Fighting at Karonga

On 9 September 1914, at Karonga, a settlement on the north-western shore of Lake Nyasa, the first serious battle took place on the border between the British Nyasaland Protectorate, today’s Malawi, and German East Africa. The British repulsed a German attack and inflicted heavy losses on the attackers.

The expedition against Karonga

Karonga, the seat of the district administration, lay only a few dozen kilometres from the border river, the Songwe. The war reached it early: as early as 13 August the British armed steamer Guendolen disabled the German vessel Hermann von Wissmann on the lake. At the beginning of September the 5th Field Company of the Schutztruppe, under Erich von Langenn-Steinkeller, gathered on the German side of the border, supported by several hundred irregular ruga-ruga warriors. Sources estimate the whole force at 400–700 men. The Germans crossed the Songwe and advanced along the lake shore on Karonga.

The British were expecting an attack. At the end of August they concentrated in the area some 400 African soldiers of the 1st Battalion, King’s African Rifles, and nearly a hundred white volunteers from the local reserve under Captain C. W. Barton. On 8 September Barton set out north with the main force to meet the enemy. In Karonga itself he left only Lieutenant Bishop with a few dozen askaris and policemen and a handful of civilians.

The battle

The columns passed each other in the bush. On the morning of 9 September the Germans arrived at Karonga and attacked the settlement. The small garrison, defending itself in the fortified administrative post, held out for several hours of fire and assaults. Meanwhile Barton, alerted by the sound of fighting, turned back with his troops and attacked the assailants around noon. The Germans could not withstand attack from two sides and began to withdraw north, towards the border. At the Kasoa stream (Kasoba in some sources) they came under British fire and suffered heavy losses. Langenn-Steinkeller was seriously wounded and lost an eye.

Figures for the losses vary. According to some sources the Germans lost some 150 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner, according to others at least several dozen killed, including several officers, and several dozen prisoners. British losses are given as anywhere from a few to over a dozen killed and from over a dozen to some fifty wounded.

Significance

The defeat at Karonga discouraged the Germans from further expeditions deep into Nyasaland. For the following months fighting on this sector was limited to border skirmishes, and the protectorate later became one of the bases for British operations against German East Africa. A few days earlier a similar German raid had met resistance at Abercorn in neighbouring Northern Rhodesia, where a small garrison held out until relief arrived.