Battle of Jasin

The Battle of Jasin was the second major engagement in German East Africa, after Tanga. Nine companies of German colonial troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck surrounded the British post at Jasin, a plantation just across the border of British East Africa. The relief force could not break through, and after a day of fighting about 300 Indian soldiers surrendered. For Lettow-Vorbeck, however, it was a Pyrrhic victory. He lost so many officers and so much ammunition that he concluded he could not afford such battles again.

Name and dates

We use the dates 18–19 January 1915. The attack began at dawn on 18 January and the garrison surrendered on the morning of the following day. This is how the battle is dated by the British chronology of the war, by the British official history of the campaign and by Lettow-Vorbeck’s memoirs.

The place appears under various names in the sources. The British wrote Jasin, Jassin or Yasin, the Germans Jassini. In English-language works the battle appears most often as the Battle of Jassin. We use the form Jasin, adopted in the British chronology.

Background

After the defeat at Tanga in November 1914 the British went over to the defensive in East Africa. The new commander, General Richard Wapshare, nevertheless decided to clear the border area south of Mombasa of German patrols. At the end of December the troops of Brigadier-General Michael Tighe crossed the border river Umba and took Jasin on Christmas Day. The main force camped on the Umba, and at Jasin, a few kilometres further on, a fortified post was built. In mid-January reinforcements arrived, among them askaris of the King’s African Rifles who had earlier taken Mafia Island.

Lettow-Vorbeck saw this as the prelude to a march on Tanga, some 60 kilometres from Jasin. He decided to strike first. He hoped that an attack on the advanced post would draw the main British forces out of their camps and allow him to destroy them in the open field.

Forces

Jasin was held by about 300 Indian soldiers in a carefully built and camouflaged redoubt: a company of the 101st Grenadiers and men of the 2nd Kashmir Rifles, troops of the Indian princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, with a King’s African Rifles machine gun. They were commanded by Raghbir Singh, commander of the Kashmir battalion, supported by two British officers, Captains Hanson and Turner. About 40 Kashmiris manned a separate post at the sisal factory. In the camps on the Umba Tighe had several companies of the King’s African Rifles, half a battalion of infantry from the Indian princely state of Jind, Indian infantry and two mountain guns. Lettow-Vorbeck, on the basis of documents captured later, estimated the British forces in the area at more than twenty companies.

The Germans assembled nine companies of the Schutztruppe, including a company made up of Europeans, a detachment of Arab volunteers and two field guns. According to some accounts this amounted to about 1,600 men, including about 250 Europeans. Most of the companies came by rail from the area of Kilimanjaro. On 16 January they detrained near Tanga, and on the evening of 17 January the whole force stood at the Totohovu plantation, about 11 kilometres south of Jasin.

Course of the battle

18 January

Lettow-Vorbeck divided his forces into several columns. Major Kepler with two companies was to go round Jasin on the right, Captain Adler with two others on the left. Captain Otto’s 9th Company advanced straight down the road, followed by the main body with the European company and the guns. The Arab volunteers were to lie in wait on the road from Samanya to stop a relief force from the north-west.

The attack began before dawn and took the British by surprise. Two German companies stormed the plantation buildings, though both their commanders were killed. Then, however, it turned out that the real fortress was the well-hidden redoubt. Lettow-Vorbeck’s staff officer, Captain von Hammerstein, was seriously wounded and died a few days later. Major Kepler was killed. Lettow-Vorbeck himself was shot in the arm, and another bullet went through his hat.

Tighe sent more units to help. King’s African Rifles companies under Captain George Giffard crossed the Suba stream and fought hand to hand in the swampy valley, but German machine guns and attacks on their flanks forced them back every time. The Arab volunteers on the German left fired wildly and fled, but the column advancing from that direction was stopped by Adler’s companies. Around noon the infantry from Jind moved to the attack, supported by the fire of the mountain guns. It lost many officers and NCOs, and its attack broke down.

By noon the Germans had surrounded the redoubt on all sides but could not take it. Not even the field guns, placed less than 200 metres from the works, helped. The askaris were short of ammunition, which was brought up by the plantation’s light railway. The wounded were taken by the same route to the hospital at Totohovu. The fighting went on all afternoon and through the night. Raghbir Singh was killed that same day. The defenders of the post at the sisal factory, when their ammunition ran out, broke through northwards with the bayonet. Nearly thirty of them reached the camp.

19 January

Tighe was preparing a new attack for the morning, but the garrison of the redoubt was at the end of its strength. Water was lacking, ammunition was running out and the only machine gun had stopped working. At dawn the defenders attempted a sortie, which failed. At about 7 a.m. Captain Hanson, who had taken command, hoisted the white flag. According to British figures 276 men were taken prisoner. Lettow-Vorbeck congratulated the British officers on their stubborn defence, returned their swords and released them on parole.

Losses

British losses are not known exactly. Besides the 276 prisoners, at least several dozen Indian soldiers and a dozen or more askaris of the King’s African Rifles were killed, and many were wounded. Lettow-Vorbeck estimated the enemy’s losses at no fewer than 700 men, which is probably an exaggeration.

According to the return of Governor Heinrich Schnee, the Germans lost 25 Europeans killed, including seven officers, and 53 askaris. About 200 were wounded, including a dozen or more officers. Among the dead were six regular officers, roughly a seventh of those Lettow-Vorbeck had at his disposal. In two days his troops used up 200,000 rounds.

Significance

Jasin was the second British defeat in a row in East Africa. HMS Weymouth, which arrived on 20 January, could do no more than shell the area to no effect. Wapshare ordered the troops withdrawn from the Umba valley, and at the beginning of February German patrols found the British camps empty. Lord Herbert Kitchener forbade further offensive operations in East Africa. The front on the border fell quiet for many months, and the great British offensive in East Africa did not begin until 1916, after the arrival of troops from the Union of South Africa.

For Lettow-Vorbeck the battle was a lesson. He had won, but he calculated that at such a rate of ammunition use he could afford at most three more such engagements, and he had no one to replace the officers he had lost. He concluded that from then on he must keep great attacks for exceptional occasions and wage above all a guerrilla war. In the following months his small units and patrols harassed British posts and the Uganda Railway, tying down ever larger enemy forces in East Africa.