taken without a fight, but the Germans had gained a whole day to prepare their defence. Tanga was at that time defended by only a few hundred askaris and policemen, and further units were already on the way. The next morning the British advanced on the town.