War Office takes over the East African campaign

On 22 November 1914 the British ministry of war, the War Office, took over the direction of military operations in East Africa. Until then they had been the responsibility of the India Office, the ministry for Indian affairs, and of the Colonial Office. The change was a direct consequence of the defeat at Tanga, where at the beginning of November Indian Expeditionary Force “B” had been beaten by the far less numerous troops of Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.

Divided control

At the start of the war the War Office had its hands full sending the British Expeditionary Force to France. Troops for operations against German East Africa were therefore to be provided by India. General James Stewart’s Indian Expeditionary Force “C”, which arrived in September to defend British East Africa, came after its arrival under the Colonial Office through the colony’s governor. Force “B” under General Arthur Aitken, sent from India to conquer the German colony, was directed in turn by the India Office and army headquarters in India. This dual chain of command hampered planning and burdened the commanders on the spot.

After Tanga

The news of the defeat at Tanga, which Aitken sent to London on 5 November, came as an unpleasant surprise to the government. The subsidiary attack at Longido had also failed. The authorities restricted information about the defeat and tried to keep it from spreading in India. The Secretary of State for India, Lord Crewe, agreed with Aitken that the troops in East Africa must for the time being go over to the defensive. The two Indian forces were merged, and the direction of operations was handed to the War Office, headed by Lord Kitchener. India nevertheless remained largely responsible for supplies and reinforcements for the troops there.

Aitken was recalled. Command was taken over by General Richard Wapshare, who at Tanga had commanded one of the brigades of Force “B”. According to some lists he was in command from 22 November; other sources indicate that the order recalling Aitken arrived a few days later. Aitken, ill with malaria, sailed for England only on 17 December.

The War Office, absorbed in the war in France and Flanders, had no intention for the time being of sending new forces to East Africa. For the next fifteen months or so the British troops there confined themselves mainly to defending the colony and the railway from Mombasa inland. The great offensive against German East Africa began only in 1916, under the command of the South African general Jan Smuts.