African theatre of World War I
| African Theater | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War I | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 France Belgium Portugal |
 German Empire Boers (South Africa) | ||||||
The African Theater of World War I comprises geographically distinct campaigns around the German colonies scattered in Africa: the German colonies of Cameroon, Togo, South-West Africa, and German East Africa.
Overview
Great Britain, France, and Germany, at this time eager to collect new colonies for their empires, attacked each others colonies. In German East Africa the German defenders easily held off British invasions eleven times. Other attempts to capture German colonies also failed.
When the war began in Europe, the German colonies had very good levels of defence and troop strength. All of the colony garrisons were ready for war. Each had a large garrison, tons of supplies, and modern weapons
West Africa
Germany had two colonies in West Africa, Togo and Kamerun (modern-day Cameroon). German soldiers in Togo invaded Ghana and easily drove British soldiers out of the colony. German troops in Togo also invaded French West Africa and captured territory in that huge colony. Germans in Kamerun invaded French Equatorial Africa and Belgian Congo. The Belgian garrison fell to the Germans and the Germans also captured large sections of territory in French Equatorial Africa. British forces invaded Kamerun from Nigeria, but were easily repulsed by superior German soldiers. The German colonies fell after Germany surrendered.
South-West Africa
German South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia) was a huge and arid territory. Bounded on the coast by the completely desolate Namib Desert, the only major German population was based around the colonial capital of Windhoek, some 200 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. The Germans had 3,000 soldiers and could count on the support of most of the 7,000 adult male German colonists. In addition, the Germans had very friendly relations with the Boers in South Africa, who had fought a rather bloody war with Great Britain just 12 years earlier.
The British began their attack by organizing and arming their former enemies, the Boers. This was dangerous, as the proposed attack on German South-West Africa turned into an active rebellion by some 12,000 angry Boers.
Boer leaders Jan Smuts and Louis Botha both took the British side against Christiaan Beyers and Christiaan De Wet. In two battles in October, the rebels were defeated and by the end of 1914, the rebellion was ended.
General Smuts then continued his military operations into South-West Africa starting around January 1915. The South African troops were battle-hardened and experienced in living in this type of terrain. They crossed the hundreds of miles of empty land on horseback in four columns. The Germans tried to delay the advance but without success. Windhoek was captured on May 12 1915. Two months later, all the German forces surrendered. South-Africa effectively ruled South-West Africa for the next 70 years.
German East Africa
In German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda) the British were unable to capture the German colony or subdue its defenders despite four years of effort and tens of thousands of casualties (99% due to endemic diseases). The German commander, Colonel (later General) Lettow-Vorbeck kept his army intact and fought a guerrilla campaign for the duration of the Great War. His achievement became the stuff of legend, though in military terms, his epic campaign had only the smallest impact on the course of the Great War.
German forces staged raids, hit-and-run attacks, and ambushes. Time and again the British army laid traps for Lettow-Vorbeck's troops but failed to catch him. The German army ranged over all of German East Africa, living off the land, and capturing military supplies from the British and Portuguese military.
In 1916 the British gave the task of defeating the Germans to the very capable Boer commander Jan Smuts along with a very large force. His conquest of German East Africa was methodical and moderately successful. By the fall of 1916, British troops had captured the German railway line and were solidly in control of the land north of the railroad. However, Lettow-Vorbeck's army was not defeated and remained active long after Jan Smuts had left to join the Imperial War Cabinet in London in 1917. The German army moved into Portuguese East Africa in November 1917, and later back into German East Africa, finally ending up in Northern Rhodesia when the war ended.
Lettow-Vorbeck's small army agreed a cease-fire at the Chambeshi River on November 14 1918, after given a telegram informing them that Germany had given up fighting on November 11 (see Von Lettow-Vorbeck Memorial). The formal surrender took place on November 23 1918 at Abercorn. It is said that Lettow-Vorbeck's army was never defeated in battle, though it had retreated from many engagements.
After the War
The war marked the end of Germany's short-lived overseas empire. Britain and France divided up the German African colonies between them, but their colonial rule would be short-lived also. Most of the former German colonies gained their independence by 1960, Namibia (German South West Africa) was the last to gain independance, gaining political freedom from South Africa only in 1988.