Shelling of Monrovia

On the morning of 10 April 1918 the German U-cruiser U-154 lay surfaced in the roads of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Her commander, Hermann Gercke, sent ashore a letter to President Daniel Edward Howard. He wrote that he did not wish to do the Liberians unnecessary harm, as he was sure they had been drawn into the war against their true interests, and that he was therefore sending back the prisoners from the armed vessel President Howard, which he had defeated. At the same time he reminded the President that the Liberian capital was “defenceless under German guns”, and that England and France, as with many of their other allies, were not helping it in its hour of greatest danger. If the radio station and the cable station in Monrovia did not cease operating at once, he would open fire on them.

Liberia, which had declared war on Germany in August 1917, had nothing to defend itself with. Since 11 January 1918 Berlin had regarded its entire coast as a zone of submarine operations, and the Allies, after long deliberations, had left the Liberian ports unfortified, judging that a few guns would not stop a boat armed with two 150 mm and two 88 mm guns anyway. The only vessel of the Liberian navy was the President Howard, a small armed schooner with an auxiliary engine, called Lark in some sources. It served mainly to carry soldiers and arms along the coast. U-154 sank it before arriving in the roads of the capital. Lists of sunk ships give 9 April; the American chargé d’affaires in Monrovia, Richard C. Bundy, reported the sinking on 10 April. Gercke sent the Liberian crew ashore with the letter.

The President summoned his ministers, who unanimously decided that Liberia must remain loyal to its allies whatever the cost. The government replied that it would itself stop both stations working. Gercke then presented what he called a “final ultimatum”. Within an hour of the Liberian envoys’ return ashore the French flag was to disappear, the buildings of both stations were to be set on fire and their equipment destroyed. The government could not accept such demands, and its final reply did not satisfy the German. At about four in the afternoon U-154 opened fire and in roughly an hour reduced the French radio station to ruins. Some of the shells fell on the town and destroyed several houses. That same evening Bundy reported two Liberians killed and two wounded, the British consul three children killed, and later accounts speak of four to seven victims. No foreigners were among the casualties.

The shelling was interrupted by the British passenger steamer Burutu, which appeared off Monrovia. U-154 set off after her and shelled her on the run until dark. The ship was damaged, and according to British accounts one passenger was killed, but she managed to escape. The cable station survived. There was no rioting in the town, though the panic was enormous. Bundy asked Washington for urgent help, adding that this was probably the last telegram he would be able to send. The Admiralty assured the Americans that help had already been sent, and the State Department asked London how it intended to protect Liberia in future.

The attack caused a dispute among the Allies. The Governor-General of French West Africa in Dakar wanted to protect the remains of the station with sandbags and send guns with crews, but the government in Monrovia refused to admit foreign soldiers and artillery. It agreed to accept only small arms for its own troops and called for patrols at sea. At the beginning of May the American cruiser Raleigh arrived at Monrovia. The Liberians did not accept the gun they were offered, judging that it would not be able to drive off a submarine, but took a machine gun and ammunition. The British promised to send armed drifters to Sierra Leone, ready to intervene in case of another attack. U-154 never came back. On 11 May 1918 she was torpedoed in the Atlantic by the British submarine E35, and her entire German crew was lost.