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East Africa Force. On 10 June 1940, East Africa Force (Major-General Douglas Dickinson) was established for North-East Africa, East Africa and British Central Africa. In Sudan about 8,500 troops and 80 aircraft guarded a 1,200 mi (1,900 km) frontier with the AOI.
May 26, 2024 · A statue of an East African Askari soldier by Vivien Mallock. Source: vivienmallock.co.uk On July 31, three days after the war began in Europe, the German cruiser SMS Königsberg sailed from its port in Dar-es-Salaam with the intention of attacking British commerce in the Indian Ocean, narrowly avoiding two cruisers from the Cape Squadron, which had been ordered to shadow the German ship.
- Why Did The First World War Come to East Africa?
- What Happened?
- Did You Know?
- Was The Campaign Different from Others?
- A Very Hostile Environment
- Long Lines of Communication
- How Did The War Affect East Africa?
- Further Reading
The East African campaign in many ways happened by default, although it is regarded by some as the final stage in the ‘scramble for Africa’. In less than thirty years nearly all of Africa had been colonised by European nations. At the start of the war German colonies were surrounded by colonies controlled by Entente allies. Germany had grand plans ...
At first – as in Europe – the colonists living in East Africa believed that ‘it would be all over by Christmas’, especially as the armies facing each other were tiny – 2400 in the King’s African Rifles in British East Africa and Uganda, and 2700 Schutztruppein German East Africa. Both forces consisted of black and Arab rank and file. In August 1914...
The Battle of Tanga has been called the ‘Battle of the Bees’ because there were numerous bees’ nests in the trees on the battlefield. When the shooting started they swarmed out and stung the soldie...
It was very different from all the other campaigns of the First World War. Besides covering such a large area, it was a very mobile campaign, with immense logistical challenges and an extremely hostile natural setting. The British could use their naval supremacy to supply their forces and those of their allies, which was not the case for the German...
The East African theatre of war was extremely challenging and the environment was regarded by all as the biggest enemy. Some men wrote home that they would rather be on the Western Front where they could be shot by a sniper than have to deal with wild animals, the weather, jigger fleas and ambushes in grass six foot high. The landscape was undevelo...
The distances were immense. Supplies were sent from India and Durban, the latter travelling 1,500 miles to the railhead, then transferring to carriers for the additional 450 miles through the bush to the front. To carry just one ton of supplies took 16,500 carriers, and one ton of food was enough to feed the soldiers for one day. In fact, only 2,50...
The impact of the war on the people of East Africa was dire. Many families were affected, either because of involvement in the Carrier Corps or armed forces, or because crops were requisitioned, leading to starvation and poverty; a situation exacerbated by flooding and drought. When famine struck in East Africa in 1917 the civilian population did n...
Further detail on the military and social aspects of the East African Campaign can be found in Paice, E., Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa (W&N, 2008),which has been the main source for this summary. Fecitt, H. Harry’s Africa. The soldier’s burden, n.d. [Accessed 24 November 2021]. Available from: http://www.kaiserscross.c...
East Africa campaign. During the First World War, British Empire soldiers fought a four-year guerrilla campaign against a small German force in East Africa. Despite being outnumbered, the German commander, Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, skillfully ran rings around his enemies, inflicting many casualties and avoiding defeat. 12 min read.
American deliveries of aircraft, tanks, and other supplies to the U.S.S.R. began shortly thereafter. World War II - East Africa, Axis, Allies: In August 1940 Italian forces mounted a full-scale offensive and overran British Somaliland.
Fact File : East African Campaign. 19 January to 27 November 1941 Theatre: East Africa ... On 10 February, Cunningham led part of his force east from Kenya into Italian Somaliland, while the ...
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region, with their respective official east African colonies not in place until after the Berlin Conference of 1884–85: German East Africa was declared in 1885, and British East Africa in 1895. Between 1895 and 1901 the British built a railroad from the coast inland to Uganda. The railroad stretched from Mombasa
