Blockade of German East Africa
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Africa
- Date:
- 1 March 1915
- Author:
- Natalia
On 1 March 1915 the British naval blockade of the coast of German East Africa came into force. The British government had announced it a few days earlier, and according to the communiqué it applied from midnight on 28 February–1 March. It covered the whole coast of the colony together with the offshore islands. Neutral ships in the blockaded waters were given four days to leave them.
Why a formal blockade
British warships had been watching the East African coast for many months, above all because of the cruiser Königsberg, bottled up since the end of October in the Rufiji delta. Until a blockade was declared, however, the Royal Navy could stop at sea only enemy ships and cargoes deemed contraband. A formal blockade, declared in accordance with international law, made it possible to stop any ship, including a neutral one, that tried to enter or leave a German port.
The British aimed to cut the colony off from all outside supplies. The forces of Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, which in November 1914 had repulsed the British landing at Tanga, needed arms, ammunition and medicines. Without them German resistance in East Africa would sooner or later have to weaken.
The blockading ships
A few days later Vice-Admiral Herbert King-Hall, commander of the Cape of Good Hope Station, arrived off the East African coast in the old battleship Goliath and took command. The coast was divided into three sectors, watched by the light cruiser Weymouth, the protected cruiser Hyacinth, the smaller cruisers Pioneer and Pyramus, the auxiliary cruiser Kinfauns Castle and several smaller vessels. Some of them also had to guard the mouths of the Rufiji so that the Königsberg could not slip out to the ocean. An important base was Mafia Island, taken in January, lying opposite the delta.
A leaky cordon
Watching several hundred kilometres of coast, full of bays, reefs and river mouths, proved very difficult. As early as April 1915 the German supply ship Kronborg, formerly the British Rubens, sailing under the Danish flag, broke through the blockade. Sighted by Hyacinth, she took refuge in Manza Bay and was set on fire by her own crew, but according to most accounts the Germans later managed to recover a large part of her cargo, including rifles and ammunition. Despite such breaches, in the longer run the blockade effectively cut the colony off from Germany. Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces had to rely more and more on what they could produce locally or capture from the enemy.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 1 March 1915 · DiplomacyAnglo-French declaration against German tradeOn 1 March 1915 London and Paris, in reprisal for the German war zone, announced they would stop ships carrying goods to or from Germany.
- 27 February 1915 · Eastern FrontEnd of the battle of PrzasnyszOn 27 February 1915 Russian Siberian corps retook Przasnysz, captured by the Germans three days earlier. Gallwitz ordered a retreat towards the border.
- 26 February 1915 · Western FrontFirst flamethrower attackOn 26 February 1915, in the Malancourt wood near Verdun, Bernhard Reddemann's German detachment attacked French trenches with flamethrowers.
- 4 March 1915 · Eastern FrontRussians retake StanisławówOn 4 March 1915 the Russian 9th Army retook Stanisławów, captured by the Austrians two weeks earlier. The town stayed in Russian hands until June.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 19 January 1915 · AfricaGermans capture JasinOn the morning of 19 January 1915 the Jasin garrison, out of ammunition and water, surrendered to Lettow-Vorbeck. 276 Indian and African soldiers were captured.
- 18 January 1915 · AfricaGerman attack on JasinOn 18 January 1915 nine of Lettow-Vorbeck's companies surrounded the British post at Jasin. A relief force from the camp on the Umba could not break through.
- 16 April 1915 · AfricaMichael Tighe takes command in East AfricaOn 16 April 1915 General Michael Tighe replaced General Richard Wapshare as commander of the British forces in East Africa.
- 12 January 1915 · AfricaBritish occupy Mafia IslandIn January 1915 the British took the German island of Mafia off the Rufiji delta. It became a base against the cruiser Königsberg hidden in the delta.