British capture Bukoba

The British chronology of the war records the capture of Bukoba, a German port on Lake Victoria, under 22–23 July 1915. This is a mistake of a whole month: the British official history of the operations in East Africa, the unit war diaries and all later studies date the expedition to June. On 22 June a British force landed near the town and fought its first action, and on 23 June it occupied Bukoba.

An expedition across the lake

General Michael Tighe, who took command in British East Africa in April, was forbidden to undertake any major offensive operations. He believed, however, that after the defeats at Tanga and at Jasin his soldiers needed at least a small success. The War Office agreed to a limited operation on the lake, on condition that it led to no further complications. The British controlled Lake Victoria and could therefore take the enemy by surprise. The main German base, Mwanza, was too strong. The choice fell on Bukoba, a centre of German administration south of the Kagera river. A powerful wireless station operated there, an important link in German communications.

The expedition was commanded by General J. M. Stewart. He had about 1,600 men with two mountain guns and twelve machine guns. Its core consisted of half of the 2nd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, half of the 25th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, made up of volunteers from the Legion of Frontiersmen, three companies of the 3rd Battalion, King’s African Rifles, and a company of the 29th Punjabis. Among the fusiliers served the 63-year-old Frederick Selous, the famous hunter and explorer. On 20 June the troops embarked at Kisumu on the ships of the lake flotilla, and on the evening of 21 June they lay off the coast north of Bukoba. In the moonlight, however, they were spotted by German posts on an island, which fired rockets. At the same time troops from the Uganda Protectorate staged a feint attack across the Kagera.

Two days of fighting

At dawn on 22 June the troops began to land about 5 km north of the town. A German field gun by the customs house shelled the ships and was hard to silence, although the smoke of its black powder gave it away. On a rocky ridge, which the British named Arab Ridge, about 200 Germans with a machine gun held up the Lancashires for several hours. Only after the mountain guns had destroyed the machine gun did the infantry take the ridge, at about 5.30 p.m., and spend the night on the hills above the town. On the German side, according to most accounts, the commander was the Resident of Bukoba, Major Willibald von Stuemer.

On the morning of 23 June the British advanced on the town. The attack was delayed by machine-gun fire, an unsuccessful German counter-attack and torrential rain, but after 9 a.m. the defenders, far fewer in number, began to give way. At about 1.30 p.m. the fusiliers and the askaris of the King’s African Rifles entered Bukoba, and by 3 p.m. the Germans had withdrawn to the north-west and south-west. A field gun, 67 rifles and 32,000 rounds of ammunition were captured.

The wireless station and the looting

Stewart ordered the wireless station and the fort to be blown up, and everything of military value to be destroyed or carried off. The force then returned to the ships, leaving the town deserted. Bukoba was therefore not captured permanently. The British official history admits that the local population looted it with enthusiasm, and the affair went down in history as the “sack of Bukoba”. According to many accounts, British soldiers also took part in the looting, especially the fusiliers of the Legion of Frontiersmen.

According to the official history, the British lost 7 killed and 25 wounded, while German losses were estimated at about 50 men. The expedition raised the morale of the troops in East Africa and made an impression on the inhabitants of the lake region. From Bukoba also came disturbing news from a Briton freed from German internment: the ship Rubens, which the British had believed destroyed in Manza Bay in April, had in fact delivered arms and ammunition to the Germans, so the blockade of the coast proved less effective than had been thought.